18.

SERM. i. e. there is a meaning of the Word that is only IV. thine: Creatures may have the Name, but without the Senfe that it contains when it belongs Pf. lxxxiii. to thee. So again, Thou whofe Name alone is Jehovah; and hear Ifrael, Jehovah our God is Deut. vi. one Jehovah : Jehovah is one and his Name one in all the Earth. There is but one Almighty; it is the Attribute, not of a Perfon, but a Nature, to diftinguish it from all that are derived and limited. He is the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wife God.

4.

1 Tim.

i. 17.

Then the feveral divine Perfections of Wifdom, Goodness, Truth, and Purity, are laid down in the Bible, as the Glories of that one Being, of whom it is faid that he is, and that there is none befides him. They are applied to him as they never can be to any other. What the Creature has of them is in a Degree fo much lower, that they ftill continue in the Language of the Old and New Testament to be the Attributes of no more than one. Thus faith Hannah, there is none holy as the Lord, for there is none befides bim; and Chrift himself in his human Nature lays no claim to what is totally divine; there is Matt. xix. none good but one, and that is God; and the Apoftle brings it in among the Heads of Adoration, Rom. xvi. to God only wife be Glory and Dominion for

1 Sam. ii. 2.

17.

This is the Voice of Nature, the Doctrine of the Creation, the eternal Power and Godhead belong to no more than one, and the Glory owing to it is what he will never give to another. To that Supreme undoubted Article does the whole Revelation of the Bible agree; that there is but one only, the living and true God. We deteft the Opinion of two or three Deities, as much as of three Hundred. To fuppofe that any fuch Error is to be found in Scripture, is to

make

IV.

make the holy Writings devour themfelves: SER M. They are visibly defigned against all Idolatry, and can never build up the thing which they have fo heartily deftroyed.

111. 2.

I prefs this Matter with a Fervency, to fhew that we are fallen into the Hands of wicked and unreasonable Men, as they are who have not 2 Theff, Faith Falfe Witneffes rife up against us, and lay to our Charge things that we know not. When any tell us, as a Number of vain Talkers do, that we are for the Tritheiftick Scheme, for three confcious Minds, against all our Declarations for ONE ONLY living and true God, it shows that People are refolved to fet their Mouths against the Heaven, and their Tongue runs wild and uncontrouled over the Earth. The Unity of the divine Nature is always a facred Part of our good Confeffion, as well as a Trinity of Perfons. If Men are determined to dafh the one of them against the other we cannot help it: The Scripture has made them confiftent, harmonious, and certain: And if any are refolved that God fhall not be juftified in his Sayings, they will find, that whofoever falls upon this Stone fhall be broken to Pieces, but upon whomfoever it falls, it will grind him to Powder.

Though the most high God is no more than one, yet he has revealed himself with a Diftin&tion neither greater nor lefs than that of a Trinity. We cannot by all our Searching find out more than three, and we muft wink hard upon a Cloud of Witneffes to make them fewer. Ifaiah the Evangelical Prophet, and John the Prophetical Evangelift, had their Visions much alike; they each of them heard the Cherubims If. vi. 3. cry out Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty. Rev. iv. The fame Manner of fpeaking obtains in the Church below; O Lord hear, O Lord forgive, Dan. ix.

H

8.

O 19.

7.

SERM. O Lord, hearken and do. There is no Occafion to IV. pass off these Repetitions for a Preffure of Zeal, as if they were a Rapture and not an Argument, because they agree to the rest of the Bible.

We are plainly told of neither more nor lefs 1 John v. than three that bear Record in Heaven; the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and that these three are but one. It is much easier to disqualify fuch a Text than it is to anfwer it. That was the old Trick of Satan, when he could not over-rule the Authority of a Command, he disputed its VaGen. iii. lidity; yea, has God faid it! And when once he brought our Parents to question a Revelation, he foon brought them to disobey it.

4.

2 Cor.

But is this the only Form of Words that tell us of one God in three Perfons? If People are determined not to admit of that Verfe, has the Bible given us no other? Yes, we have the Truth, and we have it more abundantly. What Senfe can we poffibly fix upon Words, if there is no Trinity in the divine Nature? What does the Apostle mean by the Form of Bleffing, or our Saviour by that of Baptifm? The Grace of our Lord Jefus Christ, the Love of God, and the Rev. i. 5. Communion of the Holy Ghoft. So again, Grace be to you, from him who is, was, and is to come; and from the feven Spirits before his 1 Pet. i. 3. Throne, and from Jefus Chrift: So, you are elect according to the Fore-knowledge of God the Father, through Sanctification of the Spirit, and the Sprinkling of the Blood of Jefus.

xiii, ult.

Thus did the Apostles talk to People after their Baptifm, agreeable to the Inftructions they had before it. When they entered themfelves into the Family of God by that Ordinance, they were not left to do it in their own Words; the Form was provided before hand, they did it in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Ghost. There is an Uniformity in thefe Me- SERM. thods of fpeaking that the Bible gives us; whe- IV. ther we are baptized or bleffed it is into the Name of three. The Number is never enlarged, and never diminished. If the Scripture had not defigned we should have spoke of fo many in our Profeffions and Adorations, we fhould never have had their Names: But it is plain, that though our Surrender in Baptism, is to the only living and true God, yet we cannot leave out any fingle Perfon in the Trinity. I fhall endeavour to fhow you in what regards the Believer gives up either himself or his Infant, to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

1. This is done in the Name of THE FATHER, though it is the Appointment of our bleffed Lord, and a Memorial of his Authority over the Churches, yet he was not setting up a separate Empire. Thus I understand what he fays as expreffing not a Subjection, but a Communion in the Godhead. My Father works hitherto, and I work: The Son can do nothing of himself, John v. but what he fees the Father do; for whatsoever 17, 19. Things he does, thefe does the Son alfo. I can of my own felf do nothing; as I hear, I judge. Every Perfon in the divine Nature has a Concern

in our Salvation. In the Council of Peace, where Eph. iv. it was laid, in the Publication of the Gofpel, 4, 5, 6. where it is revealed, and in the actual Gift by which it is conveyed. Thus we read of one Spirit, one Lord, and one God and Father. As Baptifm is a Declaration of the Hope that is in us, we do it with regard to him from whom it comes. Doubtless thou art our Father, we are If lxiii. 16, 19. called by thy Name.

Indeed the Father was never incarnate, he is not God manifeft in the Flefh, nor will he in

IV.

SERM. Perfon judge the World: But yet there is no Danger of his being left out in the Homage of our Worship, who has fo great a Place in the John v. Revelation of the Word. Believers cannot overlook him, as fome vainly imagine. There is no Poffibility of adoring the Son above the Father, as it is flanderously reported, and as fome affirm

22.

Mr. Em

lyn.

John x.

36.

Matt. iii,

16.

that we do.

The Father's being the Fountain of the Deity is a foolish and dangerous Expreffion, the Scripture has given us no Authority for thefe Similitudes. The great God is the Fountain of Life, and the Fountain of living Waters, but to talk of Divinity as a Thing derived by one, and springing from another, is profane and vain-babbling.

The Word Father, is plainly relative, and the relative to it is a Son, nor is there any priority to be concluded from the Ufe of thefe Words. No Being can be a Father till he has a Child, and therefore his antecedent Existence to it must be fetched from another Name: That of Father does not prove it. Our Fathers were Men before they became Fathers, but will any one dare to carry fuch an Argument into the divine Nature?

The Ordinance of Baptifm agrees to the whole Doctrine of the Christian Faith, and by that we are taught, that as our Salvation is the work of the most high God, fo every Perfon who is known by that Name, has a Part peculiar to himself in this great Affair.

The Father fanctified, and fent our Redeemer into the World; he owned him at his Baptifm, by a Title that was never given to any of the Heb. i. 5. Angels; for to which of them was it said, thou art my Son? The Holy Ghost appeared in a visible Form, the Father in an audible Sound. A Voice came from Heaven, which the People

thought