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§. LXII.

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The Title to called Sons of God, arifes from having the Divine Spirit.

fenfe, his Son, as a Member of that City, which had its name from Enoch as a common Ance ftor. This Cainite Matbufala was the Father of Lamech, who is fuppofed to have perished in the Deluge. Let therefore this Lamech an fwer Noah of the Pofterity of Seth. So his Fa ther Matbufala will anfwer Lamech the Father of Noah. His Grandfather Maleleel will anfwer the fhort-liv'd Enoch, and fome part of Enoch's Father Jared, in whofe time this Apoftafy is placed by the Author of the Book of Enoch. So the Cainite Mathufala will be one of the firft Defcendents of thofe unholy Marriages. This will very well fit him to be one of the firft Deliverers of thefe Traditions of thefe revealed Myfteries. This Eupolemus continued the account of the Scripture Chronology, drawn by a younger Demetrius Phalereus, who lived in the time of the Fourth Ptolomy. Which will conveniently enough agree to the time of the Maccabees. So it appears, that the Age of the Contents of the Book of Enoch, or even of the Book it felf, will fufficiently qualifie it for explaining Allufions of the Apoftles.

But, how came the Pofterity of Seth by this Title of being the Children of God, rather than any others who were alike descended from Adam their common Ancestor? This will perhaps be beft explained from our new Peculium, under which the appellation of Sons of God is most familiar. And here we find it afcribed to the receiving the Divine Spirit. Our Bleffed Saviour himself is therefore called the Son of God, because the Holy Ghoft came upon his Mother, and the power of the Higheft over-fhadowed ber, S. Luke i. 35. That is because what was conceived in her was of the Holy Ghost, S. Matth. i. 20. That is, not barely because

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the omnipotence of the Spirit as an efficient caufe, was requifite to make a Virgin conceive, as it was to make Sarah conceive when fhe was paft it by the power of nature; but because the Divine Spirit as a Seed, was to constitute the fubftance of the Holy Child Fefus, A&t. iv. 30. The like account is given elsewhere of the Title of God it felf, as used in the Old Teftament, in that fenfe wherein it is ufed plurally. Our Saviour himself takes notice of the paffage of the Pfalmift, I faid, ye are Gods, Pf. Ixxxii. 6. And gives this general Rule that they were called fo, wess ó nóg To OεT

elo, S. John x. 35. Aby in this place, fignifies the fame thing as the Divine Spirit in the other, not a Spoken word, not an external tranfient Inspiration, which was often given to Perfons out of the Peculium, to Pharaoh, to Balaam, to Nebuchadnezzar, but a living fubfiftent Being abiding on them, and remaining in them who were therefore reputed Gods, as a Divine Seed that raised their Nature to a higher dignity than could otherwise have been pretended on account of their natural Extracti on. Thus it comes to pafs, that A62 and @veμa are used fynonimoufly. The Divinity of Chrift as the fecond Perfon in the ever Blef fed Trinity, is moft frequently called Aó as in S. John i. and in the Revelations, and elsewhere in S. Paul. Yet it is alfo called ПIveμa. Thus he is faid to have offered himfelf by the eternal Spirit, Heb. ix. 14. That is the Adexed's, as it is ftyled by Philo, performing the Office of a High Priest, when the Humanity was offered as a Sacrifice. Thus it is opposed to his human Nature, which then is called Flefb. So he is faid to be put to death in the Flesh, but quickned by the Spirit, 1 S.Pet, N iii. 18.

iii. 18. That is, by his own Divinity, as he is faid to lay down his Life and to take it again, S. John x. 17, 18. And, as it was impoffible that he should be holden by the pains of Death, Act. iii. 24. Becaufe, the Spirit is always taken for a Principle of Life and Immortality, S. John vi. 63. Rom. viii. 2, 10. as Life is alfo faid to be in the Aóy, S. John i, 4- So it is faid concerning the great Myftery of the In carnation, that God was manifeft in the Flesh, but justified in the Spirit, 1 Tim. iii. 16. On the contrary, that which we receive from Chrift is most commonly called Spirit, the Spirit of Chrift and the Spirit of God. Yet it is also called Aoy, the incorruptible Seed of the Word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever, 1S. Pet. i. 23. For, this is the Seed that remain eth in us, 1 S. John iii. 9. This living and a biding for ever, is more than can be affirmed of the Word preached, though that be alfo called a Seed, S. Luke viii. 11. So when the Word of God is faid to be quick and powerful, Sharp er than any two-edged Sword, piercing even to the dividing funder of Soul and Spirit, and of the Foints and Marrow, and a difcerner of the thoughts and intents of the Heart, and that there is no creature that is not manifeft in his fight: but that all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do, Heb. iv. 12, 13. It is Chrift himself that is reprefented with a two-edged Sword in his Mouth, Rev. i. 16. ii. 12. Yet this must be meant of Chrift with in, Col. i. 27. which is the Spirit. So the word Apol.i. p.46. Aoy is to be understood in S. Juftin Martyr, Apol, ii. p. 83. when he reckons thofe for Chriftians who li ved for, whether among the Jews or the Gentiles. Himself explains it of the visua of, or the ao Salins, What is this but

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the Seed now mentioned from S. John? And,
what can that be but the Spirit? The Gno-
fticks, from thefe Originals, call the Seed, de-
rived from their Sophia and Achamoth, both a
Seed and the Spirit, and pretend themselves
Pneumatical, not the Catholicks, because they
pretended that themselves alone had it. As the
Spirit was the Spirit of Chrift, and derived
from him, fo that holy Martyr makes that aó

to be fo too. He oppofes the Sands 62 P. 46.
to the was ay, which he makes to be Chrift.
He makes Chrift to be the aóy, & wav WC P. 84,
árosáπwv μelige. He fays av, in oppofi-
tion to the Jews's confinement of the Peculium
to their own Nation. But certainly, he can-
cannot mean that every individual Man had it.
For he makes those who had it not, to be al-
ways perfecuting them who had it. He there-
fore cannot mean by it, that Reafon in general
which all Men partake of as they are reason-
able. That Perfecution is taken notice of by
S. Paul, in the cafe of Ifaac and Ishmael: As
then, he who was born after the Fiefh perfecuted
him that was born after the Spirit, even fo it
is now, Gal. iv. 29. If the Reasoning be the
fame, it will be plain, that the ay in S. Fu
ftin Martyr, must be the fame with the su
in S. Paul. The Obfervation is the fame which
Philo makes, that the xer is ufually wont
EMTIDENS TS Ngeitlove, plainly fuppofing inequa
ἐπιτίθεος κρείττονι,
lity,

, and that the Perfecuted has fomething more excellent than the Perfecutors. This therefore he reprefents as the Doctrine of Mofes : - ψυχω ἐδεμίαν τῷ σώματι ὁ ποιῶν εἰργάζετο ἱκανίω Quod det. pot. ἐξ ἑαυτῆς * ποιή] ἰδῶν· λογισάμλνΘ ἢ μεγάλα ὀνή-infid. p. 171, σειν τὸ δημιέργημα, εἰ λάβοι τὸ δημιεργήσαντΘ ἔννοιαν ευδαιμονίας γδ καὶ μακαριότητΘ όρθ · ἄνωθεν ἐν έπνεε δι θειότης. Ἡ ἀε1α φοράτῳ ψυχή

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ποὺ ἑαυτῆς τύπος ένεσφραγίζετο, ἵνα μηδ' ὁ πείξεις χῶς εἰκόνθ αμοιρηση Θεῖ. This I take to be the meaning of S. Juftin Martyr, that the 62 he speaks of as derived from Chrift, by which they were informed in those excellent Precepts of Morality, was præternatural, and exceeding the natural Powers of the rational Soul. And that fuch Revelations as these may be made to those who are out of the Peculium, the Evangelift himself owns, when he tells us, that the Light Shined in Darkness, even when the Darkness did not comprehend it, S. John i. 5. This is far from the fenfe of the excellent Cafaubon. It is indeed the Doctrine of the Catholick Church againft Pelagius. If we were to exprefs S. Fuftin's fenfe in the Language of the later Church, what he calls ay we fhould certainly call the Holy Ghoft. So the mystical fenfe of the facred Symbols is called Spiritual. So we read of Spiritual Meat and Spiritual Drink, 1 Cor. x. 3, 4. So a Spiritual Houfe, alluding to the Temple, and Spiritual Sacrifice, 1S. Pet. ii. 5. So Sodom fpiritually, Rev. xi. 8. To the fame purpose, afin λalsea is the myftical algeia in contradiftinction to the external one of the Temple, Rom. xii, 1. And, o ofexor ádorov yára, 1 S. Pet. ii. 2. is myftical Milk, therefore called adorov, becaufe all the myftical Archetypes were ftyled nová. And that in the Platonical ftyle, alluded to by the Sacred Writers of the New Teftament; Philo ufes donor the fame way. A third account there is applied this way by the Socinians, who ufually catch at Scripture Phrafes, without regard to the Opinions received in those times when the Scriptures were written. That is, that the Refurrection qualifies Men for the Title of the Sons of God. So our Bleffed Sa

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