were admitted to the knowledge of His more perfect will, and to the noon-day brightness of His glory.

At first, among the first men and the pa.. triarchs, we discover the thin dawn and twilight of Revelation; the covenant taught by the mystery of the woman's seed, and the serpent's head, and by the visible sign of the rainbow; or handed down, from age to age, by tradition, by dreams, or by the descent of angels. Then came the break of day, but obscure still, and cloudy; and Christ appeared afar off, but reflected from the face of Moses. And now,

every generation, it grew lighter, and more light; as one prophet, after another, announced the approaching Messiah; till, bearing the full brightness of the Godhead, bodily, with healing on His wings, the Sun of Righteousness arose.

Still, however, the whole of God's glory is not yet disclosed; and we see, says the Apostle,

66

through a glass, darkly." We find even as yet, though amply sufficient is revealed for our use, that our curiosity is not yet equally gratified; that, in all the truths and mysteries of our religion, a part, but not the whole, is discovered. It is only here and there that the clear heaven is shown us, through the clouds and darkness which are beneath the feet of God; and the visions, indulged us of His glorious nature, are no more than sufficient

to strengthen our faith, and to raise and exercise our hope.

It is my intention, in the present discourse, to set the doctrine of the Holy Trinity in this point of view; to prove, that our not understanding every secret of religion is no reason for our not believing it; and to consider the temper of mind with which we ought to contemplate the hidden things of God, and of the world to come.-To expect from the Almighty a perfect revelation of Himself, and of every particular in His wonderful nature, whether it really concerned our interest or not; and to imagine ourselves better judges, than He, what share of revelation He is to give us; or how much, or how little, of the tree of knowledge we may be indulged in, were a very vain curiosity, and a very criminal pride.

And as this principle of entire submission to God, and full confidence in His truth and wisdom, forbids us to attempt to be wise "beyond what is written;" or to seek from our vain fancy to lay down rules for the Almighty; and to penetrate into that Holy of Holies, whither none but our High Priest, His only Son, is permitted to enter; so, on the other hand, the same trust in God, which prevents our seeking to know more, will not suffer us to believe less, than what He has thought proper to explain. For, as God is holy, we may be

sure, that He will not tell us what is false ;and, as He is wise, that He will not communicate what is unnecessary. God knows too well the little space which we have to live in this world; He knows too well the important business, which ought to employ our thoughts and time, to distract our attention with any useless revelation; or any which was not in itself important to the improvement of our hearts and lives. If, therefore, we can once establish, that any Doctrine is expressly laid down in the Holy Scriptures, (admitting, what all parties admit, that these Scriptures are the word of God,) it will follow, that we must receive it, not only without contradiction, but with belief; not as a bare and unfruitful truth, but as a holy, and wholesome, and necessary doctrine.

And, in this submission of our reason there is, in truth, nothing unreasonable; it is only the conduct of a child, who, being himself ignorant, trusts to the report of a parent or a friend; and if the things related should seem strange, he and we have the same reason for thinking them true, namely, our good opinion of the relator, and our confidence that he would not deceive us. If, indeed, he tells us something against our own knowledge, something which we can feel or see to be false, we may be led to doubt his information: but even here, our belief, or disbelief, will be in exact proportion

Even

to our reliance on ourselves, or on him. if our senses, our sight, and feeling tell us differently; yet still they may be deceived: and so often are they deceived, that this happens every day and every day we believe something or other, against their testimony. Any one of you, who was sailing in a ship away from the land, would think, if you trusted your eyes only, that the vessel was remaining fixed in one place, and that it was the land, which was moving from you. The same thing I have known happen to children, going in a carriage, for the first time. But, to speak of something, which we all have known; do not our eyes and feeling seem to bear witness, that the earth stands still, and that the sun and stars move round it? Yet the contrary to this is proved by learned men to be the case: and it is, in fact, the sun, which remains fixed and immoveable, and the earth, which turns round before it, every day and night. So liable are our senses, and that reason which is founded on our senses, so liable, I say, are these to be in error, and so humbly ought our weakness and ignorance to carry itself, before the revelations of Him, in whose hand we and all things are; whose truth cannot be doubted; and whose wisdom cannot be deceived. But, if this be the case with things before our eyes, and under our feet, how much more so with

wonders, which we have no means of examining, and which we only know from the revelations of God! The doctrine of the Trinity we are told is impossible; but how can we know what is impossible, or what is unlikely, in Heaven, or with the nature of God? What means have we of judging? We can touch, indeed, and taste, and hear, and see, and smell: and from these, and as far as these are concerned, we can judge and reason. But, to apply such means of inquiry to heavenly things, to measure by such powers the wisdom, and might, and majesty of our Maker, or to search by such helps into those spiritual natures, which we only know by faith; and to which nothing on earth, we are sure, can be compared, -is applying our sense and reason to a use which it is practically impossible they should answer: it is measuring distance with a weather-glass, or heat and cold with a carpenter's rule.

But why is the doctrine of the Trinity impossible? It will be answered: "We cannot understand it." It is most true, we cannot ; and how many things are there, even upon earth, which the greatest and most learned men have sought to understand in vain: what wonder then, that in the Heaven of Heavens, there should be some secrets hid from all created beings; some, which neither man nor angel can penetrate; but which man and angel are not