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his soul! Under this doctrine how attractive, how bright, how harmonious appear the attributes of God! What an object is this Deity for love, wonder, gratitude, and imitation! How secure is the peace of the soul which thus rests upon the goodwill, the power and the fidelity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Let any man acquainted with his own heart but scrutinize its wants, and he will perceive this doctrine of the Trinity embodied, as it is in all the facts of Christianity, to be in the highest possible degree medicinal and consolatory to his soul. It is no cunningly devised fable. It is the exhibition of the Deity in a manner the most effective to a fallen world. It is the unbarring again the gates of acceptance, the restamping upon the injured heart the bright impressions of righteousness; the discipline of the harassed spirit for the ultimate enjoyments of truth and eternity!

In this sacred manifestation of Deity, there is nothing then to contradict the decisions of reason, but rather every thing to illustrate those characters of the divine mind, which commend themselves to the moral sense with which God has endowed us. How pleasing, how intelligent, how pure, how venerable, how lovely, how consolatory, in fact, becomes now our spiritual intercourse with such a God! Well might the Pa

triarch exclaim, "acquaint thyself with God and be at peace!" How interested in our happiness is this God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, this Comforter, breathing his holy whispers of peace to the once agitated heart! How efficient to lull the tumults of conscience, is the record of the great atonement--how deep and healing the aspirations of prayer under an agency at once so effectual and compassionate! What part in truth of this exhibition of the Godhead could we blot out, without proportionably obscuring the divine attributes, or enfeebling the consolations of the guilty and the sad? The disclosure of the blessed doctrine of the Trinity, is in fact, the disclosure of the full glory and scope of Christianity.

My Christian brethren! let us believe and be happy. Let us gladly credit the great facts of religion, although the connection and method of those facts be hidden from our view. Is it not the office of reason to know its own limitation, and not to expect to measure what is indeed infinite? Oh! urged by our wants, cast down by our sorrows, pressed by our guilt, affected by the insufficiency of earth to make us happy; let us rather take shelter in God, and find repose beneath the shield of his Omnipotence! Our Father is reconciled to us, our Saviour is mighty, our Comforter is equal to the

burden of our sadness. Yes! my brethren, "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life."

181

SERMON XII.

THE EXAMPLE OF THE ANCIENT SERVANTS OF

GOD.

HEB. vi. 12.

"THAT YE BE NOT SLOTHFUL, BUT FOLLOWERS OF THEM WHO THROUGH FAITH AND PATIENCE INHERIT THE PROMISES."

In this fallen world every thing good is acquired with difficulty, and retained with danger. Many fatigues, anxieties, and sorrows make up that amount of effort which realises even the objects of earthly ambition. In spiritual and heavenly pursuits, the same labour is essential, and the same peril attends enjoyment; but then that enjoyment is not subject to the same ultimate forfeiture. These are objects of pursuit at once of high intrinsic excellence, and of perpetual duration; but still they are difficult of acquirement.

In reference to this difficulty of attainment, the apostle requires that we be "not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises."

Let us with God's blessing contemplate here in the first place,

I. THE IMPORTANT FACT, THAT MANY OF HAVE THROUGH

OUR

FELLOW-CHRISTIANS

FAITH AND PATIENCE INHERITED THE PRO

MISES OF GOD; and

II. THE VALUE OF THEIR EXAMPLE TO

OURSELVES.

I. Let us first CONSIDER the assurance of the apostle, THAT THAT MANY HAVE ATTAINED THE PROMISES OF GOD.

To those who are familiar with the Scriptures, I need not say that every thing good and productive of happiness in this world, is the free gift of God. By this I do not simply mean that the original grant of life, with all its blessings, was to us a free benefit from God; but beyond this, that sin having deprived us of that benefit, and exposed us to the most aggravated evils, every degree of comfort, and every mitigation of evil, which we now enjoy, is the free and gratuitous gift of grace. We are cri

minals in a state of condemnation and forfeiture; but as such we are the objects of God's compassion. The promise of mercy consoled the first transgressors; and this promise has been always guarded from oblivion, and in every succeeding age has become the source of hope to the world. The great value of this

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