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Go forth, then, I beseech you, in the strength of the Lord, and in the power of his might, ye champions of the church militant, conquering and, to conquer! Take unto you the whole armour of God; having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Thus completely furnished, advance with Chris tian courage to the holy warfare. Cast down, slay, and utterly destroy, not your fellow-creatures, but ignorance, superstition, and vice: for thus to kill is to save alive. Go forth, not to return laden with the spoils of those whom you may visit, but to enrich them with imperishable treasures. Think it more than an abundant recom

died, yea, rather, that is risen again : who is even at the right hand of God;

who also makes intercession for us.

Who shall separate me from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or naked. ness, or peril, or sword? (as it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.) Though all this should come upon me, yet will I not forget thee; nor will I deal falsely in thy co

venant. My heart shall not be turned back; neither shall my steps decline from thy way. Nay, in all these things I shall be more than a conqueror, through him that loved me. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor heighth, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate me from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord!"-Bp. Patrick's "Christian Sacrifice." p. 47. Lond. 1693.

• The climax in the original is very beautiful: Dejicite, jugulate, mactate, non homines, sed ignorantiam, impietatem, cæteraque vitia; sic enim Accidere servare eșt.'

pence for your labours, if you shall be made the honoured instruments of rescuing souls from the hand of the destroyer, and of recovering them to Christ, their lawful owner; if, through your means, the gates of heaven shall at length stand opened to millions, now groaning under the yoke of bondage, and carried away captive by satan at his will.

The service to which we are exhorting you, is confessedly most arduous; but it is also most honourable in itself, and, if discharged with fidelity, will receive the amplest reward. The post of glory is the post of danger; and he who fears the one, is undeserving of the other. That man indeed is equally unfit for the office of a missionary and of a minister, who does not hold in contempt the pleasures and the wealth of this world, or who caunot say with the Apostle, "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain!" The offence of the Cross has not yet ceased; and they who will faithfully preach its doctrines, and live godly in Christ Jesus, (whether they be missionaries or not,) must suffer persecution. But under every trial, let that Cross be our boast and consolation. To wrestle with principalities and powers, is neither inglorious nor unrewarded: and he who calls us to the combat, gives us also strength for the victory.

Where then shall we find men endued with the spirit and the zeal of the Apostles? Will none be provoked to this labour of love, by the example of St. Paul and of his brethren, who" for his name's sake went, forth, taking nothing of the Gentiles?" Who that has respect unto the recompence of the reward, or beholds with the eye of faith the prize of his high callingwho that longs for an exceeding and eternal weight of glory, that pants after an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away-would not cheerfully submit to labour, privation, and

fatigue, to scorn, and persecution, and the cross,-light afflictions which are but for a moment? The profane may hate, oppose, traduce, the character and conduct of a missionary; but the countenance, the approbation, and the prayers of the pious shall cheer his heart, and send him on his way rejoicing. Worldlings may view him with contempt; but those who love the Lord Jesus Christ will honour and admire him. In these things, however, he glories not, but only in the Lord. He must expect, and may meet with, his full share of suffering and trial; yet even here. he gains a higher reward than all earthly pleasures could afford. In the present possession of his heavenly Father's love, and in the prospect of the crown which awaits him, he enjoys a peace of mind the Gospel only can bestow ;-a peace which is unspeakable, and full of glory; a peace, which to himself and to others, passeth all understanding; but which is secretly and sensibly experienced by all who have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

Let our prayers ascend up before God, that he would send into his long-wasted vineyard men likeminded with the Apostles; who, both by their preaching and living, will magnify their office; not that they themselves may be had in honour, but that souls may be won to Christ, and God be glorified in them that fear him. But it is to our bishops that we more especially look; for on them chiefly does the salvation or destruction of the people rest. It is theirs to give us a clergy of unblameable life and conversation; priests adorned with the spirit and the virtues of the Gospel; men of piety and talent, skilled to form the minds of youth, and ready to be the instructors of babes in the first principles and

The mind of the reader will immediately advert to that affecting and descriptive account of a minister's trials and qualifications, given in 2 Cor. vi. 3-10.

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duties of Christianity and on the character and exertions of our ministers it in a great measure depends, whether in this our land pure and undefiled religion shall again flourish and abound*.

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AMIDST the various duties and relations of life, in every station, and

* Des. Erasmi Roterodami Ecclesiastes, sive Concionator Evangelicus, lib. I. P. 131, &c. Lond. 1730.

By such arguments and appeals does the great Erasmus urge upon Christians in general the duty of supporting, and upon the clergy in particular the duty of undertaking, Christian missions. Let us join in fervent supplication to Him who alone worketh great marvels, that he may send down upon our bishops, and curates, and all congregations committed to their charge, the healthful spirit of his grace; and that, in order to their truly pleasing Him, he would dew of his blessing; for the honour graciously pour upon them the continual of our Advocate and Mediator, Jesus Christ. Let us pray to that merciful God who hath made all men, and hateth nothing that he hath made; who would not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should be converted and live, to have mercy upon all Jews, Turks, Infidels, and Heretics; to take from them all ignorance, hardness of heart, and contempt of his word; and

so to fetch them home to his flock, that

they may be saved among the remnant of the true Israelites, and be made one fold, under one Shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Him and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.

The following sermon is abridged from one of the Rey. C. J. Hoare's Dis courses reviewed in our last Number.

at every period, it is always to be remembered, that life itself must one day terminate; the scene of trial must pass away; every relation, merely human, must vanish in death; and the Christian will there fore desire at all times to view the opportunities and transactions of this lower world, just as they will rise to his recollection and his conscience at the time of his separation from it.

Whatever be the life men lead, none probably are so lost to reason as not to desire a peaceful close at their last hour; as not to form the well-known wish of Balaam, "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his." Fatal, however, and but too common inconsistency! to desire the end of the righteous, without preparing for it. Of all practical errors, none is more easy to confute, yet none so hard to overcome, as the belief that a preparation for death is by no means necessary, or may be safely delayed. We would awaken your earliest thoughts and best powers to this important work. We would humbly second the voice of God himself; and " so teach you to number your days, that you may apply your hearts unto wisdom."

The subject, though plain, is of the deepest importance; and will lead us, in connexion with the text, and the passage preceding it, to view the Christian in the last stage of his earthly course, the closing scene of his eventful trial. Many doubtless the Apostle had beheld in the parting struggle. Being "shortly," as he declares, about to "put off this his taber nacle," he sustains himself, and his surviving hearers, with the same blessed hope which had animated their first career. He addresses them as those who had "obtained like precious faith" with him, "through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." He exhorts them, "beside all this, giving all diligence, add to your

faith, virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." Having, then, reproved the absence of these things, as a proof of blindness, forgetfulness, and a return to old sins, he concludes, "Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure; for, if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."

Let us then, taking an enlarged view of the whole passage, learn from it,

I. The Christian's preparation for death; and,

II. His hope in death.

I. In making a due preparation for death, two things are especially needful. The first is "a state of pardon and acceptance with God;" the other, "a meetness for the heavenly inheritance." The one entitles us to an admission into bliss; the other qualifies us for its enjoyment. The one restores us to the favour of God, which by sin we had forfeited; the other to his image, which we had lost. For both we must look to God alone. By the blood of Christ is procured the hope of our acceptance with God; by the Spirit of Christ we obtain a meetness for his heavenly kingdom. We are redeemed by Christ from all our guilt-by the Spirit, through obedience, we are gradually restored to purity of heart-and so, through an abundant perseverance to the end, we obtain the blessing of the pure in heart, which is, to see God.

Let us consider these points, as severally contained in the passage. before us.

1. First, faith is mentioned:

"To them that have obtained like precious Faith with us."-"The first coming unto God," says our Church," is through faith." It is this which draws us near to Christ, and brings us home to God. It is that evidence which powerfully wins our regard to things not seen, and is as the substance of our eternal hopes. It carries the outward knowledge of God, of Christ, and of His will, to the inmost soul. It leads the penitent sinner, conscious of his own guilt and transgression, to "the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ:" and it is further intimated by the Apostle, to be the effect of Divine power within the heart, strongly enforcing the call to "glory and virtue;" and applying to itself the exceeding great and precious promises given to us through Jesus Christ; and thus making us partakers of the Divine nature.

2. This leads me next to speak of obedience as forming our qualification, or meetness, for the heavenly inheritance: "Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue."The Christian regards salvation as a deliverance from sin itself, no less than from its consequences; and, in the exceeding great and precious promises of God's word, he has no less respect to those of His grace for subduing sin, than to those of His mercy in pardoning it. In looking forward to heaven he sees nothing there but universal holiness, spotless purity, and unchanging love. He looks into the word of God, and sees, in the very passage before us, the character corresponding to his hopes; and hence he learns to sanctify every faculty and disposition of his soul, betimes, to his Master's service. "To virtue" he adds "knowledge." He studies the true wisdom, which, coming from above, leads thither; and lays a solid foundation for right conduct in clear, sound, and indisputable principles." To knowledge" he adds "temperance." He denies himself every forbidden indulgence, though dear to him as a

right eye; and would enter into life halt and maimed, rather than, having two hands or two feet, be cast into everlasting fire." To temperance" he adds " patience." He sooths present ill with future hope; turns complaint into prayer, then prayer into praise; and so gives to patience her perfect work, that he may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." To patience" he adds "godliness. He directs all the powers of his soul to its one true object, which is to serve and honour its Author and its Redeemer." To godliness" he adds "brotherly kindness." He gives his first regards to those who are linked with him in the dearest ties; and more espe cially to them that are of the household of faith.-But he does not forget to add "to brotherly kindness, charity;" that heavenly principle which assimilates him to Christ, and unites him to his fellowcreatures of every nation, and name, and colour; to the meanest sufferer; nay, to his most unrelenting enemy.

3. The Christian believes, and obeys with perseverance. "These things remain in him and abound:” to which it is added, "If ye do these things, ye shall never fall.”— As the Christian seeks an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom, so does he aspire to bring forth here an abundant production of good fruit, preparatory to the final harvest. He remembers the admonitions of our blessed Lord; "He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved""Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." And he desires "not to be of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul."

II. Let us now more particularly look to the Christian's hope in death.

Before the coming of Christ, believers saw but afar off. They had not received the fulfilment of the promises, on which they nevertheless rested: and they beheld with only an obscure and inquiring glance, beforehand, the sufferings

of Christ, and the glory that should follow. But to us life and immortality have been brought to light through the Gospel. Ancient prophecies have received their glorious fulfilment. In entering into covenant with God through faith in Jesus Christ, we, in a measure, already enter into rest." Through obedience to his commands, we become the subjects of his earthly kingdom; and we are taught to look forward, in death to an entrance ministered abundantly” into heaven itself; where are the Throne of God, and the bright and visible display of his everlasting glories.

On our entrance into the earthly kingdom of Christ our Saviour, much of imperfection, fear, and sorrow, cleaves to us: and none can duly estimate, but the watchful Christian himself, how many hardships and discouragements await his course of present trial. But he hopes hereafter to pass the "everlasting doors," and to "enter in through the gates into the city." In the hour of nature's last weakness, he is encouraged to look up to the Fountain of strength; and, in the darkness of the shadow of death, to behold the glory that shall be revealed. He regards, indeed, not without awful seriousness the approaching conflict: but he remembers that it is the last; and he. meets it clothed with the whole armour of God, and led on to vic. tory by the Captain of bis salvation. "I know," says he, "whom I have believed;" and he humbly desires to be able to pursue the Apostolic language; "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day." Even as respects the final terrors of the judgment hour, his mind fixes upon Him who is at once the "righteous Judge" and the "prevailing Advocate;" and, having confessed Christ openly before men, he trusts to be confessed by Him before His Father, and before the holy angels.

He places himself in joyful anticipation amidst his triumphant followers; and pursues in heart that high and holy way through which his Saviour," travelling in the greatness of his strength," shall conduct him onward to the Throne of God.

There the conflict shall cease, all imperfection shall vanish, and every cloud of darkness and doubt, of sin and temptation, shall be done away for ever. "There shall be no night there." Every former consequence of trangression shall be banished from those blessed abodes. "There shall be no more curse... And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things shall have passed away."

And to the absence of evil shall be added in heaven the blessedness of positive enjoyment. "He that sat upon the Throne said, Behold, I make all things new." The abundant entrance of the righteous into heaven shall consist in the blessed sight and full enjoyment of God Himself. "They shall see his face, and His name shall be in their foreheads."-Sights of bliss, and sounds of rapture shall be familiar to their senses: "I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, Behold the tabernacle of God is with men: and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people; and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God."-Health and refreshment shall mingle in their lot: "And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the Throne of God and the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of

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