A. 3. We please God, when we bliss.-2. We must love him with dedicate our heart to give him the a love of complacency: amor est best of every thing. Abel gave complacentia amantis in amato, God the fat of the offering, Gen. ACQUIN. Our love to other iv. 4. Domitian would not have things must be more indifferent; his image carved in wood, or iron, some drops of love may run bebut in gold. Then we please side to the creature, but the full God, when we serve him with love, fervency, alacrity; we give him golden services, here lies our wisdom and piety, to please God. There is but one God, therefore there is but One whom we have chiefly to please, namely, God. stream must run towards God; the creature may have the milk of our love, but we must keep the cream of our love for God; God who is above all, must be loved above all, Ps. lxxiii. 25., "There is none upon earth that I desire besides thee." A. 4. If there be but one God, then we must pray to none but God. The Papists pray to saints and angels: 1. To saints. A Popish writer saith, "when we pray to the saints departed, they, being touched with compassion, say the like to God for us, as the disciples did to Christ for the Canaanitish woman, Mat. xv. 23., lips." God is a jealous God, and 'Send her away, for she crieth he will not endure that we should after us." The saints above know have other gods. It is easy to not our wants, Isa. lxiii. 16., commit idolatry with the creaAbraham is ignorant of us; or, ture: 1. Some make a god of if they did, we have no warrant pleasure, 2 Tim. iii. 4., " Lovers to pray to them. Prayer is a of pleasure, more than lovers of part of divine worship, which God." Whatever we love more must only be given to God. 2. than God, we make a God.-2. They pray to angels. Angel- Others make money their God; worship is forbidden, Col. ii. 18, the coveteous man worships the 19.; and that we may not pray image of gold, therefore he is to angels, is clear from Rom. x. called an idolator, Eph. v. 5. 14., "How shall they call then That which a man trusts to, he on him in whom they have not makes his god; but he makes the believed?" We may not pray to wedge of gold his hope, he makes any but whom we may believe money his creator, redeemer, and in; but we may not believe in comforter. It is his creator, if any angel, therefore we may not he hath money, then he thinks pray to him. There is but one he is made; it is his redeemer, God, and it is a sin to invoke any if he be in danger, he trusts in but only God. his money to redeem him out; it Use 2d. Of Caution. If there be but one God, then let us take heed of setting up more gods than one: Ps. xvi. 4., "Their sorrows shall be multiplied, that hasten after another God; their drinkofferings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names into my A. 5. If there be but one God, is his comforter, -if at any time who is above all,' Eph. iv. 6., he be sad, the golden harp drives then he must be loved above all. away the evil spirit; so that 1. We must love him with a money is his god. God made love of appreciation; set the man of the dust of the earth, and highest estimate on him, who is man makes a god of the dust of the only fountain of being and the earth.-3. Another makes a not a God in Israel, that thou sendest to inquire of Beelzebub?" So, is it not because you think there is not a God in heaven, that ye ask counsel of the devil? If any here be guilty, be deeply humbled, ye have renounced the true God; better be without the goods ye have lost, than have the devil help you to them again. god of his child, sets his child in God's room, and so provokes God to take it away. If you lean too hard upon a glass, it will break; many break their children by leaning too hard upon them.-4. Others make a god of their belly, Phil. iii. 19., "Whose god is their belly." Clemens Alexandrinus writes of a fish that had its heart in its belly,-an emblem of epicures, their heart is in their belly, they mind nothing but indulging the sensual appetite; they do sacrificari lari, their belly is their god, and to this they pour drink-offerings. Thus men make many gods. The apostle names the wicked man's trinity, 1 John ii. 16., "The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life;" the lust of the flesh, pleasure; the lust of ons, and going so many different the eye,-money; pride of life, - ways? It is Satan hath sown honour. O take heed of this! these tares of division, Mat. xiii. Whatever you deify besides God, 39. He first divided men from will prove a bramble; and fire God, and now divides one man will come out of this bramble from another.-2. One in affecand devour you, Judg. ix. 15. tion. They should have one Use 4th. Of Exhortation. If there be but one God, as God is one, so let them that serve him be one. This is what Christ prayed so heartily for, John xvii. 21., "That they all may be one." Christians should be one, 1. In judgment; the apostle exhorts to be all of one mind, 1 Cor. i. 18. How sad is it to see religion wearing a coat of divers colours; to see Christians of so many opini Use 3d. Of reproof. If the heart, Acts iv. 32., "The multiLord Jehovah be the only true tude of them that believed, were God, then it reproves those who of one heart, and of one soul." renounce the true God, I mean, As in music, though there be such as seek to familiar spirits. several strings of a viol, yet all This is too much practised among make one sweet harmony: so, them that call themselves Chris- though there are several Christians. It is a sin condemned by tians, yet there should be one the law of God, Deut. xviii. 10, sweet harmony of affection among 11., "There shall not be found them. There is but one God, among you any one that consults and they that serve him should with familiar spirits." How or- be one. There is nothing would dinary is this? If people have render the true religion more lost any of their goods, they send lovely, or make more proselytes to wizards to know how they may to it, than to see the professors of come by their goods again. What it tied together with the heartis this but consulting with the strings of love, Ps. cxxxiii. 1., devil? And so you renounce "Behold how good and how pleaGod and your baptism? What, sant a thing it is, for brethren to because you have lost your goods, dwell together in unity!" It is will you lose your souls too? 2 as the sweet dew on Hermon, and Kings i. 6., "Thus saith the the fragrant ointment poured on Lord, is it not because there is Aaron's head. If God be one, let all that profess him be of one blindness? Some worship Mamind, and one heart; this fulfils homet; divers of the Indians Christ's prayer, "that they all worship the devil; they light a may be one."-2. If there be but candle to him, that he should not one God, let us labour to clear hurt them. Such as know not the title, that this God is ours, the true God, must needs stumPs. xlviii. 14., "This God is our ble into hell in the dark. O be God." What comfort can it be thankful that we are born in such to hear that there is a God, and a land, where the light of the that he is the only God, unless he be our God? What is Deity without property? O let us labour to clear the title! Beg the Holy Spirit; the Spirit works by faith; by faith we are one with Christ, and through Christ we come to have God for our God, and so all his glorious fulness is made over to us by a deed of gift. Use 5th. What cause have we to be thankful, that we have the knowledge of the only true God? How many are brought up in gospel hath shined! To have the knowledge of the true God, is more than if we had mines of gold, rocks of diamonds, islands of spices; especially if God hath savingly revealed himself to us,if he hath given us eyes to see the light, if we so know God as to be known of him, as to love him, and believe in him: Matth. xi. 25., we can never be enough thankful to God, that he hath hid the knowledge of himself from the wise and prudent of the world, and hath revealed it unto us. OF THE TRINITY. Ans. Three persons, yet but one God. 1 John v. 7., "There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three QUEST. IV. How many persons | This is a divine riddle, where one are there in the Godhead? makes three, and three make but one. Our narrow thoughts can no more comprehend the Trinity in Unity, than a little nut-shell will hold all the water in the sea. Let me shadow it out by this similitude: in the body of the sun there is the substance of the sun, the beams, and the heat; the beams are begotten of the sun, are one." God is but one, yet are there three distinct persons subsisting in one Godhead. This is a sacred mystery which the light within the heat proceeds both from the could never have discovered. As sun and the beams; but these the two natures in Christ, yet three, though different, are not but one person, is a wonder: so divided; they all three make one three persons, yet but one God-sun: so in the blessed Trinity, head. I am in a great deep: the the Son is begotten of the Father, Father God, the Son God, -the the Holy Ghost proceeds from Holy Ghost God,-yet not three both; yet though they are three Gods, but one God. The three distinct persons, yet but one God. persons in the blessed Trinity are First, let me speak of the Unity distinguished, but not divided; in Trinity; then of the Trinity three substances, but one essence. in Unity. I. Of the Unity in Trinity. all that believe are justified," • The Unity of the persons in the Godhead consists in two things : 1. The identity of essence. In the Trinity there is an oneness in essence: the three persons are of the same divine nature and substance: so that in Deo non est magis et minus, there are no degrees in the Godhead; one person is not God more than another. 2. The Unity of the persons in the Godhead, consists in the mutual in-being of them, or their being in one together. The three persons are so united, that one person is in another, and with another: John xvii. 21., "Thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee." II. Let me speak of the Trinity in Unity. 1. The first person in the Trinity is God the Father: he is called the first person, in respect of order, not dignity: for God the Father hath no essential perfection which the other persons have not; he is not more wise, more holy, more powerful, than the other persons are; a priority, not a superiority. Acts xiii. 39. 3. The third person in the Trinity, is the Holy Ghost, who proceeds from the Father and the Son; his work is to illuminate the mind, and enkindle sacred motions. The essence of the Spirit is in heaven, and every where; but the influence of it is in the hearts of believers: This is that blessed Spirit who gives us the holy unction, 1 John ii. 20. Though Christ merits grace for us, it is the Holy Ghost works it in us: Though Christ makes the purchase, it is the Holy Ghost makes the assurance, and seals us up to the day of redemption. Thus I have spoken of all the three persons. The Trinity of persons may be proved out of Mat. iii. 16., "Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him; and lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son." Here are three names given to the three persons. He who spake with a voice from heaven, was God the Father; he who was baptized in Jordan, was God the Son; he who descended in the likeness of a dove, was God the Holy Ghost. Thus I have shewn you the unity of essence, and the Trinity of persons. 2. The second person in the Trinity is Jesus Christ, who is begotten of the Father before all time, Prov. viii. 23, 24, 25., "I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled; before the hills, was I brought forth." the first person in the Godhead. Which scripture declares the eternal generation of the Son of God. This second person in the Trinity, who is Jehovah, is become our Jesus. The scripture calls him the branch of David, Jer. xxiii. 5., and I may call him the flower of the virgin having assumed our nature. "By him Use 1st. It confutes the Jews and the Turks, who believe only This cuts asunder the sinews of our comfort. Take away the distinction of the persons in the Trinity, and you overthrow man's redemption; for God the Father being offended with man for sin, how shall he be pacified without a mediator? This mediator is Christ, he makes our peace. And Christ having died, and shed his ther, John x. 30., " I and my blood, how shall this blood be Father are one." It were blasapplied, but by the Holy Ghost? phemy for any angel to speak Therefore, if there be not three thus. Yet further, to prove persons in the Godhead, man's Christ's Godhead, consider 1st, salvation cannot be wrought out; The glorious incommunicable atif there be no second person in tributes belonging to God the the Trinity, then there is no re- Father are ascribed to Christ. deemer; if no third person, then 1. Is God the Father omnipotent? there is no comforter. And so So is Jesus Christ. He is the the plank is taken away by which Almighty, Rev. i. 8.; he creates, we should get to heaven. Col. i. 16. 2. Is God the Father 2. It confutes the execrable infinitely immense, filling all plaopinion of the Socinians, who ces? Jer. xxiii. 24., so is Jesus deny the Divinity of the Lord Christ. While Christ was on the Jesus: they make him only to be earth by his bodily presence, he a creature of an higher rank. was at the same time in the bosom As the Papists blot out the second of the Father, John iii. 13., in commandment, so the Socinians regard of his divine presence. would the second person in the 2dly, The same jura regalia, or Trinity. If to oppose Christ's prerogatives royal, which belong members be such a sin, what is to God the Father, belong also to it to oppose Christ himself? (1.) Christ: 1. Doth God the Father Jesus Christ is co-equal with God seal pardons, this is a flower of the Father, Phil. ii. 6., "He Christ's crown, Mat. ix. 2., "Thy thought it no robbery to be equal sins be forgiven thee." Nor doth with God." (2.) He is co-eternal Christ only remit sin organice, with God the Father, Prov. viii. as ministers do, by virtue of a 23, "I was from the beginning;" power delegated to them from for else there was a time when God; but Christ doth it by his God was without a Son, and so own power and authority.-2. Is he should be no Father; nay, God the Father the adequate obelse there was a time when God ject of faith? Is he to be bewas without his glory, for Christ lieved in? So is his son, John is the brightness of his Father's xiv. 1.-3. Doth adoration belong glory, Heb. i. 3. (3.) He is co- to God the Father? So it doth essential with God the Father. to the Son, Heb. i. 6., "Let all The Godhead subsists in Christ, the angels of God worship him." Col. ii. 9., " For in him dwelleth How sacrilegious therefore is the all the fulness of the Godhead Socinian, who would rob Christ bodily." It is said, not only of the best flower of his crown, Christ was with God' before his Godhead? They that deny the beginning, but he was God,' Christ to be God, must greatly John i. 1., and 1 Tim. iii. 16., wrest, or else deny the scripture 'God manifest in the flesh.' The to be the word of God. title of Lord, so often given to Christ, in the New Testament, doth answer to the title of Jeho- The eternal Godhead subsists in vah in the Old Testament, Deut. the Holy Ghost, John xvi. 13., vi. 5. Mat. xxii. 37.: so that "He will guide you into all Christ hath a co-eternity and truth." Christ speaks not there con-substantiality with his Fa- of an attribute, but of a person; 3. It confutes the Arians, who deny the Holy Ghost to be God. F |