Again an empty name cannot write nor bear record. How does a fictitious name appear in a court of law, when there is no person to be found that bears that name, or is called by it? "But there are three that bear record in heaven; the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one." And this is not a trinity of names accommodated to the making of a covenant, as some suppose; for a name cannot be a father nor a son. So, likewise, 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 antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son: whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father," 1 John ii. 22, 23. None, therefore, but persons can bear record; but the persons in the Holy Trinity do bear record; and the record that they bear is to the sonship of Christ; and their distinct record stands in the holy scriptures. The Father's record, twice written, is this; "Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I am well pleased," Luke iii. 22. Again, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him," Matt. xvii. 5. The Lord's testimony of himself stands upon record thus: " Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God? If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not," John x. 36, 37. For this blasphemy, as the wicked Jews called it, was Christ condemned; and this he never denied, but sealed it

with his blood. The record of the Holy Ghost is to the same truth. "Paul, a servant separated unto the gospel of God, which he promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures, concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead," Rom. i. 1-4. This is the witness which is recorded by the Spirit that Christ 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 last, the Almighty." And this is declared, or manifested, by his own resurrection from the dead; "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up:" this is the testimony borne and recorded by the Spirit of holiness. Now that the threefold record, borne by the Father, Son, and Spirit, is to the sonship of Christ, appears plain from the apostle John's conclusion: "There are three that bear record in heaven, and three that bear witness on earth. If we receive the witness of men, the witness 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 witness, that he hath testified, and which

stands upon record, is called the testification and record that God gave of his Son. The natural inferences are these: 1. That none but those who believe in the only-begotten Son of God have the witness of the Spirit in themselves. 2. That all those who tell us that Christ 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 such is, that they make God a liar, than which nothing can be worse; and such 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 observed, if a fictitious name appear in a court of law they can do nothing with it, being but an empty name: and it must be some person or other that must have written that; but the Holy Trinity want none to write for them, unless it be in condescension to our weakness, for they can all write for themselves. Thus saith God the Father: "But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord: I will put my law in their inward parits, and write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my people," Jer. xxxi. 33. And God the Son promises to write the following inscription upon all conquerors: "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall 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 Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name," Rev. iii. 12. And the Holy Ghost's hand-writing is recorded thus; "Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in the fleshly tables of the heart," 2 Cor. iii. 3. The law that God puts into the hidden parts is shedding abroad his'everlasting love in our hearts (love being the fulfilling of the law,) by the Holy Ghost given unto us. Writing his law in the mind, is persuading us by his Spirit, and working in us the law of faith: "The Lord shall persuade 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 conscience, "The just man shall live by his faith."

Christ writes upon us the name of his God; that is, he gives us an experience of that glorious covenant-name which God proclaimed before Moses, "The Lord, the Lord God, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abundant in goodness and truth; pardoning iniquity, transgression and sin." Pardon comes by the blood of Christ; 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 righteousness; and to bless us with the presence of God. The city is to be called Jehovah Shammah, the Lord is there; or the city of God's presence; God promising to dwell in Zion for ever, it being his resting place, and he having desired it. The Lord's new name seems to be that worn upon his ves ture and on his thigh, and is; King of kings, and Lord of lords;" which name he will achieve by the destruction of antichrist, 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 saints of the Most High, who shall take it and possess it for ever and ever; then the saints will be kings, and rule over their oppressors. Making them pillars, is polishing them by grace, making them upright and ornamental in their profession; and where these things are found written by the Holy Spirit on the fleshly tables of the heart, the sum and substance of the new Testament, whether in the gospels or in the epistles of the apostles, are experienced in the souls of God's elect, which makes them the pillar and ground of the truth known and read of all men, being made manifest in the consciences both of saints and sinners, hypocrites and heretics; and such living epistles have a seal upon them, as all epistles should have,