Be it far from us, O "GOD of all comfort!"-Grant, we pray THEE, "That THOU mayst be our COMFORTER 1 2 Cor. i. 3. 2 The Hymn in the Ordination Service. SERMON XVI. THE CATHOLIC FAITH. For Trinity Sunday. REV. IV. 8.1 "HOLY, HOLY, HOLY, LORD GOD ALMIGHTY, WHICH WAS, AND IS, AND IS TO COME." TO-DAY we are, as it were, "caught up to the third Hevean-caught up into Paradise, to hear unspeakable words, which it is not lawful," (which it is not possible,) "for a man to utter." Nor to hear only, but to see; “to see HIM WHO is invisible." It is as though "the Door" which was "opened," on Sun 1 The Epistle. 2 2 Cor. xii. 2, 4. 3 Heb. xi. 27. 4 Rev. iv. 1. The opening of the Epistle for TRINITY Sunday. day last, "in Heaven," for the Coming of the HOLY SPIRIT down into the Church on earth, had been suffered to remain unclosed, a little time, for the Church below to catch a glimpse of the hidden portion of the Heavenly kingdom. "A voice as of a trumpet talketh with" us also, this day, and says, "Come up hither." But to what place is it that we are thus invited to go up? To the third Heaven. To the place from which Angels fell, when they presumptuously "left their own habitation:"" to the place where Angels have yet to learn ; and find " things which they desire to look into:" to the place where there is a knowledge, which ONE Only knoweth; "not the Angels which are in Heaven, neither the Son, but the FATHER."" Much need, surely, that we pause, and prepare ourselves for "this great Sight," by recalling to mind the counsels of the Word of GOD. Let us not forget that “the secret things belong unto the LORD our GOD:" 1 S. Jude 6. In the original" their proper" 21 S. Peter i. 4 Exod. iii. 3. 12. 3 S. Mark xiii. 32. 5 Deut. xxix. 29. ... that "now we see through a glass, darkly:" and that "great is the mystery of godliness. An Apostle's preaching may be "wrested to the destruction " of those to whom the Word of salvation is conveyed; an Apostle's presence may be made "a savour of death unto death;" the Presence of Divine Life Itself become the perdition of Man." And Nevertheless, if the danger of learning be not small, the danger of ignorance is great. For if he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned," it greatly behoves us to know that our faith is the true faith. as this holds good of Divine truth in general, so in particular does it in reference to the doctrine of the Blessed TRINITY. Hence the Church of CHRIST, coming forward with the Word of GOD in her hand, proclaims to us, with such severe charity-as knowing that it is of God's revealed truth that she speakswhat the true faith is; "Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that 11 Cor. xiii. 12. 3 2 S. Peter iii. 16. 5 S. John ix. 39-41; xv. 22, 24. 2 1 Tim. iii. 16. 4 2 Cor. ii. 16. 6 S. Mark xvi. 16. So he hold the Catholic Faith. Which Faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly. And the Catholic Faith is this, that we worship ONE GOD in TRINITY, and TRINITY in UNITY; neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance." again in the Nicene Creed-so in the Apostles' Creed; but less and less expanded, and drawn out in those Creeds, because the peculiar heresies against which the Church had, in the course of time, to raise her voice, were not so much as heard of, because they existed not, when the earlier Creeds were drawn up. And again, "There is but ONE living and true God, everlasting, without body, parts, or passions; of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness; the Maker and Preserver of all things both visible and invisible. And in UNITY of this GODHEAD there be THREE Persons, of One Substance, power, and eternity; the FATHER, the SON, and the HOLY GHOST.""2 Such are some of the more dogmatic testimonies which the Church exhibits in reference to this great truth; breaking forth in 1 Athanasian Creed. 2 Art. i. |