CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St.…

2. When God the Father is said to be the Father of Christ his Son, It is not in a large sense, as he is called Father sometimes, but in a proper, peculiar and incommunicable sense; for therefore he is called [Greek or Hebrew] and [Greek or Hebrew], the only begotten Son of God, and indeed we see plainly the unity of the Father separated from the unity of believers in this Text, That they may be one, as thou in me, and I in thee, for God is called the Father of all men. To which purpose the Apostle allegeth that of the Poet, We are his off-spring, Act. 17.27. Thus also he is called the Father of Believers in respect of Adoption, for so our Saviour, Joh. 20.17. I ascend to my Father and your Father, but he is called the Father in respect of a true and proper generation of his Son; as is more to be showed. The Socinians would have him called the Son of God, partly, because of that extraordinary conception and birth, partly, because of the constituting and sanctifying of him to the Office of a Priest, and partly, but principally, because of his Resurrection and Exaltation to that great power and dominion which now he hath, but these things are only declarative and consequential to that eternal generation, whereby indeed he is the Son of God properly, and thus the Jews understood it, when they accused him for blasphemy, because by saying, He was the Son of God, he thereby made himself God, which our Saviour doth not deny or refuse; but proveth it more firmly.

2. When God the Father is said to be the Father of Christ his Son, It is not in a large sense, as he is called Father sometimes, but in a proper, peculiar and incommunicable sense; for therefore he is called 〈non-Latin alphabet〉 and 〈non-Latin alphabet〉, the only begotten Son of God, and indeed we see plainly the unity of the Father separated from the unity of believers in this Text, That they may be one, as thou in me, and I in thee, for God is called the Father of all men. To which purpose the Apostle alledgeth that of the Poet, We are his off-spring, Act. 17.27. Thus also he is called the Father of Believers in respect of Adoption, for so our Saviour,