that, wishing to know, at first hand, the sentiments of antiquity on the points in dispute between the Romanists and ourselves, he went through, between the age of twenty and thirty-eight, the voluminous writings of the Fathers by devoting amidst his other labors, a small proportion of time every day to that purpose. Tasks of this extent and difficulty need not be now imposed on a clergyman.-The evidence on most controverted doctrines has been collected and arranged for him; and by means of a few well-chosen books,* perused with due attention, he may become a sufficient master of the subject, and of the arguments which have been, or indeed can be, produced; for there is but little fresh matter at this time to be started. What progress might he make, within the compass of a year, at the rate of a couple of hours in each day!

By such an employment of his hours, he will be prepared, whenever summoned, to render an account of them. Conscious that he must render an account, and cannot render a good one, it is impossible for him, if he reflect at all, to continue long at ease. The grand question concerning our conduct is, how it will appear at the great scrutiny and he alone is truly wise, who spends his time as, at the last hour, he will

wish to have spent it. Happy the man, who may be able with all humility to say, when that hour shall come-"The time which thou hast given me has been passed in thy service. I have not suffered myself, through indolence, or dissipation, to live in ignorance of thy truth, or to withhold it from others. I have labored diligently and faithfully to find it; and when found, to publish and defend it. It is not my fault, if the people perish for lack of knowledge. I have done my best: I have fought a good fight: I have kept the faith; and endeavored that others should do the same." This is a state of satisfaction and comfort for a minister of Christ, weighed against which, the world, with all its wealth, and its pleasures, "and all its honors, is dust upon the balance, without weight and without regard."

But, besides the testimony borne him by his conscience within, other witnesses will appear in his favor from without. He will have the approbation and thanks of all those who wish well to the church and to their country; who do not apprehend, that the latter will be benefitted by the destruction of the former, or a nation saved by apostasy from its Saviour. He will have the attestation of multitudes, that by his ministry, by his discourses, by his writings, they were preserved or reclaimed from error and from death, Such as-Bishop Bull's Latin Words; Water- and conducted in the way of truth and life. land's Importance of the Doctrine of the Trinity; Behold him, and the children which God his Sermons at Lady Moyer's Lectures; Dr. Ridley's at the same Lecture, on the Holy Spirit; the wri-hath given him, like the arrows in the hand tings of Dr. Randolph; Mr. Jones's Catholic Doc- of the mighty: happy is the man that hath trine of the Trinity; Full Answer to the Essay on his quiver full of them; he shall not be Spirit; Letter to the Common People; to a Young ashamed when he speaketh with his enemies, Gentleman at Oxford; Remarks on the Confessional. at the seat of judgment."

:

On Socinianism; Grotius de Satisfactione; Stillingfleet's Discourse on the true Reason of Christ's Sufferings, against Crellius; Bishop Coneybear's Sermon on the Satisfaction; Edward's Preservative; Leslie's Dialogues on Socinianism; with Mosheim's Account of its rise and progress, in his Ecclesiastical History.

For the Judgment of the Jewish Church against the Unitarians, Dr. Allix's book with that title; a most learned, valuable, and decisive work on that part of the subject.

On that seat he will view the blessed Person for whose faith he has contended; whose cause he has maintained; the honor of whose name he has asserted and vindicated; who has been a spectator of the conflict, and will award the crown.

* Isaiah, viii. 18. Heb. ii. 31. Psal. cxxvii. 4, 5.

DISCOURSE LXXIV.

THE TRINITY IN UNITY.

MATTHEW, XXVIII. 19.

Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

rite, by which we are admitted into the church of Christ, this solemn form of baptizing in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; that is, into the faith, service, and worship, of the Holy Trinity.

For let us reflect a little

Whatever

SUCH is the solemn form of baptism, pre- | listing oneself into his service; and vowing scribed by our blessed Lord himself, as a per-all obedience and submission to him. Such petual standing law to his church. Having is the natural, the obvious import of this redeemed mankind, and thereby acquired a new and special claim to their homage and service, be entered upon, and took possession of, his purchased inheritance. And for what end? Plainly, that he might bring all nations, thus made his own by right of redemption, to the knowledge and worship of The nations were to be baptized in the the true God. And how is this done? Why, by making them acquainted, in the very first name of three persons, in the same maninstance, with the obligations conferred upon ner, and therefore, surely, in the same them by three ever blessed Persons, called sense, as in the name of one. by the names of the Father, Son, and Holy honor, reverence, or regard is paid to the Ghost. These three Persons, therefore, thus Father in this solemn rite, the same we related and thus named, constitute that one cannot but suppose paid to all three. Is he true God, into whose name, faith, and pro- acknowledged as the object of worship? fession, people of all the nations of the earth, So are the other two persons likewise. Is and, among them, we who are here assem- he God and Lord over us? So are they. bled, have been baptized. In this consisted Are we his subjects, servants, and soldiers, So are we equalthe sum of Christianity on this foundation enrolled under him? Are we hereby regenerated were the apostles to erect a church through-ly under all. out all the world. Here, if any where, a and made the temple of the Father? So right understanding, upon so important a are we likewise of the Son and Holy Ghost. "We will come," says our Lord, "and point as the nature of God and the manner The outof his existence, would be highly necessary; make our abode with him."* nor could any one mistake more dangerously ward act respects all the three; the inward and fundamentally, than in such an article as meaning and signification must do the same. this. Let us then consider, if you please, how much is implied in the form of baptism thus prescribed by our Lord to the universal church, and by that church retained and observed from its first foundation to the present hour; how this is confirmed by the declarations of Scripture at large; and the interest we have in the doctrine that shall be

We may consider likewise, that in the very names of Father and Son, a near relation, alliance, and unity, between two of the persons, is intimated; and in reason, we must infer something of a similar kind for the third, so closely joined with them. It is not said, "in the name of God and his two faithful servants;" nor "of God, and Christ, and the Holy Ghost;" which might have suggested a thought, that one only of the three was God; but, "in the name

* John, xiv. 23.

of the Father and of the Son," a style perfectly equal and familiar, without any note of distinction more than that of a personal relation, carrying with it the idea of a sameness of nature; as, among men, every father and son are of the same human nature with each other. From the very wording of the form of baptizing, therefore, most reasonably might it be presumed, that the first two Persons namely were equally divine: and the inference from thence would fairly, and indeed unavoidably, reach to the third, to make all suitable and consistent; besides, that the terms Holy, and Spirit, evidently point the same way.

men, unless it be, that all men are required to believe in, to worship, and to serve THEM also, as well as the Father: neither can it be reasonably imagined, that they are recommended to us in any such capacity, as Persons to be believed in, served, and adored, if they be CREATURES only; much less, if Christ be no more than a mere man, like one of us; and the Holy Spirit a property, or quality only, of the Father-in short, if the three, taken together, be any other than THE LIVING and true God.

Thus far we have been arguing on the words of the text, and the doctrine implied in them, without taking in what the Scripture has revealed at large concerning the Divinity of the three Persons, which was, in the

Second place, proposed to be done.

Concerning the Divinity of the Father there is no dispute. Respecting that of the Son, you shall judge for yourselves, when I have laid before you what the Scriptures teach relative to his titles, his attributes, and the actions ascribed to him.

But it is yet farther to be considered by us- and a consideration it is of very great weight indeed upon the subject-that a new religion was to be introduced with this solemn form of words. And among whom was it to be introduced? Among Gentiles, or Heathen nations. These were to be taught to turn from their vanities to the living God; to renounce their idols and false gods, and so to be baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the The divine titles given to the Son in the Holy Ghost. Now, what must occur to holy Scriptures are as follows: He is called THEM, upon this occasion, but that, instead "the Word that was in the beginning with of all their deities, to whom they had be- God, and was GoD;" that was made fore bowed down, they were in future to flesh," and whose " glory was the glory of serve, worship, and adore, Father, Son, and the only begotten of the Father."*" When Holy Ghost, as the only true and living it is said, "A virgin shall conceive, and God? From the pompous and solemn bear a son," it is said also, "they shall call proclamation of these three Persons in op- his name Emanuel, that is, GOD WITH US."+ position to all other gods, what could THEY He is the Lord, before whose face John the conclude; but that these Three possessed Baptist was sent : the LORD GOD foretold in reality that Divinity which was falsely by Isaiah, who was to "feed his flock like presumed with respect to the gods of the a shepherd."§ Of Jesus Christ it is afnations; that they had a natural right to firmed by St. John, "This is THE TRUE GOD, all that homage and service, which men and eternal life."|| St. Paul mentions "the should pay to a Divine Being? We may appearance of the GREAT GOD and our Saadd, that the circumstance of the form run-viour," or, our GREAT GOD and Saviour, ning in the NAME-not NAMES, but in the Jesus Christ," for it is he who shall ap singular number, NAME of the Father, and pear to judge the world. Isaiah styles of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, might him, "Wonderful, Counsellor, the MIGHTY and did, in the strongest manner, intimate GOD;"** St. Paul again, "GOD over all, that the authority of all the Three was the blessed for evermore." In the Old Tessame, their power equal, their persons un-tament, Christ is frequently called Jehodivided, and their glory one.

The last consideration under this head shall be, that nothing can appear more unreasonable, or unnatural, than to suppose that God and two CREATURES are here joined together in so solemn a rite of admission into a new religion into the service of the living God, in direct opposition to all CREATURE-WORSHIP. For no rational account can be given, why the Son and Holy Ghost should be thus closely and equally joined with the Father, in an act so public, and of so high importance to the salvation of all

VAH, a name which can belong to no one but God. In the Revelation he is introduced as saying of himself, “I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the Ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty."§§

§ Such being the fact, all disputation concerning the manner of the Distinction, the manner of the Union, the manner of the Generation, and the manner of the Procession, is needless and fruitless: needless, because if we have divine authority for I do not see my Saviour only in " a few de- the fact, it sufficeth; that is all we are concerned tached passages" of either Testament. I see him to know; fruitless, because it is a disputation withconducting the economy of the divine dispensations, out ideas: after a long, tedious, intricate, and perthrough both, from the creation to the consumma-plexed controversy, we find ourselves-just where tion of all things, as the the 7 and Owe were-totally in the dark. Such has been the Loyos 78 88. Dr. Allix and Mr. Taylor had both case respecting this and other questions. God is demonstrated this point. It is only to be wished, pleased to reveal the fact; man insists upon apprethe latter had drawn the conclusion drawn by the hending his mode; in his present state he cannot former-the just and proper conclusion-that the apprehend it; he therefore denies the fact, and commences unbeliever.

Many apprehend the doctrine of the Trinity to be what is called a SPECULATIVE doctrine only, that is to say, a doctrine, concerning which men may think, and conjecture, and reason, and dispute, for their amusement, but of no effect or importance in a religious life. This is a considerable mistake in judgment; and to prove that it is so, let us only ask one question, What is the doctrine of most importance to man, in his religious concerns? Undoubtedly it is that of his redemption from sin and sorrow, from death and hell, to righteousness and joy, immortality and glory. But of such redemption what account do the Scriptures give us? By whom was this gracious scheme originally concerted, and afterwards carried into execution? Was it only by the three Persons of the ever blessed and adorable Trinity?

Say no more, then, that the doctrine of the Trinity is a matter of curiosity and amusement only. Our religion is founded upon it. For what is Christianity but a manifestation of the three divine Persons, as engaged in the great work of man's redemption, begun, continued, and to be ended by them, in their several relations of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, three Persons, one God? If there be no Son of God, where is our redemption? If there be no Holy Spirit, where is our sanctification? Without both, where is our salvation? And if these two Persons be anything less than divine, why are we baptized equally in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost? Let no man, therefore, deceive you: "This is the TRUE god, and eternal life."*

It was not an afterthought, a new design, And while you suffer no man to deceive formed upon the transgression and fall of our you, do not, I beseech you, deceive yourfirst parents. That event was foreseen, and selves. Benefits conferred require duties to provision made accordingly. For upon the be paid. Remember what the three divine very best of authority we are informed, that Persons have done for you, and forget not Christ was "the Lamb slain from the founda- what they expect that you should do in retion of the world ;"* that is (for it cannot be turn. For how little will it avail you to beotherwise understood,) slain in effect, in the lieve aright concerning the Trinity, if you divine purpose, and counsel. It is likewise live so as to displease the Trinity?—You said, that "grace was given us in Christ Jesus, know and believe in the true God; you do before the world began." The words inti- well. But let not that which is an honor to mate, that previous to the creation of the you, be any encouragement to dishonor God; world, something had passed in our favor the knowledge of whom can only serve to above; that the plan of our future redemp- increase your condemnation, if you live in tion was then laid; that some agreement, the practice of pride and malice, envy and some covenant, relative to it, had been en- hatred, lust and intemperance, even as the tered into; "grace was given us ;" not in heathen who know him not. And though it our proper persons, for as yet we were not-be the faith of a Christian which distinguishes we had no being-but in the person of him him from the rest of mankind, yet that faith, who was afterward to become our representa- to profit him, must appear in the conduct of tive, our Saviour—“ in Christ Jesus." Now his life; as love to a friend is best witnessed the plan must have been laid, the covenant by a readiness to do him service. It is true, entered into, by the parties who have since been graciously pleased to concern themselves in its execution. Who these are we cannot be ignorant. It was the Son of God who took our nature upon him, and in that nature made a full and sufficient oblation, satisfaction, and atonement, for the sins of the world. It was the Father who accepted such oblation, satisfaction, and atonement; and in consequence forgave those sins. It was the Holy Spirit who came forth from the Father and the Son, through the preaching of the word and the administration of the sacraments, by his enlightening, healing, and comforting grace, to apply to the hearts of men, for all the purposes of pardon, sanctification, and salvation, the merits and benefits of that oblation, satisfaction, and atonement.

the service is not the love, nor of equal value with it; yet the love that refuses the service will be accounted as nothing. "The mystery of faith" is an invaluable treasure; but the vessel that contains it must be clean and undefiled: it must be " holden in a pure conscience;"+ as the manna, that glorious symbol of the word of faith preached to us by the Gospel, was confined to the tabernacle, and preserved in a vessel of gold. A mind that is conformed to this world, and given up to its pleasures, though it repeats the creed without questioning a single article of it, will be abhorred in the sight of God, as a vessel unfit for the master's use, and unworthy, because unprepared, to stand in the most holy place. It is the great excellency of faith, that it can produce such a transformation in