resist and overcome them? Is this the case with you? Call to mind the consolatory doctrine before us. Reflect that the Son, who assumed our nature in order to make in it an atonement for sin, is really and truly God. Reflect that the Holy Spirit, who is promised to enable you to subdue our imperfections and sins, to cleanse yourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit, and to perfect holiness in the fear of God, is really and truly God likewise. And, this being the case, say what guilt is there from which the blood of a divine Saviour cannot cleanse you; and where is that corruption of heart and life too, which an almighty Spirit cannot enable you to subdue? nay, where is that heart, however debased by sin, in which he cannot implant every holy disposition, cause it to flourish, and to bear fruit in the life a hundred fold? But we may infer from our subject,

5. Much of the nature of the Christian's duty. Has God revealed himself as subsisting in three distinct Persons? The Christian is bound to offer his thanksgivings to each of these Persons for the share taken by him in the economy of redemption. He is bound to adore the Father, for having devised a way in which sinful men may return to him, and for his readiness to pardon and accept them on their return. What thanksgiv

ings too are due to the Son for assuming our nature, and offering himself a sacrifice for sin; and to the Holy Spirit for every gracious influence which he has exerted on our minds! How obviously, too, does it follow from the doctrine before us, that it is the duty of the Christian to devote himself to the service of each of these divine Persons, and thus to fulfil the vow and promise which were made on his behalf in his baptism! How clearly is it his duty to take God the Father for his Father, and to conduct himself towards him with the reverence, the affection, and the obedience of a dutiful child! to receive God the Son as his Redeemer, and to seek to be saved by him in his own appointed way! to receive too God the Holy Spirit as his sanctifier, his comforter, his guide into all truth! and thus really, and practically, and efficaciously, to believe all the articles of the christian faith!

6. How highly we ought to value those Holy Scriptures, which ALONE contain a discovery of this inexplicably mysterious, yet unspeakably important doctrine! Though not contrary to reason, it is altogether above it. Though, when it is revealed, the light of nature cannot properly oppose it; yet, of itself, it could never have attained the slightest notion of it. We are indebted for the knowledge of it to the Bible alone. Let us, then,

with humility and constancy, with prayer and with practice, study those Holy Scriptures, the whole tenor of which is pervaded with this doctrine; and let us endeavour, as we go along, to improve the doctrine to its infinitely important practical purposes: waiting, with meek submission, for a more full knowledge of this mystery, till that day, when, if we are the real disciples of Christ, we shall no longer see through a glass darkly, but see face to face; when we shall no longer know in part only, but know even as we are known; (1 Cor. xiii. 12), when we shall see God as he is, (1 John iii. 2,) and when this doctrine of the Trinity in Unity especially, according to our Lord's own intimation, shall be displayed to our adoring view, that day, says our Lord, when “ye shall know that I am in my Father." (John xiv. 20.)

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SERMON III.

MAN'S PRIMITIVE UPRIGHTNESS, AND SUBSEQUENT DEPARTURE FROM IT.

ECCLESIASTES Vii. 29.

"Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions."

THERE is no subject which has more perplexed the minds of thoughtful persons in every age, than that which relates to the origin of evil. Unassisted nature has inquired again and again, and always without any satisfactory result, to what source we are to trace that wickedness and misery, which, as with a flood, have overwhelmed the whole world. Would we not, then, have our inquiries on this most important subject terminate in a manner equally unsatisfactory, we must anxiously take advantage of the light thrown

upon it by divine revelation: and we must abide by those principles respecting it, which the wisest of men, on the maturest reflection, was led to adopt; and which, under the especial influence of the Holy Spirit, he has recorded for our instruction: principles these, which alone are adequate to account for the evil in question; and which account for it, at the same time, in a manner perfectly consistent with the infinite perfections of the great Creator.

In the words just read to you, we have declared

to us,

I. Man's primitive uprightness: “God made man upright:" and,

II. His subsequent departure from that uprightness: "but they have sought out many inventions." We have,

I. Man's primitive uprightness: "God made man upright."

As to the nature of uprightness, it may be observed that there is an actual and an habitual uprightness; and that, while actual uprightness is conformity to the laws of our nature, habitual uprightness is a disposition to conform to those laws. It was habitual uprightness, which was the great ornament of our first parent at his creation; such a state of soul, and of body too,