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fession, as well as a Trinity of persons. If men are determined to dash the one of them against the other we cannot help it. The scripture has made them consistent, harmonious, and certain. If any are resolved that God shall not be justified in his sayings, they will find, that whosoever falls upon this stone shall be broken to pieces, but upon whomsoever it falls, it will grind him to powder.

2. Though the most high God is no more. than one, yet he has revealed himself with a distinction, neither greater nor less than that of a Trinity. We cannot by all our searching, find qut more than three, and we must wink hard upón a cloud of witnesses, to make them fewer. Isaiah the evangelical prophet, and John the prophetical evangelist, had their visions much alike. They each of them heard the Cherubims cry out holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty. Is. vi. 3. Rev. iv. 8. The same manner of speaking obtains in the Church below O Lord hear, O Lord forgive, O Lord, hearken and do. Dan. ix. 19. There is no occasion to pass off these repetitions, for a pressure 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 less than three, that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and that these three are but one. 1 John. v. 7. It is much easier to disqualify such a text, than it is to answer it. That was the old trick of Sa

tan, when he could not over-rule the authority of a command, he disputed its validity; yea, has God said it? Gen. iii. 4. And when once he brought our parents to question a revelation, he soon brought them to disobey it.

But is this the only form of words, that tell us of one God in three persons? If people are determined not to admit of that verse, has the bible given us no other? Yes, we have the truth, and we have it more abundantly. What sense can we possibly fix upon words, if there is no Trinity in the divine nature ? What does the apostle mean by the form of blessing, or our Saviour by that of baptism? The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost. 2 Cor. xiii. ult. So again, grace be to you, from him who is, was, and is to come; and from the seven Spirits before his throne, and from Jesus Christ. Rev. i. 5. 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 Jesus. 1 Pet. i. 3.

Thus did the apostles talk to people after their baptism, agreeably to the instructions they had before it. When they entered themselves 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. There is an uniformity in these methods of speaking, that the bible gives us.

Whether we are baptized, or blessed, it is into the name of three. The number is never en larged, and never diminished. If the scripture had not designed we should have spoken of so many, in our professions and adorations, we should 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 single person in the Trinity. I shall endeavour to show 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 blessed Lord, and a memorial of his authority over the Churches, yet he was not setting up a separate empire. Thus I understand what he says as expressing not a subjection, but a communion in the Godhead. My Father works hitherto, and I work. The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do; for whatsoever things he does, these does the Son also. I can of my own self do nothing; as I hear, I judge. John v. 17, 19. Every person in the divine nature, has a concern in our salvation; in the council of peace, where it was laid; in the publication of the gospel, where it is revealed; and in the actual gift by which it is conveyed. Eph. iv. 4, 5, 6. Thus we read of one spirit, one Lord, and one God and Father. As baptism 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 called by thy name. Is. lxiii. 16, 19.

Indeed the Father was never incarnate. He is not God manifest in the flesh, nor will he in person judge the world. But yet there is no danger of his being left out in the homage of our worship, who has so great a place in the revelation of the word. John v. 22. Belie vers cannot overlook him, as some vainly imagine. There is no possibility of adoring the Son above the Father, as it slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we do.*

The Father's being the fountain of the deity is a foolish and dangerous expression. The scripture has given us no authority for these 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 vainbabbling.

The word Father, is plainly relative, and the relative to it is a Son: nor is there any priority to be concluded from the use of these 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 cne dare to carry such an argument into the divine nature?

The ordinance of baptism, agrees to the whole doctrine of the Christian faith. By that we are taught that as our salvation is the work of the most high God, so every person * Mr. Emlyn.

who is known by that name, has a part peculiar to himself in this great affair.

The Father sanctified, and sent our Redeemer into the world; John x 36. He owned him at his baptism, by a title that was never given to any of the angels; for to which of them was it said, thou art my Son? Heb. i. 5. The Holy Ghost appeared in a visible form; the Father is an audible sound. Matt. iii. 16. A voice came from heaven, which the people thought to be thunder. John xii. 29, 30. He received this honour from God the Father, in the mount of transfiguration, who spoke out of the excellent glory. Nay, the works that the Father had given him to do, 2 Pet. i. 17. bore witness of him, that the Father was in him and he in the father, because the Father who dwelt in him did the works. He resigned himself back again in his last prayer, holy Father I come to thee. xvii. 11. He was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. He was the same way rewarded and admired for what he had done; the Lord said unto my Lord sit thou at my right hand. Ps. cx. 1. His deity is proclaimed; his title to universal duty established by the mouth of the Father, for it is he that says to the Son, thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever. Heb. i. 6.

Besides what he does, as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, he is revealed under a personal friendship to his people. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, has blessed us with all spiritual blessings, in heavenly things. Eph. i. 3. We are elect according to the fore