SERM. fignified any thing to tell them, that Chriftianity V. reduced the whole Number to three ?

The Prophets of Old used to declare against Jer. x. 10. Gods who made not the Earth and the Heavens, let them be never fo few, or never fo great; and the Apoftle followed the fame Clue of Argument, that there was but One who created all Things by himself. Our Gofpel calls People from their Theff. Idols to the only living and true God. When they were baptized it must be in the Faith of David, among the Gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord, Thou only doft wondrous Works: Thou art God alone.

i. 9. Pfalm

If they were not able to deliver this Form of Words in my Text from the Notion of one Supreme, and two fubordinate Deities, they had as good have ftayed where they were, and never been baptized at all. The Difpute was not between Jupiter and Jefus, who was the Mediator, who fhould have the Name of a Titular God, or who fhould have the Honour of inferior Worship, but whether there was any more than one God. • Cor. xii. Whilft they were Gentiles, they were carried away to dumb Idols; at that Time they knew not God.

2.

Gal. iv. 8.

(4.) The very Form of Baptifm itself dashes down all the Notion of three Gods. For had there been fo many, their different Names muft have born fome Proportion to their different Natures, but here it's faid to be all in one Name. As Jehovah is one, fo his Name is one. Thus God tells the Jews, behold I fend mine Angel before Thee - Beware of him and obey xiii. 20, his Voice, provoke him not, for he will not pardon your Iniquities, for my Name is in him, thou fhalt obey HIS Voice, and do all that I fpeak.

Exod.

21, 22.

'Tis

ས.

'Tis against all the Rules of talking to fay we SER M. are lifted in the fingle Name of the King, the Chancellor, and the General of the Army. The Plurality of Characters, under which they are fo much diftinguished, would have been expreffed in another Way. But when we read of one Name only, we must tear the Words afunder, and empty them of all their Senfe, if we conceive of any more than one Being.

(5.) This is contrary to the Profeffion of God's People in all Ages; they have never owned the Tritheiftick Scheme. Though the Arians have charged them with it, I believe it's more than ever the Heathens did; fuch perverfe Things A&s xx. were only to be spoke by Men that arofe from 30. among themselves. Their Confeffions, Creeds, and Catechifms, that are fo much condemned, will clear them of this Charge. 'Tis no great Argument of Modefty for any to fay of them that they did not understand themselves.

When Christianity, like the Day-Star from on High, vifited the World fo long ago, and the Reformation, as a Light, fprung out from a cloudy and dark Day, were they both conducted by a Company of Fools, who worshiped three Gods, and did not know it? 'Tis ftrange that both learned and wayfaring Men, who do Juftice, love Mercy, and walk humbly with their God, should mistake their way in every Act of Devotion. What would the moft illiterate Believer fay, if you told him he was refting his Soul upon more than one God? He has no hard Words to defend his Faith, no fcholaftick Dreams to open it, but you would amaze him to fay there is any more than one Jehovah spoke of in the Bible. This is what I would offer to you against one Extreme of Interpretation that Men put upon those Words. We are baptized into the Name

SERM. of three, but the whole Generation of the Faithful declare with one Voice againft three Gods.

V.

2. As this Notion makes too much Difference between them, fo another makes too little. The Sabellians faid that Father, Son, and Spirit, were. but three Names for one Perfon. That the Fa ther was incarnate, only in that Condition he took the Title of Son, and it is but giving new. Rags to an old Rottennefs, to fay that the Son and Spirit are two Powers of the Father; and that, though thefe are fpoke of in all the Language that belongs to Perfons, yet their Perfonality is only figurative and analogical. But,

Are the Realities of our Faith to be fhammed, and the great Subftantials of the Chriftian Doctrine licked up in a Figure? When fome are robbing Chrift of his Worship, fhall others take away his very Being? The Arians allow him no more than a Titular Deity, and another Scheme brings him down to a Titular Existence? Whither will Men go, who do not refrain their Feet, but love to wander? Here obferve,

(1.) I have as much Argument to prove that the Son and Holy Ghost are Perfons, as we have to prove the Father fo in all the Language of the Bible. There was an old foolish Piece of Philo-: fophy and vain Deceit, called anima mundi, the Soul of the World, which they who writ against it, and they who writ for it too, could make nothing of. But it feems as if they would afcribe no Perfonality to the Creator of all Things. We in Oppofition to them, fay, that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft made the Creation; now fuppofe they tell us, that thefe are not Names of Perfons, but meer Figures of Speech for that fame univerfal Spirit they talk of; and that the Scripture does not mean Perfonality in what it

fays

V.

fays of any of them? Really, according to a late SERM. Notion, their Way lies pretty clear, for here is two Thirds of the Work done to their Hands. But,

I muft answer thofe who deny the distinct Subfiftence of the second and third Perfons, as I would those who oppofe the firft. Would it not be a good Argument, that the Father is not any Property or Power of this univerfal Spirit, because he is fpoke of as contriving, acting, and declaring? I read of his Counfels, his Words, his Nature, his Works. When I hear of One who has laid a Foundation, diftinguished the Rooms, and raised a Fabrick with Heighth and Strength; I conclude, with the Apostle, that every House is built by fome Man. 'Twas not Heb. iii. an invifible Spirit in the Stone and Timber that 3brought them together, but it is done by an Agent: So evident is it, as the fame Apoftle fays, that be who built all Things is God. And, Can the Words bear any other Senfe, when we read of the Son that he was with God; that John i. z. his Goings forth have been of old from everlaft- Mic. v. ? ing; that at the Creation of the Earth he was there, as one brought up with the Father, and rejoicing always before him: [You fee, I mention only those Things that were antecedent to his. Incarnation] When we find that all Things were created by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made, why muft fuch an Account as this, if it was given of the Father, fignify a Perfon, and when it is faid of the Son, be no more than a Power or à Quality?

When the Angels fall down to him that fits on the Throne, they tell him, that for his Pleasure all Things are, and were created; now, is it poffible to understand this of any other than a Perfon? And when the Scripture fays of Christ,

Prov. viii.

25.

V.

Col. i.

་

SERM. that by him were all Things created in Heaven and Earth, vifible and invifible, whether they be Thrones, Dominions, Principalities, or Powers, all were created by him and for him; and he is before all Things, and by him all Things confift, is this fame HE, whofe Title is carried through the whole Story, no more than a Faculty?

16.

16.

When the Spirit is faid to move upon the Face of the Waters, to garnish the Heavens, are not thefe perfonal Actions, as well as giving the Horfe bis Strength, and clothing his Neck with Thunder? We are told what Chrift fays in view of If. xlviii. his Incarnation. I have not fpoke in Secret, from the Beginning, from the Time that it was there am I, and now the Lord God and his Spirit has fent me: Does not the very Sound of the Words lead us into fome Diftinction between this Lord and his Spirit, as if there was a Concurrence of two Agents? Was it ever faid of any that a Man and his Spirit gave out a Commission, that a King and his Soul published a Decree ?

A late nameless Author, in a very little Book, has hung a while upon this Argument, that we are faid to fear the Lord and his Goodness; you may guess at the reft of the Performance by this Paffage, and learn not ex ungue leonem, but ex cauda murem. 'Tis eafy for any one to fee, that the Meaning there is, that as the Lord will be adored, fo in a particular Manner, upon the Account of his Goodness, in the later Days; but whether fuch an Interpretation can be driven into the other Scripture the Lord God and his Spirit, I fhall leave to every ones Judgment; should I have mentioned an Argument fo very low as this, but only to fhew you the Men and their Communication.

nor