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xvii. 5.

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 1 John iii. 2 not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him. 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 Son1, and a singular testimony from heaven, Rom. vill. 82. This is my beloved Son3, even in the presence of John the Matt. ii. 17; Baptist, 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 John v. 18. own Father. And so at last we come unto the most singular and eminent paternal relation, Unto the God and Father of our 2 Cor. xl. 31. Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore; 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.

1 'Ut magnificentia Dei dilectionis ex comparationis genere nosceretur, non pepercisse Deum proprio filio suo docuit. Non utique pro adoptandis adoptato, neque pro creatis creatura; sed pro alienis suo, pro connuncupandis proprio.' S. Hilar. 1. vi. de Trin. c. 45. [p. 909 D.]

Anne tibi in eo quod dicitur, hic est, non hoc significari videtur, Alios quidem cognominatos ab eo in filios, sed hic filius meus est; Donavi adoptionis plurimis nomen, sed iste mihi filius est.' Ibid. c. 23. [p. 893 D.]

3 πατέρα ἴδιον ἔλεγε τὸν Θεόν, as Rom. viii. 32. is ye Tou lôłov vlov của ἐφείσατο.

4 'Non sicut Christi pater, ita et noster pater. Nunquam enim Christus ita nos conjunxit, ut nullam distinctionem faceret inter nos et se. Ille

enim Filius æqualis Patri, ille æternus
cum Patre, Patrique coæternus: nos
autem facti per filium, adoptati per
unicum. Proinde nunquam auditum
est de ore Domini nostri Jesu Christi,
cum ad discipulos loqueretur, dixisse
illum de Deo summo Patre suo, Pater
noster; sed aut Pater meus dixit, aut
Pater vester. Pater noster non dixit,
usque adeo ut quodam loco poneret
hæc duo, Vado ad Deum meum, in-
quit, 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 se-
jungat. Unum nos vult esse in se,
unum autem Patrem et se.' S. August.
in Ioan. Tract. 21. [§ 3. Vol. III. P. 2.
p. 457 B.]

18, 19.

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 Matt. xxviii. his apostles, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them 32 in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. 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 Acts viii. 36, replied, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God; he Acts viii. 12 baptized him. And before that, the Samaritans, when they

37.

vii. 16; x. 48;

xix. 5.

believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, were baptized, both men and women. For as in the Acts of the Apostles there

Acts ii. 38; is no more expressed than that they baptized in the name of Jesus Christ: so is no more expressed of the faith required in them who were to be baptized, than to believe in the same But being the Father and the Holy Ghost were likewise mentioned in the first institution, being the expressing of

name.

1 Arius and Euzoius, in their Creed delivered to Constantine: Ταύτην τὴν πίστιν παρειλήφαμεν ἐκ τῶν ἁγίων εὐαγγελίων, λέγοντος τοῦ κυρίου τοῖς ἑαυ τοῦ μαθηταῖς, Πορευθέντες μαθητεύσατε πάντα τὰ ἔθνη, βαπτίζοντες αὐτοὺς εἰς ὄνομα τοῦ πατρός, καὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ, καὶ τοῦ aylov TveúμаTos. 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. Sozom. 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 μαθητάς, εἶπε, Πορευθέντες μας

θητεύσατε, &c. Socrat. 1. i. c. 8. Theodor. 1. 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. 1. 1. [§ 5. p. 88.] makes Arius and Athanasius jointly speak these words: 'Credimus in Deum Patrem omnipotentem, et in Jesum Christum Filium ejus, Dominum nostrum, et in Spiritum Sanctum. 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' times 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 onlybegotten 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

Luke i. 85.

36; i 49, 50.

33.

John i. 1.

his Son, I must necessarily understand the Son of that Father
whom I mentioned in the first Article: so when I said, I 33
believe in God the Father, I must as necessarily be understood
of the Father1 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 John x. 35, the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary; secondly, as he was sent by him with special authority, as the King of Israel; Acts xiii. 32, thirdly, as he was raised from the dead, out of the womb of the earth unto immortal life, and made heir of all things in his Father's house: so must we not doubt but, beside all these, God is the Father of that Son in a more eminent and peculiar manner, as he is and ever was with God, and God: which shall be demonstrated fully in the second Article, when we come to shew how Christ is the only-begotten Son. And according unto this paternity by way of generation totally divine, in which he who begetteth is God, and he which is begotten the same God, do we believe in God, as the eternal Father of an eternal Son. Which relation is coeval with his essence: so that we are not to imagine one without the other; but as we profess him always God, so must we acknowledge him always Father, and that in a far more proper manner than the same title can be given to any creature. Such is the

1 Patrem cum audis, Filii intellige Patrem, qui Filius supradictæ sit imago substantiæ.' Ruff. in Sym. § 4. [p. 57.]

2 "Αμα γάρ ἐστι Θεὸς καὶ ἅμα πα τήρ· οὐχ ὑστερίζουσαν ἔχων τοῦ εἶναι τὴν γέννησιν· ἀλλ ̓ ὁμοῦ τῷ εἶναι πατὴρ καὶ ὑφεστὼς καὶ νοούμενος. S. Cyril. Alex. Dial. de Trin. 2. [sub finem, Vol. v. p. 457 D. See also in the same Dialogue, p. 446 E. p. 452 c. p. 454D.] Πατὴρ ἀεὶ πατὴρ, καὶ οὐκ ἦν καιρὸς ὅτε οὐκ ἦν ὁ πατὴρ πατήρ. δ. Epiphan. Hares. lxii. § 3. [Vol. I. p. 515 A.] 'Sicut nunquam fuit non Deus, ita nunquam fuit non Pater, a quo Filius natus.' Gennad. de Eccles. dogm. c. 1. Credimus in Deum, et eumdem confitemur Patrem ut eumdem semper habuisse Filium nos credamus.' Chrysol. Serm. 59.

[col. 363.] 'Inest Deo pietas, est in Deo semper affectio, paternitas permanet apud illum; semper ergo Filium fuisse credas, ne Patrem semper non fuisse blasphemes.' Id. Serm. 62. [col. 373.] 'Advertite, quod cum Dei Patris nomen in confessione conjungit, ostendit quod non ante Deus esse cœperit et postea Pater, sed sine ullo initio et Deus semper et Pater est.' S. August. de Temp. Serm. 132. [Serm. 242. al. 131. de Temp. Vol. v. App. p. 397 F.]

3 'Deus solus proprie verus est Pater, qui sine initio et fine Pater est; non enim aliquando cœpit esse, quod Pater est, sed semper Pater est, semper habens Filium ex se genitum.' Faustinus, lib. contra Arianos. [c. 7. § 2.] Ἐπὶ τῆς θεότητος μόνης ὁ πατὴρ κυρίως πατήρ ἐστι, καὶ ὁ υἱὸς κυρίως

fluctuant condition of human generation, and of those relations which arise from thence, that he which is this day a son, the next may prove a father, and within the space of one day more, without any real alteration in himself, become neither son nor father, losing one relation by the death of him that begot him, and the other by the departure of him that was begotten by him. But in the Godhead these relations are more proper, because fixed; the Father having never been a son, the Son never becoming Father, in reference to the same kind of generation1.

A farther reason of the propriety of God's paternity appears from this, that he hath begotten a Son of the same nature and essence with himself, not only specifically, but individually, as I shall also demonstrate in the exposition of the second Article. For generation being the production of the like, and that likeness being the similitude of substance2; where is the nearest identity of nature, there must be also the most proper generation, and consequently he which generateth the most proper father. If therefore man, who by the benediction of God given unto him at his first creation in these words, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, Gen. 1. 28. begetteth a son in his own likeness, after his image; that is, of Gen. v, 3. the same human nature, of the same substance with him, (which if he did not, he should not according to the benediction multiply himself or man at all,) with which similitude of nature many accidental disparities may consist, if by this act of generation he obtaineth the name of father, because, and in regard, of the similitude of his nature in the son, how much more properly must that name belong unto God himself, who

υἱός ἐστι, καὶ ἐπὶ τούτων καὶ μόνων ἔστηκε τὸ πατὴρ ἀεὶ πατὴρ εἶναι, καὶ Tò vids del viòs elvai. S. Athanas. Orat. i. contra Arianos, § 21. [Vol. 1. part 1. p. 426 c.]

1 Ἐπὶ μόνης τῆς θεότητος τὸ πατὴρ καὶ τὸ υἱὸς ἕστηκεν ἀεὶ καὶ ἔστιν. τῶν μὲν γὰρ ἀνθρώπων εἰ πατὴρ λέγεταί τις, ἀλλ' ἑτέρου γέγονεν υἱός, καὶ εἰ υἱὸς λέγεται, ἀλλ ̓ ἑτέρου γέγονε πατήρ. ὥστε ἐπ' ἀνθρώπων μὴ σώζεσθαι κυρίως τὸ πατρὸς kal vloû Ŏvopa. S. Athanas. [ad Serap. i. 16. Vol. 1. part 2. p. 664 D.] Пaтnρ κυρίως, ὅτι μὴ καὶ υἱός. ὥσπερ καὶ υἱὸς

κυρίως, ὅτι μὴ καὶ πατήρ. τὰ γὰρ ἡμέ
τερα οὐ κυρίως, ὅτι καὶ ἄμφω. S. Greg.
Naz. Orat. 35. [xxix. 5. vol. 1. p.
526 A.]

2Etiamsi Filius hominis homo in
quibusdam similis, in quibusdam sit
dissimilis Patri; tamen quia ejusdem
substantiæ est, negari verus Filius non
potest: et quia verus est Filius, negari
ejusdem substantiæ non potest.' S.
August. 1. ii. cont. Max. c. 15. [§ 2.
Vol. VIII. p. 711A.] Vide Tho. Sum.
p. 1. quæst. 33. art. 2. ad quart.

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