SERMON XL.

THE HOLY TRINITY.

REVELATION, iv. 11.

Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power; for thou hast created all things; and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

BEFORE we enter any farther into the consideration of these words, it will be proper to notice one expression in them, which may perhaps leave a false impression on some minds, from their comparing it with the words of another passage in Scripture. I mean the expression, " for thy pleasure," which, by a comparison with what is said of human fathers, in the 12th chapter of the Hebrews, that they "chasten their children after their own pleasure,' may at first seem to convey a notion somewhat at variance with the fatherly love of God. But it should be noticed that the expressions, though so nearly alike in our translation, are not so in the

original; and that what is translated in the text, "for thy pleasure," would, according to the general practice of our translators, be rather rendered, "because of thy will;" a difference which, strictly speaking, indeed comes to nothing, but which, notwithstanding, is of consequence; as in our language respecting God, the impression conveyed to our minds is of quite as much importance as the actual correctness of the language itself, when strictly inquired into.

The text then says, that "because it was God's will all things are and were created." It means to convey to us the notion of God's entire sovereignty, but apart from any thing which in a man we should call capricious and arbitrary. God's will is a will of infinite justice, and wisdom, and goodness, and can be no other, because it is the will of God.

"Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power; for thou hast created all things:" all things, visible and invisible. There is one Maker in the universe, even God, and all things else are His work. There is one Lord in the universe, even God, and all things else are His ministers; whether they be things with life or without life, whether they act by instinct or by will.

But amongst these His ministers, that is, amongst created beings, the differences may be greater than we can estimate. Even within our

own knowledge, who can measure the difference between a grain of sand and the sun of our system? or between the lowest creature that seems to form the link between the animal and vegetable world, and the mind of Solomon or of Paul? But the differences may be, and indeed are, far greater than these; we do not know to what minuteness, to what humbleness God's creation may descend on the one hand, nor to what greatness it may arise on the other; we know not the nature of the smallest created atom, nor of the mightiest angel.

Still all these beings, so different, extending from things lower than we can conceive, up to things higher than our conceptions; all, from the highest angel to the feeblest atom, are yet, religiously speaking, all classed together, as though they were all equal. They are all creatures, and however different when compared with themselves, yet they seem actually to be all on one level, when contrasted with that infinite difference which exists between the highest creature and God. All then are servants, all are ministers; and there is one only Lord and Master of all, whom all may, and all must worship.

But this is a matter of Revelation. Man's natural tendency has been to worship creatures, or rather to worship many beings in an ascending order, some less powerful, others more so; till after many steps, at the end of an almost infinite

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series, far removed from man's common thoughts and feelings, was the Supreme Father and Ruler of all. That is, man not knowing God, and seeing great varieties actually existing in creation, dwelt more on the differences of lower things amongst themselves than of their common difference with God. But God's revelation came in and said, "Thou shalt have none other Gods but me." Thou shalt worship nothing in heaven or in earth, visible or invisible, save Him by whom all things were made, their Lord and thine. This then is the first great work of Revelation, to show us that in all our religious feelings and relations we have to do with God alone.

But yet Revelation tells us farther, that in our religious feelings and relations we have to do with Jesus Christ. For it tells us that to Him all power is given in heaven and in earth; therefore we are living under His government; it tells us that whether we live, we live unto Him, or whether we die we die unto Him; we are His, therefore, both here and hereafter: we are told to love Him and to fear Him, though we see Him no more: these are clearly religious feelings. Does then Revelation undo its own work, and, after having laboured to teach us to worship God only, and to lose all differences between creature and creature in the infinite difference between all creatures and their Creator; does it mean again to fix our minds

and affections upon a creature, to bid us love and fear Him religiously, to believe Him and put our trust in Him, to look to Him in life and in death, as the Lord of heaven and earth; whereas He no less than ourselves is the work of God's hands, and therefore removed to a far greater distance from God than he can be by any superiority of nature from us his fellow-creatures?

Revelation would thus undo its own work, if Jesus Christ of Nazareth were indeed a man, and no more. Or go much higher still; exalt Him ever so highly-above the highest angel, to a perfection which shall to our eyes seem infinite,still if it be not infinite,-if, however exalted, He be yet only a creature, one of those who were, because it was God's will that they should be, then also Revelation undoes its own work; then it teaches us practically to have more gods than one, it revives that very instinct of our nature which it had condemned, the aptness, namely, to dwell more upon the differences between the lower creatures and the higher, than on that infinite difference which exists between the highest creature and God, by whom he was created.

But lest we should so conceive, and be involved in such perplexity, Revelation has abundantly justified itself; it has shown that its latest language agrees with its earliest, that the Creator alone is to be worshipped, and no creature, however exalted;