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1 John v. 7, 8. And this is not a trinity of names accommodated to the making of a covenant, as fome fuppofe; for a name cannot be a father nor a fon. So, likewife, if there be but one person in the Trinity, there cannot be either a Son or a Father; he that denies either, denies both.-He is antichrift that denieth the Father and the Son: whosoever denieth the Son, the fame hath not the Father. 1 John ii. 22, 23. None, therefore, but perfons can bear record: but the perfons in the Holy Trinity do bear record; and the record that they bear is to the fonship of Chrift; and their diftinét record ftands in the holy fcriptures. The Father's record, twice written, is this-Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I am well pleafed. Luke iii. 22. Again, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleafed, hear ye him. Matt. xvii. 5. The Lord's teftimony of himself ftands upon record thus-Say ye of him, whom the Father bath fanctified and fent into the world, Thou blafphemeft; because I faid, I am the Son of God. works of my Father, believe me not. For this blafphemy, as the wicked Jews called it, was Chrift condemned; and this he never denied, but fealed it with his blood. The record of the Holy Ghoft is to the fame truth.-Paul, a fervant, Separated unto the gospel of God, which he promised afore by his prophets in the holy fcriptures, concerning bis Son Jefus Christ our Lord, which was made of the feed of David according to the flesh; and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of boliness,

If I do not the John x. 36, 37.

bolinefs, by the refurrection from the dead. Rom. i. 1-4. This is the witness which is recorded by the Spirit that Chrift is the Son of God; not in name, for there is no power in an empty name; but he is the Son of God with power, the Omnipotent, the First and the Laft, the Almighty. Rev. xi. 8. And this is declared, or manifefted, by his own refurrection from the dead-Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raife it up: this is the teftimony borne. and recorded by the Spirit of Holiness. Now, that the threefold record, borne by the Father, Son, and Spirit, is to the fonship of Chrift, appears plain from the apostle John's conclufion-There are three that bear record in heaven, and three that bear witness on earth. If we receive the witness of nien, the witnefs of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself; he that believeth not God hath made himself a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. 1 John v. 7--10. Thus God's witnefs, that he hath teftified and which stands upon record, is called the teftification and record that God gave of his Son. The natural inferences are thefe: 1. That none but those who believe in the only-begotten Son of God have the witnefs of the Spirit in themfelves. 2. That all thofe who tell us that Chrift is only a name, or a mere creature, are infidels; they believe not the record that God gave of his Son. And, 3. The infamy charged upon fuch is, that the

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make God a liar, than which nothing can be worfe; and fuch liars are all our Arians and Socinians, and therefore their witness is nothing worth,

Thus the holy Three bear record, which a trinity of names cannot do; for, as I before obferved, if a fictious name appear in a court of law they can do nothing with it, being but an empty name: and it must be some perfon or other that must have written that; but the Holy Trinity want none to write for them (unless it be in condefcenfion to our weaknefs), for they can all write for themfelves. Thus faith God the Father: But this fhall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Ifrael after those days, faith the Lord: I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my people. Jer. xxxi. 33. And God the Son promifes to write the following inscription upon all conquerors: Flim that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he fhall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerufalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name. Rev. iii. 12. And the Holy Ghoft's hand-writing is recorded thus: Forafmuch as ye are manifeftly declared to be the epiftle of Chrift, miniftered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of ftone, but in the fleshly tables of the heart. 2 Cor. iii. 3. The law that God puts into the hidden parts is fhedding abroad his everlasting

everlasting love in our hearts (love being the fulfilling of the law) by the Holy Ghoft given unto us. Writing his law in the mind, is perfuading us by his Spirit, and working in us the law of faith: The Lord fhall perfuade Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem. What Habakkuk was ordered to

write plain upon tables, that he who runs might read, God writes on the fleshly tables of our hearts, by justifying us and giving us faith and life; and in this the vision speaks in our confcience-The just man fball live by his faith.

Chrift writes upon us the name of his God; that is, he gives us an experience of that glorious covenant-name which God proclaimed before Mofes-The Lord, the Lord God, gracious and merciful, flow to anger, abundant in goodness and truth; pardoning iniquity, tranfgreffion, and fin. Pardon comes by the blood of Chrift; grace, goodness, and mercy, all come together when God reveals his dear Son in us. To write upon us the name of the city of God, is to give us the happy enjoyment of peace, which is the fruit and effect of imputed righteoufnefs; and to bless us with the prefence of God. The city is to be called Jehovah Shammah, the Lord is there; or the city of God's prefence; God promifing to dwell in Zion for ever, it being his refting place, and he having defired it. The Lord's new name seems to be that worn upon his vefture and on his thigh, and is, King of kings, and Lord of lords; which name he will achieve by the destruction of antichrift,

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antichrift, and taking to himself his great power and reigning, when the kingdoms of this world will become his; and he then will make his children princes in all the earth. This greatest of all kingdoms, bigger than the Babylonian, Grecian, or Roman, will be given to the faints of the Most High, who fhall take it and poffefs it for ever and ever; then the faints will be kings, and rule over their oppreffors. Making them pillars, is polishing them by grace, making them upright and ornamental in their profeffion; and where these things are found written by the Holy Spirit on the fleshly tables of the heart, the fum and substance of the New Teftament, whether in the gofpels or in the epiftles of the apoftles, are experienced in the fouls of God's elect, which makes them the pillar and ground of the truth, known and read of all men, being made manifeft in the confciences both of faints and finners, hypocrites and heretics; and fuch living epiftles have a feal upon them, as all epiftles fhould have, having the broad feal of heaven on their fouls, by which they become God's fecret treasure, being fealed up to the day of redemption, which is redemption from the grave. These things are recorded by the Holy Trinity, and these things are written in the minds and hearts of all believers; and these infcriptions are as puzzling to the wife and prudent among us, as the hand-writing upon the walls of Belshazzar's palace was to the wife men of Babylon. But meffengers who bear fuch tidings,

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