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warfare accomplished, and that we shall enter into eternal glory? What thought can be more animating, what more consoling, amidst the troubles and trials of your pilgrimage here! Only wait on, steadfast in faith; in love and obedience; and the Saviour who came down from heaven to save you, will receive you to his own glory. Oh! let us often turn our eyes from these sickening earthly scenes of discord, and bloodshed, and woe, to those regions of glory, where the day shines in endless lustre; where violence shall no more be heard in the land, nor wasting and destruction be found within its borders; where the sun shall be no more the light by day, nor the moon give light; but "the Lord shall be an everlasting light, and God its glory." Would to God, that this glory were more frequently the subject of our contemplation! Then we should look with a holy tranquillity upon the petty troubles and evils of this transitory scene. We should bear affliction cheerfully, knowing that we have an enduring inheritance. We should enjoy true happiness in this world, reflected through the radiance of that glorious world above.

But let us remember, that "he who hath this hope, must purify himself, even as He" who hath called us "is pure" for into these regions of glory the unholy shall not enter. May "God therefore, sanctify you wholly, and establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints!"

SERMON VIII.

ON THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY.

Matt. xxviii. 19.

Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

IF the Scriptures merely spoke of the Son of God and of the Spirit of God as beings whom we ought to reverence and worship, we should surely be bound to inquire diligently and devoutly into the manner in which this reverence ought to be displayed. But when we are baptized in their names, this expressive rite and solemn memorial gives them still larger claims upon our attention. That we are admitted into the Christian covenant by a rite which bears a distinct reference to them, clearly implies the existence of some intimate relation between them and us. That we are baptized in their name, in common with that of the Father, invests them with inconceivable dignity. It cannot but arrest our regard, even at the very entrance and porch of Christianity, that the Son and the Spirit are placed on the same level with the Father. Should we not deem it strange indeed, if we were command

ed to be baptized with an exactly similar form of expression, in the name of persons infinitely inferior to and wholly distinct from, the Father: if the form of baptism, for instance, were this;-Baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Apostle Paul, and of the Power and love of God? Add to which, the persons into whose names we are baptized bear a manifest relation to the Deity as well as to ourselves: "Baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." In the name of the Father. Why not in the name of God? Why should the Divine Being be here styled the Father? He is so styled, evidently with respect to the Son, who is named together with him.-But we are to be baptized also in the name of the Son. The Son of whom? Doubtless of the Father.-And in the name of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of whom? Evidently of God, of the Father, and of the Son. The sacred names, thus introduced, were names already familiar to the Jews. The Holy Spirit, though not with a distinctness which enabled the Jews to comprehend much of his essence or origin, is often introduced into the Jewish Scriptures; and every pious Jew anticipated the coming of the Messiah, whom they were accustomed to call by the title of "the Son of God." Our Saviour, also, had more completely familiarized them with these terms, and elevated their conceptions of the Divine Persons to whom they are applied, by his frequent mention of the Son and of the Spirit. Nor is it superfluous to add, that the doctrine of the Trinity does not depend on a few passages, where, as in my text, the Father the Son or the Spirit, are mentioned as it were, collectively; but upon a multitude of passages where they are separately introduced. If, therefore, this, and every passage which speaks of these Divine Persons collectively, were blotted out, still the doctrine would be triumphantly established by other passages; and is, in fact, interwoven with the very frame of Scripture.-I acknowledge, however, that

there have been few points of doctrine more warmly disputed than this. It may therefore, I apprehend, be useful to endeavour to state the subject clearly. so as to obviate some misconceptions which prevail with regard to it, and to pave the way for its more cordial reception.

The doctrine of what is called the "Trinity," concisely stated is this-that although there is only one God this God, is revealed to man as subsisting under three distinct names and Persons-"the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost"-who are yet. in a sense to us mysterious and inscrutable, one God.-Let us more distinctly consider the several parts of the doctrine thus stated.

I. In the first place, There is but one God.-This truth is not only universally attested in Scripture, but is at once acquiesced in, as agreeable to all our preconceived notions of the Deity. The difficulty is, not in admitting the Unity of the Godhead, but in comprehending the distinction of Persons. But to whatever extent we maintain this distinction. it is obvious that it must not be so held as to be incompatible with the Unity of the Divine Nature. Those indeed, who deny the doctrine of the Trinity chiefly ground their denial upon an alleged zeal for the Unity of God; and, by the name which they assume, desire evidently to be considered as the only persons who maintain this great truth. But it should be understood that those who hold the doctrine of the Trinity, do, in the strongest sense, concur with them in the maintenance of this fundamental doctrine. They do not consider their own belief in the Three Divine Persons, as interfering with the doctrine of the Divine Unity. They maintain, as a fundamental truth which is to regulate and modify their belief in a Trinity of Persons, that there is only one eternal and infinite God. And though they pretend not to explain or comprehend the consistency of this Plurality of Persons with this Unity of Nature, they nevertheless, in the most unequivocal manner,

admit and affirm it. It is true that. on this subject, some persons may have spoken rashly and unwarrantably, in representing the Three Persons to be so absolutely distinct as to be in all respects three different beings. Such representations, however, have not the countenance of our Church. And, in all our conceptions and explanations of the doctrine, let us carefully remember, that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, are properly One. Let us not, with the view of rendering a necessarily mysterious subject familiar, so interpret it as to violate a fundamental principle of religion. It is a mistaken, as well as dishonest policy, to endeavour to preserve one part of the temple by the sacrifice of the rest.

II. But secondly, Though God is One yet he has revealed himself under three different characters and titles; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.-The precise nature of the distinction here implied is not described in Scripture; nor, perhaps, is it conceivable by fallen man. It has, indeed, been agreed to express this distinction by the term "Person And this term is perhaps, as eligible as any other, whilst it is understood not to convey any real idea of the nature of this distinction, but merely to affirm that it exists and is not confined to a distinction of mere titles or attributes. Such various titles and attributes are frequent in Scripture. The Divine Being is introduced under the title of Jehovah and Elohim. He is described by his various attributes, as the "Eternal," "Almighty," the "Father of Lights," the "Lord of Hosts." But when the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are spoken of in Scripture, it is evident that these terms imply a distinction of a very different kind from that conveyed by these titles and attributes.In this limited sense, it is, therefore, that we must here be considered as employing the term "Person. It does not imply that distinction of nature or being, when applied to this doctrine, which is implied in the use of the term on other occasions.

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