are fimply fuch must be contained formally, and all others which imply any mixture of imperfection, virtually. a But were no arguments brought from the infinite perfections of the divine nature able to convince us, yet were the confideration of his fupreme Dominion fufficient to perfuade us. The will of God is infinitely free, and by that • Dan. 4. 35. freedom doth he govern and dispose of all things. He doth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, faid Nebuchadnezzar out of his experience; and S. Paul expreffeth him as working all things after the council of his own will. If then there were more fupreme Governours of the world than one, each of them abfolute and free, they might have contrary determinations concerning the fame thing, than which nothing can be more prejudicial unto Government. God is a God of order, not confufion; and therefore of unity, not admitting multi* Tà la plication. If it be better that the * Universe should be governed by one than Bawol many, we may be affured that it is fo, because nothing must be conceived of xax God but what is beft. He therefore who made all things, by that right is woλuxogavin, Lord of all, and because all † power is his, he alone ruleth over all. βάλε πολί Οὐκ ἀγαθὸν εἰς κοίραν, 1. 12. c. ult. Now God is not only One, but hath an Unity + peculiar to himself by Arift. Metaph. which he is the Only God; and that not only by way of actuality, but alUnus omni- fo of poffibility. Every individual man is one, but fo as there is a fecond um Dominus and a third, and confequently every one is part of a number and con eft Deus: ne test habere poteftatem. b que enim illa curring to a multitude. The Sun indeed is one; fo as there is neither third fublimitas po- nor fecond Sun, at least within the fame Vortex: but though there be not, confortem, yet there might have been; neither in the unity of the Solar nature is there cùm fola om- any repugnancy to plurality; for that God which made this world, and nem teneat in this the Sun to rule the day, might have made another world by the S. Cypr. de 1-fame fecundity of his Omnipotency, and another Sun to rule in that. Wheredol. Vanit. as in the Divine Nature there is an intrinfecal and effential fingularity, beN caufe no other Being can have any existence but from that; and whatfoever effence hath its existence from another is not God. I am the Lord, y faith he, and there is none elfe, there is no God befides me: that they may NW N know from the rifing of the Sun, and from the Weft, that there is none A befides me, I am the Lord, and there is none else. He who hath infinite DNA knowledge knoweth no other God beside himself. Is there a God befides by me? yea there is no God, I know not any. And we who believe in him, and defire to enjoy him, need for that end to know no other God but him: 55 For this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God as certainly One as God. ? אלוה זה ואינו לא שנים ולא שנים אלא אחר מן הנמצאים בעולם לא אחר במין שחות אחרים הרבה : ולא אחר God is one, not two, or more ככוף שהוא נחלק למחלקות ולקצוות אלא אחר שאין ייחור אחר כמותו בעולס * than two, but only One: whofe Unity is not like to that of the Individuals of this world, neither is he one by way of Species comprehending many Individuals, neither one in the manner of a Body which is divifible into parts and extremes: but he is fo one, as no Unity like his is to be found in the world. Mofes Maim. de Fundam. Legis. Quod autem diximus, Orientis Ecclefias tradere unum Patrem Omnipotentem, & unum Dominum, hoc modo intelligendum eft, unum non numero dici, fed univerfitate: verbi gratiâ, fi quis dicat unum hominem, aut unum equum, hic unum pro numero pofuit, poteft enim & alius homo effe, & tertius, vel equus. Ubi autem fecundus & tertius non poteft jungi, unus fi dicatur, non numeri, fed univerfitatis eft nomen. Ut fi exempli causà dicamus unum Solem, hic unus ità dicitur ut alius vel tertius addi non poffit; multò magis Deus cùm unus dicitur, unus non numeri, fed univerfitatis vocabulo nuncupatur, id eft, qui propterea unus dicatur, quòd alius non fit. Ruffin. in Symb. b Ifa. 45. 5, 6. Deut. 4.35. and 32. 39. Pfal. 18. 31. c Ifai. 45. 18, 21, 22. and 44. 8. d John 17. 3. * Veritas Chriftiana diftrictè pronunciavit, Deus fi non unus eft, non eft; quia dignius credimus non effe, quodcunque non ità fuerit ut effe debebit. Tertul. adv. Marcion. l. 1. c. 2. Deus cùm fummum magnum fit rectè veritas noftra pronunciavit, Deus fi non unus eft, non eft. Non quafi dubitemus effe Deum, dicendo, fi non unus, non eft Deus; fed quia, quem confidimus effe, idem definiamus effe, quod fi non eft Deus, non eft, fummum fcilicet magnum. Porrò fummum magnum, unicum fit neceffe eft, ergo & Deus unicus erit non aliter Deus nifi fummum magnum, nec aliter fummum magnum nifi parem non habens, nec aliter parem non habens nifi unicus fuerit. Ibid. It is neceffary thus to believe the Unity of the Godhead, that being affured there is a nature worthy of our devotions, and challenging our religious fubjection jection, we may learn to know whofe that nature is to which we owe our adorations, left our minds fhould wander and fluctuate in our worship about various and uncertain objects. If we should apprehend more Gods than one, I know not what could determinate us in any inftant to the actual adoration of any one: for where no difference doth appear, (as, if there were many, and all by nature Gods, there could be none) what inclination could we have, what reason could we imagine, to prefer or elect any one before the reft for the object of our devotions? Thus is it neceffary to believe the Unity of God in refpect of us who are obliged to worship him. mon. de Fund. legis c.3. Matt. 4. 10. Secondly, It is neceffary to believe the Unity of God in refpect of him who is to be worshipped. Without this acknowledgment we cannot give unto God the things which are God's, it being part of the worship and honour due unto God, to accept of no compartner with him. When the Law was given, in the obfervance whereof the Religion of the Ifraelites confifted, the first precept was this prohibition, Thou shalt have no other gods before me; and who- Exod. 20. 3. foever violateth this, denieth the foundation on which all the reft depend, as the * Jews obferve. This is the true reason of that strict precept by which all* Mofes Maiare commanded to give divine worship to God only, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only fhalt thou ferve; because he alone is God: him only fhalt thou fear, because he alone hath infinite power; in him only fhalt thou trust, because he only is our rock and our falvation; to him a- Pfal. 62. 2. lone fhalt thou direct thy devotions, because he only knoweth the hearts of 2 Chron. 6.30. the children of men. Upon this foundation the whole heart of man is intirely required of him, and engaged to him. Hear, OIfrael, the Lord our Deut. 6.4, 5. God is one God: And (or rather, Therefore) thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy foul, and with all thy might. Whofoever were truly and by nature God, could not chufe but challenge our love upon the ground of an infinite excellency, and tranfcendent beauty of holiness; and therefore if there were more Gods than one, our love must neceffarily be terminated unto † more than one, and confequently divided be- † Numerus tween them; and as our love, fo alfo the proper effect thereof, our chearful fummâ ratioand ready obedience, which, like the Child propounded to the judgment of So- ne conftare lomon, as foon as 'tis divided, is destroyed, No man can ferve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other: or else he will hold to the one and defpife the other. b divinitatis deberet, vel quoniam & cultura ejus in anceps deduceretur. Ecce enim duos intuens Deos tàm pares quàm duo fumma magna, quid facerem fi ambos colerem? vererer nè abundantia officii fuperftitio potiùs quam religio crederetur: quia duos tam pares & in altero ambos poffem in uno demereri: hoc ipfo teftimonium præftans parilitati & unitati eorum, dum alterum in altero venerarer, dum in une mihi duo funt. Tertul. adv. Marcion. l. 1. c. 5. b Matth. 6. 24. Having thus defcribed the first notion of a God, having demonstrated the Existence and Unity of that God, and having in thefe three particulars comprised all which can be contained in this part of the Article, we may now clearly deliver, and every particular Chriftian understand, what it is he fays when he makes his Confeffion in thefe words, I believe in God; which in correfpondence with the precedent difcourfe may be thus expreffed : Forafmuch as by all things created is made known the eternal power and Godhead, and the dependency of all limited Beings infers an infinite and independent effence; whereas all things are for fome end, and all their operations directed to it, although they cannot apprehend that end for which they are, and in prosecution of which they work, and therefore must be guided by fome univerfal and over-ruling wifdom; being this collection is fo evident, that all the Nations of the Earth have made it; being God hath not only written himself in the lively characters of his Creatures, but hath alfo made frequent patefections of his Deity by most infallible Predictions and fuper E natural natural operations; therefore I fully affent unto, freely acknowledge, and clearly profess this truth, that there is a God. Again, being a prime and independent Being, fuppofeth all other to depend, and confequently no other to be God; being the intire fountain of all perfections is capable of a double Head, and the most perfect government of the Univerle fpeaks the fupremie dominion of one abfolute Lord; hence do I acknowledge that God to be but one, and in this Unity, or rather fingularity of the Godhead, excluding all actual or poffible multiplication of a Deity, I believe in God. A I believe in God the Father. Fter the Confeffion of a Deity, and Affertion of the Divine Unity, the next Confideration is concerning God's Paternity; for that one 1 Cor. 8. 6. God is Father of all, and to us there is but one God, the Father. Eph. 4.6. * Omnem Now, although the Chriftian notion of the divine Paternity be fome way peculiar to the Evangelical Patefaction; yet wherefoever God hath Deum qui ab been acknowledged, he hath been understood and worshipped as a Fatur neceffe eft ther: the very Heathen † Poets fo defcribe, their Gods, and their vulinter folennes gar names did carry father in them, as the most popular and univerfal homine coli ritus & precaones Patrem notion. nuncupari; non tantum honoris gratiâ, fed. & rationis, & quòd antiquior eft homine, & quòd vitam, falutem, victum præftat ut pater. Itaque & Jupiter à precantibus Pater vocatur, & Saturnus, & Janus, & Liber, & cæteri deinceps. Lattan. de ver. Sap. l. 4. c. 3. † That fo frequent in Homer, wang dvdgav TE DEWY TE• eundemque appellans dicit Ennius, Divumque hominumque pater rex. Ver. de L. L. l. 4. As Servius obferves of Virgil, à Pocta penè omnibus Diis nomen Paternum additur, ut fiant venerabiliores: And before him Lucilius, Ut nemo fit noftrum quin pater optimu' Divum, Ut Neptunu' Pater, Liber, Saturnu' Pater, Mars, Janu', Quirinu' Pater nomen dicatur ad unum. Lactan. Ib. As Jupiter, which is Jovis Pater, or Zouwúrwg, otherwife Diefpater, or Airwg and Marfpiter, of whom Servius apud Pontifices Maripiter dicitur, Eneid. 1. 3. So Semipater for Semo, and Zagdowúrwg for Sardus, the proper Deity of Sardinia, Ptolem. Gen. 2.4. This name of Father is a relative; and the proper foundation of Paternity, as of a Relation, is Generation. As therefore the phrase of generating is diverfly attributed unto feveral acts of the fame nature with Generation properly taken, or by confequence attending on it: fo the title of Father is given unto divers perfons or things, and for feveral reafons unto the fame God. These are the generations of the heavens and the earth, when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the hea vens, faith Mofes. So that the creation or production of any thing by which it is, and before was not, is a kind of generation, and confequently the Job 38.28. Creator or Producer of it a kind of Father. Hath the rain a Father? or who hath begotten the drops of dew? By which words Job fignifics, that as there is no other caufe affignable of the Rain but God, fo may he as the *Erigas yg caufe be called the Father of it, though not in the most proper fenfe, * She is the Father of his Son: and fo the † Philofophers of old, who thought x, régas that God did make the World, called him expreffly, as the Maker, fo the 4. Severus in Father of it. And thus to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are + Plutarch of all things; to which the words following in the Creed may feem to have rePlato, calling lation, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. But in this mass of God walic Creatures and body of the Univerfe, fome works of the Creation more pro, fays, perly call him Father as being more rightly fons: fuch are all the rational thug and intellectual off-fpring of the Deity. Of merely natural Beings and irraώπες είωθε. Τ' αἴτιον πατέρα τοῦ κόσμο κέκληκε. Platon. Quef. And Alcimus, πατὴρ δέ ἐσι τιν αίτια είναι πάντων. τις πα τέρα Θεὸν ἀ Job. πάντων καὶ * I Cor. 8.6. as a answers the and Father of tional agents he is * the Creator of rational, as fo, the Father alfo; they *so Plutarch are his Creatures, thefe his Sons. Hence he is ftiled the Father of Spi- Question, why rits, and the blessed Angels, when he laid the foundations of the Earth, Flato terms his Sons; When the morning ftars fang together, and all the fons of God the Maker God fhouted for joy: hence Man, whom he created after his own image, is all things. called his off-fpring, and Adam, the immediate work of his hands, the Har Son of God: hence may we all cry out with the Ifraelites taught by the Prophet so to speak, Have we not all one Father? hath not one God created us? Thus the first and most universal Notion of God's Paternity in a borrowed or metaphorical fenfe is founded rather upon Creation than с Procreation. e d Η θυνητών και τα ἀνθρώπων πα ng isi main γων καὶ αψύ χων; Father of Gods and men, Ma ker of all things inanimate and irrational. Οὐ τδ χορία φησί χρύσιππον πατέρα καλείς αχόντα το σπέρμα, nxiñig in ro aigual yelovór. Non enim agri pater, fi Chryfippo credimus, is dicitur qui eum confevit, quanquam è femine deinde fruges nafcantur: as the Latin Tranflation most abfurdly. For there is neither corn, nor any field, nor feed belonging to them in the words of Plutarch. But xbeson not xwesov) is the Secunda, the coat (or rather coats in the acception of Chryfippus, and the language of thofe times) in which the Foetus is involved in the mother's womb. Though therefore both the Secunda and the Foetus be made of the feed of the male in the Philofophy of Chryfippus, yet he is not called the Father of the after-birth, but of the child; the one being endued with life and reason, and the other not. a Heb. 12. 9. Job 38.7. c Acts 17. 28. & Luke 3. 38. e Malac. 2. iò. he an ingenious FI μ, ὡς τὸ πῶν τηρῶν· άνθρω παίδα, τηρών. WOWS TAS Unto this act of Creation is annexed that of Confervation, by which God doth uphold and preferve in being that which at first he made, and to which gave its Being. As therefore it is the Duty of the Parent to educate and preferve the Child, as that which had its Being from him; fo this paternal education doth give the name of* Father unto Man, and Confervation gives *so Euftathius the fame to God. obferves out of Again, Redemption from a state of mifery, by which a people hath become Etymologift: worse than nothing, unto a happy condition, is a kind of Generation, which aing cos joined with love, care, and indulgence in the Redeemer, is fufficient to found a new Paternity, and give him another title of a Father. Well might Mofes tell the people of Ifrael, now brought out of the land of Egypt from their brick and straw, unto their Quails and Manna, unto their Milk and Honey, a is not he thy Father that hath bought thee? hath he not made thee, and Deut. 32.6. eftablished thee? Well might God fpeak unto the fame people as to b his bExod. 4. 22. Son, even his firft-born, Thus faith the Lord thy Redeemer, and he that cifa. 44. 24. formed thee from the womb; Hearken unto me, O houfe of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Ifrael, which are born by me from the belly, which are carried from the womb. And just is the acknowledgement made by that people instructed by the Prophet, d Doubtless thou art our Father, 1fa. 63. 16. though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Ifrael acknowledge us not; thou, O Lord, art our Father, our Redeemer, from everlasting is thy Name. And thus another kind of paternal Relation of God unto the fons of men is founded on a Reftitution or temporal Redemption. с e a e 46.3. quodammo Befides, if to be born causeth Relation to a Father, then to be born again maketh an addition of another: and if to generate foundeth, then to regene rate addeth a Paternity. Now though we cannot enter the fecond time into our mother's womb, nor pafs through the fame door into the Scene of Life again; yet we believe and are perfuaded, that except a man be born again, © John 3. 3. he cannot fee the Kingdom of God. A double birth there is, and the world † Totum hoconfifts of two, the firft and the fecond man. And though the incorruptible minum genus feed be the Word of God, and the difpenfers of it in fome fenfe may fay, as do funt hoSt. Paul spake unto the Corinthians, I have begotten you through the Go- mines duo Spel: yet he is the true Father, whofe Word it is, and that is God, even & the Primus & feFather of lights, who of his own will begat us with the word of truth. Profp Thus whosoever believeth that Jefus is the Chrift, is born of God; which 1 Cor. 4. 15. Regeneration is as it were a fecond Creation: for we are God's workmanJhip, created in Chrift Jefus unto good works. And he alone who did create 1 John 5. 1. i E 2 a us out of nothing, can beget us again, and make us of the new Creation. When Gen. 30. 1,2. Rachel called to Jacob, Give me Children, or elfe I die; he answered her fufficiently with this question, Am I in God's ftead? And if he only openeth the womb, who elfe can make the * Soul to bear? Hence hath he the name O iyi of Father, and they of Sons who are born of him; and fo from that interrasnal act of spiritual Regeneration another title of paternity redoundeth unto the Divinity. το μόνο δικα ανοι νιώαι, καὶ απείρειν εν αυ ταῖς ἀρετᾶς, καὶ τα καλά. ¿ Luke 20.35, 36. e Col. 3. 24. Heb. 9. 15. ρώθη. be; b d Nor is this the only fecond Birth or fole Regeneration in a Christian sense; the Soul, which after its natural Being requires a birth into the life of Grace, Tyúμ is also after that born again into a life of Glory. Our Saviour puts us in mind of the Regeneration, when the Son of man fhall fit in the throne of Philo de Alleg. his glory. The Refurrection of our Bodies is a kind of coming out of the Matt.19.28. womb of the earth, and entring upon immortality, a nativity into another life. For they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and Rom. 8. 17. the refurrection from the dead, are the fons of God, being the fons of the refurrection; and then as fons, they become heirs, co-heirs with Chrift, eret1 John 3.2. ceiving the promife and reward of eternal inheritance. † Beloved, now we ἔπω ήφανε are the fons of God, faith S. John, even in this life by Regeneration, and it doth not yet appear, or, it hath not been yet made manifeft, what we shall but we know, that if he appear, we Jhall be like him: the manifestation of the Father being a fufficient declaration of the condition of the Sons, when £ 1 Pet. 1.3, 4. the Sonship it self confifteth in a fimilitude of the Father. And bleffed be the God and Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope, by the Refurrection of Jefus Chrift from the dead; to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, referved in heaven for us. Why may not then a fecond kind of Regeneration be thought a fit addition of this paternal relation? Neither is there only a natural, but also a voluntary and civil foundation of Paternity; for the Laws have found a way by which a man may beCaii Inf. 1. come a Father without procreation: and this imitation of Nature is cal キ t. 5. §. 1. led Adoption, taken in the general * fignification. Although therefore maturæ fimilitu- ny ways God be a Father, yet left any way might feem to exclude us from do eft, ut ali- being his Sons, he hath made us fo alfo by Adoption. Others are wont habere poffit, to fly to this, as to a comfort of their folitary condition, when either Adoptio na quis filium quem non generavit. τί ἐσιν ήοθε ria; vμi waisming μέρη τ' φύσιν #egs παίδων Saudia Even Nature hath denied them, or death bereft them of their off-spring. Whereas God doth it not for his own, but for our fakes; nor is the adVantage his, but ours. & Behold what manner of Love the Father bath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the fons of God; that we, the fons of difobedient and condemned Adam by natural generation, should be tranflated into the glorious liberty of the fons of God by Adoption; that we, who were aliens, ftrangers and enemies, fhould be affumed hun to the Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift, on whom all the * family of hea* H yoteria ven and earth is named, and be made partakers of the riches of the glory of Papain - his inheritance in the Saints. For as in the legal Adoption, the Father hath νῆ λέγει ἀdoliv auTn as † full and abfolute power over his adopted fon as over his own iffue; fo in όσα υικόν the spiritual, the adopted fons have a clear and undoubted right of inheri Theoph. inft. I. t. II. όνομα εἰς δύω diançes), is adograliova, oμórvμor adonliova. Theoph. ibid. † Caii Inft. 2. tit. 5. §. 4. Spadones autem qui generare non poffunt, adoptare poffunt; & licet filios generare non poffint, quos adoptaverunt filios habere poffunt, Ulp. tit. §, 6. Hi qui generare non poffunt, velut fpado, utroque modo poffunt adoptare. Idem juris eft in cœlebe. Theoph. tit. ΙΙ. τυχὸν ἐκ ἔχοι τις παῖδας 2]ὰ τὸ μὴ ἐλθεῖν ἐπὶ γάμων, ἢ ἐλεεῖν μ, μὴ παιδοποιῆσαι, ἢ παιδοποιῆσαι, επιβάλλεις τέτες, τὸ ἐκ τ φύσεως ἐλάτωμα ἢ τὸ Συμβὰν δυτύχημα βολόμμα επικεφίσει, ἔλαβεν εἰς ήοθεσίαν τινά. Leonis Novel. 27, τοῖς ἀτυχᾶσιν ἀπαιδίαν λύειν βολόμβυος τὸ δυσύχημα νόμο μοθετεί ως προτάσε, καὶ γνώμῃ ἐκεῖνο κλάδο, ὃ μὴ εὔπορον λαβείν ay & Purews. & 1 Joh. 3.1. h Eph. 3. 15. *In alienam familiam tranfitus, is the defcription in Agellius, l. 5. 19. Cùm. in alienam familiam inque liberorum locum extranei fumuntur, aut per prætorem fit, aut per populum: quod per prætorem fit, adoptio dicitur; quod per populum, arrogatio, lb. i Eph, 1. 18. † As appears out of the form of Regation yet extant in this manner: Velitis, jubeatis, Quirites, uti Lucius Valerius Lucio Titio, tam jure legeque filius fibi fiet, quam fi ex eo patre matreque familias ejus natus effet, utique ei vitæ necifque in eo poteftas fiet, uti patri endo filio eft? ib. tance |