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THis testimony (Thou art my Sonne, this day have I begotten thee,) is alledged to prove that Christ excelleth the most excellent creatures: and it sheweth, that some high transcendent matter, which can no way be applied to any meer creature, is spoken of Christ: and that is, to be a Sonne eternally begotten of God the Father.
To beget, in usual signification, is out of ones own essence to produce another like* 1.1 being. Thus Adam is said to beget a sonne in his own likeness, Gen. 5. 3. In allusion hereunto, these words, beget, begotten, are applied to the first and second Persons of the sacred Trinity, in a mutual relation of one to the other; and that for teaching sake: to make us by resemblances (such as we are well acquainted withall) some∣what according to our capacity, to understand of that mystery, which is in it self un∣utterable, unconceivable and incomprehensible.
No resemblances can to the life and full set out the profound mysteries of the* 1.2 Trinity of Persons in the Unity of Nature: of the first Persons begetting, of the se∣cond being begotten, of the thirds proceeding.
Comparisons and resemblances are but dark shadowes of those bright lights. We may not expect that earthly and humane things, should in every respect answer hea∣venly and divine mysteries: They are only to help our dull and weak understanding.
It is a great matter indeed to conceive a begetting, which is not in time, but eter∣nal: as is God the Fathers begetting God the Sonne: which implieth the Fathers eternal communicating his whole essence to the Sonne▪ As this Text and Psal. 2. 7. so all the texts of Scripture, which stile Christ the begotten Sonne of God, prove the* 1.3 Point in general.
〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 E∣piph. advers. Haer. Ar. Haer. 69. §. 15.
Generationum Filii enarrabi∣lem existentem nemo novit, &c. •…•…isi solus qui generavit Pater, & qui natus est Filius. Iraen. advers. Haer. l. 2. c. 48.
Revera magnum est mente conci∣pere generatio∣nem, quae non sit ex aliquo tem∣pore, sed aeterna est Aug. de A∣gon. Christian. c. 16.