read of some few among the learned heathen that confessed it: but it was so far from being the universal opinion, that one person died a martyr for it. Now wherever revelation comes it is so established, that they all know it, from the least to the greatest. It was not the discovery of one, more eminent than all the rest; but they who are only babes in knowledge, recieve it upon the greatest evidence. Such care does the Holy Spirit take, to keep all those under his instruction, from the practice of Tritheism: though such is the rant of heresy, that it will not suffer us, to be kept from the charge. We know of no more than one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. Epli. iv.5.

2. Revelation always told us who this one God is. It is not a national dispute as it used to be, whether the God of the Philistines or the Moabites was superior. 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 Israel 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 Israel hath the earth in his hands and the fulness thereof. Ps. xxiv. 1. Naaman the Syrian owned, that there is no God but in Israel. The name that he went by, to distinguish him from other deities, was that of Jehovah. This Daniel professes, there is a God in heaven that reveals secrets; and Nebuchadnezzar owns, of a truth, your God is a God of gods, and a lord

of kings, and a revealer of secrets. Dan. it. 28, 47.

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 and it was done, he commanded and it stood fast. Ps. xxx. iii. 9. The Egyptians and Persians had some notions of the supreme Deity: but they supposed him not to be the maker of the universe, and imagined his glory like that of their own kings, to consist in a slothful grandeur. It is from their wooden divinity, that we have the stupid notion of God's creating the world by an instrument; whereas the bible has taught us to think of the most High, as possessing his glory in a perpetual energy; upholding all things by the word of his power. Heb. i. 3. The Father works hitherto, and Christ works. Not a sparrow falls to the ground without our Father. Of him, and to him, and through him, are all things. Rom. xi. ult.

4. In speaking of one God, according to the language of revelation, all inferior deities are struck off. Psal. lxxxvi. 8. Among the Gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord, neither are there any works like to thy works; but afterwards they are swept out of the comparison thou art great and doest wondrous things, thou art God alone. We do not only confess a supreme, but that there is no other; no communication of the divine nature, no distribution of the divine honour, nor partner

ship 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 Jesus Christ, by whom are all things. 1 Cor. viii. 6. It is this that we mean in baptism. Should we suppose that the Father, Son, and holy Ghost were one God and two creatures, our distinction 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 he may be sup posed, not to quarrel with them about the true God, but about the ministers of state, those that see the king's face, and sit first in the kingdom.

SERMON IV.

The unity of the Godhead is to be understood of the divine nature. Neither more nor less than a Trinity of persons. Reasons why baptism 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 cal led our Maker, God, and Saviour.

III. THOUGH this form of words signifies, our adoration to no more than one God, yet it gives us an account of three, into whose 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 essence, or with a declaration of his personality.

11. He is often mentioned in the unity of his nature. The names of God, and Lord, or Jehovah, the Almighty, the Eternal, and several other titles, are used with an individual application. They are given to no more than one. Thus it is said, thou art God, even thou alone, Ps. lxxxvi. 8. i. e. there is a meaning of the word that is only thine. Creatures may have the name, but without the sense that it contains, when it belongs to thee. So again, thou whose name alone is Jehovah; and hear Israel, Jehovah our God is one Jehovah: Ps. lxxxiii. 18. Jehovah is one and his name one in all the earth. Deut. vi. 4. There is but one Almighty; it is the attribute, not of a person, but a nature, to distinguish it from all that are derived and limited. He is the king eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God. 1 Tim. i. 17.

Then the several divine perfections of wisdom, goodness, truth, and purity, are laid down in the Bible, as the glories of that one Being, of whom it is said that he is, and that there is none besides him. They are applied to him, as they never can be to any other. What the creature has of them, is in a degree so much lower, that they still continue in the language of the Old and New Testament, to be the attributes of no more than one. Thus saith Hannah, there is none holy as the Lord, for there is none besides him; 1 Sam. ii. 2. and

Christ himself proclaims, the unity and excellence of the Godhead, there is none good but one, and that is God; Matt. xix. 17. and the apostle brings it in, among the heads of adoration, to God only wise be glory and dominion for ever. Rom. xvi. 27.

This is the voice of nature, the doctrine of: the creation, that 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 detest the opinion of two or three deities, as much as of three hundred. To suppose that any such error is to be found in scripture, is to make the holy writings devour themselves.› They are visibly designed against all idolatry, and can never build up the thing, which they have so heartily destroyed.

I press this matter with fervency, to shew that we are fallen into the hands of wicked and unreasonable men, 2 Thess. iii. 2. as they are who have not faith. False witnesses rise 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 tritheistic scheme, for three conscious minds, against all our declaration for ONE ONLY living and true God; it shews that people are resolved, to set their mouths against the heaven, and their tongue runs wild and uncontrolled over the earth. The unity of the divine nature is always a sacred part of our good con