and hlb Son .!efus Chrlfl. --------~--~~~~~~~--------~~71 Now God in this (peaks as plainly to Men in their own Language, as is pof!ible ~ to expreG it. Come to a Man that hat!) both Sqns by Mamage, and alfo a Son Chap. 3· out of his own Lo_ms,. and you hearJnm ,call them all Sons: But particularly ~ ask him what Son JS thJS? .:il1y own Son, Jj!ys he. And are theft: fo ? No, they are my Daughter's Hulbands, and fo my Sons in Law, or my Wives Sons, or whom I have taken to be my Sons by Will. \fell, and what doth a Man mean when he C1ys, This is my own Son; efpecially when with a dillinll:ion from others that are adopted ? All Men underlland a Son that is of his Subfhnce naturally begotten of him, of his Flefh and Blood~ Then in its infinite proportion, it ought fo to be underflood here. A Cecond Expreffion to be added to this, is, that of his being lliled, The on& begotten Son ..JGod, fo often, John I. 14, 18. Chap. j. 16. I John 4· 9· And -therefore fo begotten, is not others. !!J.!!afi pr.eter mm n~t!!IU ; As if befides him no other were begotten. And if any would quarrel, that others are faid to be begotten of God, [John 5· I8. yet to be fure, when God rays this of him, Thort art my begotten Son, he means Jt of jitch abegetting as bath not been commu– nicated to any Crea~re of the Old Creation, which that place is expre!S for. To which of all the .dngelr bath he faid, Tho11 art my Son, this day h<tve 1 begoiten thee? Heb. r. 5· So inftancing in his higbell Sons of the fort of meer Crea– tures, that are nearell to him ; in excluding them, he excludes all the reil. In which Speech we may obferve two Things. 1. That a Generation, or begetting him, is the Foundation o,f his Sonfhip; as it is of all true and natural Sons elfe among Men. For fo he joins them, Thmt art my Son, 1have begotten thee ; as the Ground of that his SonG1ip. If it were but a metaphorical or fimilitudinary Generation ; as when he flys of the lee and the Snow, Job 38. 28, 29. Hatb tbe Railt a Father? or who bath brgotten the Drop1 of the Dew ? 011t of wbofe Womb came the lee, and the hoary Froj!J of Hea– ven, who bath gendred it ? Then his Sonfhi p were no other. But dmh God r peak Poetically here, (as there he cloth) when of the Generation of his Son? Theri indeed he were but metaphorically a Son, and God a metaphorical Father tci him : Whereas he is the tme Son of God, as Joh>t calls him, I Johiz 5. ult. and therefore as truly begotten• . 2. Then that hi• Generation is fuch a begetting, and he fuch a Son in that refpell: as is denied of the Angels, or of Men, is evident. Thou, and thou a– lone art my Son; I have begotten t\Jee, and thee alone. So that otherwife, let the S.cripture (peak what it will of Men's being born of God, begotten of God, it is with an infinite diftance of fenfe from this. Their's is but by his Operation, not Generation, by Renafcentia, a new Birth of God's Image on them, which are but Divine ~alities in the Soul, not by a Generation, that is pioper to a fttb(\amial Perfon. Then, thirdly, add to lhefe tWO Expreffions of one Son, and of only hegotten, that other Mat. i6. 16. As alfo John 6.67. Where both by Peter's, and all the Apo(\}es their Confeffion, he is profe!fed to be the Son of the Livmg God : And in both thofe Confeffidris, the Conglomeration, or gathering together fo many Articles in the Greek let afore every word, are os fo many Stars that call us !o behold this Eminency of his Sqnfhip and Generation. For they putting an Emphafis on every word in that !mal\ Sentence, Tho~t art that Chrifl; That Son of that God, that Living God. The like Indignation is never ufed but for tome fpectal Intent, according to the Nature of the Matter fpoken o£ And that which makes it the more obfervable, is, that John (who wrote long after the other Evangelifls, and avoideth to mention what other Evangelills had record– ed, and fo mentions this Confeffion of theirs, as uttered at another Time, and upon a differing occafion from that which _Matthew relates) fhou!d yet, in his rehearfal of this Confeffion, not only punll:ually keep to ,the fame words, bu~ bath as carefully added the fame Articles afore every word, as .:il1atthew had done. . ,Yea, further, .whereas 'tis obierved by fo_me, (as was faid) -~h.at the Article o ot@-', the Son, IS gtven to none but to this Son; Lo, here It IS alto put to every
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