Clause 2

Testimonies out of the Prophets and Apostles

For he receaued of God the Father, honour,¹ and glorie, when there came such a voice vnto him from the excellent glorie: This is my beloued sonne in whom I am wel pleased. And this voice we heard when it came from heauen, when we were together with him in the holie mountaine: and we haue a most sure worde of the Prophets, to the which ye do wel, that you take heede as vnto a light that shineth in a darke place, vntil the day dawne and the daie starre arise in your heartes, so that ye first know this, that no prophesie of the scripture is of any priuate interpretation. For the prophesie came not in olde time by the will of man; but holie men of God spake as they were moued by the holie Ghost. Psalm. 2. I wil shewe out of the decree. The Lorde of hoastes hath saide vnto me. Thou art my sonne, this day haue I begotten thee. Aske of me, and I wil giue the nations for thy possession; the endes of the earth, I say, for the right of thy possession. And a little after. Kisse the sonne, that he be not angrie: And in the ende, Blessed are al which trust in him. Al these thinges agree not to Dauid, but to the sonne who is appointed heire of all things. And to the Heb. 1. Hee hath spoken vnto vs by his sonne, by whome also hee hath made the worlde: who being the brightnes of the glorie and the engraued forme of his person, and bearing vp all thinges by his mightie worde &c. And a little after. Vnto which of the Angels said he at any time, Thou arte my sonne: This day haue I begotten thee &c. And in the same place: And againe when he bringeth his first begotten sonne into the worlde, he saith: And let all the Angels of God worship him. Psa. 97. ver. 7. Io. 1. We haue seene his glorie as the glorie of the only son of God. & ver. 10. He was in the world, & the world was made by him: but the world knew him not, He came vnto his owne, & his owne receaued him not: But as manie as receaued him, to them he gaue power that they should bee made the sonnes of God, euen to them that beleeue in his name.

What the meaning of these wordes is, His onely begotten sonne

The ende of these wordes is, that our faith shoulde be stable, first, that we beleeue in the true God, when wee beleeue in his onlie begotten sonne, who is begotten of the substaunce of the father, and therefore by nature is verie God, as before is shewed. Then also, that we be no lesse vndoubtedly persuaded of the wonderfull loue of God towardes vs, surmounting the loue of all creatures, who hath so loued the world that he hath giuen his onely begotten sonne, that all that beleeue in him should not perish, but haue euerlasting life. Io. 3. And so God not only dealeth with vs by promises, and by oath: but also by giuing his son, in whom all the promises are yea and Amen.

To be short, that all thinges which he hath suffered for our saluation, and whatsoeuer thinges followe in the other articles of faith, be esteemed of the worthinesse of this person, which is the onely begotten sonne of God. Galat. 4. vers 4.5. Mat. 3. vers 17.

Why the scripture calleth him the onely begotten, seeing all we which beleeue, are the sonnes of God

Therefore the Scripture calleth him the only begotten sonne of God, that he may put a necessary difference betweene Christe and all the faithfull. For Christ is called, and indeede is the onely begotten sonne of God, because he is yᵉ only euerlasting son of yᵉ euerlasting father, begotten of the substance of yᵉ father before al worlds: and therefore is very God in whō we ought to beleeue. Pro. 8. Ioh. 1. Now we are called and are the sonnes of God, not by nature, but by adoption and grace, through which, God hath vouchsafed to adopt vs to be his children, whilest he hath made vs, through faith engrafted into his sonne, his true and liuely members, who otherwise were the mēbers of Sathan, and by nature the sonnes of wrath. Ioh. 8. Ephes. 2. But in meane time, that same adoption, and name of the sonnes of God, is not onely an emptie title; but when we are in truth members of the sonne of God, we haue by his grace a true communion and fellowship with him, in respect of which he is called the first begotten amongest many brethren. Rom. 8. And surelie if the Adoption made of men be not a vaine and an emptie title, but such an acceptation of another mans childe, to be a sonne, whereby in truth all the right of sonnes is communicated vnto him, as if he were a true and naturall sonne: certainly by that same adoption of God, whereby we are so engraffed into his sonne, that we are gouerned & quickened by his spirit, we do not onely receaue the title, but the full priuiledge and right of the sonnes of God. Rom. 8. For he hath giuen this priuiledge, dignitie, right, and power to all, as many as haue receiued the Lorde Iesus, that they should be made the sonnes of God. Ioh. 1. And in the first Epistle of Iohn the first Chapiter. That which we haue seene and hearde declare we vnto you, that ye also may haue fellowshippe with vs, and our fellowshippe or communion is with the father, and with his sonne Iesus Christ. And these things write I vnto you, that your ioye may be full. All the faithfull therefore haue not a meane and common couenant, but a most excellent couenant with God, whilest he will haue his confederates, to be in the place of sonnes, making thē members of his onely begotten Sonne, from whom they are neuer plucked away, and regenerating or rather renueing them through his spirit; so excelent & notable a couenāt, I say, in euery respect, that we may freely say with the Apostle to the Rom. 8. that he that hath not spared his owne sonne, but hath giuen him for vs all, howe can it be, that he should not together with him giue vs all thinges? Yea, but this same couenant grounded vpon so excellent loue of God towardes vs, is so sure and vnmoueable; that we may farther say, with the same Apostle, I am persuaded, that neither death; nor life, nor Angells, nor Principalities, nor powers, nor thinges present, nor thinges to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other creature, shalbe able to separate vs from the loue of God which is in Christ Iesus our Lord.

Footnotes

1. 2. Pet. 1.
   ↩