time, may point to the humiliation of the Cross, and to the triumph of the Resurrection, and may call us to "seek those things which are above, where Christ now sitteth on the right hand of God, and to set our affections chiefly on these, not on things on the earth." Let us farther pray to that Divine Comforter, that our lives may be brought to correspond to our Faith, that He will aid our weakness with his strength, and support us when we are ready to fall, and raise us where we have fallen, and send us forth in the spirit of a renewed and diviner love to bless our fellow men; and that, loving our Lord, we may be enabled to keep His words, and finally be gathered into his Father's house, "where he may receive us unto himself, that where he is, there we may be also !" SERMON XXV. ON THE REVELATION OF THE GODHEAD.* 2 COR. xiii. 14. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. IN these very simple words, the great Doctrine which we this day commemorate is brought before us by the Apostle; and surely it is impossible that any doctrine, which is confessedly mysterious, should be presented in language less calculated to perplex or bewilder. The expressions are merely the lan * Preached on Trinity-Sunday. guage of kind and Christian benediction; and while the Apostle does not at all attempt to draw a veil over a truth, however incomprehensible, which had received the sanction of Revelation, he at the same time distinctly shows, that whenever we contemplate it, it ought to be in that aspect only in which it will elevate our Piety, and extend our Charity. In the manner in which he himself introduces it to us, these are the sentiments to which it necessarily leads; and as a suitable exercise for this Day, I shall, therefore, request you to follow me in a few observations on the views which are opened to us in this passage of Scripture. I. In the first place, let us attend to the idea which is here given us of the Divine Nature. We shall perceive that it is represented to us solely under the character of Goodness, and that the aspects in which the Deity has been manifested to man, are those of Grace, Love, and Communion. It is "the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,”—it is "the love of God,"-it is "the communion of the Holy Ghost," which are brought into view as the subjects of our meditation, when we raise our thoughts to the sublime Mystery of this Day. The Three great agents in the Unity of the Godhead, are represented as exercising their separate offices to one beneficent and glorious end, in bestowing salvation and happiness on the immortal spirits of men. The Apostle first speaks of "the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ," that subject of thankfulness which was so constantly present to his own mind, and which so naturally rose to the hearts of those whom he was addressing, when they recollected that through that Grace alone they had been rescued from the chains of heathen darkness and sin, and had been brought into "the glorious liberty of the sons of God." This bright manifestation of the Divine Mercy, was that, accordingly, which most naturally presented itself, in the first instance, to those who lived in that eventful period of Religion. To us, perhaps, to whom, from our earliest years, the grace of the Gospel has been made known, and who have been taught in the first prayer of our infancy, to address our Father which is in Heaven;" the 66 goodness and the beneficence of that great Father in the ordinary course of his administration, and as they are visible in every thing that lives and breathes, may be the views that still more naturally occur, and which awaken the simplest aspirations of the pious heart. Yet, my brethren, never let us forget, when we address God as our Father, that we are emboldened so to address Him by that "beloved Son in whom he is ever well pleased," who came among us in great humility, and even died to recall our wandering steps into the path of salvation; and who, now that he hath accomplished his labours of love, and hath ascended up on high, is for ever seated at the right hand of God, whence he is still showering down gifts upon men, and where He is preparing for the faith and the obedience of his followers, the many mansions" of his Father's house. 66
This, then, is "the grace" which the Apostle first recalls to the recollection of the Christian heart, when he seeks to inspire it with a grateful sense of the goodness of God. Yet, in the true feeling of that grace of his Lord upon his own heart, he ascribes its origin to the love of the Eternal Father, that love which is diffused around us wherever we look abroad upon creation, which is the breath of life that animates every living soul, and which, in the extent |
