4. It is granted that the apostle makes use of these words when he mentions the resurrection and exaltation of Christ; not that Christ was then begotten, but that he was then declared to be the only-begotten Son of God, his resurrection and exaltation being manifestations of his sonship, not causes of his filiation, as hath been at large declared. So the sun is said to arise when it doth first to us appear.
5. True, " God hath other sons, and believers are said to be be- gotten of God ;" but how ? By regeneration, and turning from sin, as in the places quoted is evident. That Christ is so begotten of God is blasphemous once to imagine. Besides, he is the only-begotten Son of the Father, so that no other is begotten with a generation of the same kind with him. It is evident, then, by this testimony, and from these words, that Christ is so the Son of God as no angels are his sons in the same kind : for that the apostle produceth these words to prove, Heb. i. 5, " For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And
' " Ad secundum Tcro quid ? — Neque in ea de generationc ex essentia Patris, nee de generatione prse-ceterna prorsus quicquam haberi ; etenim vox hodie, cum certura tcmpus designct, prge-DCternitatem denotare non potest. Quod vero Deus eum genuerit, non evincit eum ex essentia ejus genitum ; id quod patet ex eo, quod hcec eadem verba, Ego hodie genui te, primo sensu de Davide dicaiitur, quern constat neque ab ffiterno, nee ex essentia Dei genitum. Deinde, quod Paulus apostolus eadem verba ad approban- dam Christi resurrectionem afFciat, Act. xiii. 33, et autor ad Hebra;os ad glorifica- tionem Domini Jesu citet, Heb. i. 5, v. 5. Denique, ex ea re, quod constet Dcum aliter quam ex essentia generare, dum a Deo genitos crcdentcs Script ura pronunciat, ut videre est, Johan. i. 13 ; 1 Johan. iii. 9; Jac. i. 18."
VOL. XII. 16
24:2 VINDICI^ EVANGELICiE.
again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?" Now, the angels are the sons of God by creation, Job i. 6, xxxviii. 7. He is also such a Son and so begotten as believers are not ; for they are begotten by regeneration from sin and adoption into the family of God. Therefore Christ, who is the Son of God in another kind than angels and men, who are so by creation, regeneration, and adoption, is the natural Son of God by eternal generation ; which is also proved from this place.
In this whole psalm Grotius takes no notice of Jesus Christ : in- deed, in the entrance he tells us that a mystical and abstruse sense of it may belong to Christ, and so the rabbins acknowledge, and so the apostle took it ;^ but throughout the whole doth he not make the least application of it to Christ, but merely to David, although so ruany passages of it are urged in the New Testament to have had their accomplishment in Christ and the things which concerned him. These words, " Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee," he says may be thus rendered, " 0 fill mi, hoclie (id est, hoc tempore) ego tegenui: novam vitam, scilicet regalem tibi contuli." But, 1. That the words may not aptly be so translated, that they are not so ren- dered by the apostle, Heb. i. 5, he knew well enough. "^^^ V? \&filius mens tu, not fili mi. Nor doth the rendering of it by the vocative any way answer the woi'ds going before, " ' I will declare the decree : the Loed hath said unto me. Thou art my Son : ' that is the thing I will declare." 2. That "hodie" should be "hoc tem- pore," relating to any certain time of David's reign, cannot be re- conciled to the apostle's application of that expression on sundry oc- casions, as hath been manifested. 3. " I have given thee a ' new or a regal life/" is somewhat an uncouth exposition of "genui te," without warrant, without reason or argument ; and it is inconsistent with the time of the psalm's writing, according to Grotius himself. He refers it to 2 Sam. viii., when David had been king over Israel many years.
To serve his hypothesis, the last two verses are miserably wrested. The command of worshipping Christ, verse 12, is a command of donig homage to David/ And the last verse is thus glossed, "Beati omnes qui confidunt in eo, i.e., qui fidei ejus regis (id est, mese) se per- mittunt." " They are blessed," says David, "who commit themselves to my faith and care." Doubtless the thought of any such thing was as remote from the heart of the holy man as this gloss is from the sense of the place. That they are blessed who trust in the Lord, that is, " commit themselves to his care," he everywhere declareth, yea, this he makes always the property of a blessed man ; but that they are so who trust in him, not the least word to that purpose did the
' " Sensus primus ct apertus ad Davidem pertinet : mysticus et abstrusioi" ad Messiara, ut hie agnoscit David Kirachi, et ad Danielem Saadius Gaon, quo modo sumsere apo- etoli." — Aiinot. in ver. 1. -