her homilies, somewhat quaint in style, and antiquated in language, but embodying the grand truths of revelation; and last, not least, the publications of the fathers of our glorious reformation, who steeped their testimony in their blood, and verified it at the stake and in the fires, these are indeed worthy of all attention; and to overlook and undervalue them would argue only conceit and ignorance.

But after all, reverend Brethren, it is to the Oracles of God, the Holy Scriptures, the infallible word of truth, that we must go to draw authoritative doctrine. And why should we hesitate in doing this? Or why should we show a morbid attachment to that which is uninspired, and therefore in its very nature in some degree erroneous? Why should we be so very anxious to study the copy, when we possess the original? Why should we value so highly the works of the pupil, when we have the pencil of the master? Why should we choose an imperfect, when we have a perfect model? In such human compositions there may be wine indeed, but it is mingled with water; in the Bible alone is the expressed juice of the grape in uninspired works there may be milk; but in Scripture alone, the sincere unadulterated milk of the word: all others are turbid streams: here in Scripture, is the clear and everflowing fountain. As saith our church, in her homily on the Holy Scripture: "Let us diligently

search for the well of life in the Books of the Old and New Testament, and not run to the stinking

puddles of man's traditions, devised by man's imaginations, for our justification and salvation. For in Holy Scripture is fully contained what we ought to do, and what to eschew; what to believe, what to love, and what to look for at God's hands at length." And in her Sixth Article" Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation; so that what is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the faith, or thought necessary or requisite to salvation." Of this Holy Book the church professes herself to be "the Witness and Keeper," and nothing more. She nowhere claims to be the authorized expositor of the sacred writings. She does not bring the word of God to the test of the church, but the church to the test of the word of God. that she directs her priests at their ordination; addressing each of them by the mouth of her Bishop, in the following language-" Are you determined out of the same Scriptures, to instruct the people committed to your charge, and to teach nothing (as required of necessity to eternal salvation,) but that which you shall be persuaded may be concluded and proved by the Scripture?" Answer. I am so persuaded, and have so determined by God's grace.' Blessed church! which is thus founded, not on the shifting quicksands of an uncertain tradition, but on the immoveable basis of the written word! A church which is indestructible, because the imperishable seed of God's word is in her!

66

To

MEN are too much in the habit of considering the doctrine of this day as a mere dogma; a sublime theory, deduced, and probably fairly deduced, from various passages of Scripture; but still not a necessary of the spiritual life; not a thing of any practical or vital importance, whether believed or disbelieved.

Now this is just as erroneous a notion as can possibly be imagined. It makes this great doctrine a sort of Corinthian capital,' ornamental, but not indispensable; whereas it is, in fact, if anything at all, the foundation of the whole building." Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor. iii. 11.) But Jesus Christ, to be a foundation on which the church may safely be built, must be "the mighty God," and thus comes in the whole question of the TRINITY.

"Ye worship ye know not what," said our Lord to the Samaritan woman,—“ we know what we worship." And this is the whole difference between one who understands and receives the doctrine of the Trinity, and one who does not. The one "knows what he worships;" the other has not taken the trouble even to understand his own creed; if, indeed, he have any.

But

The Deist, professing to worship "the First Great Cause," worships, in fact, "an airy nothing." He has not yet got beyond the first vague idea, that this vast universe, which spreads before his sight on every side, must have had a Creator. beyond this, all is conjecture and blank uncertainty. He knows nothing, and not receiving God's own word, he can know nothing, of His nature, or character, or attributes, or decisions. If he bows the knee, it is on speculation; if

he attempts to pray, it is at a venture; for how can he know that the First Great Cause is omnipresent, or omniscient, or that be concerns himself with the affairs of this minute speck, among all the myriads of worlds which fill the immensity of space?

The Greeks and Romans, and, in fact, the whole Pagan world, have confessed their consciousness of this, by never attempting to worship or address an abstract idea. No nation has ever been found, which worshipped the Deist's God. Every where, and in all ages, men have shown their consciousness of the want of some embodying of the Deity, by bestowing on the objects of their worship, names, and qualities, and local histories.

And in this circumstance we catch a glimpse of the wisdom and benevolence connected with the doctrine of the Trinity. The First Person in the Godhead; the One Great Source of Life, the Eternal Father, is Deity in essential, selfexistent abstraction. This idea cannot be comprehended or grasped by the human mind. For instance, what notion can we form of POWER in the abstract? None whatever. And all the other attributes of Deity float in equal vagueness before the wind. Self-existence immensity-omnipresence-we use the words, and we attach some sort of meaning to them, by thinking of their opposites; but of the real meaning of the words themselves, we are necessarily incapable of forming any adequate conception.

-

And therefore it was, without any reference to the peculiar work of Redemption, that it became necessary, if the great God would lower himself, so to speak, down to the perceptions of his finite creatures, that he should manifest

himself by THE WORD. This expression implies a making known, a speaking, a showing forth. "No man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath revealed him." (John i. 18.)

In his essence, God was unapproachable, invisible. incomprehensible by man. He therefore condescends to throw himself into a form of flesh, and to be made like unto the creatures of his hands; or rather, having first assumed this form, "THE ALEHIM said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." (Gen. i. 26.)

And by this medium it was, that God "talked with Abraham." (Gen. xviii. 20-33.) "wrestled with Jacob," (Gen. xxxii. 24.) gave his orders unto Joshua (Josh. v. 14.) to Samuel (1 Sam. iii. 11.) and to all the prophets. Thus the race of Adam had in truth, that which the heathen had made for themselves by fiction; a God whose attributes might in some measure be apprehended and understood by his creatures.

We thus perceive the fitness and wisdom of the Divine ordinance which shews a God in essence, and a God in expression, form, and manifestation. There is, however, yet a third mode of the Divine existence to be considered.

"God the Father had made the world, and God the Son had redeemed it," (Church Catech.) and yet, had the Divine work and manifestation ended here, it would appear as if this world would after all have been a prey to Satan.

The First Great Cause had been manifested through his works; but this manifestation was inoperative on the sinful and sin-loving heart of man. "He left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness." (Acts xiv. 17.) Yet men, universally,

"when they (thus) knew God, glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened: professing themselves to be wise they became fools." (Rom. i. 21, 22.)

Natural religion, as it is called, or Deism, did nothing for man. It advanced him not one single step on the way to heaven.

But a second form of the Godhead was to be shewn; a clearer manifestation made. He who was "the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his person, was to condescend

as

to dwell in a tabernacle of flesh and to walk among men one of themselves. Almighty power, recalling the dead from the grave, and calming the ocean with a word; perfect holiness, constraining the frequent exclamation of the beholders, "Truly this was a righteous man!" and love transcending all human angelic thought, were all visibly seen by human eyes; and excited alike the wonder and admiration of those whose perceptions were divinely purified; and the hatred of those whose evil works were thus detected.

or

And yet the result shewed, that some further agency, some third manifestation and operation of the Divine power was needed, to rescue man from the power of his great enemy. Jesus walked publicly for the space of three years, exhibiting day by day the brightest and loveliest attributes of Deity, "doing many wonderful works," astonishing many "by the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth," and what was the result? For the moment it might be said the world is gone after him," but before the lapse of many hours, we find him dragged to execution, not by the arbitrary will of the Roman governor, but by the universal demand of that very people before whom his miracles

had been wrought, and who had just before led him in triumph into Jerusalem, amidst shouts of Hosanna! One of his own apostles, who had wrought miracles by his delegated power, delivers him to death, the rest forsake him and flee for their lives, and after his death we find the whole church assembling in an upper chamber, in number "about an hundred and twenty!"

It is evident, then, that something more is wanting, to accomplish the regeneration of this lost world. Our Lord has declared this, and had especially instructed his disciples "to wait for the promise of the Father," 66 even the Holy Ghost."

The first person in the Godhead had remained wrapped in inscrutable mystery, and known only by his works. The essential Godhead, the First Great Cause, was neither seen in himself, nor felt in his operations.

The second, manifested, expressed, and made God known to his creatures. But, having thus set forth and displayed the brightness of the Father's glory, he went no further; and the general result was, that "He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not he came unto his own, and his own received him not.” (John i. 10, 11.) In the new creation, as in the first formation of the earth, the third exhibition of the Godhead was needed, to wit, DEITY in influence and in operation. "The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters," and immediately the work of creation began. So, in the new creation, we find Christ expressly referring the work of awakening the world to the Holy Ghost. "It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the

"Ye

Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you." (John xvi. 7.) shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judæa, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” (Acts i. 8.)

And the history of the Church exhibits the fulfilment of these promises. By the preaching of these poor, ignorant fishermen, wonders of conversion were wrought, the like of which were never seen in our Lord's own ministrations. Three thousand on one occasion, five thousand on another, were added to the church; and these not of wayside hearers only, but of men who "continued stedfast," and who "sold their possessions" and gave themselves, body, soul, and spirit, to the service of the Lord.

And thus was the manifestation of the Triune Jehovah completed. First, Deity in essence, self-existent, almighty, incomprehensible. Secondly, Deity expressed, made visible, clothed in a human form, brought within the scope of the human mind. Thirdly, Deity exerting almighty power, operating on the heart and soul; changing the whole man; subduing every faculty to his own mind and will.

The Hutchinsonian theorists have a simile which is not without a peculiar force and beauty. They point to the flame of a candle, and shew a Trinity, there, in actual operation. FIRE, LIGHT, and HEAT. Each might have a separate exist

ence.

There might be heat without light and without fire: there might be light without fire or heat. But here the whole three are combined. The distinct presence of each can be shewn and perceived; and yet there is but one flame.