being, Jehovah, the Lord, as it is expressed, Deut. vi. 4. By which name, Jehovah, proper only to the true God, the Son as well as the Father is often also called in the Old Testament, Gen. xix. 24. Hos. i. 7, &c. and all along in the New, He is called the Lord, as being the true God, 1 John v. 20. who is over all, God blessed for ever, Rom. ix. 5. And who demonstrated Himself to be so, by the wonderful works which He did when He was upon earth. Such as none could do, as He did them, but only Almighty God; doing what He pleased, as God made the world only with His word, Matt. viii. 3-16, &c. who therefore also did them, and caused them likewise to be recorded, that we might believe that He is the Christ, the Son of God, John xx. 31. And if the Son of God, then equal to God, and God Himself. For so the Jews, whose language He spoke, understood Him; insomuch that they accused Him of blasphemy for saying that He was the Son of God, or that God was His Father; so making Himself God, John v. 18. x. 33. which they could not have done, if it had not been the received opinion among them, that the Son of God was the self-same with God Himself.

Neither is this contrary but agreeable to reason itself. For seeing God hath given power to His creatures to beget sons in their own likeness, every one of the same specific nature with his father; when God Himself begets a Son, His Son must needs be of the same nature with the Father, in a more eminent and divine manner. Not only so as to be a God as well

as the Father, for that is no more than what is common among men; the son of a man being in that sense a man as well as his father.

But when the Scripture and we from thence speak of God's begetting a Son, we cannot but believe it to be in a much higher sense, the highest that can be. But we cannot by all our reason imagine an higher, nor any other becoming His divine and indivisible essence, than that His Son is of the same individual nature or essence with the Father, one and the same God that the Father is, according as He is declared to be in the holy Scriptures.

Wherefore when I say that I believe in Jesus Christ His only Son, or the only Son of God the Father, I thereby profess that I believe the said Jesus Christ to be truly God, of one substance with the Father. Which I must necessarily believe as ever I desire to be saved. For I can never believe that any one can save me, but He that made me. The salvation of mankind being certainly as divine a work as the creation of the world. And therefore I must of necessity believe Christ to be God, for otherwise I cannot believe in Him as my Saviour, or that He is able to save me, that being more than any one, or all the creatures in the world, can do. But, blessed be His name for it, there is no one article of our faith more clearly revealed to us than this is. And therefore I hope He will always keep me stedfast in the belief of it to my life's end, that believing and trusting on Him for all things needful to my salvation,

I may then receive the end of my faith, even the salvation of my soul, by the same God my Saviour, Luke i. 47.

And I further believe that this Jesus Christ the only Son of God is our Lord. He is our Lord, as He is the Son of God our Maker; as He is Jesus our Saviour; and as He is Christ our King. He hath absolute dominion over the whole creation; but is in a peculiar manner the Lord of all those whom He hath redeemed and purchased to Himself, Tit. ii. 14. To whom He therefore saith, Ye call me Lord and Master, and ye say well, for so I am, John xiii. 13. And I now looking upon myself as in the number of them, call Him not only my but our Lord, and desire accordingly to serve and glorify Him both in my body and in my spirit, which are His, 1 Cor. vi. 20.

QUESTIONS.

16 Why is the Son of God called Jesus, or the Saviour? Why is He called Christ, or the Anointed?

What was He anointed with ?

To what offices was He anointed?

How do you prove that He was a Prophet?

Wherein did He, and still doth,manifest Himself to be a Priest? What kind of King is He?

Of whom was He begotten?

Is He a distinct Person from the Father ?

Is He of one substance with the Father, or one and the same

God that He is ?

How do you prove that?

Did not His works shew it?

Is this contrary to reason?

Is it not necessary to believe that He is the true God?
Why do ye call Him, our Lord?

Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary.

Although Jesus Christ was from all eternity begotten of God the Father in so wonderful and divine a manner, that He Himself is one and the same God with the Father, yet in time He was pleased to become man too, like unto us, by being conceived and born into the world as other men are, but in a manner quite different from all other: as it was necessary He should be, that so He might be free from that original sin that all are subject to, who are conceived and born the ordinary way: wherefore although He was conceived, it was not, as other men are, by the help of man, but by the Holy Ghost; and though He was born of a woman, that woman was not like other women that bear children, but a virgin, the Virgin Mary.

I believe He was conceived by the Holy Ghost, because of the Angel's word sent from God to acquaint the said Virgin with it. For when he had said to her, Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a Son, and shalt call His name Jesus: the blessed Virgin wondering how that should be, seeing she knew not a man, he answered and said to her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee, therefore also that Holy Thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God, Luke i. 35. To which she having given her consent, by saying, Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word, ver. 38; I believe as the Angel then departed from her, so

the Holy Ghost came accordingly upon her, and by His almighty power that Holy Thing was then conceived in her: as the Angel told Joseph also, to whom the said Virgin was espoused. For he finding her after this to be with child, and therefore thinking to put her away privily, the Angel said to him, Fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost, Matt. i. 20.

And as He was thus conceived by the Holy Ghost, so I believe He was born of the Virgin Mary. For it being in Her womb that He was conceived, He could be born of no other but of her, and she must needs be a virgin still, in that she had conceived no otherwise than by the immediate power of God: for which reason also the Son of God is said to be made of a woman; Gal. iv. 4., in that He the second or last Adam was formed out of her substance, as the first Adam was of the dust of the ground by God Himself, Gen. ii. 7.

Now seeing the only Son of God, or, which is the same, God the Son, was thus conceived and born of a woman; I believe that He thereby became the Son of man too, or really and truly man. As St. John saith, The Word, or Son of God, was made flesh, and dwelt among us, John i. 14. and St. Paul, Jesus Christ, being or subsisting in the form or nature of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, Phil. ii. 5, 6, 7. that is, of the same nature that all men are of, consisting of a reasonable soul and human