in Scripture, so in the liturgy, we are always instructed to believe that a merciful God will make allowance for weakness and blindness in matters of knowledge and faith, as well as in other things. It is, too, always taught in the liturgy, as well as in Scripture, that upon true repentance, sincere faith in the blood and mediation of our Redeemer, and entire submission to the guidance of the divine Sanctifier, the door of mercy is open to even the most inveterate sinner. The Church, then, with this doctrine implied in all her services, cannot be called uncharitable, if she follows in this creed the general rule adopted by her Lord in giving this rule. What merciful abatements he may think proper to make in his judgment, must rest with himself. The Church must teach her children to do their duty, and seek salvation in the plain and direct way that Jesus has pointed out; and not devise schemes and exceptions, to seek it by a system which is to be built on supposing what, underparticular circumstances (not applicable to those who use this creed), God may do. Her creed is to be repeated by those who are not unavoidably ignorant; and their business is to work out their own salvation by the rule of that word which they do know, instead of troubling themselves with questions respecting allowances to be made for those who do not know the truth. Her language is like that of her Master when asked a vain and useless question, John xxi. 22; What is that to thee? Follow thou me. He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved, but he that believeth not, shall be damned. The true reason of this creed being obnoxious, is that it is the bulwark of the truth against innovation, being so strictly worded as to keep out of the Church men of semi-socinian and latitudinarian principles. See History of the Liturgy.

Though this creed does not differ from the other

creeds in substance, yet it does in form; other creeds teach, assert, and acknowledge the genuine doctrines of Christianity, without using arguments, but leaving men to the perusal of their Bibles, for the evidence of those truths, and undertaking no more than to recapitulate a summary of the principal contents of it; but this goes on in the argumentative method to show, why we ought not in our exposition of belief of this article, either to "confound the persons or to divide the substance." The heresies of Arius, Ebion, Cerinthus, Macedonius, Nestorius, and the rest which are condemned in it, may be traced to one common and uniform origin, namely, the presumptuous attempt to be wise above what is written, and a disinclination to submit the proud intellect of man to the obedience of faith. They demanded satisfaction upon points that were not the objects of reason, but of faith; and when no satisfactory answer could be given them, they levelled Scripture to their reason, instead of building their faith on Scripture.

The doctrine of the Trinity, however, is not contradictory to reason. What is asserted in it is, that there are in the One essential Godhead, Three, distinguished in a certain manner from each other. These distinctions are called in Scripture, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. But we do not maintain that they are three in the same respect in which they are one. This would be, indeed, an absurd contradiction. We believe that God is most emphatically One, as regards the essential qualities of his nature; yet in some respects Three, that is, with reference to the divine acts and offices; and though we understand that the Father is first in order, as unoriginate, that is, derived from none; the Son second, as begotten of the Father; the Holy Ghost third, as proceeding from both; though we confess the Father is supreme in office, and that

the Son and Holy Ghost condescend to inferior offices; still in duration, dignity, and other attributes peculiar to the Deity, they are co-equal. And in this there is nothing repugnant to sound reason and common sense, or to the ordinary perceptions and language of mankind. It is true that it transcends our understanding perfectly to comprehend this; but it has been revealed, not that we might be able to understand it, but that upon the infallible authority of God Himself, we might believe it; and so, through the exalting discipline of that faith, "grow in grace" towards Christian perfection.

Much stress is laid upon our belief in the Trinity, because this doctrine is connected with every article of our religion, whether more or less speculative or practical. The acknowledgment or rejection of it alters the very notion of our justification and salvation, and either represents it as a mystery of mercy in the conjunction of infinite justice, undeviating righteousness, and unlimited goodness, or as the easy grant of a tender Being, who has more regard to the happiness than the holiness of His creatures. This sublime truth is not, as too many regard it, a barren speculative notion, but a living and practical doctrine. The peculiar worth of Revelation, the especial promises connected with it, and the powerful motives supplied by it, all belong to that religion, and to that alone, which has the Trinity for the foundation of its creed. So far as we can conceive, there could have been no atonement, no return to God on the part of sinners, no condescending approach to sinners on the part of God, no assisting grace, no justification, and consequently, no salvation, but for the existence of the three persons, as they are most imperfectly termed, in the essential unity of Jehovah. We must believe in the Divine nature of all the Persons, before we can truly love THE FATHER, as the original Author of eternal life; receive and obey THE

SON, with humility, patience, and charity, such as he himself displayed while on earth, for our example; or yield to the impulses of THE SPIRIT who dwells within

us.

The Father is the final object to which religion directs the soul-the primal source of truth, of goodness, and of happiness; but towards that object we cannot tend-from that source we cannot draw the freely-given water of life, save through the Son, and by the Holy Ghost. The Son is "the Way;" the Holy Ghost is the moving principle which excites and impels the reluctant will of man to seek the Father through the Son *.

The word "Incomprehensible," in the original Latin is "immensus," that is, not comprehended within any limits; which was the signification of the English word incomprehensible at the time this creed was translated, rather than that which it implies at present.

There is a simile or comparison in this creed, which may give us some faint idea, however inadequate, of the mysterious union of the two natures in our Saviour; two such contrary substances as spirit and matter being intimately joined together in man, never to be separated till death, and to be re-united at the general resurrection. This is to our imperfect faculties unaccountable; and yet there is nothing impossible or contradictory about it-nothing but what the most learned as well as the most illiterate firmly believe; and if we thus assent to an undoubted truth, relating to our own nature, though we cannot fully comprehend or explain it, we ought not to dispute against what the word of God reveals to us concerning the divine. nature, and its union with ours, however it may exceed our capacities to understand it. We should

* From a Sermon by Rev. Richard Cattermole, of Christ's College, Cambridge.

rather admire and adore "the wisdom of God in a mystery; even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory," and to accomplish our salvation, 1 Cor. ii. 7.

The term "saved," in its primary signification and common use, means a preservation from threatening evils or punishments; but in the New Testament, it includes much more. It means the whole Christian scheme of redemption and justification by the Son of God, with all the glorious privileges and promises contained in that scheme. It means not merely a deliverance from danger, or from vengeance, but a federal right to positive happiness, purchased by the merits, and declared to mankind by the Gospel of Christ Jesus our Lord. St. Paul calls it "the obtaining of the salvation, which is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory," 2 Tim. ii. 10. "Whosoever then will be saved," desires to secure the glorious promises of the Gospel, must pursue it on the terms which the Gospel proposes; and particularly must embrace the doctrines which it reveals. "Above all things," in the first place, as the foundation on which he must build a holy practice, and a covenanted title to pardon for past deviations from it, it is necessary that he hold the Catholic faith, "which was once delivered to the Saints," and is to be delivered unto them unto the end of the world.

This summary of the Christian faith is extremely valuable on many accounts. As an explicit and correct profession of the fundamental doctrines of our religion, it manifests to the whole Christian world, the extent and unity of that faith, which, existing from the commencement of the Gospel, has, for the space of thirteen centuries, been secured by the same form of words through the Latin or Western Churches of Christendom. The clergy likewise are fully in