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.’