Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

SECT. II.

The Eternal Godhead of our Saviour is the only certain Foundation of all our Hopes of Salvation and Immortal Life.

I

Do not at prefent defign to engage in that Difpute about the eternal Godhead of the Son. He is in Scripture call'd God, the Son of God, the only begotten Son of God: And the Catholick Church in all Ages has understood this of the eternal Son of God, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one Substance with the Father, by whom all things were made; and expreffed a very warm Zeal for this Faith; and that with great Reafon, fince our Hopes of Salvation depend on it. And were Men but made fenfible of what Confequence it is to believe our Lord Jefus Chrift to be the eternal Son of God, they would not eafily part with this Faith, nor wantonly reject it.

For,

1. Let us confider what Kind of Christianity those Men profefs, who reject the eternal Godhead of the Son; how a Creature Saviour alters the very Reafon and Nature of all our Hopes.

For, 1. Such Men have no Father in their Religion, as the Object of their Faith and Worship. The Socinians indeed, who deny the eternal Godhead of Christ, as he is the eternal Son of God by Nature, yet call God Father, and pray, as Chrift hath taught us, Our Father, which art in Heaven; but the Question

is, Under what Notion they do, or can call God Father? Is this a natural or acquired Relation? Is God our Father, and we his Children, by Nature, or by Adoption? A natural Relation between God and us, without our Adoption in Christ, can be founded only in his making us, and our being made by him; and thus Father fignifies no more than a Maker, which makes all Mankind equally the Sons of God, as being all his Creatures; but I do not remember that God is ever called the Father of Men in the Old Teftament, merely upon account of Creation; however, it is certain, this is not the Gospel Notion of it. None are the Sons of God but Chriftians, and they are Sons not by Nature, but by Regeneration and Adoption, and it is in Chrift Jefus that we receive the Adoption of Sons; we are made the Sons of God by Faith in Chrift Jefus; to as many as received him, to them he gave Power to be called the Sons of God, even to as many as believe on his Name; who were born, not of Blood, nor of the Will of the Flesh, nor of the Will of Man, but of God, 1 John xii. 13. who are Sons, not by Nature, but by Adoption and Grace. And therefore this Title and Character of Father, which is the peculiar Name of God under the Gospel, has an immediate Relation to Chrift; he is the Father of our Lord Jefus, and this is the Reason why God fent his Son into the World, to make us his Sons. When the fulnefs of time was come, God fent forth his Son, made of a Woman, made under the Law, to redeem them that were under the Law, that we might receive the Adoption of Sons, Galat. iv. 4, 5. Those who deny the Divinity of our Saviour, do, and must own all this in fome Sense or o

ther:

ther; unless they reject the Gospel, which teaches all this in exprefs Words; but I would defire you to obferve what a vaft Difference there is between the Socinian Account of God's being our Father, and what the true Catholick Faith gives us of it. For our Relation to God as our Father being refolved into our Adoption in Christ, it must bear fome Analogy and Proportion to that Relation which Chrift has to God, as to his Father. So that if Christ be a mere Man, he is not the Son of God by Nature himself, but a mere nominal and adopted Son; and then we are the adopted Sons of God in an adopted Son, which is a very remote and flender Relation, and does not answer to those magnificent Expreffions in Scripture concerning our Adoption and Sonfhip. Behold what manner of Love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the Sons of God, 1 John iii. I. But what a mighty Thing is this for God to call Chrift his Son, who is not his Son by Nature, and then to call us his Sons in Chrift? For according to this Doctrine, it is merely to call us Sons, it is a mere arbitrary Name; for where there is no natural Foundation for the Relation, there is no natural Reafon for the Name, but God might have called us any thing else as well as Sons, had he so pleased. But if Chrift be the eternal Son of God, and we be united to Chrift as Members of his Body, here is a natural Foundation for our Adoption in Chrift, for this Covenant Relation of Father and Sons, between God the Father of Christ, and all fincere Chriftians, who are the Members of Chrift, the myftical Body of the Son of God; for thus the Relation lies, We are Christ's, and Chrift is God's, as St. Paul fpeaks, 1 Cor. iii. 23. S 2 And

And therefore fuch as the Relation is between God and Chrift, and between Chrift and us, fuch is our Relation to God: Chrift is the Son of God by Nature, of the fame Substance with his Father, and infeparably One with him; we are not the Members of Chrift by Nature; but this Son of God, having taken upon him human Nature, all Mankind have a Relation to human Nature, and that is a natural Foundation for a Covenant Relation between Chrift and Christians as the Members of his Body. Human Nature by its perfonal Union to the Son of God, is one with the Son; for the Son of God is by his Incarnation both God and Man in one Perfon; we are naturally related to Chrift, as having the fame Nature with him, and therefore are capable of being united to his Myftical Body by Faith and Regeneration, of becoming Members of his Body, of his Flefb, and of his Bones, of being One with him, and in him with the Father, as our Saviour prays for all his fincere Difciples, that they all may be One, as thou Father art in me, and I in thee, that' they also may be One in us, John xvii. 21. when we are thus myftically united to Chrift, as to be One with him, to be Members of his Body, and Branches in this fpiritual Vine, we muft have the fame Kind of Relation to God, that Chrift has; if God be the Father of Chrift by Nature, and eternal Generation, he must be our Father by Adoption in Chrift; because we are his, and according to the Nature of our Union to him, must be related to God his Father.

Now

This gives a fenfible Account of the Nature and Reafon of our Adoption in Chrift: If God had no Son by Nature, there can be

no Foundation for Adoption; for to adopt is to receive one, who is not a Son by Nature, into the Place, Relation, and confequent Rights and Privileges of a natural Son; but if there be no Son by Nature, there is no fuch Relation, nor Privileges to be adopted to. A Man, who has no Son of his own, may adopt a Son, because there is fuch a Relation in human Nature, as that between a Father and a Son, and the Rights and Privileges of it are well known; but if there be no fuch Relation in the divine Nature, if God have no Son by Nature, there can be no Foundation for Adoption, because there is no fuch natural Relation in God, nor any natural Rights belonging to it. And therefore St. John tells us, He that denieth the Son, who denies that Jefus Christ is the Son of God, hath not the Father, hath not God for his Father; for there is no eternal Father, if there be no eternal Son; and if we deny God to be a Father, he can be none of our Father; but he that acknowledgeth the Son, bath the Father also, I John ii. 23. And for this Reason the Apostle uses thofe Expreffions, of continuing in the Son and the Father, v. 24. of denying the Father and the Son, v. 22. of having the Father and the Son, Ep. ii. 9. For God is no Father in a true and proper Senfe, if he have not a Son of his own Nature; and then he cannot be our Father by Adoption. So that to deny the Son is to deny the Father, but to have the Son, is to have the Father alfo.

Well, fuppofe then that this is the true Gofpel Notion of God's being the Father, and of our Adoption in Chrift to be his Sons, what greater Happinefs does this fignify, than what.

S 3

thofe

« AnteriorContinuar »