not the Son of God hath not Life but the wrath of God abideth on him 2. See another Text John 14.6 Jesus saith unto him I am the Way the Truth and the Life no man cometh to the Father but by me I am the way by which you may come to the Father as to your last and highest End and Happiness I am the Door by me if any man enter in he shall be saved John 10.9 There 's as much as He that hath the Son hath Life But then observe No man cometh unto the Father but by me He who hath not the Son of God hath not the Way nor the Truth nor the Life 3. Take a third Witness to confirm both parts of the Point Acts 4.12 Neither is there Salvation in any other for there is none other Name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved The Affirmative That Salvation and Life is in Christ is included in the excluding word Neither is there Salvation in any other Salvation is in and by Jesus Christ but not in any other for there is none other name c. And therefore if any one hath not the Son of God he hath not Life From what is said you may come to be past fear and doubt of your everlasting Salvation if you have the Son of God as you shall hear by and by you may be sure your Life your Treasure your Happiness is safely laid up for you And on the contrary a Man that reads these Words may read his own Doom He who hath not the Son hath not Life Conclude now as you have or or have not the Son of God Jesus Christ the Saviour so you shall live or die eternally But yet take this for prevention of Trouble or Despair As it is certain no Man hath any Right or Title to eternal Life except he believeth and hath the Son so he who hath not the Son at present now may have him may believe and be saved if he attend for him in the means of Grace and have him while he may be had that is while he is offer'd to him I take the Words as Doctrins or Divine Propositions without putting them into any other Form 1 D. He that hath the Son hath Life 2 D. He that hath not the Son hath not Life In opening the first observe these Particulars 1. Who and what is this Son spoken of in the Text. 2. What it is to have the Son 3. What is that Life which they have who have the Son 4. The reason why he who hath the Son hath Life or how it will follow and appear that he who hath the Son Jesus hath and must needs have Life 1. By the Son is to be understood Jesus Christ the Son of God our Mediator and Redeemer of whom there is frequent mention in this Chapter The Son is that same Holy One and wonderful spoken of in the first Verse Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God v. 5. Who is he that overcometh the World but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God He who came by Water and Blood even Jesus Christ ver 6. He to whom the Father the Word or the Second Person in the Godhead and the Holy Ghost bear witness the Three in Heaven that bear witness and to whom the Three bear witness on Earth the Spirit the Water and the Blood ver 7 8. He who is called Son his Son Son of God ten times from ver 8. to the end of the Chapter And observe ver 20. And we know the Son of God is come He who was given and sent is come in our Flesh to be a Mediator between God and us and hath given us an Vnderstanding to know him that is true and we are in him that is true even in his Son Jesus Christ This is the true God and eternal Life This Son this Son of God is the true God and eternal Life is in him ver 11. He is called Life John 14.6 and the Word of Life 1 John 1.1 and Eternal Life v. 2. He is the true God and hath Life in Himself and he is eternal Life essentially as the Son of God the only begotten Son John 3.16 And because the only begotten begotten by eternal Generation by the Father he was Life and had Life in Himself from Eternity before the Beginning therefore he is immutable and immortal he is Eternal Life originally and in the Fountain And that eternal Life which the Father of his meer Grace and Love hath given to us who are born of God is in his Son who is entrusted with it for us and hath power to give it to us John 17.2 and he who hath him hath eternal Life for that reason From these Scriptures learn four great Points and Matters of Faith 1. That Jesus Christ is so the Son of God that he is certainly the True God 2. That the Son of God is come into the World as sent of God as made of a Woman as manifest in the Flesh having taken part of the same Flesh and Blood which his Brethren were partakers of Gal. 4.4 1 Tim. 3.16 Heb. 2.14 3. That the only begotten Son of God hath Life in Himself yea is the Life the word of Life and eternal Life 4. That Christ his Son Jesus Christ hath that eternal Life in him as our Mediator Saviour and Head which God hath given to them who are born of God regenerated by the Spirit and adopted to be the Sons of God and Heirs of Life Jesus Christ our Mediator and Saviour is that Son which whoever hath hath Life Give me the attentive Ear to two Texts more which being taken together as they ought to be will prove That the Son of God is the same with Jesus our Saviour and that as our Jesus he is called the Son of God Luke 1.31 32 35. And behold thou shalt conceive in the Womb and bring forth a Son and shalt call his Name Jesus He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the highest c. And to her Question who thought it to her a thing incomprehensible but not impossible ver 34. How can it be seeing I know not a Man The Angel answered and said unto her The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the Highest shall over-shadow thee Therefore also that Holy Thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God The Name Jesus is the Name of the Son of God as Mediator given him from the End or Effect of his coming into the World Mat. 1.21 Thou shalt call his Name Jesus for he shall save his people from their Sin The same is called according to the Prophesie of Isaiah Emmanuel God with us and the same called the Son of God Mat. 1.23 He shall be called * Dr. Owen of the Person of Jesus Christ against Biddle p. 180. c. Mr. Estwick's Articles of Mr. Biddle's Faith confuted p. 211. A. B.
Vsher of the Incarnation Fol. p. 428. Last Edit of the Sum and Substance Cameron Myrothec Evang. in Luc. Praeter in Mat. 16. Johan Junii Exam. Socini de Incarnatione fil Dei cap. 1. p 92. c. he shall appear to be shall be acknowledged and professed to be the Son of God for the Son of God hath taken that which is conceived in thee into Union with himself and so altho he is the Man Christ as made of a Woman conceived in the Womb of the Virgin by the Holy Ghost he is indeed the Son of God and shall be so called He shall be glorified with the Name of the Son of God with whom he is made One Person by that Power of the Highest overshadowing the Virgin If he was therefore the Son of God because he was conceived and formed in the Virgins Womb then he must needs be the Son of the Holiest his own Spirit but the Son is the only begotten of the Father and called the Holy Thing which signifies and denotes that which is Essential to Christ the Divine Nature or Person and the same is called the Son of God to whom the Humane Nature is united that so he might be Jesus Our Saviour and God with us in our Nature and for us for our Salvation Had Christ been meer Man and no more he might have been called the Son of God as the first Adam is called Luke 3. v. ult because of his immediate Creation but then he had been but a Creature tho perfectly holy from his Conception and had not been at all the proper and Natural Son of God as not being of the Divine Essence or Nature for every Son hath the same Nature that his Father hath but the Humane Nature is not the Divine Simber de Filio Dei l. 1. c. 5. p. 58 59. the Humane Nature being from the first moment of Conception united to the Second Person the Son of God that which was conceived in the Womb of the Virgin was the Son of God Our Mediator must needs be God and Man in one Person and because the Holy thing that was born was Emmanuel God-Man therefore he was called the Son of God The Natures are distinguished but the Person was but One and being but One there is one glorious Name given him The Son of God The Son of God and the Son of Mary are one and the same called the Son of God Christ the Son of David according to the Flesh Rom. 1.3 had his beginning when he was conceived by the Holy Ghost and that Operation of the Spirit was the Cause of his being called the Son of God Johannes jun. ib. Hooynbeck Socinianismi Confutatio 1 De Christ c. 1. p. 38. The Son of God took our Nature into Union with himself and he was not only to be called the Son of God by Men but was owned and called so by God himself at his Entrance into the Administration of his Office of Mediator Mat. 3.17 This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased And besides many other places too many to be opened at this time he is called his dear Son or the Son of his Love Col. 1.13 and demonstrated to be the Son of his Being if I may so speak by the many Arguments in the following Verses 1. The Son of God's Love is the great God our Saviour and so great that he hath a Kingdom and hath translated us into the Kingdom of his dear Son O most blessed translation and change To be delivered from the power of Darkness and translated into the Kingdom of his dear Son It is a deliverance and a translation from Darkness and the power of Darkness out of the Devils Power and Tyranny out of the Dominion of Sin where every Lust is a Lord and we Slaves and Drudges working our own Destruction by our own Thoughts Tongues and Hands Great is the Power of Darkness and miserable are they that are under it They are under Wrath and within a step of Hell as long as they are under his Power But O how happy are they who are brought out of it into this Kingdom of the Son of God's Love Such as the King is such is his Kingdom the Son the King is full of Grace and Truth his Kingdom is a Kingdom of Grace and Glory of Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost The Laws Ordinances Priviledges Subjects and the whole Government of this Son of God's Love and King of Saints are answerable or suitable to him and what 's wanting here of perfect Happiness shall be made up in Heaven Our translation by effectual Calling and Grace is a Deliverance from the outward Prison and Suburbs of Hell into the outward Courts of Heaven and out of them there will be another remove and promotion into the everlasting Kingdom of Heaven 2. He is such a Son of God as paid a Ransom for all that have him and that was his own Blood Was there ever such a Son such Love such a Ransom All that are in him by Faith have the Benefit of that Ransom from the Wrath of God and the deserved Punishments of Sin He is the Son that procured our Pardon and Release from the Guilt of Sin the Curse of the Law the Justice of God ver 14. In whom we have redemption thro' his Blood the forgiveness of sin O how blessed is that Man whose Iniquities are forgiven Psal 32.1 Is not this then the Son of God the true God in our Natures purchasing us with his own Blood Acts 20.28 3. This dear Son is such a Son who is the Image of the invisible God God is invisible in his pure Essence and Being What Image can there be that is lively and perfect but what must needs be invisible also So Christ the dear Son of God must needs be invisible also in his Godhead and Divine Person and therefore truly God the Son but then God the Son the essential invisible and perfect Image of his invisible Father having taken our Nature into Union with his Person is a visible Image of the living true invisible God for he who hath seen the Son hath seen the Father also John 14.9 He that hath seen me hath seen the Father Ver. 10. Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in me Never did any Image so lively express the Original as the Son of God in our Nature did express the infinite Wisdom Power Grace and Mercy of God God was manifest in his Flesh in his Humane Nature a pure material Glass shewing us Divine Perfections 1 Tim. 3.16 4. He is the First Born of every Creature As Man it is certain he was not born before every Creature As God he is not called the First-Born but the only begotten John 1.14 He is not called the First-Born in respect of Order of Time or Participation of the same Nature with the Creature created after him For if the Notion of the Arians were true
lost cursed state of Guilt Uncleanness Bondage and utter Inability to come to Life of your self 2. Have you seen the necessity of a Mediator to make your Peace and to bring you to a reconciled God 3. Have you been and are you still satisfied with Christ And Christ alone His Death Merits Resurrection and Intercession alone not joyning Antichrist as a Head bringing him to Christ and sodering him to you with soft Wax or binding him to you with a Rope of Sand nor adding Saints Merits and Intercessions to his Nor any other devised Supplements and Means of your Peace and Salvation 4. Have you with hearty self-abasement been and are you still a great Admirer of the way of your recovery by Jesus Christ And stand amazed at the Grace Wisdom Righteousness and Love of God in Christ 5. Have you come naked wounded poor and humbled to Jesus Christ upon his Offer and Invitation and taken him understandingly advisedly deliberately heartily and resolvedly through his Grace and Assistance without whom you can do nothing casting away whatever offends him out of his place and House namely your Heart And do you still know that you are dead without him And do you love him and observe him and the longer you are acquainted with him the more and better 2. What Use do you make of the Son Do you reckon him your Life Do you draw your Spiritual Life from him And do you alledg him Rom. 8.34 and plead him for your Discharge against all Accusations and trust him for your Salvation in his own way and your way of Adherence and Obedience 2. Positively All that have him are united to him that 's the immediate Work of the principal efficient Cause the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost or the Spirit who makes Application of Redemption and brings Christ and his Members to be one and the immediate Work and Office of Faith given of God and excited by the Spirit like the opening of a blind Eye to behold an admirable lovely Object or quickning a dead Palsie Hand to receive a Pardon 2. Every one who is united to him and made one is regenerate and born of God 1 John 5.1 2 Cor. 5.17 If any man be in Christ he is a new Creature 3. He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit And this having of the Spirit is made a Sign of the mutual Union between Christ and the true Believer 1 Joh. 3.24 And he that keepeth his Commandments of Believing on the Name of his Son Christ and mutual Love to the Brethren vers 23. dwelleth in him and he in him and hereby we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us But how may the true Spirit be known By his Light Life Operations and Fruits As the Soul of Man is known to be a rational Soul by its Operations so is the Spirit of Christ known to be in Believers by his Operation and Effects Take your Aim and Direction in this from one effect of the Spirits uniting us to Christ and dwelling in us and that is Life He that hath the Son and the Spirit of the Son hath Life in him whereby he lives a New Life to God through Jesus Christ Where this Life is it is known by a spiritual sense and motion from Christ and back again unto him 2. By Hunger and Thirst by an Appetite to Spiritual Food As a new born Babe desires the sincere milk of the word 1 Pet. 2.2 3. By Growth and Strength As new born Babes grow and gather strength till they come to be Men by using proper means of nourishment as Milk and stronger meat by abiding in Christ and living by Faith drawing Supplies of Grace by holy Desires and Prayers with all perseverance 4. By Nauseating and loathing refusing resisting and casting out Contraries to it and using Preservatives These things being drawn up for your Service in this little room I return to my Exhortation to persuade you to have Christ to have him for Life for your Necessity is so great that you do not need him for less than your Life and that you would make haste and have him while he is near Isa 55.1 2. Or else you may seek him when you shall not find him John 8.21 And when you have him adhere to him have him and cleave to him for still the same reason continueth it is for your Life What will stir you if the Words of the Text will not Consider the unconceivableness of the loss and what is the consequent of it The greatness of the loss and deprivation and the nearness of it are implied in these Words Hath not Life Oh! Wo Wo to that Soul His state is infinitely worse than his who hath not the Light of the Day to look on nor Eyes to see it Worse than his who hath not a Friend in the whole World not a Rag to his Back not a Farthing in his Purse not a Morsel to eat not as much as a fading Gourd to hide his Head under not the use of a Limb not Skin upon his Back no not a Grave to rest in If every Unbelievers loss were as great as Job's was it were nothing to this Hath not Life It amounts to as much as the loss of God of Heaven and all that is therein The loss of Earth and the present Life is the least part of it This loss cannot be reckoned in the Ages of of the World it is a loss under which there is no support or relief to bear it Miserable Sinners can contribute nothing but Miseries and Sorrows to one another Nor will God himself ever repair it to any of them They who will not have the Son for their Saviour and Redeemer would refuse yea despise all other means and ways of their recovery and readmission to happiness They who do not assent to this wonderful way of God nor consent to the Terms of the Covenant of Grace now revealed would dissent from any other ways if there were any other reserved in the Will of God They who cannot forsake nor give up their Sins which a Disgrace a Shame a Burden a Perversion a Confusion of Nature which every Sinner hath cause to be sick of and in continual pain till he be delivered of it would never accept of Grace and Mercy upon condition of being Holy and pleasing God They who will not have the Son for their Saviour would not have God for their God and Father There being no way left to recover their forfeited Life they are lost for ever who lose it Q. But may not a man who hath not the Son at present have him and Life by him hereafter A. Yes if he have him while it is to day when God waiteth that he may be gracious But if he die before he comes to and receiveth Christ he dies in his Sin and is out of all hopes of Life Oh! who would for any business or any Pretence whatsoever delay the having of the