ther. What a ravishing Thought then must it be, that God is our Father, and loves us with the natural Affection of a Father? But this Satisfaction we cannot have, if God be not our Father, though he beftows other great Favours and Bleffings on us.

For, 3. To deny Christ to be the eternal Son of God, and that God is our Father by our Adoption in his eternal Son, makes an effential Difference in the Nature of God's fatherly Love and Affection to us. If God have no eternal Son by Nature, he is not, in a ftrict and proper Senfe, a Father, as having no Son of his own Substance; and therefore cannot have in a strict and proper Senfe, what we call the Natural Affection of a Father. He is the Maker of all Things but not a Father; which differs as much as to create, and to beget; and the natural Love and Affection of a Creator and a Father, differ as effentially as the Relations do, just as our Affection to our Workmanship, and to our Son differ; fo that if God have a Son of his own Substance, his fatherly Affection to his Son must as much exceed his Love to Creatures, though the most excellent Creatures, as his Son is above all Creatures.

This I fuppofe will be allowed; but what is this to us, who are not the Sons of God by Nature, but mere Creatures; and the lowest Order of reasonable Creatures; and therefore were we perfectly innocent and upright, which God knows we are not, we could at most expect no other kind of Love from God, but what is due to Creatures? And therefore God's being our Father, and loving us as a Father, must be expounded to fuch a Senfe as fits the Object, that he is fo our Father as he can be the Father

I

Father of Creatures, of Men, of Sinners; and loves us with fuch a fatherly Affection, as such Creatures are the Objects of. This were cer

tainly true, were we not the Sons of God by our Adoption in Jefus Christ his eternal Son; but now by our Union to Chrift, as his mystical Body, we become one with him, and one Object of the Father's Love: It is not merely our Maker, but the Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift, who is cur Father, and we are loved in Chrift, and therefore with the fame kind of Love which he has for Chrift, which is a true fatherly Affection. For if we are beloved in Cnrift, that Love which the Father has for Chrift, his eternal Son, descends on us, and is the fame kind of Love, which he hath for his Son; this is that Love wherewith God loves us in Chrift, which as St. Paul tells us, bath its Heights, and Depths, and Lengths, and Breadths, and is a Love paft Understanding; we know it is the Love of God, which he hath for his own. eternal Son, wherewith he loves us, and we know this is beyond the mere Love of Creatures; but what it is, we cannot comprehend now, we fhall know more of it, though not comprehend it, when we come to Heaven; but from what I have now faid, you may perceive, what a vaft difference the owning or denying the eternal Godhead and Sonship of Christ make in the Notion of our Sonship and Adoption, and of God's fatherly Love and Affection for us, and on which Side the Advantage lies.

4. The Privilege of our Adoption and Sonfhip is a Right and Title to the Inheritance, as St Paul tells us, if Children then Heirs, Heirs of God, and joint Heirs with Chrift, Rom. viii. 17. This Inheritance indeed is represented in Scrip

ture

ture in as glorious and magnificent Terms, as Words can exprefs; but yet all this must be expounded to a higher or lower Senfe, according to our Belief concerning Christ's Perfon and Sonship. Our Sonship and Inheritance is founded in the Sonship and Inheritance of Christ, and fuch a Son and Heir, as he is, fuch proportionably we shall be; for in him we are the Heirs of God, as joint Heirs with Chrift. Now though it is very unaccountable, that God fhould make Chrift the Heir of all things, if he were not his eternal and only begotten Son, of which more hereafter; it may fuffice for the prefent to observe, that all Men of common Sense must grant, that there is an infinite Difference between the Inheritance, Kingdom, Majesty, and Glory of the eternal Son of God, and between any created Glory, any Inheritance and Kingdom, that the most exalted Creature is capable of. If God begets a Son of his own Nature and Subftance, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, he muft as much excel all created Glories, as God is above Creatures; and therefore his Kingdom and Inheritance is as much above them too. God can no more confer the Majefty and Kingdom of an eternal Son upon a mere Creature, than he can make such a Creature his eternal Son; so that those who believe Chrift to be a mere Creature, a mere Man, though exalted to the highest Degree of created Glory, fall infinitely fhort of that Glory, and Happiness, which we expect in the Kingdom of the Son of God, which we fhall inherit with him. Those who deny Christ to be the eternal Son of God, may, and do believe thofe Promises he has made of a glorious Immortality; but they can never form fuch mag

nificent

nificent Ideas of that Kingdom and Glory, as those who believe Chrift to be the eternal Son of God, and that they fhall for ever dwell in his Prefence, and inherit his Kingdom, be where he is, and behold his Glory, the Glory, not of a Creature, but of the Son of God incarnate, who loved us, and gave himself for us, who became Man, and fuffered and died upon the Crofs, and being rifen from the Dead, afcended into Heaven, and now fits at the Right Hand of God; a Sight, which is the Glory of Heaven, and the Happiness of those bleffed Saints who are admitted to dwell in his Prefence, and fee his Glory. And whatever other Happiness there may be in Heaven, this, which is the greatest we can conceive, cannot be in Heaven, if the eternal Son of God incarnate be not there. This is the peculiar Glory of the Kingdom of the Son, and this is the Heaven I hope for, not to dwell in the Prefence, and fee the Glory of an exalted Creature, but the visible Glory and Majesty of the eternal Son of God incar

nate.

Thus you fee in this one Particular, what a vaft Difference it makes in the Chriftian Faith and Hope, to deny Chrift to be the eternal Son of God; for then we have not God for our Father; our Sonship and Adoption in Chrift is a mere Name and Title without any natural Reafon for it; we lofe the Dignity and Glory of our Relation in being the Sons of God, and the greatest Affurance of God's fatherly Love and Affection to us, and as much leffen the Inheritance of Sons, and our own Hopes of Glory, as we leffen the eternal Glory of our Lord and Saviour. These are the greatest and most valuable Things in the Chriftian Religion, and not

eafily to be parted with, how mysterious foever the eternal Generation, the Incarnation, the Death and Sufferings of the Son of God be. God grant that we may always adore fuch Myfteries, as are full of a myfterious Love and Goodness, and big with a myfterious Happi

nefs.

2. It is a very good Proof of the eternal Godhead of Chrift, that the Scripture does every where so much magnify the Love of God in giving his own Son to fave us. The Redemption of Mankind, both in its own Nature, and by the Purpose and Design of God, is a Difpenfation of Grace, a glorious Manifeftation of his Love to Mankind, even to finful and apostate Man; there could not be a higher Expreffion of it, than to fend his own Eternal and only begotten Son to be the Saviour of Sinners. In making the World God difplay'd the Glories and Perfections of a wife and bountiful Creator; we fee his Power in giving Being to all Things, which had no Being, till he made them; his Wisdom in the infinite Variety, apt Contrivance, beautiful Order, and univerfal Harmony of all Things; and his creating Goodness in making every Creature, that hath Life and Senfe, capable of fuch a Happiness, as is proportion'd to its Nature: Thus God made all Things for himself, to declare his Majefty and Glory to his Creatures.

But the Fall of Man gave occafion for opening a new Scene of Glory, of pardoning and redeeming Love; and here God intended to give us a more furprizing and aftonishing View of his Love and Goodness, than the whole Creation affords us; and both our Saviour and his Apostles lay the great Strefs of it upon this,

that