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adoption in Jesus Christ. Through him, and according to his word, must you seek reconciliation. Suffer not to enter your heart this vain confidence, that you have lived well; that you are engaged in honest business; that your life is decently moral; that you are daily doing good for yourself and others, and therefore it is unnecessary to spend your time in religious duties; that nothing more for you is needful. God, who knows the heart, has declared that you, in common with all men, are a sinner. He has provided one Saviour, and opened but one way of salvation to you and to all mankind. To whom else can you go, but to him who only has the words of eternal life? The gospel of salvation knows not of any privileged orders; any exemptions from that sentence of condemnation, which has passed upon men, because all have sinned. There is no royal way to heaven. The same blood was shed for you and for the beggar who lies at your gate; and the faith, and hope, and charity required of one, are necessary to all. Whatever then may be your state in the world, though your cares are many, and your occupation ever so important, it is no good reason, and let it be no excuse for neglecting religious concerns. Your peace with God, your salvation in Jesus Christ, is important as eternity is durable. Without this, though you gain the whole world, you gain nothing. With this, you are infinitely rich; "all things are yours." "Marvel not that we say unto you, ye must be born again." We shall be unfaithful stewards of God's mysteries if we do not teach, and insist with all long-suffering and doctrine, that the most upright moralist, if he would save his soul, must by prayer and searching

the scriptures, and by religious duties, seek an interest in the only Saviour; he must obtain a new heart and a new spirit, disposed to honour God and love his fellow-men. And to be faithful, we must also continually warn the most steadfast Christians to take heed how they cumber their minds with too much serving. Our Saviour's language is strong and awakening: "Take no thought for the morrow; seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness." Take care that religious duties are never, from the love of the world, neglected. If you yield to this weakness, the tempter is gaining ground, other sins will follow. Knowing our frailty, let us not cease daily and most devoutly to pray, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen."

SERMON XX.

ON WORSHIPPING GOD IN TRINITY.

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. Amen.

It was not without reason that Zophar demanded of Job, "Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection ?" Some of the divine attributes may reasonably be inferred from our knowledge of his works. That he is wise, and good, and mighty, and that he ought to be worshipped and obeyed, our natural reason may in some degree discover from the works of creation. But what particularly is the Lord's will respecting us; by what name or names he may fitly be distinguished; what kind of homage he requires or will accept; what we may fear from his justice, or hope from his mercy, and how we may draw nigh unto him in assurance of faith, we can learn only from a supernatural revelation. And such a revelation we have in the holy scriptures. To this sacred fountain

of light and truth must we repair for spiritual knowledge; and according as we deviate from this unerring standard, we "worship we know not what." Here we are taught to believe in the "Father, of whom are all things, and we of him;" and in his only begotten Son, the "one Lord by whom are all things, and we by him." Though "in the beginning he was with God, and was God, he was made flesh and dwelt among us." And we are taught also to believe in the Holy Ghost, the eternal Spirit of God. And that it is only through the Son, as "the Lord our righteousness," and by this divine Spirit helping our infirmities, that we have access unto the Father.

Under these names, and others of like distinction, are made known to us the being and attributes of the Deity, so far certainly as is necessary to our salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. These Persons, (as from the defect of language we call them,) inseparably existing as one God, are the object of our religious faith; which faith we solemnly profess in baptism; these names are in the seal of the Christian covenant. To them, throughout the scriptures, we find titles and ascriptions of divine honour and adoration, of which the present text is an instance: "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen." "This is a prayer to the three Persons of the Divine Being, for their respective blessings in the covenant of redemption." These blessings which are essentially necessary to the holiness and happiness of God's people, does the apostle invoke upon the Corinthian Christians. And in this

view, as it is a prayer addressed to the three Persons of the Christian's God, is this text proposed to your present consideration. I purpose, the Lord permitting, to discourse on this subject, of thus distinguishing in our religious worship, the several Persons of the Godhead. I shall enter no farther into the doctrine of the Trinity, than this subject requires. We shall not, indeed, have room in the present discourse, to state much of the authority which we have in God's word, for worshipping the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is proposed merely to show something of the fitness and apostolic authority for addressing our homage distinctly to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; in what sense, and with what doctrinal views we should do it; and to show the unreasonableness of some objections which are made to this manner of worship.

I. First, then, let us turn our attention to the word of God, and to the doctrine and the practice of the inspired writers. In the relation of existence, the Father is first, as this title implies. The Son ranks the second. The Holy Ghost as proceeding from, or as being "the Spirit of the Father;" and "the Spirit of Christ," is the third; and so, in the form of baptism, we are commanded to use them. But we cannot from this, infer inequality in their nature or glory; for the apostles address, or speak of them sometimes one, sometimes another first, indifferently. In the text, "the Lord Jesus Christ" is first addressed.

That in regard to the essentials of Divinity, these Persons are equal, is further evident in the scriptures,

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