II. Deduce from these same considerations, that the Unity of God is different from any other unity in the world, as being not one of fact only but necessity. III. State the peculiar necessity of believing this Unity.

1. That we may have a definite Object of our entire trust and adoration, and not fluctuate among

many.

2. That we may give to God that which is His, and of which He has declared Himself peculiarly

jealous.

Sum up therefore briefly the fulness of what is meant in this annunciation of the primary Article of the Christian Creed, "I believe in God."

§ 3. "I BELIEVE IN GOD THE FATHER.”

Considering the relative term FATHER, ascribed to God in the first part of the Creed, either with respect to the Creation immediately following this, or to the correlative SON who is the subject of the second part of the Creed next following.

First, With relation to the whole Creation of which we are a part, and the part principally concerned in the term as thus applied,

I. Show that the idea of Paternity, (though, as referred to the Creation, in an improper and imperfect sense,) is analogically applicable to God

1. In its natural acceptation: i. e. in respect of
A. Generation or Production (which is the fun-
damental notion); God being thus related,
though not in the highest and only proper
sense of the relation,

(1.) To all creation, inanimate as well
as animate: as exemplified in
the language of Scripture, and
in what the religion of Nature

has truly dictated even to the Heathen world.

(2.) In a more peculiar, though still far from strictly proper sense, to

the rational part of the creation -both to superhuman beings, and to mankind; as exemplified

from the same sources as above. B. Conservation (a notion consequent on the preceding original one of generation): God being thus related strictly both to all creation, and specially to the rational part.

C. Restoration from a state of nothingness or worse than nothingness (this being an analogical species of generation, with conservation superadded): God being thus related to any part of the rational creation who have fallen into misery of any kind. Exemplify this by the language of Scripture. D. Regeneration (or second generation): whereby (with the same exclusion of the strictly proper sense of generation) God is thus related as a Father

(1.) To the spirits of those among mankind who are renewed from

a state of wrath to a state of Grace through the Redeemer.

(2.) To the whole persons, souls and bodies, of those among Christians who, having been faithful to death, are raised up through the same Redeemer to the state of Glory. Prove this sense as well as the preceding from Scriptum.

2. In the voluntary and civil acceptation; viz., as that which the laws have admitted to stand instead of natural Paternity-in respect of

A. Adoption: whereby God is related as Father

to those whom He has received into His family by grace; after the natural pater

nity by generation [I. 1. A. (2.)] had been set aside through the forfeitures of the Fall.

B. Inheritance: which is consequent upon

adoption as upon natural generation.

II. Show the necessity of believing in God as our Father in these several respects,

1. As the ground of all that reverence and obedience which God challenges from us expressly on account of this relation.

2. As the necessary ground of all Christian prayer, as shown in its perfect pattern, as well as in the other instructions of Christ.

3. As the sole foundation of Christian patience; by giving to all afflictions whatever, their best and only real alleviation.

4. As supplying the only basis of that imitation of God in which Christian obedience consists.

Secondly, With relation to the "ONLY SON" hereafter mentioned in the Creed.

I. Show that this particular of faith in God, as being the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ

1. Implies a Paternity eminent not only in degree but in kind; and that not only above the lowest sense of Paternity arising from creation, but above those arising from regeneration and adoption, and which is also the sole foundation of these; since God could not thus be our Father, unless He were, in the eminent and only perfect sense, the Father of our Lord. [Prove this from Scripture. Quote particularly John xx. 17, with Epiphanius' Gloss upon it.]

2. Is indeed the original proper meaning of this article of the Creed; as being the fundamental position of that faith which is properly Christian, and required as such to be confessed by all before baptism. Prove from the Apostolic History and from the form of Baptism itself, that such is its rank.

3. Does not need for its support any modern distinc

4

tion between the Father considered personally

and essentially.

II. Explain the Paternity thus distinctly and eminently predicated of God the Father with respect to His Son Jesus Christ.

1. In the inferior senses (which though not reaching

the highest and only proper sense of Paternity,
express the relation of Father to Jesus Christ
in a higher degree than to any one else of
mankind): viz.

A. From His miraculous conception of the
Virgin Mary, by the Holy Ghost, as
Jesus the Saviour.

B. From the special commission and autho-
rity imparted to Him by the Father,
as Christ the King of Israel.

C. From His being the first begotten and first alive from the dead, the head of the regeneration and resurrection of the sons of God to a life of immortality and incorruption. Quote Scripture for this, as for the preceding two grounds in their place.

2. In the true and perfect sense of Paternity, as related to the Only-begotten Son, antecedently to His incarnation and mediation-viz.,

A. From the identity of Nature between the Father and the Son, in which the proper notion of that relation consists: which when applied to this divine generation implies Eternity, together with other infinite attributes, in the Son as in the Father.

B. From the unity of Essence, not only specific, but individual, by which this Divine Paternity and Filiation stand infinitely above all created ones; (in which the identity of nature between father and son admits of all kinds of accidental disparities.)

C. From the circumstance that this perfect

identity of Essence and of all Divine attributes in the Father and in the Son, nevertheless consists with that whereby one is the Father and the other is the Son: viz., with that eternal communication of the same Nature and Attributes from the former to the latter, in which consists the great mystery of this Generation. Observe here

(1.) That the priority in order (not
in time) of the Father, "who
is of none, neither created nor
begotten," is described as His
essential prerogative in the
Holy Scriptures.

(2.) That this original order is the
ground and source of the mu-
tual relation of these Divine
Persons in the economy of hu-
man redemption, in which the
Father sent the Son to be the
Saviour of the world, and is not
the result of that economy [as
the modern supporters of a
co-ordinate Trinity suppose].
(3.) That the order of the three Per-
sons in the ever-blessed Trinity
is unchangeable, founded on
the eternal relation of each to
the other.

(4.) That this priority of order in the
Father as the Fountain of Deity
is essential-

a. To vindicating the constant language of Scripture with respect of these Divine Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; which the Church in her Collects and Offices, as well