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.