happy without him: not because he wants our service, but because we want it; it being impossible for us to be happy, unless we be holy, or to enjoy God, unless we serve him.

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Wherefore all ye that desire to go to heaven, to have him that made you reconciled unto you, and smile upon you, or that desire to be really and truly happy, set upon the work which God sent you into the world about; put it not off any longer, make no more vain excuses, but from this day forward let the service of God be your daily, your continual employment and pleasure: study and contrive each day how to advance his glory and interest in the world, and how you may walk more strictly, more circumspectly, more conformably to his laws than ever. But whatsoever service perform unto him, be sure to do it with a perfect heart, and with a willing mind. Think not to put him off with fancy instead of faith, or with outward performances instead of real duties: but remember that he searcheth the hearts, and trieth the reins of the sons of men, and observes the inward motions of the soul, as well as the outward actions of the life: and therefore wheresoever you are, whatsoever you do, still bethink yourselves, that he that made you, still looks upon you; taking notice, not only of the matter of the actions which you do perform, but also of the manner of your performing them; and therefore be sure to have a special care in all your services for or unto God, that your hearts be sincere before him, and your minds inclined to him, that so you may serve him with a perfect heart and a willing mind.

But to conclude: Whoever ye are that read this discourse, I have here shewn you the things that belong unto your everlasting peace, having acquainted you with the method and manner of your serving God in time, in order to your enjoyment of him to eternity; how you are affected with what you have read, and whether you be resolved to practise it, yea, or no, it is only

the eternal God that knows. But this I know, that if you will not be persuaded to serve God, yea, and to serve him too with a perfect heart, and a willing mind, you will one day wish you had, but then it will be too late. And therefore if you will put it to the venture, go on still, and with the unprofitable servant, hide your talents in a napkin, or lavish them out in the revels of sin and vanity; let thy belly be still thy God, and the world thy Lord; serve thyself or satan, instead of the living God: but know, that for all this God will bring thee into judgment; after which, expect nothing else but to be overwhelmed with horror and confusion to eternity.

Whereas on the other side, such amongst you as shall sincerely endeavour from henceforth to serve God with a perfect heart, and with a willing mind, I dare, I do assure them, in the name of God, their labour shall not be in vain in the Lord: for God suffers not his enemies to go unpunished, nor his servants unrewarded.

And therefore go on with joy and triumph in the service of so great and so good a Master, and devote yourselves wholly to his service, and employ your talents faithfully for his glory. Remember the time is but short; and Christ himself will receive you into eternal glory, saying, Well done, good and faithful servants.

THOUGHTS

UPON THE

MYSTERY OF THE TRINITY.

THOUGH there be many in the world that seem to be religious, there are but few that are so: one great reason whereof is, because there are so many mistakes about religion, that it is an hard matter to hit upon the true notion of it: and therefore desiring nothing in this world so much as to be an instrument in God's hand to direct men unto true religion, my great care must, and, by the blessing of God, shall be, to instil into them right conceptions of him, that is the only object of all religious acts, without which it is impossible to continue, or indeed to be, religious. The true nature and notion of religion consisting in the right carriage and deportment of our whole man, both soul and body, towards him that made us; whom therefore, unless we truly know, we can never be truly religious; and therefore they that begin their religion with zeal and passion, begin at the wrong end; for indeed they begin where they should end: our zeal for God, and love unto him, being the highest acts of religion, and therefore cannot be the first: but they necessarily presuppose the true knowledge of God, without which our zeal will be blind, and our love both groundless and transient.

But as it is impossible to be truly religious, unless we know God, so is it very difficult so to know him, as to

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become truly religious. It is true that there is such a supreme Being in and over the world, as we call God; the very light of nature teaches, and reason itself demonstrates it to be most certain and undeniable. But what he is, and what apprehensions we ought to have of this glorious Being, none but himself is able to describe and manifest unto us, so that our conceptions of him are still to be regulated by the discoveries that he hath made of himself to us; without which, though we may have some confused notions of him, yet we can never so know him, as to serve him faithfully, and, by consequence, be truly religious.

Hence therefore if we would know God, we must search the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, wherein God hath been pleased most clearly to manifest and discover himself unto us: I say, both the Old and New Testament; for otherwise, our knowledge of God may be very defective and erroneous, there being several things which God, in the New Testament, hath most plainly revealed of himself, which in the Old Testament are more darkly and obscurely delivered to us. As for example, the great mystery of the Trinity; though it be frequently intimated in the Old Testament, yet it is an hard matter rightly to understand it without the New insomuch, that the Jews, though they have had the law above three thousand, and the prophets above two thousand years amongst them, yet to this day they could never yet make this an article of faith; but they, as well as the Mahometans, still assert, that God is only one in person as well as nature: whereas nothing can be more plain from the New Testament, than that there is but one God, and yet there are three persons, every one of which is that one God: and so that though God be but one in nature, yet he is three in persons; and so three persons, as yet to be but one in nature.

And, verily, although there was no other text in all the Scripture whereon to ground this fundamental article of our Christian faith; that of Matt. xxviii. 19.

Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is a sufficient foundation for it; there being nothing, I think, necessary to be believed concerning the glorious Trinity, but what may easily and naturally be deduced from these words, which were spoken, it is true, by our Saviour before his ascension, but I question whether they were throughly understood, till after the Holy Ghost was come down to earth. It being only by God himself that we can come to the true knowledge of him, much less are we able rightly to apprehend, and firmly to believe, three persons in the Godhead, without the assistance of one of them, that is, of the Holy Ghost; by whom the other two are wont to work; he being the issue, as I may so say, and breath of both. Hence it is, that the wisdom of the church, for these many centuries, hath thought fit to order, that this great mystery be celebrated the next Lord's day after the commemoration of the Holy Spirit's coming down upon the disciples, and in them, upon all true believers; both because all three persons have now manifested themselves to mankind; the Father in his creation of them, the Son in his conversing with them, and the Holy Ghost by his coming down upon them: and also to shew, that it is only by the grace and assistance of God's Spirit, that we can rightly believe in this glorious and incomprehensible mystery, which our Sa-' viour hath so clearly revealed to us in these words, go ye, and teach all nations, &c.

For the opening of which, we must know that our Saviour in the foregoing verse acquaints his disciples, that now all power was given him in heaven and in earth; by virtue whereof, he here issueth forth his commission to his apostles, and, in them, to all that should succeed them, to supply his room, and be his vicegerents upon earth, he being now to reside in his kingdom of heaven. For, saith he, all power is given to me in heaven and earth; go ye therefore and teach all nations: as he