SECTION II. 599 Christ in good earnest, a minister of the New Testament, and e workman that needs not tobe ashamed, if you take special seasons to discover to men what the word of God reveals concerning their misery, and declare to them the whole council of God for their salvation. I entreat you my dear friend and brother, to get it deeply impreston your heart, that as (I believe) your real and sincere design, is to save the souls of men from sin and eter- nal death; so it is the gospel of Christ which is the only instru- ment whereby you can ever hope to attain this blessed end ; and that for two reasons. (1.) It is this gospel, which in its own nature, is most hap- pily suited in all the parts of it to this great design; and no other schemes which the wit or reason of man can contrive are so : It is the voice of pardoning grace and reconciliation to God by Jesus Christ, that powerfully allures and encourages the awa- kened sinner, to return to his duty to God and his Maker: It is the promise of divine assistance to enable us to mortify sin, and to practice holiness, which animates the feeblecreature to at- tempt it : It is the attractive view of heavenly blessedness as revealed in the gospel, that invites the soul onward to make its way through all the dangerous enticements and terrors of this world, which is at enmity with God. The divine fitness of this gospel of grace, to restore fallen man to the favour and image of his Maker, is so various and astonishing, that to describe it in-all instances, would 'require a large volume. And (2.) As the gospel is so happily suited to attain these ends, so it is the only effectual means that God has appointed, in the lips of his ministers, for this purpose. It is with thesewon- drous discoveries of this gospel, that he furnished the minds and lips of the fishermen and illiterate persons, when he sent them forth to convert and save a perishing world: These were the sacred weapons with which they were armed, when our exalted Saviour gave them commission to travel through the dominions of Satan, which were spread over the heathen countries, and to raise up a kingdom Mr himself amongst them. It was with principles, rules and motives derived from this gospel, that they were sent to attack the reigning vices of mankind, to reform profligate nations, and to turn them from dumb idols to sert*e the living God. And though St. Paul werea man of learning above the rest, yet he was not sent to preach the enticing words ofman's wisdom, nor to talk as the disputers of the age and philosophers did in their schools ; but his business was to preach Christ cruci- fied: though this doctrine of the cross and the Son of God hang- ing upon it, was a stumbling block to the Jews, and the Greeks counted it foolishness, yet to them that were called both Jews and Greeks, this doctrine was the power of God, and the wisdom of God for the salvation of men. And therefore St. Paul deter-
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