future events the end and profit of all things the impossibility of the progress of causes without end It may be proved likewise out of Scripture well-nigh by infinite testimonies by divers apparitions by stupendious miracles by the writings of the Prophets and by the admirable event of things He therefore that denies that there is a God is not void onely of reason but sense also as AviceÌ„na is reported to have said It is manifest therefore that there is a God now let us see what he is God cannot be defined because he is immense he may be described Philosophically and Theologically Philosophically God is a Spirit sufficient of himself and the cause of all good Theologically God is the most perfect being one in essence three in Persons The Theological description differs from the Philosophical first in perfection for it adds something unknown to nature concerning the Trinity and unfolds or explains that which is known to nature Secondly in effect natural knowledge renders men onely inexcusable Rom. 1.20 but supernatural knowledge is saving hence then the true God differs from the gods of the Gentiles in Attributes Persons Works In Attributes because they are not rightly and entirely understood by them that are without the pale of the Church In Persons because the Gentiles are ignorant of the Trinity In Works because the wonderful works of God and especially that of the Redemption are not perceived by them who are out of the Church But now omitting other proprieties which amongst Schoolmen are handled at large I will first shew that God is one the Lord he is God there is none else besides him Deut. 4.35 Furthermore chief Majesty is competent to no more but one None can be the most perfect unless he be but one but God contains in him all possible perfection by reason of the latitude of his essence Yea there can be but one onely Omnipotent And if there should be more Gods they are all imperfect or the rest are superfluous both which to say is absurd Besides that which is Infinite can be but one onely neither can there be but one first cause of all things and to conclude it is most necessary that the onely chief good be but one God therefore is one and the onely one as Saint Bernard saith Object Yet there are many that are called Gods Answ But this is done improperly either by reason of a certain similitude or likeness or according to the opinion of vain man First by a certain similitude as either for eminency of nature and wisdom as Angels or for excellency of office as Magistrates or for exceeding great power as the Devil or for the â—oo too much indulging of it as the belly Secondly out of a false opinion of men Idols are called Gods It appears therefore that God is one now we are to shew that he is three in Persons Tho. Par. 1. q. 32. art 1. â— Sent. dist 3. The Trinity cannot be proved by the light of nature as Thomas teacheth against Scotus Yet Lumbard fetcheth some footsteps of the Trinity from the creatures especially from the three faculties of the soul the understanding memory and will But these do onely produce a confused knowledge not a distinct God is three but not threefold for he is a most simple being of himself and we use the name of Trinity not because the Scripture saith so but because it doth not contradict it and for the thing it self it is in the Scriptures though not the very word that being implied this not expressed and you may interpret Scripture in convenient words especially by reason of the deceit of Hereticks concealing their heresies for the most part under Scripture expressions In many places of Holy Writ it doth evidently appear that there are three Persons Matth. 3.16 The Father proclaims it This is my beloved Son The Son is baptized and the Holy Ghost descendeth in the likeness of a dove 1 Joh. 5.7 There are three that bear witness in heaven The Father is of himself the Son from the Father begotten from eternity The Holy Ghost proceedeth from both The Father is distinguished from the Son but not another essence and so of the rest But in this matter better is a faithful ignorance then a rash knowledge I conclude therefore with Robert Holcot Quaest 10. a most famous Professor in our University of Oxford who as Gabriel Biel relates it Quaest 10. Determ 1. sent dist 13. qu. 11. saith thus modestly Dignè loqui de Personis Vim transcendit rationis Excedit ingenia Quid sit nasci quid processus Me nescire sum professus Thus Englished To speak condignly of the Persons three Transcendeth reason in a high degree It doth exceed all wits What it is to be born what the a Alià s proceeding process I understand it not I do profess Some one perhaps may say Obser that the three Persons are not essence Answ But this is true of a finite essence onely Object Moreover that where there are three and one there are four but in God there are three Persons and one essence Answ yet they are not really distinct Object But it may be objected that their essences are distinct whose operations are distinct Answ We answer that this is to be affirmed onely of persons that have a finite being The first Person then of the Trinity is called the Father The name of the Father is taken sometimes personally by way of distinction from the Son and sometimes essentially in reference to the creatures for the whole Divine essence The first Person is called Father either in respect of Christ or in respect of us Or like as Durandus sheweth he is the Father of all generally the Father of Christ singularly and the Father of the elect especially Credo in Deum I beleeve in God It refers not onely to the Father but also to the Son and Holy Ghost and the Father is called omnipotent not excluding the other Persons God is omnipotent because he can do all things what he pleaseth all things that do not imply a contradiction and which are not repugnant to his nature and because he doth all things without difficulty or by his beck onely because he alone hath power of doing all things and for that he is the Author of all created power If it be said that God cannot die sin Object lye We answer Answ God can do those things which imply power but nothing that argues impotency or weakness for this would not stand with his perfection And if it be said that he cannot do those things which are contradictory We answer that this would be inconsistent with his immutability I pass by niceties This is the most principal thing seeing that God is omnipotent he that feareth God hath not any thing beyond that he need to fear and if God be with us who can be against us It follows in the Creed that God is the Creator of heaven and earth that is of the whole
sinner as the selling of Joseph or the crucifying of Christ We answer that this is done in a diverse respect it is attributed to the sinner as it is an evil work but to God as it is a good one This is the reason of that common simile of a hors-man riding on a lame horse its halting or lameness proceeds not from the hors-man but from the horse it self Joseph's brethren sold him out of malice God permitted this out of mercy lest he should have been slain for his own glory and for the great advantage and profit of his servant The Jews crucified Christ out of ill-will God the Father permitted this out of his greatest good will towards men Judas betrayed Christ out of covetousness our heavenly Father out of love They err who affirm that God doth incline and force the will of the wicked to commit great and grievous sins to have formed man in his mothers womb with a perversness of nature and a necessity of sinning or to this end to have created Esau to lead a wicked life or to move a thief to kill the innocent and him that is not prepared to die This is most certain that God doth not approve of wickedness neither is he the cause of it yet all things subject themselves to his providence all his creatures rational or irrational all events good or evil But his principal care is of his elect His providence in respect of them is most special We should do well therefore to be patient in adversity thankful in prosperity and hope for the future For our God is omnipotent good and true Hitherto of the first part of the Creed the second follows which is concerning faith in Christ in these words And in Jesus Christ his onely Son our Lord c. The second Person is true God not mere man otherwise he were not the object of our faith He is called Jesus in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a Saviour because he saveth his people Jeschuah Jehoscuah Matth. 1.21 This name JESUS is honey in the mouth melody in the ear a jubile or rejoycing in the heart Others have had this name Joshua a Captain or Leader and Joshua the High Priest But they by the imposition of men Jesus by the denunciation of an Angel Those were saviours by a figure and typically but Jesus truly and in his own nature They brought corporal good things and Jesus spiritual They were ministers or servants He the Master Jesus is a Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or superlatively He alone saveth excluding the creatures There is no other name given under heaven whereby they may be saved Acts 4.12 He saveth from the evil of sin and from the evil of punishment the cause being taken away the effect ceaseth let therefore every faithful soul rejoyce and say O Jesu be thou to me a Jesus or Saviour Secondly our Mediator is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unctus anointed à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ungo to anoint but in Hebrew he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And as he hath his Hebrew name Jeschuah Maschiach because he was to be the Saviour of the Jews so he hath his Greek name Christ because he was to be the Saviour of the Greeks that is of the Gentiles and other nations for all the Gentiles were called Grecians as S. Epist 200. Austin saith because from the time of Alexander the Great the Greeks having the rule almost over all nations did propagate their tongue together with their Empire As the Prophets Priests and Kings were wont to be anointed so likewise Christ was anointed although not in regard of the signe outwardly and ceremonially yet in respect of the thing signified inwardly and really He was anointed because he was ordained to the office of a Mediator and endued with gifts for the accomplishing of the same work of this duty The bestowing of gifts was in reference to his humane nature the ordination to his office was according to either nature Christ was anointed to be a Prophet and a Teacher who should make known the will of his Father to be a High Priest and a Priest that by the sacrifice of his body he might redeem us and that he might always intercede for us to be a King that he might guide us by his word and Spirit This is our duty then that by the odour of his ointments we should run after him Draw thou us O Lord Jesus and we shall run after thee From Christ we are called Christians and this name was first given them at Antioch Act. 11.26 Of his fulness we have all received and he hath made us kings and priests to God our Father We are kings that we should fight against Satan the world yea and against our selves Fortior est qui se quà m qui fortissima vincit He 's stronger that subdues himself by far Then he that conquers greatest walls by war We are Priests that we may sacrifice to God the sacrifice of praise prayer contrition alms righteousness and in fine serve him in all things appertaining to a Christian life We are Prophets that we may know God and knowing him we may truly profess him that we may be Christians not onely in outward profession but also by inward communion that we may be members of the Church not onely in appearance but also in reality and truth As for the remaining titles of our Mediator He is next of all called the Son of God He was his Son according to the Divine nature being light of light and God of God And according to the humane nature after the common manner in respect of creation and after a special manner in respect of conception The Son is the onely begotten for he hath no brethren according to eternal generation nor according to his extraordinary conception yet the elect are called Christs brethren by reason of the Fathers adoption and likeness of humane nature for their liberality charity and for some kinde of conformity they have with Christ Besides our Mediator is called Lord. Lord was a title of the Emperours so high that Cesar Augustus would not be so called as Dio and Tertullian testifie deeming himself to be unworthy of so great a name It seems he did this by Divine instinct that that glorious Title being untouch'd might remain to the onely Son of God The King of kings and Lord of lords who straight after came into the world But at this time the Turks call their Emperour the great Lord and the Tartarians Persians and others of the East countrey Sultan that is Lord. Jesus is our Lord by right of creation because all things were made by him Col. 1.16 by right of redemption which we have through his bloud Col. 1.14 By right of principality for he is the head of all principality and power Col. 2.10 By right of preserving his unto salvation for he giveth life eternal to his sheep Joh. 10.28
at the right hand of God thereby is shown the Majesty of Christ glorified therefore both of them are true in a diverse respect Besides some may argue after this manner The right hand of God is every where the humane nature sitteth at the right hand of God therefore it is every where But in this argumentation you are to say there are four terms as in this which follows The sea compasseth the whole world a certain city is situate by the sea therefore a certain city compasseth the whole world Neither also doth the uniting of two inseparable things require that wheresoever one is the other should be but onely that they are somewhere together and not at a distance This is evident in the soul and in the head which are united inseparably and yet not wheresoever the soul is there is the head when as the soul is in the feet where the head is not But let us give over this subject and be of good courage Christ sitteth at the right hand of God the Father interceding for us O how great a comfort is this Let us therefore embrace the Lord Jesus with our chiefest love and do his will so we shall be blessed when he shall come to judgement of which there is mention made in the next Article From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead That word From thence designs the place from whence the Judge shall come namely from heaven He shall come from thence whither the disciples saw him ascending Acts 1.9 10. And although the work of judgement may be assigned to every one of the Persons according to decree consent and authority yet the exercise of this visible act and the execution is committed to the Son as he is the Son of man As for that place Object Joh. 5.22 The Father judgeth no man to it we say thus He judgeth no man alone and without the Son Answ but by the Son Neither doth that of Christ in any wise contradict this when he saith Joh. 12.47 I came not to judge He speaks there concerning his first coming in the flesh in the which he came not to condemn the world but to save it and not of his second coming which is unto judgement Neither is that which is said of the Apostles that they shall judge the twelve tribes Matth. 19.28 and of the Saints that they shall judge the world 1 Cor. 6.7 any let hereunto for this shall be done of them by way of approbation not of authority The end of Christs Advent or Coming is explained by the distribution of the subjects that he may judge both the quick and the dead under which terms all men altogether are comprehended who are said to be quick of dead in respect of that state which precedes the judgement The quick being they whom the last day of judgement shall surprize alive who in a moment shall be changed from a mortal condition to an immortal The dead those who from the beginning of the world have departed this life and before the last day shall be raised up at length by the trump of the Arch-angel and presented before the judgement-seat of Christ and the Angels are included also who kept not their first station Jude v. 6. and are therefore reserved in chains under darkness to the judgement of the great day 2 Pet. 2.4 It may be objected Object that the devil is now judged Joh. 16.11 and he that beleeveth not is condemned already John 3.18 We answer Answ that this is done in part to wit in the word of God in their own consciences or in respect of the beginning of their punishment but they shall be judged afterwards in regard of the manifestation and promulgation of the judgement already made the exasperation of the punishment and the consummation of the torments both of body and soul The last judgement shall be set up that every one may receive what he hath done in his body whether it be good or evil and that the justice of God may be published to the praise of it Since God is just it is necessary that it be perfectly well with the good and godly and that the wicked and impious be for ever miserable this very thing is not done in this world therefore it is righteous to recompense to them who trouble the godly trouble and to you who are troubled rest when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven 2 Thess 1.7 That there shall certainly be a judgement this we know against the Epicureans but the year moneth day and hour we know not no not the Angels in heaven Mark 13.32 The Fanaticks err who either out of an enthusiastical revelation or Arithmetical calculations and Astrological prognostications do set down the time when the judgement shall be but without a right judgement Let us in the mean time prepare our selves all our days and moments of our lives for the coming of Christ and let us take heed lest that day come upon us unawares and finde us unprepared The last day is hid from us that we might watch all our days it is always unknown that it may be always expected let therefore that terrible trumpet ever make this noise in our ears Arise ye dead and come to judgement The second part of the Creed was concerning the Son of God the third follows of the Holy Ghost I beleeve in the Holy Ghost We are to beleeve that the Holy Ghost is God and that he is the third Person of the Trinity equal to the Father and the Son in all perfection This is clear out of Sacred Writ and the doctrine of the Church which do render equal glory to the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost Yet it may be said Object that he who receives from another is not his equal But the Holy Ghost hath received something from the Father and the Son Ergó This is true of him who receiveth part from another Answ in time successively and by grace but the Holy Ghost received from the Father and the Son the whole essence from eternity and by nature Some may object that he that is sent is not equal to him that sendeth but this doth not hold where the mission or sending is by a voluntary consent He is called a Spirit because he is a spiritual essence and that by way of excellency because he is far above all created spirits It may be objected Object that the Father and the Son are by way of eminency Spirits and holy So they are indeed absolutely Answ and bynature but this is attributed to the Holy Spirit by appropriation as it were a characteristical note and because his proper office is to sanctifie the elect He breathes into our hearts good motions and he himself was breathed from the Father and the Son as from one principle or beginning and this is that which the Oriental or Eastern Fathers do teach when they say that the Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Father by the Son even as we
not sin therefore reign in our mortal bodies that we should obey it in the lusts thereof let us not be buried as it were in sleep and wine but let us reckon our selves dead unto sin and alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. The death of Christ is explained proceed we to his descension into hell Hell in the Scriptures is taken many ways properly for the place of the damned metaphorically for the greatest sorrows and infernal anguishes moreover for the grave and sometimes for extreme ignominy Hence arise the diversities of opinions concerning this Article Some interpret it of the grave but if so the same should be twice put in and declared by a more obscure one which in so perspicuous a Compendium it is not likely would be done It matters not much that this Article was left out in the Nicene Creed perchance the reason of it was because it never came into disputation Howsoever Eusebius who was present at the Council delivereth the same as also S. Athanasius in his Creed received by the Church although he omits the burial Others expound it of the torments of hell Which if they understand thus that Christ before his death felt torments equal to the infernal this opinion is pious enough but if their meaning be that after his death he did really feel the pains of hell it is impious for before this all things were finished If we say as Durandus doth that Christ descended into hell vertually or effectively that is to destroy hell in the behalf of the faithful or if with others that Christ descended to the lowest degree of exinanition or emptying himself verily these opinions contain nothing in them of falshood But some refer this descension to the soul of Christ This opinion that you meet with in Noels Catechism our Church seems to approve of in this sense Christ is said to have descended into hell that he might demonstrate himself to be Conquerer over the devil and all the infernal host that he might strike terrour into the devils and triumph most powerfully over them Many write many things concerning this matter But my judgement is that this Article ought not to be handled subtilly or scrupulously Our English Confession hath so appointed it in the third Article Even as Christ died for us and was buried so also is it to be beleeved that he went down into hell Here is nothing determined of the manner of his descension Let idle wits by their curious speculations search out this and here if I be not deceived they will finde somewhat to do Let it suffice us to beleeve that Christ descended into hell and hath performed all things necessary to our salvation but for the manner how this hereafter will be better known The Papists who have been bold very accurately to describe the parts of hell are not yet agreed whether Christ descended onely into the limbo of the fathers or into Purgatory also whether he delivered any from thence out of his special grace and favour as Thomas doth conjecture or whether he delivered all as Bonaventure and Gabriel or whether also he descended into the place of the damned as Bellarmine affirms They feign that he descended that he might deliver the Fathers out of limbo but we say plainly that limbo is not known or mentioned in Scripture that the souls of the godly were in the hand of God not in hell that the Fathers were redeemed by vertue of the merit of Christ the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world and not at length freed by Christs descension Neither is it any obstacle Object that Christ did preach to the spirits in prison 1 Pet. 3.19 Answ That place is thus explained Christ by the spirit that is by his divinity went that is being sent to the Church by the Father from the beginning and preached not by himself but by Noah to the spirits in prison that is to men whose souls are now in hell who were in time past disobedient that is before the floud while they then lived But it may be objected out of the same Apostle Object that the Gospel was preached to them that were dead 1 Pet. 4.6 Here lieth the fallacy in the words or sentence Answ The Gospel is preached to the dead that is to those who were dead when Peter wrote these sayings but it was preached to them when they were yet alive Others with S. Austin interpret this verse of the Gentiles being spiritually dead before conversion I confess many places out of the Fathers are brought against the Protestants but this consequence holds not good some affirm it therefore it is true We must know also that the Fathers have uttered many things Rhetorically concerning the efficacy of Christs descension into hell and have amplified them in lofty expressions acting like Ecclesiastical Orators and therefore making use of Rhetorical figures not onely to teach magisterially but also to perswade and move the affection Let others contend concerning this matter but thou O. Christian soul hold this faith that thou hast faith sufficient to beleeve that the descension of Christ is the cause of thy ascension on high And so from the degrees of Christs exinanition and the state wherein he was before he made it evident that he was alive let us pass to the degrees of his exaltation amongst which the first that offers it self is the resurrection from the dead The third day he rose again from the dead Christ is said to have risen again on the third day not fully complete but being begun which is typified by Jonah Matth. 12.40 It seemeth notwithstanding that Christ was not three nights in the Sepulchre no not so much as by parts but onely the night of the Sabbath and of the Lords day Here therefore it is to be noted that their days were reckoned from one mid-night 〈◊〉 the other Christ was in the Sepulchre part of Good Friday all the Sabbath day and part of the Lords day on the which he rose early in the morning And so the Romans who then ruled over the Jews did compute their days and nights Christ rose on the third day not sooner that it might manifest him to be truly dead not later because he would not hold his disciples and others any longer comfortless He rose that by his resurrection from the dead he might declare himself with power to be the Son of God And this was merely an effect of his divinity to quicken himself by his own vertue and power wherewith being the Son of God he was invested That the Father is said to have raised the Son is no hinderance to this Eph. 1.20 Object This cometh to pass by reason of the unity of essence in both Answ which is so great that whatsoever the Father doth the same also is the Son said simply to do He rose that he might demonstrate himself to have satisfied for our sins and to have purchased true righteousness for us Unless he had risen we had
say an apple cometh from the root by the branch yet the root and branch are not two principles The pool ariseth from the river and the river from the fountain but the water of the fountain river and pool are all one and the same The Father as the fountain begetteth the Son as the river The Father and the Son as the fountain with the river breathe forth the Holy Ghost as it were a pool yet their essence is one and the same The late Grecians are accused because they think that the Holy Ghost did not proceed from the Son neither will I contend very much to excuse them but if their doctrine were with moderation explained perhaps the difference between them and us may seem to be in words and not in the thing it self And if any urge us more morosely that it is no where said that the Holy Ghost proceeded from the Son we will not contend about the word if he be granted to be the Spirit of the Son no less then of the Father and to be sent from the Son as from the Father which is all one in sense as to proceed Neither do I beleeve that the Grecians will deny this Certainly this procession is done in an unspeakable manner and how it may be done is not for us to search over-curiously The Spirit is said to be Holy because he is essentially holy when as the Angels are so by the grace of creation beleevers by the grace of adoption And again he is said to be Holy because he is the Author of true or perfect holiness he is a quickening Spirit because he is the efficient cause of spiritual life in our souls The body is dead without the soul and the soul is dead without the Spirit Let us say with David O Lord renew a right spirit within us Psal 51.10 and so the short third part of the Creed is briefly explained The fourth follows I beleeve the holy Catholick Church I beleeve the Church was is shall be and that I am a lively member thereof I beleeve not in the Church the affiance of the heart is to be directed onely to God This Church is a company of men that are called who do embrace the word of God and that rightly use the Sacrament The Church is called Ecclesia from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to call forth The convention or meeting of Citizens amongst the Athenians who were called forth by the Cryer from the rest of the company to hear the judgement of the Senate had that name given them answerable to which there are a company of the faithful amongst Christians who by the preaching of the word are called out of the kingdom of the devil to hear Gods will and pleasure The Church is called holy because it is sanctified by the most precious bloud of Jesus because by his merits it is purified through the word sacrament and faith and because it is taken up in the holy exercises of Divine worship and Christian charity They are not true members of the Church who abroad in the world shine in sanctity and at home abound in iniquity nor those who are like to the lascivious Monks whose body is in the Quire and their minde in their chamber of whom Innocentius said of old In the night they embrace venery and in the morning they adore the Virgin From outward sanctity we cannot necessarily conclude the inward holiness of the Church But beloved be you holy within and without To be Saints and seem so is good to seem and not to be such is worst of all Feigned sanctity is double iniquity saith S. Austin To proceed The Church is called Catholick that is Universal This word is not written in the Scriptures but after the times of the Apostles it began to be used The Church is so called because it is gathered out of all kinds of men throughout the whole world and because it doth profess and approve of the Catholick doctrine of the Prophets of Christ and of the Apostles by an unanimous consent So Catholick is the same with Orthodox and it is opposite to heretical as it was first of all opposed to the Arrian heresie and to others not judging aright of the Trinity And they were called Catholicks who did follow the true doctrine of the Divinity of Christ as it was expounded by the Nicene Council This signification of Catholick is the most principal one Where there is not an universality of the faith there the universality of time and place is of no avail If any one should say that the Church of Rome is Catholick in respect of place Object It is a contradiction in the adject Answ because all and one do not agree The Universal and Individual the whole and the part Neither is the Romish Church Catholick in respect of the doctrine of it because it is foully fallen from the faith and fosters most grievous errours Neither doth that make for it that it is called Catholick For it is not enough to be so called but to be such We are not to look what is done but what ought to be done The Pontificians are called Catholicks by us but either according to their own opinion or ironically even as they call us the Reformed But ours is the true Catholick Church because the doctrine thereof was declared by the Apostles throughout the whole world and because it is entertained and received by men of all sorts because it was proposed in all ages although not in a like degree and for that it is consonant and agreeable to Holy Writ Let others please themselves in the beautiful shell of a name we had rather obtain the kernel of the thing Hitherto concerning the Church now let us treat something of the Communion of Saints in the Church Communion is a relation between two or more having something common Saints are the members of the Church which are said to be holy either for the imputation of Christs righteousness or their begun conformity to the law or for their separation from the world The communion of Saints is the common possession and interest which the members of the Church have amongst themselves in Christ their Head and all his benefits and gifts This communion therefore consists First in the union of the members of the Church with their Head Christ which is not the subsistence of the body of Christ within our bodies but the inhabitation of the same Spirit And truly they are three yea four times blessed whose fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ concerning which Saint John speaketh in his first Epistle chap. 1. verse 3. Good God what a noble association is this What is more desireable in this life then to have perfect amity with God the Father and Christ by faith by hope by reciprocal love by mutual colloquies obsequiousness joy by the communication of good things as it is between a father and an adopted son between the bridegroom and the