Emmanuel, or, God-man a treatise wherein the doctrine of the first Nicene and Chalcedon councels, concerning the two natures in Christ, is asserted against the lately vented Socinian doctrine / by John Tombes ...

SECT. 2. (Book 2)

Jesus Christ is the Son of God in the sense professed in the Nicene Creed.

THis leads us to enquire concerning the terms [Son of God, of Man, Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ] which are the titles by which he is expressed, whose the Kingdom is said to be, and therefore we cannot rightly conceive of this King∣dom without understanding these terms: That the title the Son of the living God, given to Jesus Christ the Son of Man is a fundamental Article of the Christian Faith, is manifest from Christs approbation of Peters answer to Christs question to his Disciples Matth. 16. 13. Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? To which St. Peter answered, verse 16. Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God, whereto it is said Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou Simon Bar-Jona, for flesh and blood hath not re∣vealed it unto thee, but my Father which

is in Heaven: And again, when Jesus said to the twelve, Will ye also go away? Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life, and we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ the Son of the living God, John 6. 68, 69. And when the Eunuch said to Philip, Acts 8. 36. See here is water, what doth hinder me to be Bap∣tized? Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart thou maist, and he answer∣ed and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, verse 37. St. Paul Acts 9. 20. preached Christ in the Synagogues at Dimascus, that he is the Son of God. and John 1. 49. Nathanael said to Christ, Rabbi. thou art the Son of God, thou are the King of Israel. 1 John 2. 22. He is Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son. verse 23. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father. 1 John 4. 15. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. 1 John 5. 5. Who is he that overcometh the world but he that be∣lieveth that Jesus is the Son of God? verse 11, 12. And this is the record▪ that God hath given to us eternal life, and this

life is in his Son: He that hath the Son hath life, he that hath not the Son hath not life.

Nevertheless there is great difference about this appellation [the Son of God] whether it import Divine Nature distinct from Humane, or Humane Nature, yet by Divine operation, not by the ordinary way of natural generation as other men are be∣gotten, but by the supernatural operation of the Holy Ghost according to that of the Angel to Mary, Luke 1. 35. 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. Whence the Samosatenians and Photinians of old, so the Socinians in this last age deny that Jesus Christ had Being afore his conception by the Holy Ghost in the Virgins womb, but the Arians grant∣ing him to have a Divine Nature, say, that he was created by God the first creature out of nothing, and then that by him God the Father made all things else: In oppo∣sition to whom the Creed of the first Nicene Councel, as it is in Eusebius his Epistle to the Church of Caesarea set down by Arch-Bishop

Usher in his Diatriba de Symbolis pag. 16. out of At hanasius operum tom. 2. pag. 48. edit. Commelinian Socrates lib. 1. Hist. c. 5. Theodoret. lib. 1. c. 12. and Gelasius Cyricenus in Act. Concil. Nic. part 3. c. 35. is thus: We believe also in one Lord Jesus Christ born the only begotten of the Father, that is of the substance of the Father, God of God, light of light, very God of very God, begotten not made, of the same substance with the Father, by whom all things were made, both the things in heaven, and the things in the earth: In which there are these propositions included, 1. That Jesus Christ was before any creature was made. 2. That he was begotten of the substance of the Father, not made of nothing, as the Arians held. 3. That he was very God of very God, of the same substance with the Father. 4. That by him all things were made, whether in Heaven or in Earth, which propositions are proved by these Texts of Scripture.