Father; and the Holy Ghoft proceed-, eth both from Father and Son: And therefore the Father is termed by the Primitive Chriftians, en éé ¶n? • the Root and the Fountain of Deity. As in Waters there is the Fountain or Well Head; then there is the Spring that boils up out of that Fountain; and then there is the Stream that flows both from the Foun tain and the Spring; and yet all thefe are but one and the fame Water: So here, God the Father is the Fountain of Deity; the Son, as the Spring that boils up out of that Fountain; and the Holy Ghoft, that flows from both, and yet all Three is but one and the fame God. The fame alfo may be explained by another familiar Inftance: The Sun, you know, begets Beams, and from the Sun and Beams together, proceed both Light and Heat: So God the Father begets the Son, and from the Father and Son together, proceeds the Spirit of Know ledge and Grace: But as the Son is not before the Beams, nor the Beams before the Light and Heat, but all are together: So neither is the Father be fore the Son, nor Father or Son be fore the Holy Ghoft, but only in order and relation to one another In which

only refpect, the Father is the firft Per fon in the Trinity.

Secondly, The Son is the fecond Perfon, who is called the Son, yea, and the only begotten Son of God, becaufe he was begotten of the Father, not as others are by Spiritual Regeneration, but by Eternal Generation, as none but himself is: For the opening whereof, we must know, that God that made all things fruitful, is not himfelf Steril } or Barren, but he that hath given Power to Animals, to generate and produce others in their own Nature, is himself much more able to produce one, not only like himfelf, but of the felf-fame Nature with himself, as he did in begetting his Son by communicating his own unbegotten Effence and Nature to him. For the Perfon of the Son was most certainly begotten of the Father, otherwife he would not be his Son; but his Effence was unbegotten, otherwife he would not be God. And therefore the highest Apprehenfions that we can frame of this great Myftery, the Eternal Generation of the Son of God, is only by conceiving the Perfon of the Father to have communica

ted

ted his Divine Effence to the Perfon of the Son. And fo of himself begetting his other Self the Son, by communicating his own Eternal and unbegotten Effence to him. I fay, by communicating of his Effence, not of his Perfon to him, for then they would be both the fame Perfon, as now they are of the fame Effence: The Effence of the Father did not beget the Son by communicating his Perfon to him, but the Perfon of the Father begat the Son by communicating his Effence to him; fo that the Perfon of the Son is begotten, not communicated; but the Effence of the Son is communicated not begotten,

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This Notion of the Father's begetting the Son by communicating his Effence to him, I ground upon the Son's own Words, who certainly beft knew how himself was begotten; for, as the Father, faith he, hath life in bimfelf, fo bath be given to the Son to have life in himself, John v. 26. To have Life in himself, is an Effen, tial Property of the Divine Nature and therefore wherefoever that is gi ven, or communicated, the Nature it

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felf

itself, muft needs be given, and communicated too.

Now here we fee how God the Fa ther Communicated this his Effential Property, and fo his Effence to the Son; and, by confequence, though he be a diftinct Perfon from him, yet he hath the fame unbegotten Effence with him: And, therefore, as the Father hath Life in himself, fo hath the Son Life in himself; and fo all other ef fential Properties of the Divine Nature, only with this Perfonal Diftintion, that that the Father hath this Life in himself, not from the Son, but from himself, whereas the Son hath it, not from himself but from the Father: Or, the Father is God, of himfelf, not of the Son; the Son is the fame God, but from the Father, not from himself, and, therefore, not the Father, but the Son is rightly cal led by the Council of Nice, God of God, Light of Light, yea, very God of very God.

Thirdly, Having thus fpoken of the two firft Perfons in the Sacred Trinity, we now come to the laft, the Holy Ghoft,

The

The laft, I fay, not in Nature or Time, but only in Order: For, as to their Nature, one is not better or more God than another; neither, as to Time, is one before another none of them being measured by Time, but all and every one of them Eternity itfelf. But though not in Nature or Time, yet sim Order, one must needs be before ano-> ther; For the Father is of himself, receiving his Effence neither from the Son, nor from the Spirit, and therefore is, in Order, before both; the Son received his Effence from the Father, not from the Spirit, and therefore, in Order, is before the Spirit, as well as after the Father; but the Spirit receiving his Effence both from the Father and the Son, muft needs, in Order, be after both,

I confefs, the Spirit is no where in Scripture faid to proceed from the Son, and therefore the incerting this into the Nicene Creed, was the occafion of that Schifm betwixt the Western and Eaftern Churches, which hath now continued for many Ages; in which, I think, both Parties are blameworthy; the We ftern Churches for incerting this Claufe

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following