Sermons Preached at Brighton - Third Series by Frederick W. Robertson
page 61 of 308 (19%)
page 61 of 308 (19%)
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and of the mind." Man naturally fulfils not merely the desires of the
flesh, but the desires of the mind. "And were," says the apostle, "children of wrath." One of the saddest spectacles is the decay of the natural man before the work of the Spirit has been accomplished in him. When the savage dies--when a mere infant dies--when an animal dies--there is nothing that is appalling or depressing there; but when the high, the developed intellect--when the cultivated man comes to the last hours of life, and the memory becomes less powerful, and the judgment fails, and all that belongs to nature and to earth visibly perishes, and the higher life has not been yet developed, though it is destined to survive the grave for ever--even the life of God--there is here ample cause for grief; and it is no wonder that the man of genius merely should shed tears at he idea of decaying life. We pass on to consider the Trinity in unity. All this is contained in that simple expression, "The God of peace." God is a God of unity. He makes one where before there were two. He is the God of peace, and therefore can make peace. Now this peace, according to the Trinitarian doctrine, consists in a threefold unity. Brethren, as we remarked respecting this first of all, the distinction in this Trinity is not a physical distinction, but a metaphysical one. The illustrations which are often given are illustrations drawn from material sources: if we take only those, we get into contradiction: for example, when we talk of personality, our idea is of a being bounded by space; and then to say in this sense that three persons are one, and one is three, is simply contradictory and absurd. Remember that the doctrine of the Trinity is a metaphysical doctrine. It is a trinity--a division in the mind of God. It is not three materials; it is three persons in a sense |
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