III.

Particulars to be the Cafe, if I am driven out SERM. from this Chain of Doctrines; firft, that he defigned Baptifm to be an act of the greatest Homage and Adoration. Secondly, That he directed this by his own Order, to no other than the most high God; and, thirdly, that he speaks of this one God, in the Name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft.

II. Another Article of Faith contained in the Form of Baptifm is the UNITY of the Godhead. This you will collect from an Observation that I gave you before, that we are baptized not into Names, as if there were Gods many and Lords many, but into the Name of God, to fhow that there is no more than one. Now that the Lord has extended his Empire, and is King over all the Earth, in this Day there fhall be one Lord, Zech. and bis Name one.

xiv. 9.

This was ever the grand Article of revealed Religion, as you may fee by comparing our Saviour's Words with the Preface to the Ten Com mandments. In the original Edition of them we read it thus: I am the Lord thy God, who brought Exod. thee out of the Land of Egypt, and the Houfe of xix. z. Bondage. I believe it is eafily proved, that the Perfon, in the Divine Nature, who fuffered himself to be visible, on that Occafion, was the Son. He appeared to Abraham in Mefopotamia, to Actsvii. 3Jacob at Luz, to Mofes at Horeb; the Similitude of the Lord did he behold, though no Man had feen the Father at any Time. And yet when John vi. Chrift has Occafion to speak of this, he does it 46. with a Testimony, not to the Concern of that one Perfon, nor to the Three who bear Record in Heaven, but to the Unity that was among them.

The

SERM.

III.

John v.

19.

Rom. i.

21.

The Scribes having asked him which was the firft Commandment of all, he anfwers the first of all the Commandments is this, Hear, O Ifrael, the Lord our God is one Lord; from whence you may argue, that though he then made known himself as rejoicing in the habitable Parts of the Earth, yet what he did was in the fame Nature with the Father and Holy Spirit; and this is the Senfe of thofe Words, the Son does nothing of bimfelf; i. e. He acts in an eternal Unity of Nature with the Father; the Expreffion cannot import any Inferiority, because it's faid in univerfal Terms that whatever Things the Father does, these does the Son likewife. The Scribe himself faith to him, well, Mafter, thou haft faid the Truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but he. Nor does our Lord contradict him, but owns that he answered difcreetly.

This Unity of the Godhead is the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets. There is no Variety of Doctrines upon this Head between the Old and New Teftament: And in this it is diftinguished from all the Light of Nature, I mean fince the Fall, by which the Light that is in us became Darkness. There were indeed fome Sketches of this Truth among the Gentiles; an eternal Power and Godhead may be argued from the Things that do appear: But we know how deficient they were in this matter; though it seems so easy to human Reason, now that Revelation has fet it a thinking.

1. It was in all Ages and Countries the undeniable Doctrine that God revealed. We read of fome few among the learned Heathen that confeffed it, but it was fo far from being the univerfal Opinion, that one Perfon died a Martyr for it. Now wherever Revelation comes it's fo established, that they all know it from the leaft

to

to the greatest. It was not the Difcovery of one SERM. more eminent than all the reft, but they who are III. only Babes in knowledge receive it upon the greatest Evidence. Such Care does the Holy Spirit take to keep all thofe under his Inftruction. from the Practice of Tritheifm, though fuch is the rant of Herefy, that it will not fuffer us to be kept from the Charge. We know of no more than one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one Eph.iv.5. God and Father of all.

2. Revelation always told us who this One God was. It is not a national Difpute as it used to be, whether the God of the Philistines or the Moabites was fuperior: But we are as much determined upon the Question, who is the Lord, as that there is but one. This is what the People of Ifrael pleaded in their Arguments, and this he pleaded among them by his Miracles. They tell Pharaoh, that their God was over all the Earth. The Shepherd of Ifrael had the Earth in Pf. xxiv. bis Hands and the Fulness thereof. Naaman the 1.

Syrian owned, that there is no God but in Ifrael. The Name that he went by to diftinguifh him from other Deities was that of Jehovah. This Daniel profeffes, there is a God in Heaven that Dan ii. reveals Secrets; and Nebuchadnezzar owns, of a 28, 47. Truth, your God is a God of Gods, and a Lord of Kings, and a revealer of Secrets.

3. They always understood by this one God a Being that made the World, not by Proxies or Deputies. They knew it was the Dignity of their God to breathe out a Creation; he spake Pf. xxxiii. and it was done, be commanded and it stood faft. 9. The Egyptians and Perfians had fome Notions of the fupreme Deity, but they fuppofed him not to be the Maker of the Universe, and imagined his Glory like that of their own Kings to consist in a flothful Grandeur. It is from their wooden Di

vinity,

SERM. vinity, that we have the ftupid Notion of God's III. creating the World by an Inftrument; whereas the Bible has taught us to think of the most High, as poffefling his Glory in a perpetual Heb. i. 3. Energy; upholding all Things by the Word of bis Power. The Father works hitherto, and Chrift works, not a Sparrow falls to the Ground Rom. xi. without our Father. Of him, and to him, and through him, are all Things.

ult.

8.

4. In fpeaking of one God, according to the Language of Revelation, all inferior Deities are Pf.lxxxvi. ftruck off. Among the Gods there is none like unto thee O Lord, neither are there any Works like to thy Works; but afterwards he fweeps them out of the Comparison, thou art great and doeft wondrous Things, thou art God alone. We do not only confefs a Supreme, but that there is no other; no Communication of the divine Nature, no Distribution of the divine Honour, nor Partnership in the divine Worship. The Heathen had their Gods many, and Lords many, but to us there is one God the Father, of whom are all Things, and one Lord Jefus Chrift, by whom are all Things. It is this that we mean in Baptifm. Should we fuppofe that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft were one God and two Creatures, our Diftinction from the Heathen would not be in the Unity of the Godhead, but only in the Names of those that are nearest to him. And thus we may be fuppofed not to quarrel with them about the true God, but about the Ministers of State, thofe that fee the King's Face, and fit firft in the Kingdom.

I Cor.

viii. 6.

SER

SERMON IV.

The Unity of the Godhead is to be underftood of the divine Nature. Neither more nor less than a Trinity of Perfons. Reasons why Baptifm is in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, or Word; a Comparison between these two Titles. He is our Creator, Redeemer, Sovereign. And of the Spirit being called our Maker, God, and Saviour.

III.

T

HOUGH this Form of Words SERM. fignifies our Adoration to no IV. more than one God, yet it gives us an Account of three, into whofe undivided Name we are baptized. And this agrees to the perpetual Revelation of the Bible, for there we read of the most high God, either with Regard to his Effence, or with a Declaration of his Perfonality.

1. He is often mentioned in the Unity of his Nature. The Names of God, and Lord, or Jebovab, the Almighty, the Eternal, and feveral other Titles, are used with an individual Application; they are given to no more than one. Thus it's faid, Thou art God, even thou alone, Pf.lxxxvi. i. c. 8.