to refuse to apply the bodies around us to our comfort and advantage, because we cannot ascertain the causes of their respective properties and qualities? Shall we refrain from the use of food, because we cannot ascertain why it should nourish and support us? Shall we abstain from the pursuit of knowledge, because we are unable to ascertain the mode by which the mind receives ideas, and afterwards applies them, by the powers of induction and reasoning, to the purposes of truth and science? Let us not then absurdly and criminally reject the exalted blessings assured to us by the Trinity of persons in the Godheadthe protection and favour of the Father, without which we shall be miserable in time and in eternity; the mediation of the Son, through which alone we can escape the punishment due to our sins, and attain the joys of Heaven; and the sanctifying and comforting influences of the Holy Ghost, by which we are established in holiness and peace-Let us not reject these inestimable blessings, because we cannot comprehend the essence or existence of the divine agents from whom they proceed, or the mode by which they are conveyed to us.

My brethren-though the mode of union and existence of the Trinity of persons in the Godhead be incomprehensible, the practical truths and duties, connected with this doctrine, are in

finitely important. They involve the means of our deliverance from the guilt and punishment of sin, and of our restoration to holiness, to the favour of God, and to the happiness of Heaven. Ever then (and this day we have implored God for grace to do so) may we keep "stedfast in the faith of the eternal Trinity, and in power of the Divine Majesty worship the Unity"." The essence of the Godhead, the mode of existence of three persons in one God, these are not for us to know— for "it is as high as heaven, what can we do? deeper than hell, what can we know. "Who can by searching find out God?" But the offices and relations which the persons of the Trinity sustain towards us, and the exalted blessings which they dispense to us, these may be clearly understood. It is our duty, and it will prove our eternal perfection and happiness, to adore and serve God the Father; to take refuge in the mediation of God the Son; and to implore the sanctifying influences of God the Holy Ghost.

In that language which the Church hath provided, and it is the hymn of adoration with which the cherubim extol the infinite and eternal persons of the Godhead, and which will be the everlasting song of the redeemed when exalted to the Heavenly courts, let us now profess our

• Collect for Trinity Sunday.

VOL. II.

P Job xi. 8.

L

faith, and pour forth our praises,-" Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts-Heaven and earth are full of thy glory." Honour and power, majesty and dominion, be now then ascribed unto the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, three persons in one eternal Godhead.

9 Communion Service.

And they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was and is, and is to

come.

THE sublime passage in the book of the Revelation, of which my text is part, our Church has selected as the epistle for the day. It exhibits a splendid representation of Jehovah in his sanctuary in the heavens, with the ministering spirits that surround him, and the worship which is rendered him. The whole scene is described in symbolical language; sensible and earthly figures affording the only idea of spiritual and celestial objects. The one eternal and almighty Jehovah, is represented as "seated on a throne, high and lifted up ;" and the effulgence of his glory, and the lustre which sur

2 Isaiah vi. 1.

66

rounds him, are compared to the most splendid of material objects. "One sat on the thronelike a jaspar and sardine stone-and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald "—" and round about the throne were four and twenty elders," corresponding to the twenty-four courses of Priests in the Jewish temple, and emblematic of the Christian ministry "and there were seven lamps of fire before the throne," symbolical of the seven-fold gifts of the Spirit of God. "And before the throne was a sea of glass like unto crystal,” answering to the molten sea in the Jewish temple, in figures taken from which the sacred writers usually exhibit the sanctuary of heaven. "And in the midst of the throne and round about it,' surrounding it in a circle, "were four beasts," or living creatures, "full of eyes before and behind "these living creatures, agreeably to the representation in the vision of the prophet Ezekiel, denoting cherubims, angelic beings of the highest order; their " eyes before and behind" displaying their wisdom, knowledge, foresight and prudence. "And they rest not day nor night"—that is, without ceasing, or at stated and fit times

saying, Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty, which was, and which is, and which is to come."

It is on account of this ascription of homage, in which setting forth, as is reasonably supposed, the Trinity of persons in the Godhead, the epithet