me with clearness of thought, with force of argument, and happiness of expression to explain and prove them, so far as to enlighten the understanding, and satisfy the conscience of humble and sincere christians in this great and glorious doctrine of the Trinity; that they may pay their distinct honours to the sacred Three, in this world of darkness and imperfection, and walk on rejoicing in their way to the world of perfect life and happiness. Amen.

PROPOSITION I.-There is a God.

It must be known by the light of nature, that there is a God, before we can reasonably have any thing to do with scrip ture, or believe his word. Now the shortest and plainest way to come at the knowledge of God by the light of nature, is by considering the whole frame of this visible world, and the various parts of it. Hereby we shall not only find that there is a God, but we shall learn in a great measure what is his nature also. A man cannot open his eyes but he sees many objects round about him which did not make themselves: The birds, the beasts, and the fishes, the herbs, and the trees, the fire, and the water, all seem to confess that they were not their own creators, for they cannot preserve themselves. Nor did we give being to ourselves or to them, because we can neither preserve ourselves nor them in being.

Besides there is an infinite variety of instances in the con stant regular motions of the planets, the influences of the sun and moon, in the wondrous composition of plants and animals, and in their several properties and operations, as well as in the very structure of our own bodies, and the faculties of our minds; which sufficiently discover there must be some superior and divine power and wisdom, which both contrived and created their natures and ours, and gave being both to them and us.

Thus it appears that the first notion we have of God, by the light of nature is, the Creator of all things. Thence it follows, that he must be before all those things which he has made; therefore he must be the first of beings.

And it is plain, that he could have no beginning, and that there was no time when God was not; for then he could never have begun to be; since there was nothing that could create him, nor can there be any reason why he should of himself start out of nothing into being at any moment, if he had not been before: So that since we have proved that there is a God, we may be sure that he ever was, or that he was from all éternity.

Now the same argument which proves that he had no beginning, will infer also, that he can have no end: For as nothing could give him being, nothing can take it way. He depends

not on any thing for leave to exist, since nothing in nature could possibly concur or contribute any thing toward his existence. Nor does his being depend on any arbitrary act of his own will, for he did not create himself. Nor can he himself wish, or wili, or desire not to be, because he is perfectly wise, and knows it is best for him for ever to exist; and, therefore, he must exist, or be for ever.

And this is what the learned call a necessary being; that is, one who ever was, and ever must be; without beginning and without end. And this, in many of their writings, is justly made to be the great and eminent distinction betwixt God and the creature; viz. that the creatures might be, or not be, as God pleases; but God always was, and always will be: He must necessarily have a being from everlasting to everlasting.

As his works discover his existence, or his being; so the greatness of his works shews the greatness of his power. He that made all things out of mere nothing, must be Almighty: He that has contrived all things with such exquisite art, must be All-wise and All-knowing; and he that has furnished this lower world with such innumerable rich varieties of light and food, of colours, sounds, smells, and tastes, and materials for all the conveniences of life to support and to entertain our natures, he must be a Being of unspeakable goodness. It appears yet with fuller evidence, that God is the chiefest, the greatest, the wisest, and the best of Beings, when we consider more particularly, that all the power, knowledge, wisdom, and goodness, all the virtues, and excellencies, and the very natures of all other beings are derived from God, and given to the creatures by God their Creator; and therefore he must, in some glorious and eminent manner, possess all perfections and excellencies himself, for nothing can give to another that which itself has not. Thus the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth his handy-work, as the holy Psalmist assures us; Psal. xix. 1. And thus, The invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and godhead; Rom. i. 20.

The light of reason, or nature, further teaches us, that such an Almighty Being, who by his own power and wisdom has created all things out of nothing, must needs be the sovereign Lord, the absolute possessor and proprietor of all his creatures, they must be all at his disposal, and under his government. And as for the intelligent parts of his creation, such as men and angels, it is the very law of their natures, that they ought to love, worship and obey him that made then, to pray to him for what they want, and to praise him for what they receive, and thence he becomes the proper object of worship. Reason itself

assures us, that he who hath shewn such exquisite wisdom, even in the formation of his inanimate creatures, and in his disposal and management of them agreeably to those purposes for which they are fitted, will manifest also the same wisdom in governing his intelligent creatures, and bestow those rewards or punishments on them for which they are fitted, agreeable to their tempers, characters and actions. And this is properly called the righteousness or equity of God, or his governing justice.

I have been much the longer in this proof of the being of God, in order to introduce the next proposition which expresses his nature, and contains the common and general sense of the word of God.

PROP. II.-God is the Creator of all things, the first and the eternal Being, the greatest, the wisest, and the best of Beings, the sovereign Lord and Disposer of all his Works, the righteous Governor of his intellectual Creatures, and the proper Object of their Worship.

This description of God is drawn with apparent evidence from the very proof of his being. The same light of nature or reason which tells us that there is a God, does at the same time tell us what God is: and this being the plainest and the most obvious and easy way of coming to the knowledge of his existence, these must be the first, the plainest, and the easiest notions of godhead or divine nature, that mankind naturally obtains and receives. But since the knowledge of God, by the light of reason, is so low, and feeble, and obscure in the greatest part of mankind, he has condescended to reveal both his being and his nature in his written word. This hath been attested with so many divine signs and miracles, as prove it beyond all controversy to be the word of the living God: And in this word of his he hath described his nature in the same manner as the light of reason would describe it; though in greater perfection, and with fuller assurance. When, therefore, we use the word God properly, absolutely, and without any special limitation; some of these ideas will naturally come into the mind, and especially those of Almighty, All-wise, the Creator, and the Eternal. Therefore this has been the common sense of the word in heathen nations, even from all antiquity, and amongst all the thinking part of mankind, who have acknowledged one God only; and this is the general sense of the word God in the scripture, as might be made to appear by many quotations, if it were needful.

Hence it will follow, that those persons who make the word God to signify mere authority, dominion, or government, do much diminish the idea of it; they contract and narrow the sense

of it in opposition to the common usage of the word in all languages, ages and nations, wherein the unity of God has been professed; they divert it from the common meaning of it in the lips of Jews, heathens, and christians. And they would do well to consider, whether this is not done merely to serve some particular schemes of their own, and to support some hypothesis or opinion of theirs, which otherwise could never be obtained. I confess, the word God is used sometimes in the bible both in a figurative, and in a limited or imperfect sense.

1. It is used in a figurative or improper sense, to signify some character among creatures that hath a likeness or resemblance to any part of this description of God. So Moses the prophet is called a god to Pharaoh; Exod. vii. 1. Because he carried divine authority with him in his message to Pharaoh, and wrought divine works before him, which were representations of God's government and his power. So angels are called gods; Ps. xcvii. 7. and in many other places, for the same reason. prophets, judges and magistrates are called gods; Ps. lxxxii. 1. He judgeth among the gods. Verse 6. I said ye are gods. John x. 35. He called them gods to whom the word of God came; because they spoke and acted under divine influence, or in the name and authority of God.

So

2. This word God is used also in many scriptures in a limited or imperfect sense, to signify the object of worship, which is one part of the description of the true God. So Isa. xliv. 15.

yea, he maketh a god, and worshippeth it. Isa. xxxvi. 18. Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered his land. Verse 19. Where are the gods of Hamath and Arphad? that is, their idols whom they worshipped. Micah. iv. 5. The people will walk every one in the name of his god, that is, that being, either real or imaginary, whom they worshipped. And probably, in this sense, the devil is called the god of this world; 2 Cor. iv. 4. because he was worshipped by the heathens under various names, as well as because he seems to have great power in this sinful world, by the permission of God.

But after all, there is, and there must be, such a distinction between the word God, when it is applied peculiarly to the true God, the Creator, and when it is applied to creatures, or to idols, as that the creature may not be mistaken for the Creator; nor an idol for the living and the true God. Wheresoever, therefore, the word God is used in scripture, and it does not evidently appear to be used in any of these figurative, diminutive, and imperfect senses, we are naturally and reasonably led to understand it concerning the All-wise and Almighty Creator and Governor of all things, the greatest, the wisest, and the best of Beings,

PROP. III.-There is, and there can be, but one true God, but one such God as agrees with the foregoing Description.

The unity or oneness of the Godhead, is a great truth derived from the light of nature, as well as from scripture. The light of nature tells us, that there can be but one, who is the first, the wisest, and the best of Beings; there can but be one 'Almighty And many of the ancient sages, in the heathen world, have found out this truth by their own reason, and maintained it with force of argument. If I were to talk like a philosopher upon this head, I would prove that there could be but one God, because the very nature of God implies in it full perfection and complete all-sufficiency; so that he can stand in need of nothing, because he has a sufficiency in himself for all conceivable purposes and ends. If there were therefore any other God, that other God would be a needless one, or an unnecessary being, which would destroy the very nature and notion of godhead; for God is a necessary being, or a being of absolute necessity, as we have proved before, and he cannot but exist.

But as my design is to assist the understanding of the meanest christians, I will rather have recourse to the plain words of scripture: And there are many places in the word of God where he asserts his own unity; Deut. vi. 4. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. Exod. xx. 3. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Isa. xliii. 10. Before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. Isa. xliv. 8. Is there a God besides me? Yea, there is no God, I know not any. Isai. xlv. 5. I am the Lord, and there is none else; there is no God besides me.

The Jews of old were so ready to be led away to the idolatry of their neighbour nations, and to worship more gods than one, that the blessed God thought it proper in his word to give them frequent repetitions of this great truth, to guard them against the danger of acknowledging any gods besides himself: And it being a great part of the design of the gospel, to reform the heathen world from polytheism, or the worship of many gods, Christ and his apostles have taken care in the New Testament to inculcate this divine truth again in express language. Mark xii. 29. The words of Moses are cited by our Lord Jesus, as the foundation of all religion. The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. Mark x. 18. There is none good but one, that is God. By which he means, there is none has such original and eternal and allsufficient goodness as he. Gal. iii. 20. God is one. Eph. iv. 6. One God and Father of all, who is above all. i Cor. viii. 4, 5, 6. An idol is nothing in the world, and there is none other God but one; for though there be that are called