After our Saviour's human name, and the declaration of his function and office, there follows in the creed his filiation, or sonship, expressed in the word son, which is his divine name; whereby we are not to understand any thing that is human and common, but such a filiation as is divine, proper and peculiar unto him, and is not communicable and attributable unto any other, being his father's only son; wherein are two things observable: first, that he is the son of the father, his son: secondly, that he is his only son, i. e. such a son, or a son in such a manner as never any other is or was.

The oracles of the old testament did foretel that Christ should be the son of God; [Psal. li. 7.] "I will declare the decree; the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. [Psal, lxxxix. 26, 27.] He shall cry unto me, Thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation; also, I will make him my first-born, higher than the kings of the earth. [Isa. ix. 6.] Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. [Hosea xi. 1.]

our's

When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt." Whence amongst the Jews, at the time of our Saviappearance, Messias and the son of God were convertible terms, designing the same person, as is evident from several passages in the new testament; as, [John i. 49.] Rabbi, thou art the son of God, thou art the king of Israel. [John xi. 27.] I believe that thou art the Christ, the son of God, which should come into the world. [Matth. viii. 29.] What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou son of God?".

Now Christ is on several respects called the son of God in scripture, as he is so called on the account of his temporal generation, being conceived in an extraordinary manner in the Virgin's womb; by the power of the Holy Ghost, whence the Angels told the Vir Virgin Mary, [Luke i. 35.]" He should be called the son of God." And, he is also so called by reason of his resurrection from the dead, whereby he was, as it were, begotten to another life by God his father, who raised him, as in Acts xiii. 32, 33. "And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again;" as it is also written in the second psalm, "Thou art my

son, this day have I begotten thee." And he is likewise called the son of God, by reason of that high office whereunto he was called by the special designation and immediate will of God: [John x. 36.]" Say ye of him, whom the father hath sanctified and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the son of God?" As also, by reason of his great dignity and authority, being next in order to the father, and sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high, whereby he hath the actual possession as heir of all. [Heb. i, 2, 3, 4, 5.]"God hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his per son, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high, being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they; for unto which of the Angels said he at any time, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.' ""

Now in all these forementioned respects, Our Saviour was the son of God by way of eme

inency and excellency beyond and above all. others; but he doth not seem to have been so solely and solitarily, and exclusive of all o-'. thers, which is the filiation and sonship intended in the creed: It being said therein, that' he is "his only son," which is the second thing observable in this clause; and intimates the peculiarity of his sonship, that he is the son of God in such a way or manner, as never any other was, is, or can be.

The holy scriptures do abundantly assure us, that God had one particular son in such a peculiar way and manner as he had never any other; as, [John iii. 16, 17, 18.] "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life; for God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God. [Rom. viii: 3.] God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh. [Gal. iv. 4.] When the fullness of the time

was come

God sent forth his son made of a woman,

made under the law.

[1 John iii. 8.] For this

purpose the son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the Devil. [1 John iv. 9.] In this was manifested the love of God towards us, because that God sent his only begotten son into the world, that we might live through him." And several other passages there are in holy writ, which shew, that God had one son in a proper and peculiar way, so and in such manner as he had never any other son; which way and manner is cxpressly declared in the Greek creeds, to be by generation All the Greek creeds reading, and in Jesus Christ "his only begotten son, ton huion autou te monogene; and supposed in the Latin creeds, under the term only, and In Jesus Christ his only son. For, as Athanasius says, "Christ is the only begotton, and therefore the only."

When thou hearest," saith St. Cyril, of Jerusalem, "Christ called a son, do not think him to be an adopted son, but a natural son, an only begotten son, not having any brother; for he is therefore called the only begotten, because there is none other like him, either as to the dignity of his deity, or his birth from his father." And again, "When thou hearest him called a son, do not understand him so only abusively or improperly, but understand him to be a true son, a natural son." So