tion a demonstration of his love? Or how canst thou repine, or be guilty of the least degree of impatiency, even in the sharpest corrections, if " thou shalt know with thine heart, that as a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee?" (Deut. viii. 5.) How canst thou not be comforted, and even rejoice in the midst of thy greatest sufferings, when thou knowest that he which striketh pitieth, he which afflicteth is as it were afflicted with it?" For like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.” (Psal. ciii. 13.) Lastly, the same relation strongly inferreth an absolute necessity of our imitation; it being clearly vain to assume the title of son without any similitude of the father. What is the* general notion of generation but the production of the like; nature, ambitious of perpetuity, striving to preserve the species in the multiplication and succession of individuals? And this similitude consisteth partly in essentials, or the likeness of nature; partly in accidentals, or the likeness in figure,† or affections. Adam begat a son in his own likeness, after his image:" (Gen. v. 3.) and can we imagine those the sons of God which are no way like him? A similitude of nature we must not, of figure we cannot pretend unto: it remains then only that we bear some likeness in our actions and affections. "Be ye therefore followers (saith the apostle), or rather§ imitators, of God, as dear children." (Ephes. v. 1.) What he hath revealed of himself, that we must express within ourselves. Thus God spake unto the children of Israel, whom he styled his son, "Ye shall be holy, for I am holy." (Lev. xi. 44. xix. 2. xx. 7.) And the apostle upon the same ground speaketh unto us, as to " obedient children :" "As he that hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation." (1 Pet. i. 14, 15.) It is part of the general beneficence and universal goodness of our God, that he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust" (Matt. v. 45.) These impartial beams and undistinguishing showers are but to shew us what we ought to do, and to make us fruitful in the works of God; for no other reason Christ has given us this command, "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven." (Matt. v. 44, 45.)** No other command did he give upon this Πᾶν τὸ γεννῶν ὅμοιον ἑαυτῷ γεννᾷ. S. Epiphan. Har. lxxvi. §. 6. Α' Τὰ ὅμοια γίγνεσθαι τοῖς γεννήσασι τὰ Inyova, EDλoyov. Aristot. de Generat. Animai. I. i. c. 9. Fortes creantur fortibus et bonis: Est in juvencis, est in equis patrum Virtus; nec imbellem feroces Progenerant aquila columbam.' Hor. Carm. I. iv. Od. iv. v. 29. Ο μιμηταί. Filii hominum sunt quando male faciunt; quando bene, filii Dei.' S. August. in Psal. lii. Vide S. August. in Psal. c. *Similitudinem patris actus indicent sobolis; similitudo operis similitudinem indicet generis: actus nomen confirmet, ut nomen genus demonstret.' S. August. de Temp. Serm. 76. ground, but, "Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father is merciful." (Luke vi. 36.) So necessary is this faith in God, as in our Father, both for direction to the best of actions, and for consolation in the worst of conditions. But although this be very necessary, yet it is not the principal or most proper explication of God's paternity. For as we find one person in a more peculiar manner the Son of God, so must we look upon God as in a more peculiar manner the Father of that Son. "I ascend unto my Father and your Father," (John xx. 17.)* saith our Saviour; the same of both, but in a different manner, denoted by the article prefixed before the one, and not the other: which distinction in the original we may preserve by this translation, I ascend unto the Father of me, and Father of you; first of me, and then of you: not therefore his, because ours; but therefore ours, because his. So far we are the sons of God, as we are like unto him; and our similitude unto God consisteth in our conformity to the likeness of his Son. "For whom he did foreknow, he did also predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren." (Rom. viii. 29.) He the first-born, and we sons, as brethren unto him: he "appointed heir of all things," (Heb. i. 2.) and we " heirs of God, as joint-heirs with him." (Rom. viii. 17.) Thus God "sent forth his Son, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because we are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father." (Gal. iv. 4-6.)+ By his mission are we adopted, and by his Spirit call we God our Father. So we are no longer "servants, but now sons; and if sons, then heirs of God, but still through Christ." (Gal. iv. 7.) It is true, indeed, that " both he that sanctifieth, that is, Christ, and they who are sanctified, that is, faithful Christians, are all of one, the same Father, the same God; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren :" (Heb. ii. 11.) yet are they not all of him after the same manner, not the " many sons like the Captain of their salvation:" (Heb. ii. 10.) but Christ ̓Αναβαίνω πρὸς τὸν πατέρα μου, καὶ παν τέρα ὑμῶν. Had πατέρα in both places had its article, there would have seemed two Fathers had the article been prefixed to πατέρα ὑμῶν, he would have seemed first ours, then Christ's: but being prefixed to πατέρα μου, it shews God to be principally and originally Christ's, and by our reference unto him, our Father. Πατέρα μου μὲν κατὰ φύσιν ἐν τῇ θεότητι, καὶ πατέρα ὑμῶν διὰ χάριν ἐν τῇ υἱοθεσία. S. Epiphan. Hæres. Ixix. §. 55. Où là πρὸς τὸν πατέρα ὑμῶν, ἀλλὰ διελῶν, καὶ εἰπὼν πρῶτον τὸ οἰκεῖον, πρὸς τὸν πατέρα μου, ὅπερ ἦν κατὰ φύσιν· εἶτ ̓ ἐπαναγαγὼν καὶ πατέρα ὑμῶν, ὅπες ἦν κατὰ θέσιν. S. Cyril. Hierus. * the beloved, the first-born, the only-begotten, the Son after a more peculiar and more excellent manner; the rest with relation unto, and dependance on, his Sonship; as given unto him, "Behold I, and the children which God hath given me;" (Isa. viii. 18. Heb. ii. 13.) as being so by faith in him, “ For we are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus; (Gal. iii. 26.) as receiving the right of Sonship from him, " For ast many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God." (John i. 12.) Among all the sons of God there is none like to that one Son of God. And if there be so great a disparity in the filiation, we must make as great a difference in the correspondent relation. There is one degree of sonsnip founded on creation, and that is the lowest, as belonging unto all, both good and bad: another degree above that there is grounded upon regeneration, or adoption, belonging only to the truly faithful in this life: and a third above the rest founded on the resurrection, or collation of the eternal inheritance, and the similitude of God, appertaining to the saints alone in the world to come: for "we are now the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him." (1 John iii. 2.) And there is yet another degree of filiation, of a greater eminency and a different nature, appertaining properly to none of these, but to the true Son of God alone, who amongst all his brethren hath only received the title of his "own Son," (Rom. viii. 32.)† and a singular testimony from heaven, "This is my beloved Son," (Matt. iii. 17. xvii. 5.) ‡ even in the presence of John the Bap tist, even in the midst of Moses and Elias (who are certainly the sons of God by all the other three degrees of filiation), and therefore hath called God after a peculiar way "his own Father." (John v. 18.) And so at last we come unto the most singular and eminent paternal relation, "Unto the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore ;" (2 Cor. xi. 31.) the Father of him, and of us, but not the Father of us as of him. Christ hath taught us to say, Our Father: a form of speech which he never used himself; sometimes he calls him the Father; sometimes my Father, sometimes your, but never our: he makes no such conjunction of us to himself, as to make no distinction between us and himself; so conjoining us. as to distinguish, though so distinguishing as not to separate us. Indeed I conceive this, as the most eminent notion of God's paternity, so the original and proper explication of this Article of the CREED: and that not only because the ancient fathers deliver no other exposition of it; but also because that which I conceive to be the first occasion, rise, and original of the CREED itself, requireth this as the proper interpretation. Immediately before the ascension of our Saviour, he said unto his apostles, "All power is given unto me in heaven and earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." (Matt. xxviii. 18, 19.) From this sacred form of baptism did the Church derive the rule of faith,* requiring the profession of belief in the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, before they could be baptized in their name. When the eunuch asked Philip, "What doth hinder me to be baptized? Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest:" and when the eunuch replied, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God; he baptized him." (Acts viii. 36, 37.) And before that, the Samaritans, "when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, were baptized, both men and women." (Acts viii. 12.) For as in the Acts of the Apostles there is no more expressed than that they baptized in the name of Jesus Christ:" (Acts ii. 38. viii. 16. x. 48. xix. 5.) so is no more expressed of the faith required in them who were to be baptized, than to believe in the same name. But being the Father and the Holy Ghost were likewise mentioned in the first institution, being the expressing of dixit, aut Pater vester. Pater noster non dixit, usque adeo ut quodam loco poneret hæc duo, Vado ad Deum meum, inquit, et Deum vestrum. Quare non dixit Deum nostrum? et Patrem meum dixit, et Patrem vestrum; non dixit Patrem nostrum? Sic jungit, ut distinguat; sic distinguit, ut non sejungat. Unum nos vult esse in se, unum autem Patrem et se.' S. August. in Ioan. Tract. 21. §. 3. Arius and Euzoius, in their Creed delivered to Constantine: Ταύτην τὴν πίστιν παρειλήφαμεν ἐκ τῶν ἁγίων εὐαγγελίων, λέγοντος τοῦ κυρίου τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ μαθηταῖς, Πορευθέντες μαθητεύσατε πάντα τὰ ἔθνη, βαπτίζοντες αὐτ τοὺς εἰς ὄνομα τοῦ πατρὸς, καὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ, καὶ τοῦ ȧyia reúμaros. Socrat. 1. i. c. 26. And upon exhibiting this Confession of Faith, they were restored to the Communion of the Church by the Synod of Jerusalem. Sorom. 1. ii. c. 27. In the same manner Eusebius delivered his Creed unto the council of Nice, concluding and deducing it from the same text: καθὰ καὶ ὁ κύριος ἡμῶν, ἀποστέλλων εἰς τὸ κήρυγμα τοὺς ἑαυτοῦ μαθητὰς, εἶπε, Πορευθέντες μαθητεύσατε, &c. Socrat. 1. i. c. 8. Theodor. I. i. c. 12. The same is also alleged by the council of Antioch, under the emperor Constantius and pope Julius. Socrat. 1. ii. c. 10. Vide S. Athanas. in Epist. ad ubique Orthod. Orat. contra Gregales Sabellii, et contra Arianos ex Deo Deus, §. 1. Vide Basil. de Spirit. S. c. 12. So Vigilius Tapsensis, Dial. I. i. §. 3. makes Arius and Athanasius jointly speak these words: 'Credimus in Deum Patrem omnipotentem, et in Jesum Christum Filium ejus, Dominum nostrum, et in Spiritum S. Hæc est fidei nostræ regula, quam cœlesti magisterio Dominus tradidit apostolis, dicens, Ite, baptizate, &c.' one doth not exclude the other, being it is certain that from the apostles' time the names of all three were used; hence upon the same ground was required faith, and a profession of belief in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Again, as the eunuch said not simply, I believe in the Son, but "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God;" as a brief explication of that part of the institution which he had learned before of Philip so they who were converted unto Christianity were first taught not the bare names, but the explications and descriptions of them in a brief, easy, and familiar way; which when they had rendered, acknowledged, and professed, they were baptized in them. And these being regularly and constantly used, made up the rule of faith, that is, the CREED. The truth of which may sufficiently be made apparent to any who shall seriously consider the constant practice of the Church, from the first age unto this present, of delivering the rule of faith to those which were to be baptized, and so requiring of themselves, or their sureties, an express recitation, profession, or acknowledgment of the CREED. From whence this observation is properly deducible: that in what sense the name of Father is taken in the form of baptism, in the same it also ought to be taken in this Article. And being nothing can be more clear than that, when it is said, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, the notion of Father hath in this particular no other relation but to that Son whose name is joined with his; and as we are baptized into no other son of that Father, but that only-begotten Christ Jesus, so into no other father, but the Father of that only-begotten: it followeth, that the proper explication of the first words of the CREED is this, I believe in God the Father of Christ Jesus. In vain then is that vulgar distinction applied unto the explication of the CREED, whereby the Father is considered both personally, and essentially: personally, as the first in the glorious Trinity, with relation and opposition to the Son; essentially, as comprehending the whole Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. For that the Son is not here comprehended in the Father is evident, not only out of the original, or occasion, but also from the very letter of the CREED, which teacheth us to believe in God the Father, and in his Son; for if the Son were included in the Father, then were the Son the Father of himself. As therefore when I say, I believe in Jesus Christ his Son, I must necessarily understand the Son of that Father whom I mentioned in the first Article; so when I said, I believe in God the Father, I must as necessarily be understood of the *Father of him whom I call his Son in the second Article. Now as it cannot be denied that God may several ways be said to be the Father of Christ; first, as he was begotten by Pater cum audis, Filii intellige Patrem, qui filius supradicta sit imago |