were to the very last questioned and objected to by the Apostles themselves: and why? he tells them distinctly, because they had not as yet received the Holy Ghost; for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified. Therefore he adds, When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you into all truth; and in another place, At that day ye shall know--then there will be no more questioning; there will be no more objecting: At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and Father, and ye in me, and I in you. It was by the teaching of the Holy Spirit alone, that the Apostles themselves were enabled to receive and believe this doctrine of the Trinity: much more it must be by the teaching of the Holy Ghost that we can receive and believe this doctrine. And how does the Holy Ghost teach this doctrine of the Trinity? Our Lord himself declares, He shall glorify me; for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. And, still insisting on this point, the unity of the Persons, he adds, All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shew it unto you.

My brethren, would we know the doctrine of the Trinity in Unity and of the Unity in Trinity? Is it not clear that we can know it only by the teaching of the Holy Ghost dwelling in us; according to our Lord's decla

ration to his disciples, At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you? Is it not clear, that we can know it only by the knowledge of the Son; according to that other declaration of our Lord, He shall glorify me; for he shall receive of mine, and shew it unto you? Thus only it was that the Apostles knew and believed this doctrine, even by the knowledge of the everlasting Son: for he that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. This was the testimony of the Apostles respecting themselves: We have known and believed the love that God hath to us; and we have seen, and do testify that the Father hath sent the Son. This was their testibelievers in their own

mony with respect to days for ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. And this is their testimony to the world, even to the end: This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son; he that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life: and he that hath the Son hath the Father; for this is the true God and eternal life, even Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth for evermore.

235

SERMON XVI.

ST. LUKE XV. 10.

Likewise, I say unto you, There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.

THERE is a divine simplicity in our blessed Lord's several discourses, as recorded in the Gospels; a heavenly wisdom, which all his enemies were unable to gainsay. How constantly did he convict them of their wicked intentions, and cause their own consciences to smite them in secret! How frequently did he send them away abashed and ashamed at the clear discovery which he made to their own minds of their hidden villainy and hypocrisy ! What irresistible convictions did he carry to their judgments, by word and deed. In the very act of accusing, they would justify him in attempting to condemn, they would acquit him while they represented him as one who deceived the people by his miracles

and discourses, they frequently confessed, and proved on their own testimony, by their own witness, that it was impossible to deny the validity of the former, or to resist the authority of the latter. What was their declaration, when they sat in council plotting his murder? This man doeth many miracles. And hence, with perverse wickedness, they drew their argument to put him to death; while the officers they sent out to take him, instead of performing their commission, carried back to their employers this remarkable testimony, Never man spake like this man.

But it was not his enemies and opposers alone who felt the power and efficacy of his word. At one and the same time he would silence his opposers, justify himself, and instruct his hearers. The same discourse which brought confusion to the former, administered comfort to the latter: the same language which repressed the daring of the one, encouraged the backwardness of the other. He seemed to speak to each, to every man, at once. His language adapted itself to whatever was in the heart. His discourses alone prove him to be the Master of hearts, the Informer of the mind, the Enlightener of the understanding, the Author of existence. He is in very deed the Word of God; and he spake the word of God, even

that word which is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow; and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. There is darkness in the understanding; there is enmity in the heart. He takes occasion from the clearest discovery of the wickedness of his heart, to harden the heart in its wickedness. He takes occasion from the strongest conviction of guilt on his conscience, to sear the conscience against its conviction. With a persevering obstinacy, a desperate determination, which cannot be accounted for, except on the ground of his total fall, and the height of that dignity from which he has fallen, he would seem to think that his damnation lingers; and he would appear to labour that it may not linger. And even when threatened with swift destruction, he would appear to endeavour to go down quick into the pit. All the intellectual faculties of the soul, great as they undoubtedly are (for they were originally conferred for the greatest of all ends, even to walk worthy of that Divine image in which he was created at the first), are by his