(Trinity Sunday.)
John v. 19. Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth
the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth
the Son likewise.
This is Trinity Sunday; and on this day we are especially to think
of the mystery of the ever-blessed Trinity, and on the Athanasian
Creed, which was read this morning. Now there is much in this
Athanasian Creed, which simple country people, however good their
natural abilities may be, cannot be expected to understand. The
Creed was written by scholars, and for scholars; and for very deep
scholars, too, far deeper than I pretend to be; and the reasonable
way for most men to think of the Athanasian Creed, will be to take
it very much upon trust, as a child takes on trust what his father
tells him, even though he cannot understand it himself; or, as we
all believe, that the earth moves round the sun, and not the sun
round the earth, though we cannot prove it; but only believe it,
because wiser men than we have proved it. So we must think of the
Athanasian Creed, and say to ourselves--'Wiser men than I can ever
hope to be have settled that this is the true doctrine, and the true
meaning of Holy Scripture, and I will believe them. They must know
best.' Still, one is bound to understand as much as one can; one is
bound to be able to give some reason for the faith which is in us;
and, above all, one is bound not to hold false doctrines, which are
contrary to the Athanasian Creed and to the Bible.
Some people are too apt to say now-a-days, 'But what matter if one
does hold false doctrine? That is a mistake of the head and not of
the heart. Provided a man lives a good life, what matter what his
doctrines are?' No doubt, my friends, if a man lives a good life,
all is well: but _do_ people live good lives? I am not speaking of
infidels. Thank God, there are none here; to God let us leave them,
trusting in the Good Friday collect, and the goodwill of God, which
is, that all should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.
But, as for Christian people, this I will tell you, that unless you
hold true doctrines, you will _not_ lead good lives. My experience
is, that people are often wrong, when they say false doctrine is a
mistake of the head and not of the heart. I believe false doctrine
is very often not bred in the head at all, but in the heart, in the
very bottom of a man's soul; that it rises out of his heart into his
head; and that if his heart was right with God, he would begin at
once to have clearer and truer notions of the true Christian faith.
I do not say that it is always so; God forbid! But I do say that it
is often so, because I see it so; because I see every day false
doctrines about God making men lead bad lives, and commit actual
sins; take God's name in vain, dishonour their fathers and mothers,
lie, cheat, bear false witness against their neighbours, and covet
other men's goods. I say, I see it, and I must believe my own eyes
and ears; and when I do see it, I begin to understand the text which
says, 'This is eternal life, to know thee, the only God, and Jesus
Christ, whom thou hast sent;' and I begin to understand the
Athanasian Creed, which says, that if a 'man does not believe
rightly the name of God, and the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus
Christ, he will perish everlastingly; his soul will decay more and
more, become more and more weak, unhealthy and corrupt, till he
perishes everlastingly. And whatsoever that may mean, it must mean
something most awful and terrible, worse than all the evil which
ever happened to us since we were born.
There is a very serious example of this, to my mind, in what is
called the Greek Church; the Greeks and Russians. They split off
from the rest of Christ's Catholic Church, many hundred years ago,
because they would not hold with the rest of the Church that the
Holy Spirit proceeded from the Son as well as from the Father. They
said that the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father alone. Now that
may seem a slight matter of words: but I cannot help thinking that
it has been a very solemn matter of practice with them. It seems to
me--God forgive me if I am judging them hardly!--that because they
denied that the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Son, they forgot that
he was the Spirit of the Son, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, by whom he
says for ever, 'Father, not my will but thine be done!' and so they
forgot that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Sonship, the Spirit of
adoption, which must proceed and come from Christ to us, that we may
call God our Father, and say with Christ, 'Father, I come to do thy
will;' and so, in course of time, they seem to have forgotten that
Christian men were in any real practical sense, God's children; and
when people forget that they are God's children, they forget soon
enough to behave like God's children, and to live righteous and
Godlike lives.
I give you this as an example of what I mean; how not believing
rightly the Athanasian Creed may make a man lead a bad life.
Now let me give an example nearer home; one which has to do with you
and me. God grant that we may all lay it to heart. You read, in
the Athanasian Creed, that we are not to confound the persons of the
Trinity, nor divide the substance; but to believe that such as the
Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost, the Glory
equal, the Majesty co-eternal. Now there is little fear of our
confounding the persons, as some people used to do in old times; but
there is great fear of our dividing God's substance, parting God's
substance, that is, fancying that God is made up of different parts,
and not perfectly one God.
For people are very apt to talk as if God's love and God's justice
were two different things, different parts of God; as if his justice
had to be satisfied in one way, and his love in another; as if his
justice wished to destroy sinners, and his love wished to save
sinners; and so they talk as if there was a division in God; as if
different attributes of God were pulling two different ways, and
that God has parts of which one desires to do one thing, and one
part another. It sounds shocking, I am sure you will feel, when I
put it into plain English. I wish it to sound shocking. I wish you
to feel how wrong and heretical it is; that you may keep clear of
such notions, and believe the orthodox faith, that God has neither
parts nor passions, nor division in his substance at all, but is
absolutely and substantially one; and that, therefore, his love and
his justice are the very same things; his justice, however severe it
may seem, is perfect love and kindness; and his love is no
indulgence, but perfect justice.
But you may say--Very likely that is true; but why need we take so
much care to believe it?
It is always worth while to know what is true. You are children of
the Light, and of the Truth, adopted by the God of truth, that you
may know the truth and do it, and no mistake or falsehood can, by
any possibility, do anything for you, but harm you. Always,
therefore, try to find out and believe what is true concerning
everything; and, above all, concerning God, on whom all depend, in
whom you live, and move, and have your being. For all things in
heaven and earth depend on God; and, therefore, if you have wrong
notions about God, you will sooner or later have wrong notions about
everything else.
For see, now, how this false notion of God's justice and love being
different things, leads people into a worse error still. A man goes
on to fancy, that while God the Son is full of love towards sinners,
God the Father is (or at least was once) only full of justice and
wrath against sinners; but if a man thinks that God the Son loves
him better than God the Father does, then, of course, he will love
God the Son better than he loves God the Father. He will think of
Christ the Son with pleasure and gratitude, because he says to
himself, Christ loves me, cares for me; I can have pity and
tenderness from him, if I do wrong. While of God the Father he
thinks only with dread and secret dislike. Thus, from dividing the
substance, he has been led on to confound the persons, imputing to
the Son alone that which is equally true of the Father, till he
comes (as I have known men do) to make for himself, as it were, a
Heavenly Father of Jesus Christ the Son.
Now, my dear friends, it does seem to me, that if anything can
grieve the Spirit of Christ, and the sacred heart of Jesus, this is
the way to grieve him. Oh read your Bibles, and you will see this,
that whatever Jesus came down on earth for, it certainly was not to
make men love him better than they love the Father, and honour him
more than they honour the Father, and rob the Father of his glory,
to give it to Jesus. What did the Lord Jesus say himself? That he
did not come to seek his own honour, or shew forth his own glory, or
do his own will: but his Father's honour, his Father's glory, his
Father's will. Though he was equal with the Father, as touching his
Godhead, yet he disguised himself, if I may so say, and took on him
the form of a servant, and was despised and rejected of men. Why!
That men might honour his Father rather than him. That men might
not be so dazzled by his glory, as to forget his Father's glory.
Therefore he bade his apostles, while he was on earth, tell no man
that he was the Christ. Therefore, when he worked his work of love
and mercy, he took care to tell the Jews that they were not his
works, but the works of his Father who sent him; that he was not
doing his own will, but his Father's. Therefore he was always
preaching of the Father in heaven, and holding him up to men as the
perfection of all love and goodness and glory: and only once or
twice, it seems, when he was compelled, as it were, for very truth's
sake, did he say openly who he was, and claim his co-equal and co-
eternal glory, saying, 'Before Abraham was, I am.'
And, after all this, if anything can grieve him now, must it not
grieve him to see men fancying that he is better than his Father is,
more loving and merciful than his Father is, more worthy of our
trust, and faith, and adoration, and gratitude than his Father is?--
His Father, for whose honour he was jealous with a divine jealousy--
His Father, who, he knows well, loved the world which shrinks from
him so well that he spared not his only begotten Son, but freely
gave him up for it.
Oh, my friends, believe me, if any sin of man can add a fresh thorn
to Christ's crown, it is to see men, under pretence of honouring
him, dishonouring his Father. For just think for once of this--What
nobler feeling on earth than the love of a son to his father? What
greater pain to a good son than to see his father dishonoured, and
put down below him? But what is the love of an earthly son to an
earthly father, compared to the love of The Son to the Father? What
is the jealousy of an earthly son for his father's honour, compared
with the jealousy of God the Son for God the Father's honour?
All men, the Father has appointed, are to honour the Son, even as
they honour the Father. Because, as the Athanasian Creed says,
'such as the Father is, such is the Son.' But, if that be true, we
are to honour the Father even as we honour the Son; because such as
the Son is, such is the Father. Both are true, and we must believe
both; and therefore we must not give to Christ the honour which we
should to a loving friend, and give to the Father the honour which
we should to an awful judge. We must give them both the same
honour. If we have a godly fear of the Father, we ought to have a
godly fear of Christ; and if we trust Christ, we ought to trust the
Father also. We must believe that Jesus Christ, the Son, is the
brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his
person; and therefore we must believe that because Jesus is love,
therefore the Father is love; because Jesus is long-suffering,
therefore the Father is long-suffering; because Jesus came to save
the world, therefore the Father must have sent him to save the
world, or he would never have come; for he does nothing, he says, of
himself. Because we can trust Jesus utterly, therefore we can trust
the Father utterly. Because we believe that the Son has life in
himself, to give to whomsoever he will, we must believe that the
Father has life in himself likewise, and not, as some seem to fancy,
only the power of death and destruction. Because nothing can
separate us from the love of Jesus, nothing can separate us from the
love of his Father and our Father, whose name is Light and Love.
If we believe this, we shall indeed honour the Father, and indeed
honour the Son likewise. But if we do not, we shall dishonour the
Son, while we fancy we are honouring him: we shall rob Christ of
his true glory, to give him a false glory, which he abhors. If we
fancy that he does anything for us without his Father's commands; if
we fancy that he feels anything for us which his Father does not
feel, and has not always felt likewise: then we dishonour him. For
his glory is to be a perfectly good and obedient Son, and we fancy
him--may he forgive us for it!--a self-willed Son. This is Christ's
glory, that though he is equal with his Father, he obeys his Father.
If he were not equal to his Father, there would be less glory in his
obeying him. Take away the mystery of the ever-blessed Trinity, and
you rob Christ of his highest glory, and destroy the most beautiful
thing in heaven, except one. The most beautiful and noble thing of
all in heaven--that (if you will receive it) out of which all other
beautiful and noble things in heaven and earth come, is the Father
for ever saying to the Son, 'Thou art my Son; this day have I
begotten thee. And in thee I am well pleased.' The other most
beautiful thing is the co-equal and co-eternal Son for ever saying
to the Father, 'Father, not my will, but thine be done. I come to
do thy will, O God. Thy law is written in my heart.'
Do you not see it? Oh, my dear friends, I see but a very little of
it. Who am I, that I should comprehend God? And who am I, that I
should be able to make you understand the glory of God, by any dull
words of mine? But God can make you understand it. The Spirit of
God can and will shew you the glory of God. Because he proceedeth
from the Father, he will shew you what the glory of the Father is
like. Because he proceedeth from the Son, he will shew you what the
glory of the Son is like. Because he is consubstantial, co-equal,
and co-eternal with the Father and the Son, he will shew you that
the glory of the Father and the Son is not the glory of mere power;
but a moral and spiritual glory, the glory of having a perfectly
glorious, noble, and beautiful character. And unless he shews you
that, you will never be thoroughly good men. For it is a strange
thing that men are always trying, more or less, to be like God. And
yet, not a strange thing; for it is a sign that we all came from
God, and can get no rest till we are come back to God, because God
calls us all to be his children and be like him. A blessed thing it
is, if we try to be like the true God: but a sad and fearful thing,
if we try to be like some false god of our own invention. But so it
is. It was so even among the old heathen. Whatsoever a man fancies
God to be like, that he will try himself to be like. So if you
fancy than God the Father's glory is stern and awful power, that he
is extreme to mark what is done amiss, or stands severely on his own
rights, then you will do the same; you will be extreme to mark what
is done amiss; you will stand severely on your rights; you will grow
stern and harsh, unfeeling to your children and workmen, and fond of
shewing your power, just for the sake of shewing it. But if you
believe that the glory of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is all
one; and that it is a loving glory if you believe that such as Jesus
Christ is, such is his Father, gracious and merciful, slow to anger,
and of great kindness, and repenting him of the evil; if you believe
that your Father in heaven is perfect, just because he sendeth his
sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the
just and on the unjust, and is good to the unthankful and the evil--
if you believe this, I say, then you will be good to the unthankful
and the evil; you will be long-suffering and tender; good fathers,
good masters, good neighbours; and your characters will become
patient, generous, forgiving, truly noble, truly godlike. And all
because you believe the Athanasian Creed in spirit and in truth.
In like manner, if you believe that Jesus Christ is not a perfect
Son; if you fancy that he has any will but his Father's will; that
he has any work but what his Father gives him to do, who has
committed all things into his hands; that he knows anything but what
his Father sheweth him, who sheweth him all things, because he
loveth him; then you will be tempted to wish for power and honour of
your own; to become ambitious, self-willed, vain, and disobedient to
your parents.
But if you believe that Jesus is a perfect Son, all that you would
wish your son to be to you, and millions of times more; and if you
believe that that very thing is Christ's glory; that his glory
consists in being a perfect Son, perfectly obedient, having no will
or wish but his Father's; then will you, by thus seeing Christ in
spirit and in truth, see how beautiful and noble it is to be good
sons; and you will long to try to be good sons: and what you long
for, and try for, you will surely be, in God's good time; for he has
promised,--'Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after
righteousness: for they shall be filled.' And all through
believing the Athanasian Creed? All? Yes, all.
But will not the Holy Spirit teach us, without the Athanasian Creed?
The Holy Spirit will teach us. Must teach us, if we are really to
learn one word of all this in spirit and in truth. But whether the
Holy Spirit does teach us, will depend, I fear, very much upon
whether we pray for him; and whether we pray for him aright will
depend on whether we know who he is, and what he is like; and that,
again, the Athanasian Creed will tell us.
Now, go home with God's blessing. Remember that such as the Son is,
such is the Father, and such is the Holy Ghost. Pray to be made
good fathers, after the likeness of The Father, from whom every
fatherhood in heaven and earth is named; good sons, after the
likeness of God The Son; and good and holy spirits, after the
likeness of The Holy Spirit; and you will be such at last, in God's
good time, as far as man can become like God; for you will be
praying for the Holy Spirit himself, and he will hear you, and come
to you, and abide with you, and all will be well.