contained the doctrine of the Trinity, one God in three Persons-that one name in which we are baptized, that one name in which we are blessed.

"Salvation for lost man is from God's mercy, free, undeserved mercy; By grace are ye saved-The kindness and love of God our Saviour towards man appeared".

"It comes through Christ, the only begotten Son of the Father, who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man, and was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate. His person as Immanuel, God with us, the mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus3; the honour he put on the law by his obedience, his bearing of the curse by his passion and death; the victory he obtained in his resurrection; and his pouring out of the Spirit on us, that the Lord God might dwell among us these are the proper and peculiar truths of the Gospel.

"The doctrine of the Holy Ghost, which proceedeth 'from the Father and the Son, follows.' If ye being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven, give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him 5. He convinces men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. He prepares the souls of men by his grace to welcome the salvation of Christ-he glorifies Christ 7. He is the spirit of life, consolation, and sanctification. He that.

drinks of this water, shall find it a well of water springing up into everlasting life. The Holy Spirit makes us spiritually minded, and causes us to bring forth the fruits of the spirit, and abound in every good work.

"Thus the sinner, taken from the borders of hell, is pardoned, justified, sanctified, and taught to lead a sober, righteous, and godly life. He depends on God's mercy for all he wants, and gives God all the glory.

"I only give a general outline. We are all lost; it is glad tidings that there is a Saviour, and that he died to save the lost; we are ambassadors of Christ, beseech

ing you to be reconciled to God; the Spirit of God is promised to give success to the word; and thus men repent, believe, love God, love one another, become examples to the world and blessings to themselves and their families."

His opinion of what constituted the fulness of the blessing of this Gospel is as follows:

"I need say little respecting the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ; for all who agree with me in what I have already stated, must understand this part of the subject. For what is there in man, however wicked, bad, or fixed in strong habits of sin, which the Gospel does not propose to remedy? What dost thou want, my fellow-sinner, which the Gospel does not call upon thee and entreat thee most earnestly to accept? God becomes, as it were, thy suppliant, and begs of thee to be reconciled. And wilt thou refuse? Hast thou an arm like God, canst thou thunder like him? Wilt thou dare to stand out? Wilt thou reject his offers of reconciliation ?

"Again, is there any blessing in the Gospel which thou dost not want? Do you not need forgiveness of sins? You, who are coming to Church and saying, Lord, have mercy upon me and incline my heart to keep thy law?-If you did not need mercy before, yet you want it afterwards for the solemn mockery you have made of God. Is there any one, in like manner, who does not need illumination, strength, comfort, deliverance? There is no blessing which you do not want; there is no blessing which you can want to bring you to heaven, which the Gospel does not confer; and so confer, that it is without money and without price.

"It is not to be bought or earned, but to be begged. This offends the proud; but the meek and contrite rejoice. If it were to be bought, they know they have no money. If it were to be obtained by merit, they know they have no goodness. But if it is to be freely received, then they have hope."

His conception of what it is for a minister to come in the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel, will now be readily understood from the following passages:

It means, in general, that not only one or two ob tain a blessing from his ministry, but that large numbers receive the blessing, yea, the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel.

"When Peter first preached the Gospel of repentance and remission of sins, he went amongst the murderers of Christ in the fulness of this blessing. Three thousand were converted in one day; soon they became five thousand; and soon ten thousands believed and continued stedfast in the Apostle's doctrine and fellowship, and were of one heart and soul, and great grace was upon them all.

"Persecution afterwards arose because of the word, and the Apostles were dispersed; and wherever they went they went as missionaries, and scattered the light of the Gospel in all places around. They came to Antioch, and a company there believed and walked in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Ghost, and were multiplied. So when the Apostle Paul went to Thessalonica, we learn, from his Epistle, that his entrance in was not in vain; but they became an example to all that believe; and from them sounded out the word of the Lord; for they turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven 9.

"From these instances you may see what I mean by a minister coming in the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ. It is when hundreds are brought to repentance, faith, and newness of life; when all that appear converted, or almost all (for a few even in the primitive church were deceivers), are of one heart and soul, and live in holy communion, and forget their worldly habits and connexions, and impart to each other, and walk in the fear of God and the comfort of the Holy Ghost, and maintain an upright, cheerful, thankful, benevolent, heavenly mind and conversation; when the Lord adds to the church daily such as shall be saved; when some are sent forth as ministers and missionaries to heathen lands: when new churches are founded; when at home and abroad truth kindles like a fire and spreads from heart to heart, from family to family, from neighbour

1 Thess. i. 7-10.

hood to neighbourhood, from country to country: when the word of the Lord runs and is glorified; when the Gospel is preached with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.

"Thus it was in the primitive times with Peter, Paul, and all the Apostles. The fishers of men cast: a wide net and took large shoals. Now the case is altered; we only catch a single fish now and then. But it was not merely in the primitive times, but in various ages and in different parts of the Christian church since, there have been revivals of religion, and great things have been done. In the days of St. Augustine, and at the blessed Reformation, this was the case. In the time of Mr. Whitfield, and Mr. Wesley also, great numbers were truly converted, whatever errors were mixed with their proceedings. Whenever things like these are seen, whenever numbers, are brought to fear God, and repent and love Christ, and live holy lives, then the Gospel is preached in the fulness of blessing.

"But these are blessings of which our fathers have told us-we have scarcely ever seen them ourselves. I have been thirty-eight years a fisher of men, and not quite unsuccessful; but I never yet saw any of this fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ. Our profession, indeed, is such, that the least success in it is better than the greatest in any other. One soul brought to salvation is worth more than all the glories of the world. If but a single sinner repents, there is joy in heaven -the only event on earth that we know of, that occasions that joy. If a man were to labour thirty-eight years, and gain but one soul, he might consider himself as greatly honoured. Still, who that loves his Saviour and has compassion for the souls of men, would not long for more enlarged success? I would thank God for even a single soul enlightened, and pardoned, and sanctified; but yet, if all my parish were converted, and there were only one left in its sins, I would have a struggle with the devil for that one. There are in the present day an increasing number of Gospel-ministers, and by all some good is done; and in a course of years we get together a little circle of converts. But such success as I understand by the fulness of the blessing, has not been vouchsafed to any

of us in these days. I am not speaking of the comparative success, which one minister may have above another, but the success of all of us put together, would be but little compared with that of Paul or Peter."

He next inquires into the reasons of this.

"What can be the reason of this? Is the Lord's arm shortened that it cannot save? Is the Gospel another thing than it was once? Are we to say that we cannot work miracles? Miracles never converted men' except as the grace of God wrought with them. There cannot be a greater mistake than to think that miracles can change the heart. It is the ordinary grace of the Holy Spirit which produces that change. It was this that converted Saul into Paul.

"Are we to resolve it into God's sovereignty? He is sovereign; but a holy, righteous, just one; he delighteth in mercy, and hath promised that his word shall not return unto him void, but shall prosper in the thing whereunto he sends it. I do not say, however, that we are to resolve it all into human causes; God's purposes and sovereignty may well be most seriously considered; but then we must not cast the weight on that. Our duty, and not God's secret will, is our concern. Generally God works in proportion to the fitness of the instruments. If we quiet ourselves on the supposed ground of God's sovereignty, we tempt God and shall assuredly not have the blessing. We may therefore properly inquire, if there be no reasons which may account for this want amongst us of the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ?

His suggestions on the probable causes of the decline of religion, and on the methods best calculated to revive it, are perhaps the most important parts of the discourse.

"We may inquire whether our modern preachers of the Gospel do so prominently hold out the peculiarities of Christianity, as the Apostles did; whether they come. with the holy law of God as the ministration of condemnation in one hand, and the Gospel of Christ as the minis