Address to students of divinity

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ADDRESS

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TO

STUDENTS OF DIVINITY.

BY THE LATE

Ricv. JOHN BROWN,

OF HADDINGTON.

My dear young friends,

Now when I am gradually stepping into the
eternal state, to appear before the judgment-seat of
Christ, permit me to beseech you, as you wish to pro-
mote his honour, and the etfernal salvation of your own
arftkjMur hearers' souls, that ye

1.^^ that ye be real Christians yourselves. I now
more and more see, that nothing less than rea/,r^a/ Chris-
tianity, is fit to die with, and make an appearance beforeGod.
Are ye then indeed " born again, born from above, born
of the Spirit ? created in Christ Jesus unto good works ?
new creatures in Christ Jesus," having "all old things
■passed away, and all things become new?" Are ye in-
deed, " the circumcision which worship God in the
Spirit," habitually reading, meditating, praying, preach-
ing, conversing with your hearts, under the influence of
the Holy Ghost ? Have you no " confidence in the
flesh" — no confidence in your self-righteousness, your
learning, your address, your care and diligence, your
gifts and graces ; but being emptied of self, in every
form, are you " poor in spirit, less than the least of all
saints," and the least of all God's mercies: nay, the
very " chief of sinners" in your own sight ? Hath it
pleased God " to reveal his Son in" you ? and to in-
struct you with a strong hand, to " count all things but
loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ
ais your Lord, and to count them but dung, that you
may win him, and be found in him, not having your
own righteousness, but the righteousness which is of

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God by faith ; and to know the power of his resurrec-
tion, and the fellowship of his sutferings ; and to press
toward the mark for the prize of the hig-h calling- of
God in Christ Jesus," John iii. 3, 5, 6. Eph" ii. 10. 2 Cor.
V. 17. Gal. vi. 15. Phil. iii. 3. Matt. v. 3. xvi. 24. Eph.
iii. 8. Gen. xxxii. 10. 1 Tim. i. 15. Gal. i. 15, 16. Phil.
nf^7 — 14. If you be, or become graceless preachers or
ninisters of the gospel, how terrible is your condition !
If you open your Bible, the sentence of }'our redoubled
damnation flasheth into your conscience from every
page. If you compose your sermon, you but draw up
a tremendous indictment against yourselves. If you
argue against, or reprove other men's sins, you but
aggravate your own. If you pubHsh the holy law of
God, you but add to your rebellion against it, and make
it an awful witness against your treacherous dissimula-
tion. If you announce irs threatenings, and mention
hell with all its insupportable torments, you but infeoff
yourselves in it, and serve yourselves heirs to it, as the
inheritance appointed you by the Almighty. If you
speak of Christ and his excellencies, fulness, love, and
labours, it is but to trample him under your feet. If
you take his covenant and gospel into your mouth, it is
but to profane them, and cast them forth to be trodden
under foot of men. If you talk of spiritual experiences,
you "but do despite to the Spirit of grace." If you com-
mend Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and invite sinners
to new-covenant fellowship with them, you but treach-
erously stab them under the fifth rib, and betray them
with a kiss, and from your heart cry, this is the heir,
the God, come let us kill him. While you hold up the
glass of God's law or gospel to others, you turn its back
to yourselves. The gospel which ye preach to others,
is hid, is a savour of death unto death to you, the vail
remaining on your hearts, and the God of this world
having blinded your minds. Without the saving, the
heart-transforming knowledge of Christ and him cruci-
fied, all your knowledge is but an accursed "puffer up,"
and murderer of your own souls. And, unless the grace
of God make an uncommon stretch to save you, how
desperate is your condition ! Perhaps no person under

3

heaven bids more unlikely to be saved, than a gracelesx
Seceding minister. His conscience is so over-charg-ed
with guilt, so seared as with an hot iron, and his heart
so hardened by the abuse of the gospel. Alas I my
dear pupils, must all my instructions, all the strivings
of the Holy Ghost, all your reading, all your medita-
tions, all your sermons, all your evangelical principles,
all your profession, all your prayers, as traps and snares,
take and bind any of you hand and foot, that you may.
be cast, as " unprofitable servants," into " outer dark-
ness," with all the contents of your Bible, and other
books, all your gifts and apparent-like graces, as it were,
inlaid in your consci^ices that, as fuel or oil, they may
for ever feed or enrage the flames of God's wrath upon
your souls I After being set for a time at the gate of
heaven, to point others into it ; after prophesying in
Christ's name, and wasting yourselves to shew others the
way of salvation, and to light up the friends of our Re-
deemer to their heavenly rest, must your own lamp go out
in everlasting darkness, and ye be bidden, " depart from
me, I never knew you, ye workers of iniquity ?" Must
I, — must all the churches behold you at last brought
forth and condemned as arch-traitors to our Redeemer r
Must you, for ever, in the most tremendous manner,
sink into the bottomless pit, under the weight of the
blood of the great God our Saviour — under the weight
of murdered truths, murdered convictions, murdered
gifts, murdered ministrations of the gospel, and mur-
dered souls of men !

2. Ponder much, as before God, what proper yw/H?-
ture you have for the ministerial work, and labour to
increase it. To him that hath shall be given. Hath
Jesus bestowed on you the Holy Ghost ? What dis-
tinct knowledge have you of the mysteries of the king-
dom ? What aptness have you to teach, bringing out
of the good treasure of your own heart, " things new and
old ?" What ability to make the deep mysteries oft.be
gospel plain to persons of weak capacities, and to repr*^-
sent things dehghtful or terrible, in a proper and affect-
ing manner? What proper quickness in conceiving of
divine things, and what rooted inclination to study them;

as persons devoted to matters of infinite importance ?
What peculiar fitness have you for the pulpit, quali-
fying- you, in a plain, serious, orderly, and earnest man-
ner, to screw the truths of God into the consciences of
your hearers? With what stock of self-experienced
truths, and texts of inspiration, did, or do you enter on
the ministerial work ? Of what truths, relative to the
law of God, or relative to sin, Satan, or the desertions
and terrors of God, hath your soul not only seen the
evidence, but felt the power ? What declarations, pro-
mises, offers, and invitations of the glorious gospel, have
ye, with joy, nnd rejoicing- of heart, found and eaten,
and therein tasted and seen that God is good ? Of
what inspired truths and texts can you say, " even so
we have believed, and therefore we speak ;" what we
have seen and heard with the Father, and tasted and
handled of the word of life, that we declare unto yon.
Thrice happy preacher, whose deeply experienced heart
is, next to his Bible, his principal note-book ! John
XX. 22. Matt. xiii. 22, 12, 52. 1 Tim. iii. 2. Tit. i. 9.
2 Tim. ii. 2. Isa. 1. 4. xlix. 2. Jer. xv. 16. 2 Cor. iv. 13.
1 John i. 1 — 3. John viii. 34.

3. Take heed that your call from Christ and his Spi-
rit to your ministerial work, be not only rea/, but evi-
dent. Without this, you can neither be duly excited
or encouraged to your work, nor hope, nor pray for di-
vine success in it ; nor bear up aright under the difficul-
ties you must encounter, if you attempt to be faithful.
If you run unsent by Jesus Christ and his Spirit, not-
withstanding the utmost external regularity in your li-
cence, call, and ordination, you, in the whole of your
ministrations, must act the part of a sacrilegious thief
and robber, a pretended and treacherous ambassador to
Christ and his Father, and a murderer of men's souls,
not profiting them at all. Wliat direction, what sup-
port, what assistance, what encouragement, what reward
can you then expect ? Ponder, therefore, as before
God. Have you taken this honour to yourselves ? or
were ye called of God as was Aaron ? Hath Jesus
Christ sent you to preach the gospel, and laid upon you
a delightful and awful necessiti/ to preach it ? Whilo

he powerfully determined you to follow providence, and
avoid every selfish and irregular step towards entrance
into the office, as a mean of " eating* a piece of bread," or
enjoying carnal ease or honour, did he breathe on you,
and cause you to receive the Holy Ghost, filling you
with deep compassion to the perishing souls of men,
and a deep sense of your own unfitness for such ardu-
ous work, and fervent desire, that if the Lord were will-
ing to use you as instruments of winning souls, he
would sanctify you, and make you meet for his work ?
Perhaps, providentially shut out from other callings, to
which you or your parents inclined, did you, in your
education, go up " bound in the Spirit," by the love of
Christ burning in your hearts, and constraining you
cheerfully to surrender yourselves to poverty, reproach,
and hatred of men, for promoting his name and honour,
and the salvation of men in the world ? What oracles
of God, powerfully impressed on your soul, have direct-
ed and encouraged you to his work ? Know you in
what form Jesus Christ gave you your commission ?
Whether to " open the eyes of the Gentiles, and turn
them from darkness to light, and from the power of Sa-
tan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins,
and an inheritance among them who are sanctified by
faith" in him ; or, to " go make the heart of this peo-
ple fat, their ears heavy," and to "shut their eyes."
Jer. xxiii. 21 — 23. Isa. xlix. 1. 2. Jer. i. Ezek. ii. iii.
xxxiii. Matt. X. Luke vi. x. Johnx. Acts i. Heb. v. 4.
Rom. X. 15. 1. Cor. i. 17. ix. 16. Acts xxvi. 17, 18.
Isa. vi. 8, 9.

4. See that your end in entering into, or executing
your office, be single and disinterested. Dare you ap-
peal to him, whose eyes are " as a flame of fire," and
who " searcheth the hearts, and trieth the reins," to
give to every man according to his works, that you
never inclined to be put into the priest's office, that you
might " eat a piece of bread, and look every one for his
gain from his quarter;" that ye " seek not great things
for yourselves ;" that ye " covet no man's silver, gold,
or apparel ; that ye seek not men's property, but them-
selvesy that you may win them to Christ for their eter-

6

nal welfare ; that ye seek not your own honour, ease or
temporal advantag-e, but the thing-s of Christ and his
people; that ye '* seek not honour," or " glory of men,"
but the honour of Christ and his Father, in the eternal
salvation of souls; and have determined to prosecute
this end, through whatever distress or danger the Lord
may be pleased to lay in your way. Jer. xlv. 5. 1 Sam.
xii. 8. Acts XX. 33. Isa. Ivi. 11. 2 Tim. iv. 10. 1 Cor.
ix. 12, 16. 2 Cor. vii. 2. xi. 9. xii. 13, 14. vi. 4—19.
Phil. ii. 21. 1 Thess. ii. 4—9. John vii. 18.

5. See that your minds be deeply impressed with the
nature^ extent, and impoytance of your ministerial work ;
that therein it is required of you, as "ambassadors for
Christ," as " stewards" of the mysteries and manifold
grace of God, " to be faithful," to serve the Lord with
your spirit, and with much humiHty in the gospel of
his Son ; to testify repentance towards God, and faith
towards our Lord Jesus Christ, not keeping- back, or
shunning to declare every part of the counsel of God,
or any profitable instruction, reproof, or encouragement ;
and not moved with any reproach, persecution, hunger,
or nakedness ; to be ready, not only to be bound, but to
die for the name of the Lord Jesus, in order to finish
your course with joy. Bearing with the infirmities of
the weak, and striving together in prayer, that the word
of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, and
your messages provided by God, and made acceptable to
your hearers, you must labour with much fear and trem-
bling, determined to know, to glory in, and make known,
nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified; preaching
the gospel, " not with enticing words of man's wisdom,"
as raen-pleasers, but with great plainness of speech, in
demonstration of the Spirit, and with power; speaking
the things which are freely given you by God, not in
the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but in " the
words which the Holy (jhost teacheth," comparing spi-
ritual things with spiritual — as having the mind of
('hrist — always triumpljing in llim, and making mani-
fest the savour of the knowledge of him in every place,
that you may be a sweet savour of Christ in them who
are saved, and in them who perish; as of sincerity, as

of God, in the sight of God, speakinj^ in Christ, who
throug-h the mercy of God, not fainting-, hut renoun-
cing the hidden things of dishonesty ; not walking in
craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, or
corrupting the truth, hut manifes^ting the truth to every
man's conscience, as in the sight of God ; not preaching
yourselves, but Christ Jesus, the Lord, and yourselves
servants to the church for his sake, ahvay bearing about
his dying, that his life may be manifested in you; and
knowing the terror of the Lord, and deeply impressed
with the account which you and your hearers must give
to him, of your whole conduct, m the day of judgment
— awed by his intinite authority, and constrained and
inflamed by his love, you must persuade men, beseech-
ing them to be reconciled unto God, and making your-
selves manifest to God, and to their conscience — and
as their edification requires, changing your voice, and
turning yourselves every way, and becoming all things
to all men, in order to gain them to Christ — jealous
over them with a godly jealousy, in order to espouse
them to him, as chaste virgins — travelling in birth, till
he be formed in their hearts. You must take heed to
your ministry, which you have received in the Lord,
that you may fulfil it ; stir up the gifts which were giv-
en you; give yourselves wholly to reading, exhorta-
tion, and doctrine ; and take heed to yourselves, and
to the doctrine which you preach, that you may save
yourselves, and them that hear you ; watching for their
souls, as they who do and must give an account for
them to God ; rightly dividing the word of truth, and
giving every man his portion in due season — faithfully
warning every man with tears, night and day — teaching
every man, particularly young ones, and labouring to
present every man perfect in Christ Jesus ; and warring,
not after the flesh, nor with carnal weapons, but with
such as are mighty through God, to the pulling down
of strong-holds, and casting down imaginations, and
subduing every thought and affection to the obedience
of Christ. Having him for the end of your conversa-
tion, and holding fast the form of sound words in faith
in, and love to him ; not entangling yourselves with

8

the affairs of this life, nor ashamed of the Lord, or of
his cause or prisoners, but ready to endure hardships, as
good soldiers of Jesus Christ, ye must go forth without
the camp, bearing his reproach, and, exposed as specta-
cles of sufferings to angels and men, must not faint un-
der your tribulations, but feed the flock of God which
he hath purchased with his own blood, and over which
the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers ; preaching the
word in season and out of season, reproving, rebuking,
and exhorting with all long-suffering and doctrine ; tak-
ing the oversight of your people, not by constraint, but
willingly — not for filthy lucre, of worldly gain, or larger
stipends, but of a ready mind ; neither as being lords
over God's heritage, but as examples to the flock ; ex-
ercising yourselves to have a conscience void of offence
towards God, and towards man ; having a good con-
science, willing in all things to live honestly ; exercised
to godiness ; kindly affectioned, disinterested, holy, just
and unblaraeable ; prudent examples of the believers in
conversation, in charity, in faith and purity; fleeing
youthful lusts, and following after righteousness, peace,
faith, charity ; not striving, but being gentle unto all
men ; in meekness instructing them who oppose them-
selves ; avoiding foolish and unlearned questions ; and
old wives' fables ; fleeing from perverse disputings, and
worldly mindedness, as most dangerous snares ; and fol-
lowing after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, pa-
tience, meekness; fighting the good fight of faith, and
laying hold on eternal life ; keeping your trust of gos-
pel truth, and ministerial office ; and without partiality
or precipitancy, committing the same to faithful men,
who may be able to teach others : and, in fine, faith-
fully labouring in the Lord, to try, and confute, and
censure false teachers — publicly rebuke, or excommuni-
cate open transgressors — restore such as have been over-
taken in a fault, in the spirit of meekness ; and having
compassion on them, to pull them out of the fire, hat-
ing even the garment spotted by the flesh, and never
conniving at, or partaking with any in their sins. Who
is sufficient for these things ? May your sufficiency be
of God ; and as your days are, so may your strength be,

Ezek. ii. 7. iii. 9, 17 — 21. xxxiii. 7, 9. Isa. Iviii. 1. Jer.
i. 17, 18. XV. 19, 20. Mic. iii. 8. Mai. ii. 6, 7. Matt. x.
16—39. xix. 28, 29. xx. 25—28. xxiii. 3—12. xxiv.
42— ,51. xxviii. 18—20. Acts xviii. 24—28. xx. 18—
35. xxiv. 16. xxvi. 16—23. 1 Cor. ii. 1—5, 9, 12, 13.
i. — V. ix. xii. — xiv. 2 Cor ii. — vi. x. — xiii. Rom. i. 9,
16. ix. ], 2. X. 1. xii. xv. Gal. i. 8—16. iv. 19. Eph.
iii. 7—9. iv, 11—15. vi. 19, 20. Col. iv. 7, 17. i. 23
—29. ii. 1, 2. 1 Thess. ii. iii. v. 12. 1 Tim. iii.— vi.
2 Tim. i.— iii. Heb. xiii. 7, 17, 18. 1 Pet. iv. 10, 11.
v. 1—4. Jude 22, 23. Rev. ii. iii. xi. 3—7. xiv. 6—
11.

6. See that ye take heed to your spirits, that ye deal
not treacherously with the Lord. In approaching to,
or executing- the ministerial office, keep your hearts
with all diligence ; for out of it are the issues of eternal
life or death to yourselves and others. Building up
yourselves on your most holy faith, and praying in the
Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, look-
ing for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal
life. If you do not ardently love Christ, how can you
faithfully and diligently feed his lambs — his sheep ?
Alas ! how many precious sermons, exhortations and
instructions, are quite marred and poisoned, by coming
through the cold, carnal, and careless heart of the
preacher, and being attended with his imprudent, un-
tender, and lukewarm life ? If you have not a deep-
felt experience of the terrors of the Lord, of the bitter-
ness of sin, vanity of this world, and importance of eter-
nity, and of the conscience-quieting, and heart-capti-
vating virtue of Jesus' bleeding love, how can you be
duly serious and hearty in preaching the gospel ? If,
all influenced by a predominant love to Christ, your
heart be not fixed on everlasting things, and powerfully
animated to an eager following of peace and holiness,
how can you, without the most abominable treachery,
declare to men their chief happiness, and the true me-
thod of obtaining it ? If your graces be not kept live-
ly, your loins girt, and your lamps burning, all en-
kindled by the heart-constraining love of Christ, how
cold, carnal, and blasted, must be your sacred ministra-

10

tions ? If your work, as am))assadors of Christ, be to
transact matters of everlasting importance, between an
infinite God and immortal but perishing- souls of men ;
if the honours and privileges of it be so invaluable, what
inexpressible need have you of habitual dependence on
Christ, by a lively faith ? What self-denial, what ar-
dent love to Christ and his Father, what disinterested
reg-ard to his honour, what compassion to souls, what
prudence, what faithfulness and dilig-ence, what humili-
ty and holy zeal, what spirituality of mind and con-
versation, what order, what plainness, what fervour,
what just temperature of mildness and severity, is ne-
cessary in every part of it ! If, while you minister in
holy things, your lusts prevail, and are indulged, you
have less of real or lively Christianity, than the most
weak and uncircumspect saints under your charg-e. If
your evil heart of unbelief, fearfully carry you off from
the living God, and you can live unconcerned, while the
powerful and sanctifying presence of God is withheld
from yourselves or your flocks, how sad is your and
their case ! If your indwelling pride be allowed to
choose your company, your dress, your victuals, nay,
your text, your subject, your order, your language ; if
it be allowed to indite your thoughts, and, to the re-
proach and blasting of the gospel of Christ, to deck
your sermon with tawdry ornaments and fancies, as if it
were a stage play, and to blunt and muffle up his sharp
arrows with silken smoothness, and swollen bombast :
if it be allowed to kindle your fervour, and form your
looks, your tone, your action ; or to render you enrap-
tured or self-conceited, because of subsequent applause ;
or sad and provoked, because your labours are contemn-
ed, how dreadful is your danger, and that of your hear-
ers ! How can ministerial labours originating in pride,
spurred on by the fame of learning, diligence, or holi-
ness, hurt the interests of Satan, from whose influence
they proceed ? If pride be allowed to cause you to
envy or wound the characters of such as differ from or
outshine you, or to make you reluctant to christian re-
proof from your inferiors, how fearful is your guilt and
danger ! Pride indulged, is no more consistent with

11

a christian character, than drunkenness and wlioredoni.
If you take up, or cleave to any ])rincij)le or practice in
rehgion, in the way of factious contention, how abom-
inable to God, is the *' sower of discord among- breth-
ren I" If you undervalue the peace and prosperity of
the church of Christ, and are not afflicted with her in
all her afflictions, how cruel and unchrist-like your con-
duct I If, in justly proving- your opponents deceivers
and blasphemers, you, by your angry manner, plead the
cause of the devil, will God accept it as an offering at
your hands? If you are slothful in studying- or declar-
ing the truths of Christ ; if, to save labour or expence,
you are inactive or averse to help such as have no fix-
ed ministrations, or to contrive or prosecute projects for
advancing- the kingdom of Christ, and promoting- the
salvation of men, how great is your baseness, and fear-
ful your hazard ! Think, as before God, did Jesus
Christ furnish you for, and put you into the ministry,
that you might idle away, or prostitute your devoted
time, tear his church, conceal or mangle his truths, be-
tray his interests, or starve and murder the souls of
men ? Are not your people the " flock of God, which
he purchased with his own blood ?" Will you then
dare to destroy his peculiar property and portion, and
attempt to frustrate the end of his death ? Did Jesus
die for men's souls ? And will you grudge a small la-
bour or expence, to promote his honour in their eternal
salvation ? If the Son of God was crucified for men,
crucified for you, will you refuse, through his Spirit, to
crucify your selfishness, your pride, your sloth, your
worldly and covetous disposition, in order to save your-
selves, and them that hear you. While your own sal-
vation, and the salvation of multitudes, are so deeply
connected with your faithfulness and diligence ; while
the powers of hell and earth, so set themselves in op-
position to your work, that, in your falls, they may tri-
umph over Christ, your Master, and his church ; while
so many eyes of God, angels and men, are upon you,
why do you ever think or speak of eternal things— -of
heaven and hell — of Jesus' person, offices, righteous-
ness, love, and free salvation, without the most serious

12

and deep impression of their importance? While, per-
haps, you preach your last sermon, and have before you,
and on every hand of you, hundreds or scores of perish-
ing- souls, suspended over hell by the frail thread of
mortal life, not knowing- what a day or an hour may
bring- forth ; souls already in the hands of the devil,
and, as it were, just departing to be with him in the
lake which burns with fire and brimstone ; souls already
slain by the gospel of our salvation blasted and cursed
to them, partly by your means ; why do not tears of deep
concern mingle themselves with every point you study,
every sentence you publish in the name of Christ?
When multitudes of your hearers, some of them never
to hear you more, and just leaping off into the depths
of hell, are, in respect of their needs, crying with an ex-
ceeding bitter cry, " Minister, help, help, we perish ; we
utterly perish ; pluck the brand out of the burning fiery
furnace ;" why spend your devoted time in idle visits, un-
edifying converse, useless reading, or unnecessary sleep?
What if, while you are so employed, some of your hear-
ers drop into eternal flames, and begin their everlasting
cursing of you for not doing more to promote their sal-
vation ? When Jesus ariseth to require their blood at
your hand, how accursed will appear that knowledge,
which was not improven for his honour who bestowed
it ! — that ease, which issued in the damnation of multi-
tudes ! — that conformity to the world which permitted,
or that unedifying converse which encouraged your hear-
ers to sleep into hell in their sins ! — that pride or lux-
ury which restrained your charity, or disgracefully plung-
ed you into debt ! Since, my dear pupils, all the truths
of God, all the ordinances and privileges of his church,
the eternal salvation of multitudes, and the infinitely
precious honour of Jesus Christ and his Father, as con-
nected with the present and future ages of time, are
entrusted to you, how necessary, that, like Jesus your
Master, you should be faithful in all things, to him who
appointed you? If you do the work of our Lord
deceitfully, in what tremendous manner shall your pa-
rents, who devoted and educated you for it — the teach-
ers who prepared you for it — the seminaries of learn-

13

ing" in which you received your instruction — the years
which you spent in your studies — all the gifts which
were bestowed upon you — all the thoughts, words,
and works of God in the redemption of men — all the
oracles, commands, promises, and threatenings of God,
which direct, inculcate, or enforce your duty — all the
examples of Jesus Christ, and all his apostles, prophets,
and faithful ministers — all the leaves of your Bible, all
the books of your closet — all the engagements you have
come under — all the sermons which you preach — all
the instructions which you tender to others — all the
discipline which you exercise — all the maintenance
which you receive — all the honours which you enjoy or
expect — all the testimonies which you give against the
negligence of parents, masters, ministers or magistrates
— all the vows and resolutions which you have made to
reform — and all the prayers which you have presented
to God for assistance or success, rise up against you as
witnesses, in the day of the Lord !

7. See that ye, as workmen who need not be ashamed,
earnestly labour rightly to divide the word of truth, ac-
cording to the capacities, needs, and particular occasions
of your hearers, giving every one of them their portion
in due season. Never make your own ease, your in-
clination or honour, but the need of souls, and the glory
of Christ, the regulator of your choice of subjects.
Labour chiefly on the principal points of religion. To
bring down the fundamental mysteries of the gospel to
the capacities of your hearers, and inculcate on their
consciences, the great points of union and fellowship
with Christ, regeneration, justification, and sanctifica-
tion, will require all your grace, learning, and labour.
Never aim at tickling the ears, or pleasing the fancies
of your hearers, but at convincing their consciences,
enlightening their minds, attracting their affections, and
renewing their wills, that they may be persuaded, and
enabled to embrace and improve Jesus Christ as freely
offered to them in the gospel, for wisdom, righteous-
ness, sanctification, and redemption. Labour to preach
the law as a broken covenant, the gospel of salvation,
and the law as a rule of life, not only in their extensive

14

matter, but also in their proper order and connection.
It is only when they are properly connected, that the
precious truths of God appear in their true lustre and
glory. It is at your infinite hazard, and the infinite
hazard of them that hear you, if you even by negli-
gence, either hlend or put asunder that law and gospel,
which Jesus Christ hath so delightfully joined together.
Nowhere is it more necessary to take heed, than in
preaching up the duties of holiness. Let all be founded
in union to and communion with Clirist, all enforced
by the pattern, love, righteousness and benefits of Christ,
Eph. iv. V. vi. Col. iii. iv. 1 Pet. iii. iv. See Diction,
art. Gospel, and Sabbath Journal., p. 271 — 272.

8. Alvvay improve and live on that blessed encour-
agement which is offered to you as christians and min-
isters in the gospel. Let all your wants be on Christ.
**My God shall supply all your need, according to his
riches in glory, by Christ Jesus." Cast all your cares on
him, for he careth for you. Cast all your burdens on
him, and he will sustain you. If your holy services,
through your mismanagement, occasion your uncom-
mon guilt, his blood " cleanseth from all sin." You
have an "advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous, who is the propitiation for your sins." If
you be often difficulted how to act, he hath said, " the
meek will he guide in judgment ; the meek will he teach
his way." "1 will instruct thee and teach thee in the
way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with mine
eye set upon thee. I will lead the blind in a way which
they know not." If you be much discouraged because
of your rough way, and your want of strength, he hath
said, " when the poor and needy seek water, and there
is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord
will hear them ; I the God of Israel will not forsake
them. I will open rivers in high places. Fear not, for
1 am with thee ; be not dismayed, for 1 am thy God.
I will strengthen thee ; yea, I will help thee ; I will
uphold thee with the right hand of my rijihteousnesR.
Fear not, worm .Jacob ; 1 will help thee, saith the Lord
thy Redeemer. I will make thee a new sharp thresh-
ing instruaient, and thou shalt thresh the mountains.

15

My grace shall be Rufficient for thee ; for my strength
is made perfect in weakness. As thy days are, so shall
thy strength he." If your troubles be many, he hath
said, "wlien thou passest through the waters I will be
with thee: the rivers shall not overflow thee. When
thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burnt ;
nor shall the flame kindle upon thee." If your in-
comes be small and pinching, " ye know the grace of
our Lord Jesu^! Christ, that though he was rich, yet for
our sakes he bc?came poor, that we through his poverty
might be rich. He shall see his seed, the travail of his
soul, and be satisfied :" and he hath promised, " I will
abundantly bless her provision, and satisfy her poor
with bread. I will satiate the soul of her priests with
fatness." A salary of remarkable fellowship with Christ,
and of success in winning souls, is the most delightful
and enriching. If your labours appear to have little
success, be the more diligent and dependent on Christ.
Never " mourn as they that have no hope." Jesus hath
said, " I will pour water on him that is thirsty, and floods
on the dry ground. I will pour my Spirit on thy seed,
and my blessing on thine off^^pring. A seed shall serve
him. The whole earth shall be filled with his glory.
The kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms
of our Lord, and his Christ." Believe it on the testi-
mony of God himself. Believe it on the testimony of
all his faithful servants; and, if mine were of any avail,
I shoubl add it, that there is no master so kind as
Christ ; no service so pleasant and profitable as that of
Christ ; and no reward so full, satisfying, and perma-
nent, as that of Christ. Let us, therefore, begin all

THINGS FROM ChRIST, CARRY ON ALL THINGS WITH
AND THROUGH ChRIST, AND LET ALL THINGS AIM AT,
AND END IN ChUIST.

Andrew Jack k Co. Printew
Jbklinburgh.

To l^r^.^.--3 ricrr^rr.<.;7) Student of Divinity,

with ^^"^ t'^rar^^yt^ _—

affectionate good wishes.

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BRIEF

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