Of the 1\.,nowiedy, of (jod the Father, ~vineMan from God, fuch as their,Poets fpakeof, and attributed to Augujlw C4'ar BooK II. 1 \ 1tlgmtm Jovh intremwtum, whlch !truck fear into him. :J , ~ 1am doubtful, I confers, whether to refer :J(ebuch<dnezur's Speech, in Dm. 3· 25· who when he law one to appear in a diflering manner, with thole three Children in the Fiery Furnace, he crys out, The form of the fourth ts IT~ the Son ofGod; and furely it was an Appearance in fuch a Glory, as was f.1r beyond what Creatures, even Angels appear in, that made htm fpeak thus. But that which makes me doubtful, is that he had not any Notton of thts Son of God to come, unle!S, as I afore challenged it, for Chrill's Exifknce as God's Son, under the Old Teflarllent, he perce-iving his Glory fuch, and fo Cuperlatively different, acknowledgeth him to be the Son ofthat God, whofe Kmgdom was to be an cverlafling Kingdom, Dan. 4- 3· . But it is yet more obftrv1ble to prove the prefent Alfertton, that whenever Cbrifl fpake of the Father afore hts Dtfctples, or others, He never fatd 011r Fa. tloer, "hicb yet he nught us to C1y, even when we pray tn pr~vate, to the end that we lbould come to God as fuch a Father to us, as he IS allo to all others of his Elttl:. Andfo the Jews were taught and inftructed to fay, We have one Father, even Gnd, Joh, 8. 41. But his own ufual Stile was My Father, and therefore foa Father to him as to no other, nor to all or any of the Sons of God. And this Appropriation was fo much his wont, that the Jews obferv'd it, and took him at it, and werr offended, Job. 5· I 7. Whereas he had fatd, My Fatler wor~th hi– tlerto, and 1worlz; The Jews fought the more to kj/J him, becJule he had laid, God wM his Father,which is but Oenderly fo tranOated: For in the Original,'tis becaufe he bad called God his own Fathe~·, that is, fo and in Cuch a manner his, as not others: And fo theJews themfelves underfiood him, whilfl the Words were yet fi·elb in his Momh. Yea, and he fpeaks not this amongfl a wicked Company of Jerr", who were the Children of the Devil, verf 44· As any other ordinary Son or Ch'1ld ofGod alone, among a Company ofwicked ones, might by way ofSe· paration fo ufe it; But further, Chrifi cloth the very fame, when he had an oc– calion to fpeak to, and of, his Difciples, and ofhimfelf (who were the chiefell Saints then alive ofthe Sons of Men,and reprefenting the reil for ever to come) how God was Father both to him and them, yet he carefully makes this Separa– tion; lvfy Father,andyourFather, Job. 20. 27. You fee he mentions their Rela– tion apart, yea, as feparateand aloofoff from his own, He putteth the Sonlbip or Relation ofall them into one common £\.elation, Your Father, and ietsagainll it, and fevers from it, asat a diflance, his own; A.IJ F•t/,er. And that to ibew their Relation of Sons to God, is not of the fame Rank or Defcent that his is. 2. There is moreover, [ at;1 Vs aD,] Rom. 8. 32. He that JPared not his own So11, but delivered hiiJzupfor us all, how fhail he not alfo with hiiJJ freely give 11s all things i! namely us, the Saints, [God gave him up for •s all J lays he, and thefe All, we find had been afore termed the Sons of God, in the 16thverfe of that Chapter, The Spir1t itJelfbearethwitnej with our Spirit, th•t w_e are the Children of Gcd. And fo declared Heirs ofall Things becaufe Joint-Heirs.with Chrift, ver.17. And Again, verf 29. he had call'd them, the Brethren ofChrift,and him theFirjl– horn mnong ma11y Brethren. And yet, 3· After all this, by way of difference, from thefe he emitlesCbrill, God's own Son; IfGodJPared not his own Son, verC 30. To have laid His Sou, by way ofSingularity, when mention is made of many other Brethren, had been enough to have iignified his Eminency unto them, efpecially to fay the Firfl-born, as vnf 29. he bath done. But he adds hereto over and above all, his own Son. As thereby iignifyiog the different kind or fort ofSonlbip and Fatherhood, that was betwixt God and him. This is therefore an eminent diilinClion of two forts ofSons which God had; his own Son, proper, genuine, true Son, and others that were not his own, but either by Marriage, or Adoption. As Strangers and Alians in their Original Defcent ufe to be to a Father that afterwards takts them for his adopted Sons: and 'tis evident that this is his meaning. Fort;er.l5. the Apoflle had giv<n this other part ofdiflinCtionofSonlbip ofthis his [Vs i!U.] We h<~ve recdved (C1ys he) the Spirit ofAdoption, by which we (that are Jews) er)', Abb•, and we (that are Gentiles) F.ther, And if Children then Heirs, verC 1.6. Now
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