He comes to you as the

accords with so sacred a trust. Spirit of truth; study the mind of the Spirit; consult his dictates as your living oracle. By yielding to the dictates of the flesh, your spirit has lost its proper character, its discriminating and determining moral power; but he proposes to rescue and reinforce your spiritual nature; he comes to be your spirit, to turn your very flesh into spirit, renewing your fleshly mind: do not let it appear by your conduct, as if, having carnalized your own spirit, you would, if possible, carnalize the divine Spirit also, placing all spirit in subjugation to the flesh. He is the Comforter; the very soul of happiness; do not grieve him whose object it is to solace and bless you. Do not resist him in the execution of his office, while engaged in cleansing and sanctifying his temple. Be not satisfied with merely not griev ing the spirit of God; but aspire to please him, to magnify his office, to enjoy an affluence of his grace, to live in the Spirit as in the hallowed atmosphere of a temple, in an all-surrounding element of holiness.

SECTION IV.-OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY, AND OF A SPIRITUAL CHURCH.

AMONG the subjects comprehended in our Lord's origi nal teaching may be named the doctrine of the Trinity. There is no ground to conclude that, prior to the promul gation of the gospel, this doctrine had any claim on the faith of mankind. The early christians, indeed, in their eagerness to obtain for christianty the patronage of phi losophy, professed to find the doctrine of the Trinity in the

writings of Plato; but had they maintained instead a duality, or a quaternity, the same writings would have equally befriended them. The humble pretensions of the Jewish system were satisfied with proclaiming the existence and unity or oneness of God, in opposition to 'the lords many and gods many,' of the heathens; the allusions which the system contained to the triplicity of the divine nature, awaited, like so many dormant seeds of truth, the rising of the Sun of Righteousness, to quicken and draw them forth from their obscurity.

But though the solemn mystery is sufficiently developed in the gospel to demand our faith; though the Great Teacher held in his hand the entire map of truth, he disclosed only so much of the part in question as related to our path to heaven. In adverting to the abysmal subject of the Divine Essence, he maintained a wise reserve: and he did this, both that he might not entangle us in a labyrinth, when we ought to be advancing in the open path of life; and because of our natural incapacity to comprehend him on a theme on which there are no analogies to assist us. 'How shall ye believe or understand me,' said he, 'if I tell you of heavenly things?' Instead, therefore, of theorizing on the subject, he taught it dogmatically and practically.

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The doctrine in the general opinion of the christian church, is necessarily involved in various parts of our Lord's teaching. I shall content myself, however, with adverting to his great command, Go, then, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them unto the NAME of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.' Whether he intended these words to be a formulary of the rite or not, is immaterial to determine. Their obvious import is to describe baptism to be a religious dedication to God, who is known by the manifestation of his NAME,

the display of his glorious perfections.

Now as this name

is attributed equally to the Father to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, it seems inevitably to follow, that the Son and the Spirit are, with the Father, the One God.

Our Lord instituted but two ordinances-baptism and the Lord's supper; he erected but two monumental pillars: one without, and the other within the church: on the first of these, that which fronts the world, he inscribed the great name of the triune God; and, as if to render the inscription more impressive, he made it his last act. Baptism is the vestibule, or entrance, to his spiritual temple, the church; so that before his disciples can pass the threshold, he requires them to receive the print of the Sacred Name: and by making that one ceremony final, he reminds them that the holy signature is indelible. By baptizing us into the threefold name of God, he would impress us at the very outset of our Christian life with the fact, that the work of our salvation is so vast that it brings into action every distinction and attribute of the divine nature; that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the entire Godhead, find ample scope for the exercise of all their perfections, and employment for all the affluence of their grace. And thus would he put every part and property of our nature, in return, into active requisition in his service; causing us to feel the penury of our utmost love, and constraining us cheerfully to own, that, could we multiply our powers three, or a thousand fold, they should all be his. If, before, we considered our obligations infinite, what shall we think of them now, on beholding the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, three distinct subsistences actually confederating and concurring together, and embarking all their infinite treasures in the cause of our happiness; what but that our obligations, which we before. considered infinite, are thus multiplied threefold! a mul

tiplication this which the metaphysics of a grateful heart will allow, if not the severer philosophy of the head. How amazing the thought, that the Godhead, the three glorious subsistences in the Divine Essence should be all officially present to receive us in the baptismal solemnity, the porch of the church; that all the Divine Being should be there, to enter into covenant relation with us, that we should there be met by the sum of excellence, and have it ascertained to us, that to the uttermost extent of our capacity we are entitled to the enjoyment of the whole. An ocean of happiness placed before those whose hearts overflow with a drop! A presumptuous idea, if our own invention; a lofty one, if revealed to us.'

'Upon this rock will I build my church.'

'My kingdom is not of this world."

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I. Another original subject contained in our Lord's teaching, is the existence of a spiritual church. The grand conception of organizing and erecting a new community, to be distinguished from all the existing forms of civil society in the world, by the spiritual nature and design of its government, could have only originated in the mind of one who had himself seen the pattern of heavenly things.' Under the Mosaic economy, this exalted scheme existed only in emblem. The 'church in the wilderness; the Israelitish people, nationally selected, and separated from all the nations of the earth; prefigured an approaching separation of a more select and refined nature, consisting exclusively of Israelites indeed.' Christ came to realize the sublime idea: to be himself the heart of the church; the point around which it should crystalize and form and, in his own person, (humanity inhabited by

Deity,) presented at once the image and nucleus of the unearthly society.

II. The voice of prophecy had declared that such would be the spiritual character of his new kingdom. For while some monstrous type, of brute ferocity and power, was deemed an appropriate symbol of each preceding monarchy as seen by Daniel, the ensign of the Messiah's reign was distinguished byy he likeness of the son of man; aptly denoting, that while they prevailed by the ascendency of physical might, from his kingdom should be banished. every carnal weapon, and instrument of coertion; and that to him should belong the honor of recognizing and erecting the prostrate elements of humanity, of reigning by the spiritual action of mind on mind, the almighty in fluence of enlightened reason, of sanctified gratitude and love. It was distinctly predicted that his kingdom, instead of symbolizing with any of the governments of earth, should be to the world an image of his own sufficiency, surpassing and encompassing them all. At first, it would resemble an imperium in imperio, a dominion of principle and affection flourishing amidst the kingdoms of the world. like the verdure of paradise set in the desert: but in the end, as Bacon describes the prevalence of a far different principle, it bringeth in a new primum mobile, that ravisheth all the spheres of government; forming from first to last, in the eyes of the world, an anomaly of government. Accordingly, when Jesus came to erect it he appeared at a loss for suitable illustrations by which to explain it to the minds of his hearers. Whereunto,' saith he, 'shall we liken the kingdom of God, and with what comparison shall we compare it ?' None of the governments of the world supplied an analogy: he who is the wisdom of God seemed embarrassed, as he looked around the world of civil society for a similitude, and saw that it contained none.

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