SERMON XIV.

THE LOVE OF GOD, AND THE PATIENCE OF CHRIST.

2 THESS. III. 5.

The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.

THE most usual method in prayer, is, to address ourselves to THE FATHER; depending for acceptance with him, and for the success of our petitions on the mediation of THE SON; and looking to THE HOLY GHOST to help our infirmities, to enable us to pray aright, and to make intercession for us. This way of approaching the Divine Majesty is that which has generally obtained amongst Christians; and that it is the most proper to be com

monly adopted, is strongly intimated in St. Paul's language to the Ephesians: "Through him," that is Christ, "we have access by one Spirit unto the Father." Since, however, "the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God;" and since "the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost is all one: the glory equal, the majesty co-eternal;" it follows that each divine Person, severally and distinctly, is properly the object of religious adoration. Hence we find that it is perfectly scriptural, and has been occasionally customary, to offer up prayers and supplications to the second or to the third Person in the sacred Trinity, as well as to the first. The martyrdom of St. Stephen affords a striking and affecting instance of divine worship paid to Christ: "They stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit! And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge!" The prayer of the thief on the cross is a similar instance: "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom." So that in perfect

"Thou shalt

consistency with the rule, worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve," we are permitted and required to worship the Lord Jesus Christ. Nor is it less evident from Scripture, that the Holy Ghost also, as God, is "together with the Father and the Son to be worshipped and glorified." The text affords an example, which, for the reason already assigned, is not of very frequent occurrence, of prayer personally addressed to Him. For that by the Lord is here intended Jehovah, the Spirit, is evident, not only because it is peculiarly his office to influence and direct the heart, but also, because the Father and the Son being respectively mentioned afterward in the same sentence, the passage does not fairly admit of any other construction: "The Lord, the Spirit, direct your hearts into the love of the Father, and into the patient waiting for Christ.'

Here then, as in other Scriptures,* we have a most simple, comprehensive, and useful view of one of the most sublime * Is. xxxiv. 16; Num. vi. 23-27; Matt. xxviii. 19; 2 Cor. xiii. 14; 1 John v. 7.

and profound mysteries. Whilst by the confession of a true faith we acknowledge the glory of the Eternal Trinity, may we be preserved from coldly regarding it as a merely speculative question. May we receive it as the Scriptures give it us, more as a truth to be believed, than a matter to be explained; and as a doctrine to be studied, like every other doctrine of the Bible, with a view to establish the heart in faith and holiness. I have been led to these remarks from the peculiarity of the text, as a prayer to the Holy Ghost: but we will now pass on to the consideration of the subject which it presents to us.

We have here two material points: the dispositions mentioned, and the instruc- tion afforded as to the attainment of them.

DISPOSITIONS

HERE MEN

I. THE TIONED: the love of God; the patient waiting for Christ.

66

1. The love of God" may signify either God's love to us, or our love to him, and these are inseparably connected. In each sense the Holy Spirit directs our hearts into the love of God. By his especial

teaching and grace are we made "to know and believe the love which God hath to us;" and by his influence also are excited to the exercise of love to him, and led to delight in him as our supreme good, and as the fountain of all perfection and excellence. Oh! how unspeakably important is this frame and disposition of soul, how commonly professed, but in reality how seldom found! Yet to call in question a man's love to his Maker would often be deemed 'strangely uncourteous; and if nothing more were meant by the term than a mere sentiment or notion, an assent of the mind, or an expression of the lips, then it must be admitted that in a Christian country the love of God may be supposed generally to prevail: but the love of God is a very different thing to what the generality of men suppose it to be; it is a vital and powerful principle, deeply felt within, and manifestly discovering itself outwardly, influencing the heart, and regulating the conduct. To love God, is to prefer him above all other beings, however estimable, and above every other object, however desirable; to forego pleasure,