from salvation, we should let our eyes affect our hearts, and drop a tear of compassion upon their souls. "These were they to whom the promises of salvation did first belong, and to whom the first news was brought, that Jesus the Saviour is born. These are they to whom the gospel was first preached. God himself dwelt in the midst of them, and the Son of God was their brother, their flesh and their blood. Though they are for a season east off for their infidelity, yet God has told us, that he has a secret love for that nation still for their father Abraham's sake; Rom. xi. 28. and this love shall break forth in its full glory one day. Make haste, O deliverer, who didst come out of Zion, make haste to fulfil thy promises, and turn away ungodliness from Jacob. Let the fulness of the Gentiles be brought in, and let all Israel be saved. Bring them back from all the lands whither thine anger hath scattered them. Release thy ancient people from their long captivity to Satan, and their bands of thick darkness. Be thou, O Jesus, who art the light of the Gentiles, be thou also the glory of thy people Israel."

But I would endeavour to make a larger improvement of this general head of discourse.

Does the gospel bring salvation to every one that believes without exception: to all ranks and characters, and degrees, and orders of men? then let this grace be spread far abroad: And let not the more polite and nicer hearers grow tired, or drowsy, or disdainful, while I amplify a little and diffuse my thoughts into various particulars, pointing out the variety of the subjects of this grace; for I would, as it were, mention every sinner by name, that they may not be left only to unaffecting general notions, but being especially addressed they may all come and partake of this salvation by believing this gospel.

A glorious and extensive gospel indeed, and a wide-spreading salvation? To every one who believes! None excluded from this blessing!

1. It is not confined to one nation, or one family, not to one tribe or kindred of mankind, as the law of Moses was. Go preach the gospel, says our Lord, to every creature; Mark xvi. 15. Preach repentance and remission of sins in my name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem; Luke xxiv. 47. To the Jew first, but let not this grace be confined to them: Publish this blessed doctrine also to the sinners among the Greeks and Gentiles. You that are afar off from God, even in the ends of the earth, ye are called to look unto Christ and be saved; Is. xlv. 22. It is no matter, O sinner! what thy father was, or what thy kindred are! if thou art but a believer in Christ, thy soul is happy, thy sins are pardoned, the gospel is the power of God to thy salvation.

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2. It is not confined to one sex only, or to one age. The children are called as well as the fathers, and men and women are invited to partake of this blessing together in Christ. There is neither male nor female, neither young nor old, neither Greek nor Jew, that have any distinction put upon them, to exclude them from this grace; they are all one in Christ Jesus; Gal. iii. 28. Children, have you seen the evil of your sins, and the danger of hell? Do you long for pardoning and saving grace, and are you willing that Christ should make your peace with God, that he should enable you to serve him upon earth, and prepare you for heaven? Come then, trust in this gospel, give up yourselves to Jesus Christ the Saviour in the manner I have spoken, and the salvation is yours. Nor let old sinners thrust away this mercy from them, under a pretence that they have long abused it. You are now under the joyful sound of the gospel; you sit now under the language of inviting love: Are you willing to be. made new creatures before you die, and to accept of a deliverance from hell, though you are upon the very borders of it? Behold power enough in this gospel to deliver you: The blood of Christ can wash out stains of the longest continuance; The Spirit of Christ can change the skin of an old Ethiopian, and create an old inveterate transgresssor into holiness. This gospel could save the thief upon the cross, and ensure paradise to him. It can rescue a dying rebel from eternal death; for it gives life and salvation to every one that believes.

3. It is not limited to one rank or condition of men in the civil life, but reaches to persons of every circumstance. The rich and the poor, the master and the servant, the prince and the peasant, must partake of salvation by the same faith in the Son of God, The barbarian and the Scythian, who seem to be born for slaves, and the Romans who are lords of the earth, the bond and the free, have all an equal call to receive this salvation; Col. iii. 11. Ye are all rich enough to obtain it: There is no purchase of these blessings by any other price but that of the blood of Jesus. Silver and Gold, and the treasure of kings, are all contemptible offers in so sacred a concernment as this is. The benefit is too valuable to be bought at any meaner rate: Christ, who paid for it, will bestow it freely on all. If the rich will receive it, they must come without money, and without price, and accept of the free gift of God, as humble petitioners at his footstool; and the poor that have no money, come ye and buy; Is. lv. 1, 2. Let the vilest, meanest creature come to this treasury of grace, and with thankfulness receive the salvation, for it is bought already. You are called only to trust in this gospel, to surrender yourselves to this Saviour, and the salvation shall be yours. Ye that are mean and low and base in this world, there are many of

your brethren already joined in the fellowship of this gospel: Come, enter yourselves into the blessed fraternity. To the poor the gospel is preached, and the poor receive it. But there are some noble, there are some great, there are some rich, that have felt the power of it too: There is Philemon the master, and his servant Onesimus, joined in the same faith, and partakers of the same salvation; Philem. 16.

Again, 4. It is not confined to persons whose intellectual excellencies are superior to their neighbours, or who exceed others in understanding and the acquirements of the mind. - St. Paul was debtor both to the wise and the unwise; to the learned Greek, and to the ignorant and unpolished barbarian; Rom. i. 14. He preached the gospel to all of them: For Christ had a chosen number amongst them all. If the witty, and the wise, and the learned will lay down their pride, and submit to the doctrine of Christ crucified, and not call it foolishness: If they will humble their understandings to receive the sacred mysteries of our religion, God manifest in the flesh, and put to death for the sins of men, and will place the concerns of their eternal welfare into the hands of him who hung bleeding upon the cross: If they are willing to be converted and become as little children, there is a door for them to enter into the kingdom of heaven. And as for you, whose understandings are weak and unpolished with human learning, this is a doctrine and a gospel exactly fitted for your character: It is no business of great sagacity, no ingenious matter to become a christian. Believe the truths that are plainly revealed concerning your own sin and misery, and the power of Jesus Christ to save you; bewail your own wretchedness and guilt, and entrust yourselves in the arms of his grace, that ye may be made holy and happy, and ye also shall become possessors of the same kingdom. Father, I thank thee, Lord of heaven and earth, that though these things may be hidden from the wise and the prudent, yet thou hast revealed them to babes; Mat. xi. 25, 26.

But I pursue the distributions of this grace yet farther:

5. No particular tempers or constitutions of men, no different qualities of soul or body, can exclude those that believe from the grace or blessings of this gospel. Let not the strong man glory in his strength, nor the comely figures of human nature boast themselves in their beauty. Let not the weak be overwhelmed with despair, nor the deformed or uncomely stand afar off and abandon their hopes; the same Saviour proposes the riches of his grace to all. Learn therefore to look upon all your natural advantages, and all your natural discouragements, with a negligent eye in the matter of your salvation. If you would be strong to

win heaven, you must borrow all your strength from Christ and the gospel. If you would appear comely and honourable before the face of God, you must be clothed in the robe of righte ousness, and the garments of salvation, which he has prepared; Is. Ixi. 10.

Nor can any difference in the natural qualities of the soul forbid any person who believes in Christ to hope for this salvation. Those who are by nature proud or peevish, sullen or passionate, angry or revengeful, have been made partakers of this grace, as well as those who by the complexion of their animal frame, and the original temper of their minds, have had more of the natural virtues belonging to them; such as gentleness, meekness of spirit, good-humour and kindness. Those who have something in their very frame that is sly and crafty, or covetous, wanton, and intemperate, have felt the power of this gospel, as well as those that have been generous and sincere, modest, chaste, and abstemious; for the grace of the gospel, which was typified by the ark of Noah, takes in all manner of animals, clean and unclean, and saves them from the deluge of divine wrath that shall come upon an ungodly world. But there is this blessed difference, that the brutes went out of the ark with the same nature they brought in but those who come under the protection and power of this gospel by faith, they are in some measure changed, they are refined, they are sanctified. The wolf that came in, is turning into a lamb, and the raven by degrees becomes a dove, surely, the gospel has begun to make them so, for it has begun their salvation.

I will grant indeed, that the perverse temper of blood and spirits, and the very make of the man, as to his natural and vicious qualities, is seldom entirely altered by the grace of God here on earth. There will be some sallies of animal nature, some out-breakings of the irregular fire that is pent up in the constitution; and these will too often mix themselves with our conduct, and interline our acts of virtue and duty. But the holy soul, who believes in Christ, will be humble, will mourn, will accuse and chide itself before God in secret, and will be importunate and restless in prayer for the victory. The christian will not suffer himself to be carried away willingly by the stream of vicious inclinations; for he that is born of God sinneth not; 1 John v. 18. and it is in vain to talk of the gospel and salvation of faith and grace, if we give up the reins to vicious nature, and bid a careless farewell to any one virtue.

But to proceed yet farther in reckoning up the various characters of men, whom the gospel makes christians by the grace of faith.

6. As no persons are excluded because of their natural con

stitution, so neither are any forbid the blessing of salvation because of their former ill characters in the moral life. Not the greatest of sinners are shut out from this blessing, if they repent and believe the gospel. Not the Jews who crucified the Lord of glory Not the Gentiles or Greeks, who were slaves to superstition and idolatry, and drenched in most infamous and abominable practices; the Greeks, who gave themselves up to work uncleanness with greediness without God, and without hope in the world. One gospel has saved them all. No former follies or faults, no, not the greatest of sins against man, or against God himself, ought to shut up a humble soul under despair; for this is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came to save the chief of sinners; 1 Tim. i. 15. And that is a word of most extensive grace which our Saviour speaks; Mat. xii. 31. All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men.

You who have enjoyed a happy education, and had pious parents to boast of, as the Jews boasted of Abraham; you who have many shining works of sobriety and righteousness, you are called to come and trust in this gospel: But you must renounce all your pretended merit, and accept of pardoning grace, or you can never be saved. And you that have nothing that looks like a good work to glory in, sinners as bad as the worst of Gentiles, come, and believe this gospel, and surrender yourselves to Jesus the Prince and the Saviour; his blood is all-sufficient for the pardon of your sins, his righteousness is all-sufficient for your justification; and his Spirit can purify your sinful natures. Where sin has abounded, grace has much more abounded; Rom. v. 20. It is to the everlasting honour of the gospel of Christ, that it has appeared to be the power of God to the salvation of multitudes of such as you: Such were some of you, saith the apostle to the Corinthians; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God; I Cor. vi. 11.

And surely if great degrees of sin cannot exclude the penitent soul from the benefit of the gospel; then, 7. Neither shall any person be excluded because of the weak degrees of his faith; Him that is weak in the faith, receive ye; for Christ has received him; Rom. xiv. 1-3. Read that kind condescending promise, and believe it; Mat. xii. 20. He will not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoaking flax, nor suppress, nor despise the least, the lowest desires of grace: He will encourage the youngest and the feeblest acts of sincere repentance and true faith, though struggling under much sin and darkness, till it break out into evident and active flame. The little tender seed of grace under his heavenly influences shall bud, and blossom, and spring hp into full glory.