Sermons Preached on Romans 8

3. As to the Instances alleged for that use and signification of the word which might undermine that which we put upon it, 'tis answered that Isaac is called the only Son and the only begotten of Abraham, not only because of all the Sons he had his greatest love, but there were other grounds and reasons of it; he was the only Son by Sarah, the only Son by Promise, and the only Heir of the Promise, upon which accounts (as well as upon the highest proportion of his Fathers love to him), he is styled the only begotten Son: The same (under different Circumstances ) may be said concerning Solomon. But suppose that this was the only thing held forth in the Unigeniture of these Persons, will it follow that therefore 'tis all in the unigeniture of Christ too? when there is so great a disparity 'twixt Person and Person, Sonship and Sonship (as hath been already, and might yet further be demonstrated if it was needful)?

4. There is in Scripture another Title given to Christ, to which the Father's greater love towards him than towards others doth more properly belong; namely his being the [ 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ] the first-born or the first-begotten. Heb. 1.6.— When he bringeth in the first begotten into the world &c. Col. 1.15. The image of the invisible God, the first-born of every Creature: And elsewhere (upon some special and particular Considerations with respect to his Resurrection, ) he is called the first-born from the dead. Col. 1.18. the first-begotten from the dead, Rev. 1.5. (but as the Title in that reference is applied to Christ I am not now to meddle with it).

What doth his being the First-born or First-begotten hold forth?

Answ. Some expound it of his eternal Generation by the Father; Some, of the preeminence and dignity of his Person, as also of the immunities and privileges which belong to him above others: As the First-born under the Law had an excellency put upon him from his Primogeniture, to him the dominion and authority over the Family did belong, as also the double portion in the inheritance, and he was the most beloved: In reference to which the people of Israel are styled God's first-born, Exod. 4.22. Israel is my Son, even my first-born; because of that great glory which God put upon that people and that singular affection which he bore to them. In all these respects Christ is God's First-born; if you understand it of his eternal Generation so 'tis incommunicable to any Other, so he is primogenitus & unigenitus, first-begotten and only begotten too; but if you understand it of the excellency of his Person and of the Other particulars mentioned, so (in such a degree ) 'tis communicable to others. For Israel you see in a subordinate and allusive sense was styled God's first-born; and all Believers too may be so styled in respect of the dignity of their Persons and of God's special love towards them. As Christ is the Only begotten of the Father that's exclusive to all, as he is the first-begotten of the Father that signifies praelation but not exclusion. Saints are excellent though not so excellent as Christ, beloved though not so beloved as Christ, heirs though not such heirs as Christ. And therefore had Christ been called only the first-born, and that too in its second import and significancy, something then might have been inferred from it for the nulling of that Sonship which we plead for, as only belonging to him: but besides this he is also called the only begotten, wherefore he must be alone in this relation. And though the Saints do in a lower degree share with him in the Father's love as he is the first-born, yet they do not at all share with him in the glory of his eternal Generation as he is the only begotten.

6. Sixthly we are told that Christ is the Son of God in respect of Adoption: that he is not the Natural or Essential, only the adopted Son of God.

This our Opposers are not afraid nor ashamed to assert; O how low will they bring the Sonship of our blessed Lord and Savior! they'll make him anything rather than grant what indeed he is; but for Answer. This is no novel Opinion or that which was never broached in the Church before; 'twas the old Heresy of those two Spanish Bishops Felix and Elipandus, (condemned in a Council held at Frankford very near a thousand years ago); both Fathers and Schoolmen (all but Durand ) argue much against it.

Take (in brief) these Four Arguments against it.

• 1. In all the Scriptures Christ is never styled the Adopted Son of God: nay, there's nothing there to be found in the least to countenance the attributing of such a Sonship to him; 'tis a mere forgery of man to evade and put off what the Word expressly asserts. We read much of God's adopting of Saints but nothing at all of his adopting of Christ.
• 2. Then Christ and Believers would have the same Sonship, they being Sons by Adoption as well as he, and he having no higher foundation for his Sonship than they.
• 3. Christ is the true and proper Son of God, but should he be his Son by Adoption he would then cease to be his true and proper Son: for he that is adopted is only a Son in an improper and allusive notion, and but in the esteem and repute of him who doth adopt. Socinus himself so describes such an one, An adopted Son is one who is accounted a Son but in truth and reality he is not so: then according to his own explication of it, if Christ be an adopted Son he is no true and proper Son, but only so as the Father doth so repute him. And is not Christ now greatly beholden to these persons? is he not highly advanced by them? do they not show great respect and give great honor to him (according to what they pretend), in making of him only a putative Son? Adoption indeed is not so much too high for us but 'tis as much too low for Christ.
• 4. If begotten then not adopted, for these two are incompatible or inconsistent: the same Son cannot be begotten and adopted too, therefore adoption comes in to supply the want of Generation. Christ must be the one or the other, and if he be the one he cannot be the other; if begotten then not adopted, and if adopted then not begotten. 'It is true, in the Sonship of Believers there is both, they are Sons by regeneration and adoption too; but the reason of that is because they are Sons but in an improper and Metaphorical respect, (I mean in contradistinction to Christ who is the very true and natural Son of God).

7. Once more, they say Christ is God's own Son because of his resemblance and likeness to him.

This comes exceeding short for 'tis not likeness but oneness, not resemblance but equality upon which Christ is called God's Son; he himself draws it up to that (as you have already heard). No likeness here will suffice but Essential likeness, (answerable to that Gen. 5.3. Adam lived an hundred and thirty years and beg at a Son in his own likeness, after his image. Amongst us you know likeness is not the foundation of Sonship; the Son is a Son not because he is like his Father but because he is begotten by his Father; and so 'tis with respect to Christ. There may be resemblance where yet there no filial relation: in the glorified state we shall be like the Angels, yet I never read of any paternal and filial relation 'twixt them and us. In time I fear (according to the old Heresy of Some) it will come to Christ's being the Son of Man too but in likeness. He is the Son of Man as he hath the very Nature and Essence of man, and why is he not the Son of God also as he hath the very Nature and Essence of God?

Thus I have both laid down the truth and also made it good against Opposers: And now the false Grounds and Notions of Christ's Sonship being removed, the true Ground and Notion of it is the more evident, (viz.) that he is God's own Son as he partakes of his Essence and was from everlasting begotten by him. He that would read full and large Discourses upon this great Subject, let him peruse the Writings of those Worthy Instruments whom God hath raised up and enabled to assert and defend it: If any think I have been too long or have unnecessarily troubled myself and the Reader about it, I must (for several Reasons) crave leave to differ from them. We cannot say too much, or too often go over those things in which the Honor of God's own Son (our Lord and Master) and the good of Souls are so highly concerned. Give the Socinians their due ('tis but a sad commendation) all along they make their thrusts at the very heart of Religion, they fight against neither great or small but only against the great King of all the World, the very Son of God; whom they strike at in his Deity, eternal Sonship, Incarnation, Satisfaction, in what not? Surely we cannot too much endeavor to antidote men against their desperate Soul-destroying venom and poison, especially in Times wherein men seem more than ordinarily to incline to close with their pestilent Opinions; upon which Considerations I would encourage myself to hope, that such who are Friends to Christ and Souls will put a candid interpretation upon what hath been done. Yet as to the Learned (if any such shall cast their eye upon these Papers) I beg their pardon for the repeating of things so well known and common to them, and which they have elsewhere with great advantage: I have only this to say for myself, my eye hath been upon private Christians to make things plain to them, and to set that before them here which (as written in other Languages) they could not reach.

So much for these! But (though I have been too prolix already) I have not yet done: there are some Others (of a different party and denomination ) who do (in part) concur and symbolize with the 'forenamed Dissenters. For though they hold that Christ in a more special manner is the Son of God by eternal Generation, yet they also hold that he is the Son of God too in respect of his Conception, Office, Resurrection, and Exaltation. Arminius himself pitches upon the first (as the only ground of the Sonship of Christ), but his Successors take in the latter also; so the Remonstrants, so Episcopius (a person of great eminence). These tell us that God is the proper Father of Christ and he the proper Son of God, but how? why not only as he was eternally begotten by him, but also as he was miraculously Conceived by the Virgin Mary (that agreeing to none but only to him): And therefore in this Point (upon their blending of these things together) they are judged by Some to Socinianize.

Now though this Opinion doth come incomparably short of that which absolutely deny's Christ's eternal Generation, (provided) that the abettors of it who seem to grant this Generation do state it right, (that is) that they hold Christ to be begotten in the very Nature and Essence of God and therein equal to him, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ; (of which there is just matter of doubting as to the Person named but now, he making the Son in the Deity itself not co-ordinate but subordinate to the First Person ): I say, though this Opinion (thus stated) be nothing near so bad as the former, yet Divines of another persuasion cannot close with it or let it pass without some Confutation.

The Arguments against it do very much fall in with those which have been insisted upon already:

1. First if Christ be the Son of God as eternally begotten with respect to his Divine Nature, and also the Son of God as conceived in time &c. with respect to his Human Nature, then the Scripture doth groundlessly and needlessly distinguish betwixt his being the Son of God in reference to the one, and his being the Son of Man in reference to the other Nature: Why doth it make him to be God's Son according to the Spirit of Holiness (i. e. his Divine Nature ), and the Son of David according to the Flesh (i. e. his Human Nature ), if with respect to both he be the Son of God? this is to confound those things which the Scripture makes distinct and places under several references. Christ's Sonships, as the Son of God and as the Son of Man, are two very different things, and therefore they cannot have the same foundation. 'It is true, he who is the Son of Man is also the Son of God, but as he is the Son of Man or in what is proper to him as the Son of Man, so he is not the Son of God: And 'tis true, these two in concreto may convertibly be predicated each of the other, thus, the Son of God is the Son of Man and the Son of Man is the Son of God; but this is founded not upon the oneness of the foundation of the Relation, nor upon the oneness of the two Natures, but upon the communication of properties and the union of the two Natures in one Person. It comes to this, where the relations are distinct the grounds of these relations must be distinct; and therefore Christ's Sonship (as the Son of God and as the Son of Man ) being distinct, there cannot be one and the same ground of them.

2. If this was so, that Christ was the Son of God conjunctly upon his eternal Generation and also upon his conception and advancement in time, then he would strangely differ in the same relation. I do not contradict myself in what I said but now under the former head; for there I spake of both the Sonships of Christ which differ very much and must not be confounded, but here I speak only of his single Sonship as he is the Son of God, which is but one and must not be divided. Observe me, as the difference of the Sonships of Christ (as the Son of God and as the Son of Mary ) depends upon the difference of their Grounds, ( eternal Generation being the ground of the one, and temporal Generation being the ground of the ooher ); so the oneness of the same single Sonship of Christ (as the Son of God ) depends upon the oneness of the ground of it, viz. his Generation by the Father: for if you add any other ground to this then Christ ceases to be one Son, then he is the Son of God partly by Nature and partly by Grace, partly begotten and partly made, partly from eternity and partly in time: what a strange Son would Christ be upon these terms!

3. There can be but one true and proper Cause of one and the same Filiation; (this hath been already proved). Divines are so tender of multiplying this relation of Christ, that several of them (though they grant the distinction of his Natures and hold his twofold Generation, yet) they argue but for one Sonship to belong to him; for (say they,) Sonship belonging to the Person and being founded upon the Person, Christ being but one Person therefore he can have but one Sonship; (so Aquinas argues). I concur with Others who attribute a twofold Sonship to Christ; but then I affirm that each of them have but that one single Cause or foundation which is respectively proper to them; 'tis only eternal Generation of the Father which makes Christ to be the Son of God, and 'tis only temporal Generation of the Virgin which makes him to be the Son of Man.

4. We say Oppositorum opposita ratio, if Christ be the Son of Man only because he was conceived of the substance of his Mother, then he is the Son of God only upon the account of his being begotten of the substance of his Father, (as a Worthy Author argues).

5. Whatever is over and above eternal Generation is but manifestative and not constitutive of Christ's Sonship: (this hath been made out in the several particulars alleadg'd, therefore it will be needless to add anything further upon it).

I have shown wherein and how Christ is the Son of God, his own proper Son, I will but propound one Question and very briefly Answer it and then I shall have finished the Explicatory part: 'It is this, if Christ be God's Son because in his ineffable Generation the Divine Essence was communicated to him, why may not the Holy Ghost the third Person also be styled the Son of God to whom the same Essence was communicated as well as unto Christ?

I answer No, for two Reasons:

• (1.) Because 'tis the same Essence in both yet not the same Person. When we speak of the communicating of the Divine Essence from the First to the Second and Third Persons, we must be understood (as was before hinted) to speak this of them as Persons or as they are personally considered: for that Essence simply and absolutely considered is not communicated to the Son and Spirit, but only as it subsists in them as such Persons: the Godhead itself they have in and from themselves, but their distinct Personalities (in which the Godhead subsists) are of the Father. It being thus, from hence it follows that according to the distinction of the Persons there must also be a distinct communication of the divine Essence; not that there is one Essence in the Son and another in the Spirit (for both are God ); only that is distinguished according to their Personal Consideration and the Personal Properties belonging to them, (which notwithstanding their oneness in Nature do always remain). Well then, Christ's Sonship being a Personal thing proceeding not simply from the Divine Essence but as it subsists in the second Person, therefore it must be proper and peculiar to him and not common to the Holy Ghost, he being another Person and the Divine Nature subsisting in him accordingly (with respect to his Personal Properties ).
• (2.) Because though the same Divine Essence be communicated to both yet not in the same way and manner. For though both come from the Father yet 'tis in divers respects, the Son coming from him by Generation, the Spirit by Procession. And therefore though both are God and both come from God yet both are not the Sons of God, because 'tis coming from God in the way of Generation only which entitles to Sonship. Thus Augustine answers it, Thou askest of me (saith he) if the Son be of the substance of the Father, and the Holy Ghost be of the substance of the Father also, why is one the Son and not the Other? I answer, whether you comprehend it or not, the Son is of the Father, the Holy Ghost is of the Father, but the Son is begotten, the Spirit proceeds. Thus this great Divine did solve this difficulty stopping here and going no further: If any will be so curious as to inquire further wherein the difference lies betwixt eternal Generation and eternal Procession? I am not ashamed to give them this answer I cannot tell, 'tis a mystery far above my reach; God hath not revealed it and there is nothing in Nature which will give us any light about it, therefore it becomes us rather to adore than to be inquisitive. I know the Schoolmen (who are privy to all secrets, and have a key to open every difficulty though it be locked up never so close ) attempt the opening of it, but they had better have let it alone: here humble ignorance is better than sawey curiosity. I think they speak best who say, we know and believe there is a difference 'twixt Generation and Procession, but what that is and wherein it lies, that is to us incomprehensible. 'It is time therefore for me to leave this Point and to come to the Application of the main Truth.

Is Christ thus God's own Son? I infer then

1. That he is God: Not a mere titular or nuncupative God, not a God by Office only, not a made God (a contradiction in the adject ); but he is God truly, properly, essentially. Which great Truth is most strongly asserted and proved by various convincing Arguments against Jews, Arians, Socinians, all the Opposers of it; I must not engage in so vast a Subject, I will only argue from this Relation wherein Christ stands to God as he is his own Son, which indeed by its self is sufficient (if there was nothing more) to demonstrate his Godhead. He who is the true Son of God and such a Son of God is truly God, but Christ is the true Son of God and such a Son of God (his own Son), therefore he is truly God &c. The Apostle joins the true Son and the true God together, therefore the Argument is good: 1 Joh. 5.20. We know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true; and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ: this is the true God, and eternal Life. I do not say that every Son of God is God for the Saints are Sons and yet not God; but I say he who is such a Son as God's own, proper, natural, consubstantial, coessential, only begotten Son, he is God; where-ever this Sonship is there's the Deity or the Divine Essence: now Christ is thus God's Son therefore he is God. What the Father is as to his Nature that the Son must be also; now the first Person the Father of Christ is God whereupon he too who is the Son must be God also. A Son always participates of his Fathers Essence, there is betwixt them more an identity and oneness of Nature; if therefore Christ be God's Son (as hath been fully proved) he must then needs have that very Nature and Essence which God the Father hath; in so much that if the second Person be not really a God, the first Person is but equivocally a Father. Therefore he himself tells us I and my Father are one: where he is speaking of a far higher oneness than that of Consent or Will only. Christ being both the natural Son of God and also his Son by eternal Generation, that makes the thing unquestionable; for what is that Generation but the Fathers communicating of his own Nature and Essence to him? This is that which is done in all Generations, for Generation is always the production of another in the same Nature; like ever begets like, (as 'tis said of Adam he begat a Son in his own likeness after his image Gen. 5.3.) and must it not be so here in the Father's begetting of Christ? If Man begets Man then God begets God, (this being taken in that sense which I laid down in my first entrance upon this Subject); I know this will not hold as to all modes and circumstances (with respect to which I grant there is a great disparity ), but as to the conveyance of the same Nature and Essence, so far it will hold. The Jews therefore Joh. 5.18. argued very well, if God was Christ's Father and he God's Son then he was equal with▪ God, for such an equality must naturally and necessarily result from such a Relation. Joh. 10.36. Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest, because I said I am the Son of God? why doth he say because I said I am the Son of God? he should have said because I said I am God, for that was the blasphemy charged upon him ( Vers. 33.) because that thou being a man makest thyself God: but the answer is obvious, Christ knew that these were equipollent terms, to be God and to be the Son of God are all one, if Christ be the one he must be the other too. You find Nathanael breaking forth into this witness concerning him, Thou art the Son of God &c. his meaning was thou art God; for that which drew this Confession from him was that which was proper to him as God, namely his Omnisciency; (See Joh. 1.48.) God and the Son of God are so much one that he who speaks Christ to be the Son of God speaks him to be God also. As soon as the Apostle had set down Chri'sts Sunship Heb. 1.5. presently he falls upon those testimonies which relate to his Godhead; Vers. 6, 8, 10, 11, 12. When he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he saith, And let all the Angels of God worship him. Unto the Son he saith, Thy Throne, O God, is forever and ever, a Scepter of Righteousness is the Scepter of thy Kingdom: Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of thy hands: They shall perish, but thou remainest: and they all shall wax old as doth a garment. And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed, but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail. You see how Christ's Sonship is linked with the Godhead; therefore the Argument is good to prove the latter by the former. And indeed as his being the Son of Man doth most evidently evince him to be truly Man, so his being the Son of God doth as evidently evince him to be truly God.

2. Is Christ God's own Son? I infer, surely then he is a very great and glorious Person; such a relation cannot but be the foundation of great glory. Though Christ's dignity and preeminence is not the gróund of his Sonship, yet his Sonship is the ground of his dignity and preeminence. He is styled a great high Priest Heb. 4.14. not only because of the greatness of his Sacerdotal Office, but also because of the greatness of his Person who doth manage that Office (he being God's own Son ); therefore it follows, seeing we have a great high Priest &c. Jesus the Son of God. 'It is no small honor amongst us to be the son of some great man, O what an honor is it to Christ to be the own and only Son of the great God! It puts a marvelous- glory and greatness upon the Saints that they are the adopted Sons of God, upon the Angels that they are the created Sons of God; but what is this to Christ's being the natural, only begotten Son of God? herein and hereby he hath obtained a more excellent name than either Angels or Men, for in all things (or amongst all persons) he must have the preeminence. The higher and nearer the relation is to God the higher and greater is the glory which accrues to a person standing in that relation; now what relation to God can be higher and nearer than this of Christ (as he is his own Son )? therefore his glory must needs be exceeding great; O let not any entertain low thoughts of him who is thus the Son of God. The Lord Jesus is the Father's best Son (for Gifts, Grace, Holiness &c.) and he's the Father's greatest Son (for Dignity, Glory and Majesty ): I say he's the Father's best Son, how short do all Sons come of this Son! we read of One who feared he might seem to adopt better Sons than those whom he begat; there's no such thing to be imagined with respect to God, to be sure his only begotten Son shall infinitely exceed all his adopted Sons, for God hath anointed him with the oil of gladness above his fellows, Psal. 45.7. And he's the greatest Son too, for God hath set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. Eph. 1.20, 21. True indeed this great Son for a time emptied himself of his glory and for our sake submitted to great abasement, but yet even then in himself he was very high and glorious: he who clothed himself with our rags, put on our flesh, condescended to lie in the manger, to die upon the cross, he even under all this was the proper Son of God and therefore full of glory. And 'tis very notable to consider how in Christ even when he was under his lowest abasement, when this Sun was hid under the thickest cloud, I say how even then there were some beamings out and breakings forth of his glory suitable to this his relation: he's laid in the manger but there the Wise men come and worship him, he's tempted by Satan but then the Angels minister unto him, he's crucified but then the veil of the Temple was rent, the earth quaked, the rocks were rent, the graves opened, the Sun step'd in and hid itself (as being ashamed to be seen in its glory when the far brighter Sun was under such an Eclipse ); upon all which the Centurion might well cry out truly this was the Son of God. But what a person is Christ now? when the time of his humiliation is over, and when he appears in all things like himself as the Son of God in his greatest glory!

3. Thirdly, was Christ God's own Son? I infer, certainly then the work of Redemption was a very great work; for God sent his own Son about it and therefore surely 'twas no ordinary or common thing. Always the greater the Person is who is employed in the work the greater is that work; 'tis thus from the wisdom of a Man, much more shall it be thus from the wisdom of a God: Kings do not use to send their Sons upon mean and petty services but only upon such as are high and weighty; and can it be imagined that ever God would have sent his own Son into the world to redeem Sinners, if this had not been a work very high and great in his eye? Indeed this makes Redemption to be the greatest work that ever was done by God himself; the making of the World was a great thing but God never sent his Son about that, that was dispatched by a word, he did but speak the word and it was done: Works of Providence are very great but there's no sending of a Son about them; but when Redemption-work was to come upon the stage, in order to that Christ (God's own Son) must come from heaven, and be incarnate, and do, and die, and all was necessary for the accomplishing of that; O how great a work was this! (So much for the First Use by way of Inference ).

2. Secondly, was Christ God's own Son? let me from hence urge a few things upon you.

1. Study Christ much in this relation, that you may know him as the proper, natural, essential Son of God. The knowledge of Christ (in whatever notion you consider him) is very precious, it was so to Paul who determined not to know anything save Jesus Christ &c. and who counted all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus: but to know him as he stands in this near relation to God, as God's own Son, O this is precious knowledge indeed! Now (Sirs) you have heard much of him, read much of him, but do you know him and know him as the eternal only-begotten Son of God? This is that Truth upon which all Religion depends, in which you have the very heart and spirit of the Gospel, upon which the whole stress of your happiness is laid, 'tis one of the most fundamental Articles of the Christian Faith; and yet will you be ignorant of it? You all have some general knowledge of it, and you all profess to believe it ('tis a part of your Creed ), but do you distinctly and clearly know (always allowing for the mysteriousness of the Object and the dimness of your Facultys, ) how Christ is the Son of God, how his Sonship was brought about and wherein it lies? that he is God's natural Son begotten by him from all eternity in a most mysterious and admirable manner, do you understand anything about this? Some tell us, that the knowledge and belief of Christ's Sonship (according to the particulars wherein it hath been opened) not necessary to Salvation: I will not engage in this Controversy (wherein Some do as much affirm as Others deny ); but this I say, it being so momentous a Truth in itself, and the Scriptures speaking so much of it and giving so much light about it, 'tis of great Concern to all who live under Gospel-revelation to endeavor to know as much of it as the height of the thing and the lowness of their capacities will admit of.

And because I would hope, that there are Some here whose thoughts are taken up about it and who desire to arrive at a fuller knowledge of it, therefore to such I would commend three things by way of Direction.

1. In all your enquiries and searchings into Christ's Sonship (especially into the Ground and Mode of it (viz.) eternal Generation ), be sure you keep within the bounds of sobriety. I mean this, take heed that in this deep Mystery you be not wise above what is written, that you do not therein consult your own purblind and carnal reason but Scripture-revelation altogether. Pray study it, but in so doing do not pry too far into those secrets which God hath locked up from you; content yourselves with what he hath revealed in his Word and stay there.

'It is both sinful and also dangerous for poor shallow Creatures to venture too far into these depths, where if they once lose their bottom (the written Word ) they drown themselves presently; there's no clue but that to guide us in this labyrinth. That Christ is the Son of God is very clear, that he is the Son of God by eternal Generation is very clear; but will you be inquisitive further to know what this Generation is? what can your Reason (the Scripture being silent about it) say of that? O go not too far there! Human Reason (considered as merely natural) is a very incompetent judge of this divine and sublime mystery, a mystery to be adored by Faith not to be comprehended by Reason. Isa. 53.8. Who shall declare his Generation? I may make use of this Text (though possibly the Generation mentioned in it be not that which I am treating of): for I much incline to think that it here notes that numerous issue and seed that Christ should have upon the Preaching of the Gospel, rather than his being eternally begotten by the Father; yet 'tis very well known that several of the FATHERS take it in the latter sense, they making this to be the meaning of the words, Who can be able to understand in himself or to declare to others the hidden, ineffable, incomprehensible Generation of the Son of God? surely none can. Without controversy this, as well as Christ's Incarnation, is a great mystery. Nicodemus was a knowing man yet strangely puzzled at the Regeneration of Believers; Joh. 3.4. How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mothers womb and be born? certainly the eternal Generation of God's own Son is a thing much more abstruse and unsearchable. And there are riddles in Natural generation which we cannot resolve; Eccles. 11.5. As thou knowest not the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: now are we so much at a loss and non-plus there, how much more shall we be at a loss when the far more inconceivable Generation of Christ is before us? O therefore I advise you to be very humble and sober in all your disquisitions about that. There are two things in Reason which you must always oppose and beat down, viz. the curiosity of it (for it loves dearly to be prying into God's Ark, into things which he sees good to lock up from the Creature), and the pride of it (for it also loves to sit upon the bench as Judge of the matters of Faith, to be giving out its decrees and edicts as to believing or not believing ): now do not you give way to it in either of these respects, in your most earnest desires after knowledge still keep within the compass of what the Word reveals, and let the Word alone command and order your Faith; and especially in such profound mysteries (as that which I am upon) see that these two things be done by you. When I consider the several nice and curious Questions which Some have raised and discuss'd about the Generation of the Son of God, I cannot but stand and wonder at the pride and sauciness of the Wit of man; (and so far I do concur with that Learned person in his severe censure upon these men). What is more than the thing itself, the Father's communicating of his own Nature and Essence to Christ, we must humbly submit to be ignorant of; by soaring too high we shall but scortch and hurt ourselves.

2. In your eying of God the Father's active Generation of Christ take heed of all gross Conceptions about it; so as not in the least to measure it by, or to parallel it with, any Physical or Carnal Generation. Our apprehensions must be rightly informed about this, otherwise what absurd and wretched notions shall we run ourselves upon? So far as there is that in common Generations which speaks goodness and perfection, so far you make use of them to help you in your conceiving of the Divine Generation of the Son of God: but there being much in them which speaks defect and imperfection, all that you must praes • ind and cut off and lay aside when you are thinking of that Generation which is the ground of Christ's Sonship. As for instance! for like to beget like, for one thing to convey its nature and substance to another this is good in Physical Generations, and so far they may be improved to shadow out unto us the mystery of God's eternal generation: But now there being sundry other respects which carry imperfection in them, these you must be sure to keep out of your thoughts and by no means to conceive by them of that which I am upon. As in our knowledge and conceptions of God by the Creatures, we pick out of them what is good and perfect and lay aside what is evil and imperfect, and so by them we ascend to know and conceive of God; so we must do in Natural and Physical Generations with respect to God the Father's supernatural and hyperphysical Generation of Christ.

To show the difference betwixt these two let me particularize in a few things (without much enlarging upon them). Natural Generation upon the failing of individuals is necessary for the preservation of the species; in God the Father's begetting of Christ it was quite otherwise: In natural Generation there is multiplication, there though the thing begetting and the thing begotten have the same nature and essence, yet numerically they are not the same; but in the Father's begetting of Christ these (as the Learned prove) are perfectly one and the same, they have not only the same specifical but the same numerical Essence; here as the divine Essence was not divided so neither was it multiplied (for 'tis as incapable of multiplication as of division ): Natural Generation in the Creature is a transient act, that in God was an immanent act: In Natural Generation, the thing begetting precedes the thing begotten and begets that which is after it in time; in God the Father's Generation of Christ it was not so, both Father and Son being coeternal: In Natural Generation there must be such a time before things arrive at their prolific virtue; far be it from us to entertain such a thought as to the Father's Generation of Christ. So that you see there is a vast disparity betwixt these two, and therefore you must in your apprehensions reverently distinguish betwixt them and not in common judge of the one by the other, (God forbid that you should so sadly mistake!) Though the Father's communicating of the Divine Essence to the Son was a true and proper Generation (so far agreeing with Generations amongst us), yet in other respects it was quite of another nature; and so you are to conceive of it otherwise you will entertain very gross and unworthy thoughts of God.

3. Join Study and Prayer together. Would you know Christ as the eternal Son of God? especially would you go beyond a literal, speculative, notional knowledge of him as such? so as to know both him and his Sonship practically and savingly? O then be much in Prayer! Read and pray, hear and pray, meditate and pray, study and pray: he studies this mystery (and all others) best who study's it most upon his knees. This special and supernatural Sonship of Christ is not savingly to be known without special and supernatural illumination from Christ through the Spirit. 'It is observable that in Matth. 16.17. when Peter had made that good Confession [Thou art Christ the Son of the living God], see what Christ resolved it into; Blessed art thou Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in Heaven. You know that passage Matth. 11.27. All things are delivered unto me of my Father, and no man knoweth the Son (or makes others to know him) but the Father, neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him: these two Persons do make known each the other, the Father reveals the Son and the Son reveals the Father; the Son is a fit Person to reveal the Father, for he's his only begotten Son and lies in his bosom; therefore he saith No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son which is the bosom of the Father he hath declared him: and the Father is also a fit Person to reveal the Son, for he having begotten him and having had him with himself from everlasting, he knows him exactly: O therefore go to him by Prayer & beseech him to reveal his Son to you! 'It is a great thing to know Christ in this relation, so great that there must be an heavenly light, a spiritual understanding given to a man before he can come up to it: mark that of the Apostle 1 Joh. 5.20. And hath given us understanding that we may know him that is true, (he speaks of the knowing of Christ as the true Son of God); 'tis as if the Apostle had said, if God had not illuminated our understandings and irradiated them with a divine light, we had never known Christ savingly in this notion: He who begat the Son of himself from all eternity, to him it appertains by his Spirit in time savingly to reveal this Son to the Creature; and therefore your work lies with him in prayer to beg of him this revelation of the Son. (So much for the first thing ).

2. A second branch of the Exhortation shall be this; Is Christ God's own Son? then do you believe him to be such, and believe on him as such. The first we call dogmatical, the second justifying and saving Faith; the first is assent to the proposition that Christ is God's own Son, the second is reliance upon the person who is and as he is God's own Son. The first is more general and common, for all who bear the name of Christians (in some sense or other) come up to it; yet notwithstanding there is much worth and excellency in it (though not so much as in the latter ): and that is absolutely necessary in order to the second, for how can he believe on Christ as the Son of God who doth not first dogmatically believe him to be the Son and such a Son of God? And this general Faith too (as well as that which is more special ) admits of degrees, for though all Christians believe it yet some are more confirmed, rooted, stablished in the belief of it than others are. Now therefore this is that which I would press upon you, to labor after a more steady, unshaken, fixed believing of this great Foundation-Truth: I hope you do believe it but do you believe it in such a degree? doth not your faith sometimes waver about it? is not your assent weak and languid, attended with doubtings and questionings? are you rooted and stablished in the faith (as of other things ) so in special of this great Article of the Christian Religion)? are you come up unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the Father and of Christ (as the Apostle speaks Col. 2.2.)? I could most heartily wish that it was thus with you, and with all who do profess that they believe Christ to be the Son of God, but I fear it is not so. Now (my Brethren) that I may the better excite you to labor after a full and firm assent hereunto, consider that one special-reason or end why a great part of the New Testament was written was this, that you might believe and be confirmed in your belief of this very thing: Joh. 20.31. But these are written [that ye might believe, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God], and that believing ye might have life through his Name. You may observe concerning this Evangelist St. John, as of all the other Evangelists he was most inspired in the revealing of Christ's divine Sonship, so he was also most inspired in the pressing of men to believe it and in the setting out of the weightiness of the belief of it: 1 Joh. 2.23. Whosoever denieth the Son the same hath not the Father, but he that acknowledgeth the Son, hath the Father also: 1 Joh. 4.15. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God: 1 Joh. 5.5. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? What a mighty stress did this great Apostle lay upon it! O how doth it concern all upon the Considerations (laid down by him) to live under a steady belief of Christ's being the Son of God! Indeed this is the Foundation-Truth; Christ himself is the personal foundation and this Truth (not exclusively but eminently ) is the doctrinal foundation: to both of which that famous and so much controverted Text is applicable, Matth. 16.18. I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this Rock I will build my Church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it: upon this rock? what rock doth Christ mean? was it Peter personally considered? or was it Peter and his Successors? (as Some would have it they meaning by these Successors the POPES of ROME; whom I trust I shall never close with in this interpretation so long as 'tis this rock and not this sand ); undoubtedly (let but persons be unbyass'd and not wedded to Party's and Opinions calculated for worldly designs and Interests ) nothing is more clear, than that by this rock we are to understand either the Person of Christ or that Doctrinal proposition which Peter had laid down concerning him, ( Vers. 16. Thou art Christ the Son of the living God, after which it immediately follows Upon this rock I will build my Church ), or else we may put them together and take in both; upon this Person and this Faith, the Church of God is built and therefore it shall stand fast forever: so that according to this Exposition (which is with great strength defended by our PROTESTANT Divines ), this Sonship of Christ is the foundation-truth. And therefore no wonder that in all Ages the Zeal of the Church hath been so much engaged therein; for 'tis very well known that in its drawing up of Creeds and Summaries of Faith, this one Article (viz. Christ's being the Coessential, Coeternal, only begotten Son of God ) hath ever been put in, (witness the Nicene, Constantinopolitan, Athanasian Creeds ), because this was judged a thing most necessary to be believed: And indeed there is not any one branch of the Christian Faith which the Church hath gained more out of the fire (after much trouble and opposition) than this one. Nay, this was that very Truth for the owning and asserting of which (above any other ) our blessed Lord lost his life (as you may plainly see by the Evangelical History ). And I desire that it may yet further be considered, that as God himself began and ended with the witness and declaration of Christ's Sonship, (for as soon as he entered upon his public Ministry the Father set him out with this witness This is my beloved Son &c. and when he had well nigh finished his work and was going off the stage then the Father renewed his witness again This is my beloved Son &c): So the Devil too he began and ended with the Sonship of Christ; for presently after the Father's testimony thereof he took him aside to tempt him, and when he had him alone and began the duel with him how did he assault him? why, [if thou be the Son of God] command that these stones be made bread; he comes over it again [if thou be the Son of God] cast thyself down &c: If thou be the Son of God? why did Satan harp so much upon this? what might his design be in laying his temptation thus? I answer, it must be for one or for all of these Reasons; either that he might by the observing of Christ's behavior in the contest more fully inform himself whether Christ was indeed the Son of God, (which was the thing he was deadly afraid of, knowing that such a person would be the ruin of his kingdom); or that he might see whether he could make Christ to doubt of his Sonship after and notwithstanding the plain testimony of his Father; or that he might go as far as ever he could to draw him to the doing of what was evil, and so (if such a thing had been possible) null this his near relation to God: surely there was some special cause why Satan picked out this and so much insisted upon it. Well! here he began, these were the very first words which this cursed Spirit uttered when he dared to assault our Savior, wherein he plainly struck at his Sonship itself (though cunningly he made his temptations to point to some wicked inferences which he would have had drawn from Christ's relation, rather than directly to the truth of the relation itself). And as he began with this so he ended with this, for 'twas he (which speaks a prodigious infatuation in him that he should be so forward in the promoting of that which certainly would end in his ruin,) who stir'd up Pilate, the High Priest the Body of the Jews against Christ, and they through his instigation fell upon Christ and took away his life, for what? for this very cause because he made himself to be (as indeed he was) the Son of God. By all this you see of what great moment and importance this Truth concerning Christ's Sonship is. And (to add yet one thing further) pray look to that grand Seducer and Enemy of Christ and of the Christian Faith, I mean Mahomet; of whom we read that he also set himself to his utmost to oppose and decry the Sonship of Christ. He was willing to grant Christ to be a great Prophet but by no means to be the very Son of God; this particularly and expressly he principled his Followers against in his ridiculous Alcoran, and he gave them in special this Command 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to worship one only God, and to honor Christ as the Word of God but not as the Son of God.

From all these premises I infer, is this such a foundation-Truth and shall not we firmly assent to it? hath the Church with such zeal contended for it and shall we yet doubt of it? do Heathens, Jews, Turks so much oppose it and shall not we Christians (who have and own Scripture-revelation) steadily believe it? hath Christ sealed it with his blood and yet shall we stagger about it? have we such attestations from God and Man and yet shall there be questionings and reasonings in our Souls against it? 1 Joh. 5.9, 10. If we receive the witness of men the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the Son of God, hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God, hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.

But Some will say to what purpose is all this? who questions whether Christ be God's own Son?

I answer, O that there was not too much need of this advice! many poor Souls think they do fully and firmly believe it and yet 'tis to be feared they do not; and the truth is, that weakness which is in our Faith of adherence proceeds (in part) from that weakness that is in our Faith of assent, much of that dejectedness which is upon our Spirits under trouble and of those inward sinkings under the sense of guilt comes from one of these two Causes, either we do not revive upon our thoughts or else we do not fixedly believe in our hearts that Christ is God's Son and his own Son: And (as to loose and common Professors ) if ever Arianism ( Old or New ) should get upon the throne (which God forbid!) I fear the belief of Christ's Godhead and eternal Sonship would soon be laid aside. O therefore I would be very earnest with you to get your faith yet more and more strengthened and confirmed about it.

But though this be very good yet 'tis not enough: besides the believing of Christ to be the Son of God there must be believing on Christ as the Son of God. You find in Scripture that saving Faith is described by its special reference to Christ as standing in this relation; so Gal. 2.20. The life which I now live in the Flesh, I live [by the faith of the Son of God], who loved me, and gave himself for me: why doth the Apostle thus express it by the Faith of the Son of God? I answer, partly because Christ the Son of God is the efficient and author of faith, partly because this Son is the great Object of faith, and partly because Faith in its essential act doth very much eye Christ as thus related to the Father, for 'tis a believing or relying upon him as the Son of God. 'It is very usual in the Gospel where it speaks of believing, to mention Christ with it as standing in this relation; 1 Joh. 3.23. This is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of [his Son] Jesus Christ: 1 Joh. 5.13. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of [the Son] of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life; and that ye may believe on the name of [the Son] of God. Joh. 3.16. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him (as the only begotten Son ) should not perish, but have everlasting life: O what a person is God's own Son for Sinners to believe on! what an all-sufficient Savior, how able to save to the utmost must he needs be who is God and Man, the Son of God and the Son of Man! And indeed 'tis not enough barely to believe on Christ but there must be such a believing on him as may in some measure be answerable to this his relation; is he God's own Son? at what a rate should we believe? what a faith should we act upon him? what great things should we expect for him and from him? can anything be too high for our faith when we have the proper, natural Son of God in our eye as its basis and foundation? Saints should have their faith raised not only upon the encouragement of the Promises, but also upon the consideration of Christ's Person as he is so near and dear to God. I have formerly observed how our Apostle in the Text rises higher and higher in the setting forth of the Love of God: he says God sent, there was Love; he sent his own Son, there was more Love; this own Son he sent in the likeness of sinful flesh, there was yet more Love; and this he did for this end that he might for sin condemn sin in the Flesh &c. there was the very top and zenith of Love. Now as there is a rise in these things in the setting off the Love of God, so there is also a rise in them in their several engagements and encouragements to us to believe in Christ, and to believe in him yet more and more firmly and fiducially: he was sent, therefore we must believe; he was (and is) God's own Son, therefore we must the rather and the more strongly believe; he took our flesh, here's an higher argument for an higher faith; in that flesh he condemned sin, performed all that the Law commanded, suffered all that the Law threatened, what a faith doth this call for? Now if notwithstanding all this, it shall yet be either no believing or but faint-believing both will be sad, (though in a great disparity, for the faint-believing is unanswerable to what is revealed and uncomfortable to the Saint, but the no-believing is damnable to the Sinner).

3. Thirdly, is Christ God's own Son? how then should all honor and adore him! certainly upon this Sonship the highest, yea, even divine adoration itself is due to him. Is he a Son? such a Son? the Son of such a Father? the greatness of his Person arising from that high and near relation wherein he stands to God, calls for the highest respect, reverence, veneration which Angels or Men can possibly give unto him. Besides this, 'tis the absolute Will of the Father that all should honor his Son even as they honor himself, for he having the same Nature and Essence with the Father, the Father will have him have the same honor which he himself hath: which whosoever deny's to him reflects dishonor upon the Father, who will not bear anything derogatory to the glory of his Son. 'It is a known story that of the carriage of Amphilochius to the Emperor Theodosius; he had petitioned the Emperor to be severe against the Arians, to discountenance and suppress them because in their Opinions they did so much disparage the Son of God, but could not prevail: whereupon he made use of this device, coming one day into the presence of the Emperor and of his Son Arcadius (who now ruled jointly with his Father), he made his humble obeisance to the Emperor himself and shown him all reverence, but as for his Son he passed him by, shown him no respect at all, rather dealt derisorily with him, stroking him upon his head and saying to him (in a way of contempt) Salve & tu Fili: The Emperor upon this was much offended, sharply reproves Amphilochius for his affront to his Son &c. whereupon the good man vindicates his carriage, plainly telling the Emperor he had given reverence enough to his Son. And now the Emperor was more incensed, commands him with great indignation to be thrust out of his presence &c. which whilst some was doing, Amphilochius turned himself to the Emperor and said thus, O Emperor! thou being but a man canst not bear the contempt or disparagement of thy Son; how dost thou think the great God can bear that contempt of his Son which the Arians cast upon him? the Emperor was much affected at this, beg'd the Bishop's pardon, commended his ingeny, and did that now which he refused to do before. The inference is undeniable, if great Men stand so much upon the giving of all honor and due observance to their Sons, much more will the Great God stand upon the giving of all due Honor and Reverence to his own and only Son: O therefore let Christ be highly adored and honored by you! If you ask me, how? I answer, every honoring of him is not sufficient but it must be such as may suit with his infinite Majesty and Greatness; you must conceive of him as God, as the Natural and eternal Son of God, and according to that honor which is due to him as such so you must honor him. The Apostle speaks of some who when they knew God they did not glorify him as God; so some pretend to give some glory to Christ but they do not glorify him as God: O this is that which you must come up to, to adore and reverence Christ in such a manner as may be suitable to his Nature and Relation, as he is the infinite God and the eternal only begotten Son of God; and what Honor can be high enough for such a Person?

But more particularly there's a twofold Honor which you must all give to Christ:

1. The Honor of Worship. Heb. 1.6. When he bringeth in the first-born into the world, he saith, And let all the Angels of God worship him: God will have his only begotten Son to be worshipped (though he be very tender to whom that honor is given). Divines do from hence strongly argue (yet I know Some make but little of this Argument ) to prove the Godhead of Christ; thus, if religious Worship be God's peculiar, if a God be the sole and adequate object of Divine Worship, if no Creature be to share with him therein (it being that Glory which he will not give to another, Isa. 42.8. & Matth. 4.10. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve ); and yet the Father will have Christ to be the proper Object of divine Worship; hence it follows, that then he is and must be more than mere Man, that he is true and very God. And surely it would be no better than flat Idolatry in us Christians to give proper and formal religious worship to Christ, was he not truly God as well as truly Man. Therefore as to this Franciscus David and Christianus Franken (both Socinians ) were in the right against Socinus, if Christ was but mere Man (the common Principle in which they all agreed), then he could not be worshipped with religious Worship without Idolatry; whereupon they would not give any such worship to him. And as this Worship proves Christ's Godhead so his Godhead is the ground of it; for the adequate, immediate, proper ground of Divine Worship (as attributed to Christ) is his divine Nature, Essence and Sonship: true, he as Man is to be worshipped but not because he is Man; the Human Nature of Christ is the Object of Worship but 'tis only as 'tis taken into Personal Union with the Divine. As he is Mediator and set in such an Office he is to be worshipped, but this is not the proper and fundamental reason thereof; for though he never had been Mediator yet Worship would have been due to him, (as the Father and Spirit are to be worshipped though the Office of Mediator belongs not to them). Further, the Lord Jesus as he in our Nature hath done such great and excellent things for us is to be worshipped; yet this is only a forcible motive and inducement thereunto, not the proper ground of it: it remains then that the alone reason of Worship given or done to Christ is his being God and the co-equal, co-essential Son of God. And he being so, what an obligation doth this lay upon you to worship him? there's inward worship (consisting in the trust, fear, reverence, adoration of the heart), there's outward worship (consisting in attendance upon and due observance of Gospel-institutions, as Prayer, Hearing the Word &c); in both of these respects let Christ be worshipped by you, both are due to him as he is God's own Son. Well may you tender your homage to him in this way when Angels themselves bow before him and worship at his throne.

2. Secondly, there's the Honor of Obedience which you must also give to Christ. This is annexed to the declaration of his Sonship, at the same time in which the Father attested that Christ was his Son he enjoined obedience and subjection to him; This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased (what follows?) hear ye him: this hearing of Christ is the Creatures obeying of him in all his holy Laws, Commands and Institutions; and so 'tis as if God had said, here's a Person whom I own for my Son (in a special and peculiar way), whom therefore I have set as my King upon my holy Hill of Zion, into whose hands I have put all power, upon whose shoulders I have laid the Government, therefore I charge you to hear him and to yield all Obedience and Subjection to him. O Sirs! 'tis God himself (and not such a poor worm as I) who requires this of you; it must be Reverence and it must be Obedience too, this high relation of Christ calls for both; and believe it, without this Obedience he that is God's Son will never be your Savior, for Heb. 5.9. Being made perfect, he became the author of eternal Salvation unto all them (and to none but them) that obey him. I have spoken much to press believing on this Son upon you, but let me add there must be obeying of him as well as believing on him: Obedience is not so of the very essence of Faith but that Faith may very well be defined without it, yet 'tis an inseparable Adjunct or. Consequent or fruit of Faith; and these two do always concur in the Subject, though they be different in themselves, and have a different influence upon justification and salvation. But that which I aim at is this, since Christ is the Son of God and this is clearly revealed to you, since this Son hath made known to you in the holy Gospel what his Will and pleasure is, how he would have you to live, what to do, what to shun; I beseech you now hearken to him, comply with him in all his excellent Commands, give up yourselves in an universal subjection to his blessed Laws, let there be an obediential frame of heart to his whole Will: this is indeed to honor him, and to honor him in such a way as best answers his Sonship to God and his Lordship over you.

4. Fourthly, is Christ no lower a Person than God's own Son? what cause have we then to admire and wonder at the greatness of God's Love in his sending of him! Here's a glass indeed to transmit and represent unto us the Love of God, O how shall we get our hearts affected with it! what thankfulness in us can bear any proportion to the mercy before us! For God to send, to send a Son, such a Son, in such a manner (as follows in the words) here's the Wonder of Wonders; God never did the like before and he'l never do the like again, (and blessed be his name there is no need he should!) 'Twould have been admirable mercy if God would have sent some other person upon this errand (to redeem and save undone Sinners); if send he will why did he not send an Angel (or a body of Angels ) to try their skill and see what they could do? nay, why did he not send an Angel (as he once did) with a flaming Sword in his hand to keep off Sinners from the tree of life? O this did not comport with his gracious designs (though it did too well with the Creatures merit ), therefore he would not do it; no, his own Son shall be pitched upon, he's the Person whom God will send. And his End in sending this Son was as gracious as the Person whom he sent was glorious: surely here was Love, great Love, great even to the degree of infiniteness! Millions of Angels were nothing to one Son, to one such Son: the nearer the relation was 'twixt God and Christ the greater was the affection shown to us; Christ God's own Son, his first born, his only begotten Son, the Son of his Love who lay in his bosom, had been his delight from everlasting? for him to be sent to recover and save Man (vile, sinful, wicked, undone man)? the Son to be employ'd for the Servant, the Slave, the Enemy? O astonishing mercy! O admirable goodness and condescension! How may we here cry out, Lord! what is man that thou art (thus) mindful of him? and the Son of man that thou makest (this) account of him? Here was God's so loving of the world, so as can never be expressed; he so loved the world as that he gave his only begotten Son &c. So loved the world? what is there in this so? why so inexpressibly, so inconceivably. Joh. 4.9, 10. In this was manifested the love of God towards us; because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him; Herein is Love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. God owned it as a great discovery of Abraham's Love to him, when upon his command he was willing to offer up his only begotten Son; but (alas!) how infinitely short did that come of his own Love in his sending and parting with his only begotten Son for the good of Sinners? here he intended to give out the highest manifestation of his Grace and he hath done it to purpose. The heavens and the earth were once called upon to be filled with astonishment because of the ingratitude of a sinful people; may not now Heaven and Earth, Angels and Men, all Creatures whatsoever, be called upon to be filled with astonishment because of the stupendous Love of God? O Christians! what influence hath this upon your dull and sluggish hearts? what are you made of that you are no more (in the sense of it) drawn out in the blessing, loving, admiring of God? Pray, (if there be any holy ingenuity in you) take some pains with yourselves that you may be much more affected with it, and give not over till you have such thoughts and affections (upon God's sending his own Son ) raised in you, as may in some measure answer to those thoughts and affections which you shall have about it when you shall be in Heaven.

So much for Exhortation, the third and last Use shall be for Comfort: and surely here is ground of strong Consolation to Believers, that which may highly conduce to the furthering of their joy and the strengthening of their faith. You who are such study this Sonship of Christ, dwell upon it often in your most serious thoughts, make the best of it, and then tell me whether you do not find that solid Support and Comfort from it which you desire and need.

Shall I broach this full Vessel and draw out a little of that heart-cheering liquor which is in it? then know that

1. As Christ is the Son of God, so are you. When I say SO are you, you must understand me of the Verity not of the Kind or Manner of the Sonship; you are not Sons as Christ is (viz.) by eternal Generation, yet Sons you are in another way (viz.) by regeneration and adoption; and though herein you come short of Christ (you being but adopted Sons and he the natural Son ), yet as you are but such there is greater glory put upon you than if you were descended from or adopted by the greatest Monarch of the World. May not this be matter of great comfort to you, to consider that whatever Christ is that you are (according to your capacity and necessary subordination to him)? that all that Grace which fell upon him falls upon you likewise? and yet so it is; is he the anointed of God? so are you; is he a Son? so are you; is he the beloved of God? so are you; is he the Heir of God? so are you; in these respects also 'tis Grace for Grace. I am upon your Sonship in conformity to Christ's Sonship, the truth of which you have no reason to question since the procuring of this for you was one thing that God in special aimed at in the sending of his Great Son into the world: Gal. 4.4, 5. When the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son &c. that we might receive the adoption of Sons; and therefore in this relation Christ takes you in with himself, Joh. 20.17. Go to my brethren and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father; and to my God and your God.

2. You may now (upon this) confidently expect the bestowing of all good. For Christ being God's own Son and he having given him to you, what can come after that can be too great or too good for him to give to you? what will God now deny after the gift of such a Son? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Saints let this be thought of, as all blessings come to you from God as he is the God and Father of Christ, (for 'tis Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, ) so all blessings are assured to you from this relative consideration of God, viz. as he is first the God and Father of Christ and then in him your God and Father too.

3. You may he sure that there is an infinite value, worth, and efficacy in Christ's Obedience, and that he was a person able to accomplish your Redemption. Christ being such a Son this speaks him to be a Person of great dignity, that dignity of his Person gives the highest assurance to Faith both that he was every way able to go through what he undertook, and also that there must be an infinite Virtue and Merit in what ever he did or suffered: What can be so hard as that the power of the Son of God cannot effect it? and what can be so high as that the Obedience of the Son of God cannot merit it? Had Christ been only the Son of Man then indeed Faith could not have bore up with such confidence; but he being the Son of God also and having the Nature, Essence, Attributes of God, how may Faith triumph as to the efficacy and meritoriousness of his obedience! 'Twas the blood of God which he shed Acts 20.28. O what a greatness and infiniteness of Merit must needs result from the greatness and infiniteness of such a Person! Heb. 9.13, 14. If the blood of Bulls, and of Goats, and the ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the Flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your Conscience from dead works to serve the Living God?

4. You may go boldly to the throne of Grace upon all occasions. For you have God's own Son to lead you thither and to make way for you, and not only so but this own Son improves all his interest in and with the Father for your good; why are you afraid to go to God? Heb. 4.14, 16. Seeing then that we have a great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus [the Son of God &c.] let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of Grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

5. You need not in the least question the prevalency of Christ's intercession: Doth Christ intercede and shall he not prevail? will not the Father hear such a Son? Suppose he may deny you (which he will not) yet surely he will not deny his own and only Son. Christ upon this relation may ask anything and he shall have it; mark the connection Psal. 2.7. I will declare the decree, the Lord hath said unto me, thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee: what follows now upon this? why ( Vers. 8.) Ask of me, and I shall give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. God thinks nothing too much for this Son when he asks it of him; and 'tis the same when he asks for you as when he asks for himself: therefore fear not but that your Prayers shall be graciously answered Christ himself interceding for you; when the Kings own Son carrys the Petition doubtless it shall be granted.

6. This is the Person to whom you are mystically united; and therefore his Glory and Greatness reflects a Glory and Greatness upon you. You are in Christ not only as he is the Son of Man but as he is the Son of God also, for the Union is terminated not in this or that Nature but in the whole Person: the Apostle therefore takes special notice of this 1 Joh. 5.20. We know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true: and we are in him that is true, [even in his Son Jesus Christ]; O to be in this Son there's the glory and safety of a believer!

I have done with this high and most Evangelical Truth, The Lord Jesus is God's own Son: upon which I have been somewhat large partly because of the excellency of the Argument itself, and partly because of the great opposition made against it. 2 Joh. 3. Grace be with you, mercy, and peace from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ [the Son of the Father], in truth and love.