The distinctions in the Divine essence of the Trinity are natural, physical distinctions. "Jam de proprietatibus personarum videamus.... Et est proprium solius patris, non quod non est natus ipse, sed quod unum filium genuerit, propriumque solius filii, non quod ipse non genuit, sed quod de patris essentia natus est."--Hylarius in l. iii. de Trinitate. "Nos filii Dei sumus, sed non talis hic filius. Hic enim verus et proprius est filius origine, non adoptione, veritate, non nuncupatione, nativitate, non creatione."--Petrus L. (l. i. dist. 26, cc. 2, 4). "Quodsi dum eum aeternum confitemur, profitemur ipsum Filium ex Patre, quomodo is, qui genitus est, genitoris frater esse poterit?... Non enim ex aliquo principio praeexistente Pater et Filius procreati sunt, ut fratres existimari queant, sed Pater principium Filii et genitor est: et Pater Pater est neque ullius Filius fuit, et Filius Filius est et non frater."--Athanasius (Contra Arianos. Orat. II. Ed. c. T. i. p. 320). "Qui (Deus) cum in rebus quae nascuntur in tempore, sua bonitate effecerit, ut suae substantiae prolem quaelibet res gignat, sicut homo gignit hominem, non alterius naturae, sed ejus cujus ipse est, vide quam impie dicatur ipse non gennisse id quod ipse est."--Augustinus (Ep. 170, § 6. ed. Antwp. 1700). "Ut igitur in natura hominum filium dicimus genitum de substantia patris, similem patri: ita secunda persona Filius dicitur, quia de substantia Patris natus est et ejus est imago."--Melancthon (Loci praecipui Theol. Witebergae, 1595, p. 30). "As a corporeal son has his flesh and blood and nature from his father, so also the Son of God, born of the Father, has his divine nature from the Father of Eternity."--Luther (Th. ix. p. 408). H. A. Roel, a theologian of the school of Descartes and Coccejus, had advanced this thesis: "Filium Dei, Secundam Deitatis personam improprie dici genitam." This was immediately opposed by his colleague, Camp. Vitringa, who declared it an unheard-of thesis, and maintained: "Generationem Filii Dei ab aeterno propriissime enunciari." Other theologians also contended against Roel, and declared: "Generationem in Deo esse maxime veram et propriam."--(Acta Erudit. Supplem. T. i. S. vii. p. 377, etc.). That in the Bible also the Filius Dei signifies a real son is unequivocally implied in this passage: "God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son." If the love of God, which this passage insists upon, is to be regarded as a truth, then the Son also must be a truth, and, in plain language, a physical truth. On this lies the emphasis that God gave his own Son for us--in this alone the proof of his great love. Hence the Herrnhut hymn-book correctly apprehends the sense of the Bible when it says of "the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is also our Father:" "His Son is not too dear. No! he gives him up for me, that he may save me from the eternal fire by his dear blood. Thou hast so loved the world that thy heart consents to give up the Son,