Church of England -- Sermons; Sermons, English -- 19th century
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account