It still remains the unfaltering verdict of God, "that no man can serve two masters." Whenever the love of wealth, either in its pursuit or enjoyment, is the predominant principle, it then constitutes a rivalry with himself which God at once pronounces to be idolatrous.

Do

Many may be here assembled to whom these solemn lessons are equally needful as important! My brethren, how do they bear upon yourselves? Has God given to any of you talents and substance, and honour and wealth? How do you use these gifts of his bounty? Is the predominant feeling that of self-complacency, and of worldly delight? Is it your great object to please, to amuse, to aggrandize, to enjoy yourselves? Is it to enlarge the merchandise of mirth, and to strike deeper your roots into the soil of this barren world? you live to God, or to yourselves? Do you design, in the arrangement of your expenditure, the promotion of God's glory, the furtherance of religion, the benefit and happiness of your fellow-creatures? Do you feel that all which you have is the property of God, and at his entire disposal? Do you live by faith, anxious for his blessing, and mindful of the snares to which we are exposed? Conscious that you are sinners, and ready to perish, do you habitually remember "that riches profit not in the day of wrath," and that no posses

sion but a share in the everlasting atonement can avail you in the presence of God? Aware of the earthliness of your hearts, are you using your enjoyments with jealousy, caution, and prayer? Mindful of the efficacy of human agency in the accomplishment of God's designs, are you liberal, and that upon the highest motive, towards the promotion of his cause? Thoughtful of the miseries of others, do you labour to mitigate their violence, and this not by the mere refuse of your gains, but with the sympathy of your hearts; as those who share with them the same fallen condition, and who are looking to unmerited grace for final safety from eternal ruin? Oh! my brethren, how affecting is the condition of a proud and earthly and sumptuous, or covetous worldling! how affecting the condition of an immortal spirit, careless of its high destiny, reckless of the claims of God, clinging to the possessions of earth, and estimating life rather by its outward resources than by its capacity for usefulness and religion! Such a man is grasping a shadow, and starving in the midst of his plenty! He may fare sumptuously: he may live respected he may share the hilarity and the applause of a large society: he may be punctual in the externals of religion, but the world has his heart; wealth is his idol. He may die, and "in hell lift up his eyes, being in

torment!" Ye rich, ye poor, (for before God both are sinners alike,) flee to God, and be rich indeed! "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." "Set your affections on things above, and not upon the things upon the earth." the earth." Be mode

rate, be spiritually-minded. "The fashion of this world passeth away, but he that doeth the will of God, abideth for ever!"

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SERMON XI.

THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY.

EPH. ii. 18.

"FOR THROUGH HIM WE BOTH HAVE ACCESS BY ONE SPIRIT UNTO THE FATHER."

TRUE religion is the display of the Divine character; and to understand this character aright, is the true path to genuine felicity.

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This is life eternal," said our Saviour, "to know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." There are undoubtedly certain limits beyond which a finite intelligence cannot reach, in reference to the contemplation of God; and he who should expect Revelation to clear up every difficulty in which the subject of Deity is involved, would expect that which reason itself should teach him to be most unreasonable. Who," exclaimed the prophet, "can by searching find out God, who can find out the Almighty unto perfection?" Rather, "How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out."

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But although Revelation deigns not to minister to an unholy curiosity, yet to the solemn and heartfelt question, where is God my

Maker, who giveth songs in the night?" it has, in God's great compassion, given a simple and satisfactory answer. Through him (that is, Christ) we have access by one Spirit unto the Father."

This single verse comprises a view of the Deity in the highest degree efficient and consolatory. It reveals the glorious Godhead as a blessed Trinity of Persons in one eternal essence. And surely no one can read the New Testament with candour and attention, without perceiving a Divine authority and power to be attributed to three separate Persons. The very initiatory rite of Christianity ordains its converts to be baptized in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost;" while the rich and well-known benediction of the Apostle conveys the same truth-"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost be with you all." And in the Evangelic history, as well as in the epistles of the apostles, actions are attributed to each separate Name which belong to Omnipotence alone while at the same time it is as distinctly asserted, that there is but "one God." "Thou shalt have none other gods but me."