election, are in a happy impossibility of sinning, and so offending of their Maker: the glorious spirits which attend upon the throne of God, once in a condition of themselves to. fall, now by the grace of God preserved, and placed beyond all possibility of sinning, are entered upon the greatest happiness, of which the workmanship of God is capable: but 67 men, the sons of fallen Adam, and sinners after the similitude

of him, of all the creatures are the only companions of those angels which left their own habitation, and are delivered into Jude ver. 6. chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment. How should 2 Pet. ii. 4. a serious apprehension of our own corruption, mingled with the thoughts of our creation, humble us in the sight of him, whom we alone of all the creatures by our unrepented sins drew unto repentance? How can we look without confusion of face upon that monument of our infamy, recorded by Moses, who first penned the original of humanity, It repented Gen. vi. 6. the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

Thirdly, This doctrine is properly efficacious and productive of most cheerful and universal obedience. It made the prophet call for the commandments of God, and earnestly desire to know what he should obey. Thy hands have made Psal. cxix, 73 me and fashioned me: give me understanding that I may learn thy commandments. By virtue of our first prcduction, God hath undeniably absolute dominion over us, and consequently there must be due unto him the most exact and complete obedience from us. Which reason will appear more convincing, if we consider of all the creatures which have been derived from the same fountain of God's goodness, none ever dis obeyed his voice but the devil and man. Mine hand, saith Isai. xlviii. 13. he, hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens; when I call unto them they stand up together. The most loyal and obedient servants which stand continually before the most illustrious prince are not so ready to receive and execute the commands of their sovereign lord, as all the hosts of heaven and earth to attend upon the will of their Creator. Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who Isai. xl. 26. hath created these things, that bringeth out their hosts by number: he calleth them all by names, by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power, not one faileth, but every one maketh his appearance, ready pressed to observe the designs

Judg. v. 20. 1 Kings xvii.

4, 6,

of their commander-in-chief. Thus the Lord commanded and they fought from heaven, the stars in their courses fought against Sisera. He commanded the ravens to feed Elias, and they brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and so one prophet lived merely upon the obedience of the fowls of the air. He spake to the Jonah IL 10, devouring whale, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land; and so another prophet was delivered from the jaws of death by the obedience of the fishes of the sea. Do we not read of Psal. cxlviii. fire and hail, snow and vapours, stormy wind, fulfilling his word? Shall there be a greater coldness in man than in the snow? More vanity in us than in a vapour? More inconstancy than in the wind? If the universal obedience of the creature to the will of the Creator cannot move us to the same affection and desire to serve and please him, they will all conspire to testify against us and condemn us, when God shall call unto them saying, Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath spoken: I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.

8.

Isai. i. 2.

5,6,

1, 2.

Lastly, the creation of the World is of most necessary meditation for the consolation of the servants of God in all Psal. cxlvi. the variety of their conditions. Happy is he whose hope is in the Lord his God, which made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that therein is. This happiness consisteth partly in a full assurance of his power to secure us, his ability to Psal. xxiv. Satisfy us. The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods. By virtue of the first production he hath a perpetual right unto, and power to dispose of, all things; and he, which can order and dispose of all, must necessarily be esteemed able to Isai xl. 28. secure and satisfy any creature. Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator 68 of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no external resistance or opposition where Omnipotency worketh, no internal weakness or defection of power where the Almighty is the agent; and consequently there remaineth a full and firm persuasion of his ability in all conditions to preserve us. Again, this happiness consisteth partly in a comfortable assurance, arising from this meditation, of the will of God to protect and succour us, of his desire to pre

2, 3.

serve and bless us. My help cometh from the Lord, who made Psal. cxxi. heaven and earth: he will not suffer thy foot to be moved, saith the prophet David; at once expressing the foundation of his own expectancy and our security. God will not despise the Job x. 3. work of his hands, neither will he suffer the rest of his creatures to do the least injury to his own image. Behold Isai. liv. 16, (saith he), I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord.

17.

Wherefore, to conclude our explication of the first Article, and to render a clear account of the last part thereof; that every one may understand what it is I intend, when I make confession of my faith in the Maker of Heaven and Earth, I do truly profess, that I really believe, and am fully persuaded, that both heaven and earth and all things contained in them have not their being of themselves, but were made in the beginning; that the manner by which all things were made was by mediate or immediate creation; so that antecedently to all things beside, there was at first nothing but God, who produced most part of the World merely out of nothing, and the rest out of that which was formerly made of nothing. This I believe was done by the most free and voluntary act of the will of God, of which no reason can be alleged, no motive assigned, but his goodness; performed by the determination of his will at that time which pleased him, most probably within one hundred and thirty generations of men, most certainly within not more than six, or at farthest seven, thousand years. I acknowledge this God, Creator of the World, to be the same God who is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: and in this full latitude, I BELIEVE IN GOD THE FATHER ALMIGHTY, MAKER OF HEAVEN AND EARTH,

9

PEARSON.

Heb. xii. 2.

ARTICLE II.

AND IN JESUS CHRIST, HIS ONLY SON, OUR LORD.

THE second Article of the CREED presents unto us, as the object of our faith, the second person of the blessed Trinity; that as in the Divinity there is nothing intervening between the Father and the Son, so that immediate union might be perpetually expressed by a constant conjunction in our Christian confession. And that upon no less authority than of the Author and Finisher of our Faith who in the persons of the John xiv. 1. apostles gave this command to us, Ye believe in God, believe also in me. Nor speaketh he this of himself, but from the 1 John iii. 23. Father which sent him: for this is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ. According therefore to the Son's prescription, the Father's injunction, and the sacramental institution, as we are baptized, so do we believe in the name of the Father, and the Son.

Our blessed Saviour is here represented under a threefold description: first, by his nomination, as Jesus Christ; secondly, by his generation, as the only Son of God; thirdly, by his dominion, as our Lord.

But when I refer Jesus Christ to the nomination of our 69 Saviour, because he is in the Scriptures promiscuously and indifferently sometimes called Jesus, sometimes Christ, I would be understood so as not to make each of them equally, or in Luke i. 21. like propriety, his name. His name was called Jesus, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb: who is also called Christ, not by name, but by office

Matt. i. 16.

1 Eadem regula veritatis docet nos credere post Patrem etiam in Filium Dei, Christum Jesum, Dominum Deum nostrum, sed Dei Filium; hujus Dei qui et unus et solus est, conditor scilicet rerum omnium.' Novat. de Trinit. c. 9. [Dr Burton observes, that the Eastern Creeds read and in one Jesus Christ, which was probably directed against the Gnostics, who made Jesus and Christ to be two distinct persons.]

2'Si tamen nomen est Christus, et non appellatio potius; Unctus enim

significatur. Unctus autem non magis nomen est, quam vestitus, quam calceatus, accidens nomini res.' Tertull. adv. Prax. c. 28. 'Quorum nominum alterum est proprium, quod ab Angelo impositum est; alterum accidens, quod ab unctione convenit.' Ibid. Christus commune dignitatis est nomen: Jesus proprium vocabubulum Salvatoris.' S. Hieron. in Matt. xvi. 20. [Vol. vII. p. 125 c.] 'Jesus inter homines nominatur; nam Christus non proprium nomen est, sed nuncupatio potestatis et regni.' Lac

and title. Which observation, seemingly trivial, is necessary for the full explication of this part of the Article: for by this distinction we are led unto a double notion, and so resolve our faith into these two propositions, 'I believe there was and is a man, whose name was actually, and is truly in the most high importance, Jesus, the Saviour of the world.' 'I believe the man who bare that name to be the Christ, that is, the Messias promised of old by God, and expected by the Jews,'

For the first, it is undoubtedly the proper name of our Saviour, given unto him, according to the custom of the Jews, at his circumcision: and as the Baptist was called John, even so the Christ was called Jesus. Beside, as the imposition was after the vulgar manner, so was the name itself of ordinary use. We read in the Scriptures of Jesus which was Col. iv. 11. called Justus, a fellow-worker with St Paul; and of a certain Acts xiii. 6. sorcerer, a Jew, whose name was1 Bar-jesus, that is, the son of Jesus. Josephus, in his History, mentioneth one Jesus the son of Ananus, another the son of Saphates, a third the son of Judas, slain in the temple: and many of the highpriests, or priests, were called by that name; as the son of Damnæus, of Gamaliel, of Onias, of Phabes, and of Thebuth. Ecclesiasticus is called the Wisdom of Jesus the son of Sirach, and that Sirach the son of another Jesus. St Stephen speaks of the tabernacle of witness brought in with Jesus into the Acts vii. 44, possession of the Gentiles; and the Apostle in his explication of those words of David, To-day if ye will hear his voice, Psal. xcv. 7. observeth that, if Jesus had given them rest, then would he Heb. iv. 8. not afterwards have spoken of another day. Which two Scriptures being undoubtedly understood of Joshua, the son of Nun, teach us as infallibly that Jesus is the same name

tan. de ver. Sap. [Div. Inst.]1. iv. c. 7. • Dum dicitur Christus, commune dignitatis nomen est; dum Jesus Christus, proprium est vocabulum Salvatoris.' Isidor. Hispal. Orig. 1. vii. ε. 2. § 4. Ἰησοῦς καλεῖται φερωνύμως. S. Cyril. Catech. 10. [c. 4. p. 138.] [ἐκ τῆς σωτηριώδους ἰάσεως ἔχων τὴν προσηγορίαν, appearing to refer to a Greek etymology of the name. 'Inσoûs δὲ Χριστὸς καλεῖται διωνύμως Ἰησοῦς διὰ τὸ σώζειν Χριστὸς διὰ τὸ ἱερατεύειν.

45.