A

Scripture, in which we find no instance upon record of the Father or the Holy Ghost ever assuming the human form; while, again, in the latter part of the story, when the two angels had left the third with Abraham, and had gone on to Sodom, they say, "The Lord hath sent us to destroy this city." I allude to this because some authority has been improperly attached to this misapprehension, from the circumstance of our church selecting this portion of holy writ as one of the lessons for Trinity Sunday. We should imagine that her intention was not to adduce this as a proof of the trinity of the persons, but of the plurality of the persons in the Godhead: one of the persons of the blessed Trinity being here evidently present upon the earth, while the eternal Father, "whom none hath seen nor can see, was dwelling in the light which no man may approach unto.".

It was during the plain repast of the angels, beneath the wide-spreading branches of the overshadowing tree, while Abraham, with the simple manners of that early age, stood by them himself at once their servant and their host, that the first of these remarkable personages thus addressed him: "Where is Sarah, thy, wife? and he said, Behold, in the tent. And he said, I will certainly

return unto thee according to the time of life; and

lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard him in the tent-door, which was behind him, and laughed within herself." This action of Sarah was precisely similar, in its external appearance, to that of Abraham, of which we have already spoken, and yet how widely different in its motives and intention. While he laughed from the exulting feeling of an unhesitating faith, she, on the contrary, laughed in all the incredulity of a doubting mind. 66 They did not more agree in their desire," says Bishop Hall, "than differ in their affection: Abraham laughed for joy, Sarah for distrust; Abraham laughed because he believed it would be so, Sarah because she believed it could not be so." "And the Lord said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old? Is any thing too hard for the Lord? Then Sarah denied, saying, I laughed not, for she was afraid." Thus adding to the sin by the cowardly concealment and the guilty falsehood, and receiving the merited reproof of the Most High, "Nay, but thou didst laugh," at the very moment when, if her faith had been stronger, she might have been enjoying, with unmingled feelings of happiness, her greatest earthly blessing.

Beware, my brethren, from her example, I most solemnly charge you, beware of every thought, every publication, every person that would teach you to receive even the minutest portion of the revelation of God with the feeling of incredulity, or the smile of ridicule. The protection of the most crowded assembly, the secrecy of the most private retirement, will alike be unavailing to shield you from the eye of Him from whom no secrets are hid. Sarah laughed behind the door of the tent, where no human eye could witness it, and yet the Lord saw it: be careful that he never sees on your countenance the smile of distrust, the sneer of derision at his promises, his precepts, his people. How common a sin is this at the present day, how injurious to the cause of God, how little is it thought of now by those who are guilty of it, how unceasingly will it be remembered by them in eternity! The profane joke, the contemptuous appellation, the sneer of imaginary superiority, the open ridicule, the mockery of the saints of the Most High, how will the eternal echo of that laughter chill the heart and appal the soul on that great and coming day when every excuse will be unavailing, every denial vain; "NAY, BUT THOU DIDST LAUGH," will carry a pang to the scorner's

soul, which eternity itself will not enable him to forget. "NAY, BUT THOU DIDST LAUGH," will continue to sound in his ears, and to oppress his spirit, when he and laughter shall have long been strangers, and when tears, and sighing, and mourning, and wo, have been his unchanged, and shall be his unchangeable portion; for of all laughter such as this, the word of God has pronounced the termination and the fate, "The end of that mirth is heaviness;" "Wo unto you that laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep."

12*

LECTURE IX.

GENESIS XVIII. 19.

"For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord."

THE inspired historian having recorded the instance of Sarah's incredulity, with which the last lecture concluded, thus continues the narrative: "And the men rose up from thence, and looked towards Sodom: and Abraham went with them to bring them on the way. And the Lord said,” even the angel Jehovah, who was one of the three, "Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which 1 do; seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I know him that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him."

How remarkable is the reason here alleged by