186 EVERLASTING FATHER. cannot, in our Invocations, be divided from the Uni- ty we may perceive a !till ftronger Reafon, why the great Objeft of all fpiritual Worship is to be called upon as OUR FATHER. If the FATHER, peculiarly fo called, and the SON, and the HOLY GHOST, have each of them a Claim to Paternity, and we are the Children ofeach ; furely, confidered in their Unity ofEffence, as well as in their Diftinition of Perfons, they are OUR FATHER, both in Nature and Grace. Happy for thofe vho can rightly ufe the Term, and who have a juff Reafon to conclude themfelves, not only the created, but the regenerated, Children of GOD ! If we look into the Prayer itfelf, we may obferve the Characters and Offices of the Eternal THREE plainly marked out and expreflèd. The Kingdom and Will of the FATHER ; the Support and Forgivenefs of the SON ; the Guidance and Prefervation of the HOLY SPIRIT ; are all drawn in obvious Characters of Mercy and Love. To each, and to all, of THESE are we to addrefs our Prayers : And our Praifes are to afcend to all, and to each ; for THEY (united in Nature and in Rance) pof efs the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory, for ever and ever. If the FATHER he the KING of Kings; and if the SON bath all POWER in Heaven andin Earth ; the facred SPIRIT, likewife, is both the SPIRIT of Grace* and the SPIRIT of GLORY.± They are all together the Chriftian's GOD; and, both dintJly and together, the Chriftian's FATHER. Upon the whole, there feems a clear and cogent Reafon, why CHRIST iS called OUR FATHER, and the EVERLASTING FATHER. If he were not the latter, he could not be the former. None but GOD is ftriftly and properly everlafting The Immortality of other Beings is entirely derivative, and fubfifts by HIM, who ONLY, in refpe& of his Effence,. MATH Immortality.$ And * Zech, xii: io. Heb. x. 29. i' ! Pet. iv. 14. 3 This is a just Argument from Maimondes the Jew: Fundamen tam [Religionisj eft, ,ATERNITAS [DeitatisJ feil. Huxe,.fuerx deferipfimus,
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