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the Salvation of all Mankind, the Poor and the Ignorant, the labouring Men and the Children, (even in fuch a Day of Knowledge as this is) to depend on fuch a Doctrine, which the most learned, and pious Chriftians in all Ages have confeft to be attended with fo many Difficulties, which, after the Labour and Study of near 1400 Years, is fo unconceivcable in itself, and was at first so obscurely revealed; much lefs can I suppose this notion of the Son of God could be made a necessary and fundamental Article in thofe Dawnings of the Gospel-day.

Befides, 3. There have been fome very pious and learned Men in feveral Ages, who have acknowledged Chrift's true Godhead, and yet have fuppofed that the Sonship of Chrift referred rather to his human Nature, or to his Office of Meffiah, than to fuch an eternal Generation and confubftantial Sonship: And there are some in our Age who have given fufficient Proofs of their good Learning and fincere Picty, who heartily believe the eternal Godhead of Christ, and yet doubt or disbelieve this eternal Generation and Derivation of his Perfon, as God, and I will never pronounce an Anathema upon them.

Object. But fome will fay, "If the Name "Son of God doth not fignify eternal Generation by the Father in the Sameness "of the Divine Effence or Subftance, yet B 4

"furely

"furely it must at least import Chrift's true "and eternal Godhead."

Anfw. 1. This Name Son and Sons of God is often used in the Bible, and applied varioufly to Men and to Angels as well as to Chrift: but 'tis never ufed in any one place to fignify true and eternal Godhead that I can find, unless it be in thofe very Places which are at prefent under Debate. And therefore when Chrift is called eminently and abfolutely the Son of God, the Meaning of it does not neceffarily rife higher than that he is the most eminent of all other Beings (Men or Angels) that are called Sons of God, without a certain Determination whether he be true God, or no, by the mere use of that Name.

Anfw. 2. This Name Son of God cannot ncceffarily fignify his true Godhead any otherwife, than by fuppofing it primarily to fignify his coeffential Sonship, or that he is a Son of the fame Nature and Effence with the Father, even as a Son among Men has the fame fpecifical Effence with his Father, and then confequentially that the Son of God is true God, because his Father is fo. Now, we have before proved, that this Name cannot neceffarily. fignify his coeffential or confubftantial Sonship, and therefore it cannot neceffarily fignify his true Godhead.

Anfw. 3. It is evident from fome Parts of the Conduct of Peter and other Difciples

during the Life of Chrift on Earth, that they did not heartily believe they had the true and eternal God among them, and that their Mafter was the true and eternal God, as when they rebuked him, when they queftioned his Knowledge of fome things, when they wondered, and were fo aftonifhed at his working Miracles, &c. as I fhall fhew hereafter: Yet 'tis plain that they then believed him to be the Son of God; for this was made neceffary to their Salvation in that day, and they profest this Belief roundly, that he was the Son of God. Therefore this Name does not certainly declare his Divine Nature.

Obj. 2. It will be faid then, How comes it to pass, that when the High Priest asked our Saviour, Art thou the Chrift the Son of the Bleffed? And Jefus answered, I am, Mark. 14. 61, 62, in . 64. he charges our Saviour with Blafphemy, if his calling himself the Son of God did not imply his true Godkead?

Anfw. It is evident that the Design of the wicked Jews was to fix the highest and most criminal Charge they could against him: But there was no fufficient Foundation for this Charge, which our Saviour in another Place fully proves, John 10. 33, 34. as I have fhewn elsewhere, in what follows. Thus it appears, that tho' it be fully agreed that Jefus Chrift, the Son of God, has true Godhead belonging to him, because divine

2

Names

Names and Titles are given him, yet this Name Son of God does not neceffarily and certainly discover or imply it. Thus much for the first fuppofed Senfe of this Name.

II. Some may fuppofe the Name Son of God relates to his human Soul, and fignifies the glorious peculiar Derivation of it from God the Father before the Creation of the World, and that in this Senfe he is called the first-born of every Creature, and the Beginning of the Creation of God. Col. 1. 15. and Rev. 3. 14.

Anfw. Tho' I am very much inclin'd to believe that Chrift is in this Senfe the Son of God, and that his human Soul had fuch a glorious Derivation from the Father before the Creation of the World, and that he is the first-born of every Creature and the Begin ning of the Creation of God, as in Col. 1. 15. and that his human Soul had as noble a Preeminence above other Souls in its Origin, as his human Body had a Pre-eminence above other Bodies, that fo in all things he might have the Pre-eminence, Col. I. 18. Yet I cannot think this precife Idea is the very thing defigned in thofe Texts of Scripture, wherein our Salvation is made to depend on the Belief of Chrift being the Son of God; for,

(1) Tho' the Apostles Paul and John, and perhaps the rest of them, arrived at this compleat Idea of his glorious pre-existent Human

Soul

Soul in due time, yet it doth not appear evidently that the Disciples had all attained fuch an Idea fo foon as they believed that he was the Son of God, in a fufficient manner for their attaining the Favour of God and a State of Salvation *.

(2) There have been thousands of Christians in feveral Ages of the Church who have been faved, and yet have not entertained this Opinion concerning the Soul of Christ, that it had a Being before the World was created, and and that it was the first-born of all the Creatures of God; and therefore this cannot be the Senfe of that Title in those Texts.

III. I fay therefore, in the Third place, that this Title, Son of God, is given to Chrift, fometimes upon the account of his Incarnanion and miraculous Birth. Luke 1. 31, 32. Thou shalt bring forth a Son, and shalt call his Name Jefus: he shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest. .35. The Holy Ghost shall come upon Thee, and the Power of the Highest fhall overshadow Thee therefore also that Holy thing that shall be born of Thee fhall be called THE SON OF GOD.

Tho'

I will not deny but that one confiderable Ground on which Chrift was called the Son of God, at first, and for which he eminently merited that Name, was the Dignity of his human Soul both in the native Excellencies of it, and in the original and early Generation, or peculiar Way of Creation of it before all other Creatures: But as the Belief of his, being the Son of God, is made a Requifite to Salvation, I fuppofe the Idea of that Title Son of God, arifes no higher than to mean in general fome glorious Relation to God, partly natural, and partly oeconomical, without a precife Determination how far this Relation reach'd, as will appear more particularly afterward.

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