2 Pet. i. thought to be Thunder. He received this Ho- SERM• nour from God the Father in the Mount of IV. Transfiguration, who spoke out of the excellent Glory; nay, the Works that the Father had gi- John xii. ven him to do, bore Witnefs of him; that the 29; 30. Father was in him and he in the Father, because 17. the Father who dwelt in him did the Works; he xiv. 10. refigned himself back again in his last Prayer, Holy Father I come to thee. He was raised from xvii. 11. the Dead by the Glory of the Father. the Father. He was the fame way rewarded and admired for what he had done; the Lord faid unto our Lord, fit Pf. cx. 1, thou at my Right Hand. His Deity is proclaimed, his Title to univerfal Duty established by the Mouth of the Father, for it's He that fays to the Son, Thy Throne, O God, is for ever and Heb. i. 6. ever. iii. I. Jam. i. 18. Befides, what he does as the Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift, he is revealed under a perfonal Friendship to his People. The God and Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift has bleffed us Eph. i. 3. with all Spiritual Bleffings in heavenly Things. 1 Pet. We are elect, according to the Fore-knowledge! John of God the Father. It is the Father who has beftowed this Love upon us, that we should be ver. 27. called the Sons of God. It is He, who, of his John xvii. own Will, has begotten us again, by the Word 1. of Truth: Pure Religion is a thing before God and our Father. This holy Father keeps us through Rev. i. 4. his own Name. Our Faith and Hope fixes upon him, who raised up the Lord from the Dead. 32. Grace, Mercy and Peace come from him, it is the Father's good Pleasure to give us the Kingdom. We have no other Word than that of Father, to exprefs his perfonal Honour. To fay that he alone is called God, or that he is diftinguished by the Name Jehovah from the Son and Spirit, H 3 will II. Rom. iv. 24. Luke xii. SER M. 22. 23. will fo entangle a great Number of Scriptures. that we shall be hard put to it to find either Truth or Senfe in them.-Religion has taken Care, in all our Homage to him, who bought us with his own Blood, to preferve a Duty to the Father whom no Man has feen, nor can see. The 1 John ii. Apostle John calls him Anti-chrift who denies the Father and the Son, and goes on with his Argument, who ever denies the Son, the fame has not the Father. They have no feparate Intereft or divided Glory. Let that therefore, faith he, abide in you, which ye have heard from the Beginning.. If that which ye have beard from the Beginning remain in you, ye alfo fhall continue in the Son, and in the Father. And in his fecond Epiftle he repeats what he 2 John 9. faid in the firft, whoever tranfgreffes and abides not in the Doctrine of Chrift has not God, he that abides in the Doctrine of Christ has both the John Father and the Son. Truly our Fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jefus Chrift. 24. i. 2. x. 48. xvi. 21. 2. We are alfo baptized into the Name of THE SON as plainly as that of the Father. As Peter exhorted the Jews, repent and be baptized Acts ii. 38. in the Name of the Lord Jefus ; fometimes it is called the Name of the Lord. The Jailor was to believe on the Lord Jefus Chrift, and then he was baptized. His Communion in those Titles that are used to fignify the divine Nature you Ifa. ix. 6. have often heard. He is called the mighty God, the Judge of all the Earth, the everlasting Father. This is not to exprefs his Perfonality, but either to show that he thought it no Robbery to be equal with God, or to fignify that he is the Author of eternal Life to Men and Angels. He is Jehovah, the God of Ifrael, to whom every Knee fhall bow and every Tongue confefs. IV. In this Ordinance of Baptifm we are to con- SER M. fider him two Ways. Firft, as one with the Father in Nature and Perfection; and, fecondly, as diftinct from him in Character and Operation. He is that Life who was with the Father, and is 1 John manifefted to us. i. 2. The Titles that exprefs this Difference are chiefly these two; the WORD and the Son of God. The former fignifies a Nearness of Communion, the latter an Identity of Nature. Tho' each of these Names are used among Men; yet, in this Cafe, they are as much above all Reason and Argument as they are above all Bleffing and Praife. For who has afcended up into Heaven Prov. or defcended, who has gathered the Wind in his xxx. 4. Fifts, who has established the Ends of the Earth, who has folded up the Waters in a Garment? What is his Name, and what his Son's Name, if thou canft tell? The Father has been pleased to reveal himself under no other perfonal Name, but what fignifies a Relation to the Son. The Son indeed goes by these two, but when he takes them both, it is to how us, that we must not compare fpiritual Things with carnal. We are not to think, as we speak, after the Manner of Men. A Word is nearer to us than a Son; it is either a Principle within us, or the Voice that is uttered by us : It is what we either have or do from ourselves; but it can never be a Perfon, it is only our own; the most intimate Friend has nothing to do with it. On the other Hand, a Son must be a Perfon as diftinct from us as any other Man in the World; no nearness of Relation hinders a fepa rate Subfiftence. These two Names can never meet in a Creature. It would be ridiculous to call a Word a Son, it is not fubftantial enough; and as abfurd H 4 would SERM. Would it be to call a Son a Word, because he is IV. too fubftantial for the Name. No Mortal ever Pf. xcv. talked of begetting a Word, or of Speaking a Son; And therefore God never defigned, in ufing this Language, that we should confound and entangle it with our own. The very Names themfelves are wonderful. There is not Diftinction enough between a Man, his Word, and his Spirit, to be called three; and yet there is too much Diftinction between a Father and a Son to have them called one in Perfon. If Chrift had never gone by another Name than that of the Word, we fhould not have imagined his Diftinction from the Father; and if he had never been called any thing but a Son, it would not have fignified, that intimate, infeparable, and eternal Union, that he has with him. But when he is faid to be the Word of God, it fhows us that he has his Nature; and when he is faid to be his Son, it declares that Nature under a perfonal Diftinction.. To this Son, this Word, are we refigned in Baptifm; we confider him as that Sovereign whose Name is called upon us. We defire to be known in our Relation to him, and declare the fame Homage to him that we do to the Father: For thefe Reasons, 1. This Son has made us, and therefore in Baptifm we only take our Share in that univerfal Duty that he demands from the whole Action. Why do we worship and bow down before the Lord; but because he is our Maker, we are the Work of his Hands, and the Sheep of his Pafture? This is faid of Chrift, if the Apostle Heb. iii. has understood David right. Take Heed, fays 12, 14. be, left there be in any of you an evil Heart of Unbelief 6, 7. Unbelief in departing from the living God, for SERM. we are made Partakers of CHRIST. IV. Of this Homage Baptism is both an Entrance and an Earneft. We read that the Gentiles turned from dead Idols to ferve the living and true God.! Theff. i. 9. How did this appear? What was the first Evidence they gave of it to the World, but in being baptized? The Argument to turn them from their Idols was this, that they were now bowing to Gods who never made them, whofe Off-fpring they were not; and that pure Religion called for their Duty to Him, in whom we live and move and have our Being. And it would have been in vain for the Apostle to perfuade their taking upon them the Name of the only true God, if that Name was given to any Person who is not God. This is an Article of meer Revelation. Tho' the Light of Nature might tell them there was one fupreme Caufe, who by the Things that are Rom. i. made, had given Proofs of his eternal Power and 22. Godhead; yet could that ever tell them of the Son of God, and that all Things were made by Heb. i. 3. him? Would this ever have let them know, John i. 3. that there was a Plurality of Perfons in the divine Nature, or have attributed the Frame of the Universe to any more than one? And yet This is the plain Language of the Bible, that by Chrift Jefus all Things were created, whether Col. i. 16. in Heaven or in Earth, vifible and invifible, Thrones, Dominions, Principalities, and Powers, all Things were created by him, and for him: And therefore, when this Doctrine of the Scripture was to be overthrown, it was the fafeft way to write an Appeal, not to a Jew or a Christian, but to a Turk or an Indian: They, to be fure, will give it for the Appellant. When the Saints come to judge the World, we may guess how the |