Gods be one God?"

Now, be it remarked, that we say not that three Gods are one God; but that three persons are one God: and if we understand not how this can be, we are not much moved that we, who cannot dive into the intimate nature of the meanest of all the works of creation, are at least equally unable to comprehend the manner of being of the Creator himself.

To ask, How can this be? if any thing which relates to an exercise of God's power is a sure symptom of infidelity. To such a question the Apostle Paul, with more than his usual severity, replied, Thou fool. But much more absurd and impious is the same question, concerning the very essence and manner of being of Jehovah himself. By such a question hath the folly and vanity of many a proud and empty heart been evinced. Professing themselves to be wise, many have become fools; and in the exercise of a philosophy falsely so called, have acted most unphilosophically. It is not only wrong because it is forbidden, but it is in the nature of things absurd, to scrutinize such mysteries, as if we had capacities to find out the Almighty to perfection. Indeed it would be the strongest possible argument against the truth of any doctrine upon the subject, that it was devoid of mystery. When I see the results of calculations to me utterly unintelligible, verified by actual phenomena, I recognize in those calculations the work of a master-mind. But if I were told that some problem which I had easily solved had been wrought out

by the laboured application of the resources of an Archimedes, I should have a sufficient refutation of such an assertion in my own breast; much more, if it were possible by any metaphysical witchcraft, to conjure up the minds of the mighty dead, and to present them so as to be the subject of comparison and admeasurement with our own, should I laugh at one who bade me reverence that, as the mind of Newton, in the presence of which I stood as an equal, and into all the recesses of which I entered without effort. Why, then, need I say that I should not gain, but lose, confidence in religion as a revelation from God, if I could find in it no depth beyond my reach, no heights above my ken; and that I should never thank one who should teach me that the nature of God is comprehensible? The God whom I have hitherto worshipped he would take away from me; and what would he substitute in His place? What would he enthrone as He is enthroned, above all the imaginations of my heart, and all the faculties of my soul.

Be it ours, then, my brethren, with the deepest reverence of mind, to adore the mysteries of God; as we confess his majesty with awful submission of all the emotions of our hearts, expressed in the humblest prostration of our bodies. And as we would shudder at approaching the glories of his throne in our mortal frame, lest we should be consumed from before his face; yet would dread above all things to be condemn-、 ed exiles from the hopes and realities of his presence; so, while we delight in the reverential contemplation

of the mystery of the Trinity, and maintain its confession as dearer to us than our lives, let us tremble at the first working of that impertinent curiosity, which would impel us to inquire beyond what is revealed, lest we should be driven forth into the pathless wilds of error, and lost in the irreversible doom of the impious and blasphemers.

Q

242

SERMON XIV.

THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH.

COL. i. 18.-He is the head of the body the Church.

IN directing your attention to the article of the Apostles' Creed, I believe the Holy Catholic Church, it is my intention to avoid every thing which is merely polemical; or I should be obliged to preface this discourse with a long definition and explanation of the word Church. I think it at present enough to say, that it is evidently used in the text, and in the article under consideration, for the whole body of Christians over the whole world, whom Christ purchased with his blood, and who maintain the doctrine of the Apostles and their fellowship; duly receiving the sacraments of regeneration, and of spiritual growth in grace and strength, as by Christ appointed.

Now, to this church the Apostles' Creed attributes two qualities, both by necessary implication attributed to the same Church in the text; and both so essential to the being of the Church, that where these are

not, though the name may remain, the reality of the Church has departed. These two qualities are, holiness and catholicity. Its holiness being the necessary consequence of its being the body of Christ; and its catholicity being an equally necessary consequence of its being therefore the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

The first question then that occurs to us is this: What is the Holiness of the Church, and wherein does it consist? Nor is this question of very simple solution; for holiness is so far from whatever is visible and external, even in our most holy things; and in the Church itself among the rest, of which the temporal and material body is alone visible; and so much is its existence a matter of faith and of spiritual apprehension, that we may search for ever in mere externals, and with the eye of reason, for the holiness of the Church, and alas! not find it; and look long into the very words of Scripture in which it is asserted, and perhaps end with a determination to construe that as a figure which is true in the letter, because we cannot reconcile its plain statements with what we see around us.

In very truth, as the Church itself and its union with Christ is a mystery, so is also its holiness; but it is not the less a reality for being a mystery; nor the less, but rather the more, an object of our faith, and an operative principle in our religion. The Church is holy because it is the body of Christ; because it is the temple of God. The temple of God is holy, whose