XI. [Rom. 9. 22.]

SERM. cease to be, or be any thing rather than what you are, “the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:" but all in vain. All the world cannot help you, unless He that made and governs it be reconciled to you; but ye must be punished 2 Thess. 1. "with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power, when He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe in that day." When ye will be cast into Hell fire, Mark 9. 44. "where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched."

9, 10.

[Rom. 8. 28.]

If these things were laid to your hearts as they ought to be, they would make you very restless and uneasy, until you have made your peace with God, and done all that ye have heard to be required in order to your reconciliation to Him. And how happy would you then be? As happy in the love and favour of God, as the other are miserable under His wrath and fury. For when you are at peace with God, all things else will be at peace with you; He that made Job 5. 23. them, will make them to be so: "You shall be in league with the stones of the field, and the beasts of the field shall Prov. 16.7. be at peace with you." Yea, " When a man's ways please the Lord, He maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.” And not only they, but all things else shall work together for your good, so long as ye continue in His favour, who governs and disposeth of all things as He pleaseth. For when ye are reconciled to Him, He will look upon you as His friends, His favourites, His children, and will deal accordingly with you. He will take you into His own particular care and conduct. He will "hide you under His wings," that "no evil may come near to hurt you." He will bless and sanctify all occurrences to you. He will provide all things necessary, that as you have nothing that is evil, so ye may want nothing that is good for you. He will [Ps. 4. 7.] canse "the light of His countenance to shine upon you,”. and manifest His special love and favour to you, that you may see Him smiling upon you, rejoicing over you, and delighting to do you good; in which blessed sight our happiness chiefly consisteth. He will guide you by His counsel, assist you by His grace, protect you by His power, enlighten, quicken, actuate, support, and strengthen you by His Holy Spirit, that you may pass through all "the

[Ps. 91.4, 10.]

changes and chances of this mortal life," so as to come at last to live with Him and His Holy Angels, in the perfect vision and fruition of His eternal Godhead.

But what do I mean, to offer at describing the happiness of those who are "reconciled" to God? When to be in His favour is itself the greatest happiness that a creature is capable of, and such as none can apprehend but they who have it. Yet this is that happiness which the eternal Son of God hath purchased for mankind, and sends His Ambassadors about to invite them to it. It is in "His name" I come to all that are here present at this time, and "pray you in His stead, be ye all now reconciled unto God;" now, while ye may. Blessed be God, ye all may as yet be "reconciled" to Him, if ye will but take the course for it, which hath been now described to you out of His Holy Word: otherwise, He would not have sent me to call upon you, nor brought you hither to be called upon to do it; but if ye turn your backs, and refuse or neglect to hearken to Him now, ye know not whether He will ever call upon you any more. Wherefore I "pray you" again "in his stead," put off this great work no longer, but begin it now. "For why will ye die?" Why [Ezek. 18. 31.] will ye destroy yourselves, when ye need not? Why will ye continue any longer under the displeasure of Almighty God, when ye may be restored to His favour, if ye will but seek it? But then you must seek it in His own way, in the constant use of the means which He hath appointed, whereby to obtain His grace and assistance to do what is required of you. What they are, ye all know: and therefore I need say no more. But as I have "now prayed you in Christ's stead," to be "reconciled" to God, so "in His name" I pray

42.]

God to be "reconciled" to you, and to "open your eyes, that [Luke 19. ye may see the things that belong to your everlasting peace, before they be hid from you."

P

SERMON XII.

THE SACERDOTAL BENEDICTION IN THE NAME OF THE TRINITY.

SERM.

XII.

Deut. 6. 4.

2 COR. xiii. 14.

The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Love of God, and the Communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all.

Ir would be great rashness in us, who know so little of our own, to enquire into the nature of Him that made us, any further than He Himself hath been pleased to make it known unto us in His Holy Word. But it would be the height of impudence and presumption, to offer at explaining the incomprehensible mystery of the most glorious Trinity; how three distinct persons subsist in the same individual nature, so as to be all one and the same God. It is sufficient for us to believe what is written, that there is but one living and true God; that "the Lord our God is one Jehovah, one Being, the Lord.” That the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, these three are one Being, one Jehovah, one God : that the Father is of Himself, the Son of the Father, the Holy Ghost of the Father and the Son, and "yet none before or after other, none greater or less than another; but the whole three Persons co-eternal together, and co-equal." This we are bound to believe, because it is revealed by God Himself, and therefore revealed by Him, that we may believe it upon His word, although it be above the reach of our finite understandings, as He Himself knows it is; and therefore doth not require us to understand, but to believe it and hath made known as much of it as He thought good, for that purpose only, that we might know what He would have us to believe concerning it.

Now, one very remarkable thing revealed in the Holy

Scriptures concerning the most glorious Trinity, is this, that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, although they be all one and the same God, yet they often exert and manifest Themselves and Their Divine perfections severally, as well as jointly, and so have their several ways of working in the world; as appears from many places, and particularly from the words I have now read: "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all." For here we have three Divine Persons distinctly named: the "Son," called the "Lord Jesus Christ;" the "Father," here called in an especial manner "God," as being the "root" and "fountain" of the Deity, as the primitive writers style Him; and then here is the Third Person, expressly called "the Holy Ghost." And to each of these Persons, here is a several property or perfection attributed, the Apostle wishing to the Corinthians, the "grace" of one, the "love" of another, and the "communion" of the third: which does not only shew that they are three distinct Persons or subsistencies, but also that they have distinct operations, or their several ways of working and manifesting themselves in the world. Which if rightly understood, would give us great light into what we ought to believe concerning each Person; and how we ought to exercise our faith upon all and every one of Them, according to the discoveries which They are pleased to make of Themselves, with respect to us. And therefore I shall endeavour to explain it as clearly as I can, being a matter of so high a nature: humbly beseeching Him, of whom I speak, so to assist and direct me, that I may say nothing but what is agreeable to His Holy Word, and becoming His Divine Majesty.

For this purpose therefore, we must first consider in general, that this Almighty, most glorious and eternal Being, which we call God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, hath been graciously pleased to shew forth and manifest Himself and His Divine perfections in many wonderful ways, particularly in the Creation and Redemption of the world. In the first He manifested His infinite wisdom, power, and goodness; in the other His infinite love, and justice, and mercy, and truth to mankind; in both the infinite glory of His eternal Godhead. And it is much to be observed, that

XII.

SERM. in both these great works that He hath done, whereby to set forth His glory, we find three distinct Persons specified, or particularly named by Himself, as concurring in the doing of them, and each in a way peculiar to Himself. The account that He Himself hath given us of His creation or [Gen. 1. 1.] production of all things out of nothing, begins thus; "In the beginning God created the Heaven and the earth." Where the word in the original, which we translate God, is of the plural number; but it is joined with a verb of the singular, as it is almost every where in the Old Testament. Now although I will not say, that an argument can be drawn from hence to convince a gainsayer, that there are just three Persons in the Godhead, because a word of the plural number may possibly signify more: yet seeing that in Hebrew, where there is likewise a dual, three is the first plural number; and seeing the first must in reason be preferred before all other; and seeing God Himself hath in many places of His word acquainted us that there are three Persons and no more in His Godhead: we may reasonably from hence infer, that God calleth Himself by this name of the plural, and joins it with verbs and adjectives of the singular number, on purpose to put us in mind of the Trinity in Unity, that He is Three in One, and that every one of these Divine Persons is to be adored and worshipped alike; that being, as I take it, the true notion of the word. For though the root from whence s, Eloah, comes, be not preserved in the Hebrew tongue, it is in the Arabic dialect; where, Alaha, signifies to worship or adore: and accordingly, Eloah, signifies one that is to be worshipped ; and in the plural number, Elohim,' persons adorable,' such as are and ought to be worshipped by all things that are; as He, to be sure, ought to be, by whom all things were made, and were made by Him for that end, that He might be worshipped by them. And it is very observable that in the next chapter, when the creation was finished, He is called by two names,, the one of the singular number, the other of the plural; the one signifying His essence, the other the Persons subsisting in it. But in all the first chapter of Genesis, while He was doing this great work, He is not so much as once called by any other name than