men, to measure the mysteries of revelation by their narrow capacities. Whoever will read the Bible, with an honest intent to ascertain its doctrine upon this point, will find all the parts of it concurrent with the declaration in my text, "There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost."

I hasten now to show, thirdly, that the Persons of the Holy and ever Blessed Trinity, are co-equal and co-existent. This is implied in the last clause of the text, "these three are No one can need to be informed, that the Father is fully and essentially God over all, blessed for evermore. Now, if it can be proved from Scripture, that the Son is God, and that the Holy Ghost is God, it will clearly follow, that the Holy Three are co-equal and co-existent. Deity is designated in Scripture, by titles appropriated to him; by honours due to him; and by attributes which can be predicated of none but the Supreme Being. He, therefore, to whom these titles, honours, and attributes are assigned, must be God. Each and every of them, are, in numberless passages of the sacred writings, given both to the Son and to the Holy Ghost. As my time has almost elapsed, a few texts establishing the divinity of each, shall be adduced, and recollection, or your Bibles, will furnish you with a variety of others. First, of the Son. It was lately shown to be an essential article of Christianity, that Christ should judge the world. St. Paul, speaking of this judgment, has this remarkable passage, "We shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ; for it is written: As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God." Here the apostle expressly makes Christ God, and it is observable, that he alludes to a passage in Isaiah, in which these very words are represented as coming from Jehovah, a name so solemnly appropriated to the Most High, that the Jews never pronounced it. St. John declares the Logos, or Word, to be God, and to have been the Creator of all things which were made.

John, in the chapter from which the text is selected, styles Jesus Christ, "the true God." In Jude, he is called, "the only wise God." In Romans, he is said to be "over all, God blessed forever." The Redeemer of Israel, the Saviour, the Messiah, is called by the Prophets, "King of kings, Lord of lords, the first and the last;" and in the New Testament, with allusion to these expressions, the same titles of divinity are given to Christ. Divine worship was ordered by the Father himself, to be offered to the Son: "Let all the angels of God worship him." He received adoration from his disciples when present, and the primitive Christians worshipped him as God. In a word, omniscience, omnipotence, eternity, infinite goodness, all the attributes which can be inherent in God alone, are declared to be in Christ, in so express terms, as to admit of no equivocation, and so numerous passages, as to render a selection unnecessary. From all which it appears, that Jesus Christ was true and very God. It is objected, that he sometimes speaks of himself as inferior to the Father. He does so. But, whenever he does, the critical observer will find, he speaks in his human capacity, viewing himself as man. Let me have your patience a few moments longer, while I adduce some Scripture evidences that the Holy Ghost is God. Jehovah, in Isaiah, commands the prophet to go to the people, and utter certain words, and Paul speaks of the same commission as given to Esaias, by the Holy Ghost. Jeremiah represents Jehovah as resolving to make a new covenant with Israel, and in the Epistle to the Hebrews, this resolution is attributed to the Holy Ghost, as though the names were synonymous. The apostle Peter condemned Ananias for lying to the Holy Ghost, and immediately, to show the heinousness of the offence, tells him he had "lied unto God." In both the Epistles to the Corinthians, Christians are styled the temples of God, because the Spirit of God dwells in them. The Holy Spirit is said to have been active in the creation; to have moved upon the face of the water; to have garnished the heavens, and to have given life to man. As well as the Father and the Son, he received divine honours. All VOL. II.--8

the attributes of the Divine Essence are spoken of as belonging to the Holy Ghost. He is omniscient, for he searcheth all things, leadeth into all truth, and is the Spirit of wisdom and revelation. He is omnipresent, for God is said to dwell in us by his Spirit, and the Psalmist inquires whither he should go from the Holy Spirit. He is omnipotent. "All these," says St. Paul, "worketh that one, and the self-same Spirit, divideth to every one severally as he will." He is eternal. He existed before the worlds, and abideth forever. In short, the Scriptures attribute all the insignia to the Holy Ghost, by which the Supreme God is ever, and alone, distinguished. Thus it is evident, that such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost, and consequently that the Persons of the Holy Trinity are co-equal and co-existent.

That the texts which have been adduced are not corruptions, is evident from a comparison of the various versions of the New Testament which exist. That they are not misunderstood is morally certain, from their being thus construed by all the primitive Christians, even those who had conversed with the apos tles, and from their being always thus explained by the Church, till the human mind was made the test of divine truths.

We have now seen that the Divine Essence, or the Godhead, is One; that in this Unity of essence there is a Trinity of Persons, and that these Persons are co-equal, each being "very God." This is the doctrine of the Bible. This is the doctrine held undisturbed by the Church for the first three centuries from the establishment of Christianity. The enemies of the Catholic faith evince by their contradictions, its foundation in the gospel, for Sabellius and Socinus were so convinced of the divinity of the Spirit, that they made him the same person with the Father; and Arius, and Macedonius, were so satisfied with the distinction of the Persons of the Three, that they considered the Word and Spirit as mere creatures. Had it not been for the pride of man's heart, for his desire to unveil the secrets of heaven, and to measure divine truths by finite faculties, this great mystery of our religion might have escaped the attack of

its foes, and resting upon the evidences which prove the authenticity of our religion, might have commanded the humble belief of every disciple of Christ. It is perhaps an unpleasant feature of modern divinity, that the prevalent desire of simplifying Christianity has given birth to many who would cut this mystery because they cannot solve it; and as the Bishop of Connecticut* has expressed it, "take from their Redeemer his eternal power and Godhead." Let us, my friends, learn from what has been said, to "hold fast the form of sound words," and "the faith once delivered to the saints.' That we cannot conceive how the three are one substance and yet distinct Persons, should not shake our faith, for we are equally as unable to conceive how the soul, mind, and body constitute one man, or how natural causes produce their consequences, or even how we think, believe, or reject. Convinced that the doctrine of the Trinity is the doctrine of the Bible, we should not listen to "vain babblings," but the language of our hearts should be, "Yea, let God be true, and every man a liar."

Now to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, three Persons and one God, be ascribed the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever and ever.

* Bishop Seabury.

SERMON XII.

ON THE FESTIVAL OF ST. MICHAEL AND ALL

ANGELS.

HEBREWS, i. 14.

"Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?"

WE

E have just risen, my brethren, from acknowledging before God, that he hath "constituted the services of angels and men in a wonderful order." And, indeed, it is worthy of praise in the economy of our Church, that while she relates regularly the mysteries of religion, and commemorates the actions and character of the apostles and distinguished disciples of our Lord, she reminds us, annually, of our connection with the higher orders of intelligences, and leads us to contemplate whatever the Scriptures have revealed, concerning the angels of God. On this festal day, which happily combines the joys of the Sabbath with the pleasures which may spring from contemplating what knowledge we have of these heavenly hosts, we shall make them the theme of our discourse; endeavouring to show you,

In the first place, that these exalted beings, denominated angels, do exist:

Secondly, that they take an interest and have an influence in the affairs of this visible world; and,

Thirdly, that the doctrine concerning them affords many inferences, conducive to our comfort and religious improvement.