as thefe, (who can quickly feel for others' woe) miniftered of their substance to fupply the wants of our dear Master, (Luke viii. 3.) and followed him weeping, even to his crofs. I have no doubt but thefe daughters of Jerufalem would freely draw out their fouls to affift his poor fervants.

Fifthly, Confiderable affiftance is likewife to be expected from occafional donations.—If a fund were to be founded on this plan, I am perfuaded it would exhibit more than 251. a-year for each widow; and then the exhibition need not be on that mercenary principle of receiving out in proportion to what has been paid in; but let the benefit exhibited be according to the circumftances which widows are left in. Some widows may not need affiftance; in that cafe, there will be the more for thofe who really do need it. On this plan a fund would be founded on a benevolent principle; and it might be hoped would ftand till time fhall end.

BARNABAS.

REFLECTIONS ON PROV. 1. 23.

Turn ye at my reproof, behold I will pour out my Spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.

HESE words are spoken in the very spirit of parental

for the exhortation it may be remarked, that we have erred from the bleffed path of righteoufnefs, and are, by nature, in the broad way which leadeth to deftruction. Now it is mercy which gives the exhortation: For, if there were no mercy for the finner, there would be no exhortation to him. And, as mercy gives the exhortation, fo grace gives the ability to regard and obey it. Hence, fays Paul, "By the grace of God I am what I am." Turn ye at my reproof. Divine reproofs are either by the word or by the rod; and it ought to be feriously remembered, that "Him who being often reproved yet hardeneth his neck, fhall fuddenly be deftroyed and that without remedy !"

Let us, in the next place, attend to the gracious promifes by which the exhortation is enforced. Behold! Liften with

attention: I will pour out my Spirit unto you. Now the gift and influence of the bleffed Spirit is neceffary to inftruct us in the truth of God. The understanding must be opened, enlightened, and wrought upon, if ever we understand the fcriptures:-To rectify disorders in the foul; the tempers and inclinations are all depraved; and without a divine

operation

operation will remain fo forever:-To purify the heart and affections from their inbred foulness ;-and to firengthen the man for, and to uphold him in the race and conflict which is fet before him.

As to the nature of this infpiration, it may be observed that is not extraordinary, no defigned to produce miracles; but it is ordinary, as it takes place in every converfion, and is common to all believers; and that particularly in effectually affifting the mind to understand the things of Godthe will to embrace them--and the man to practise them. So that all who poffefs the Spirit in their hearts are doers of the word and not hearers only.

I will make known my words unto you---which are words of life: "the words that I fpeak unto you, they are spirit and they are life" the words of peace, and hence the gofpel is emphatically ftiled the gofpel of peace: words of falvation, inafmuch as they proclaim pardon and acceptance; a reconciled God and eternal life! I will make known---Let it be obferved that fuch is our darkness we cannot know the words of God and truth, till he makes them known. “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them, because they are fpiritually discerned." I close these brief reflections with one remark to the finner, may the Holy Spirit imprefs it upon his mind! If invitations and promifes do not win now, they will wound hereafter.

LETTERS ON GOSPEL PREACHING.

T. H.

BY THE LATE REV. JOHN BROWN, OF HADDINGTON.

(Originally compofed for the use of his Students in Divinity, and never before published.)

I'

(Continued from Vol. V. page 539-)

DEAR SIR,

LETTER IV.

Tis not enough that the evangelical preacher demonftrate the abfolute impoffibility of obtaining righteousness by the works of the law; he ought alfo to fhew how heinous a fin it is in them that hear the gospel to feck it, in whole or in part, in that way; as thereby a man ftumbles at Jefus

Chrift,

Chtift, the chief corner ftone; attempts to fruftrate the grace of God; difparages the fole high priesthood of the Saviour; doth, what in him lies, to render his death in vain; and goes about to establish his own righteoufnefs, which is filthy rags, in oppofition to the Redeemer's infinitely valuable obedience and fuffering, by which he magnified the law and made it honourable.

Moreover, left finners fhould think themselves delivered from the broken law, and married to Chrift when they are not, the preacher muft, with the word of the Lord, follow them into, and expel them out of, all the lying refuges of profeffion, practice, or experience, in which they may think themfelves fafe, while in truth they have never been fpiritually united to Chrift's perfon, or obtained an actual intereft in his righteoufnefs. The flaming fword must be turned every way to pierce, vex, and roufe the finner, and oblige him to flee to the tree of life.

Nor is all this aught but an introduction to the preaching of the gofpel. By this, when clofely applied by the Spirit of God, as a spirit of bondage, finners are alarmed but not faved. In the glafs of the law, they fee their finfulncfs; but are not in the leaft delivered from it, nor hate it as odious and difhonourable to God. They have a repentance, but it worketh death. They are grieved for their fins, as ruinous to themfelves, but not as offenfive to God. They are grieved, not because they have trampled on God's law, holy, juft, and good; but that God is fo holy and juft, that he will not, cannot, fuffer their fins to pafs unpunished.

The preacher therefore must not dwell always, nor even very long at a time, upon fuch cutting and alarming fubjects, left his hearers fhould thereby be ftupified, hardened, and rendered defperate. As the fkilful furgeon never cuts any deeper or longer than is neceffary to the cure, and adminifters cordials, if needful, in the time of the operation, fo ought the preacher. The gofpel ftrictly taken must therefore be next held forth in its fuitableneis, amiablenefs, and love, in order to encourage, captivate, melt, and draw the finner's heart. The covenant of grace, in its fource, its making, its condition, its promife, its adminiftration, and the manner of attaining an actual intereft in it, must be clearly and diftinctly unfolded. The preacher muft, by the direction and authority of God's word, explain, how in God there was and is help for felf-deftroying men; how he thought upon us in our low eftate; caufed his only begotten Son to approach him as our furety; fo loved the world that VOL. VI.

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he fent him into the world, that whofo believeth in him might not perish, but have everlafting life; fent him to be a propitiation for our fins, fpared him not, that with him he might freely give us all things; when the law could not juftify and fave us, being weak through the flesh, he sent him forth that by his offering of himself, fin might be condemned, and the righteoufnefs of the law fulfiled in us; how, when facrifices and offerings were found altogether unavailing to take away fin, Jefus Chrift, the equal, and only begotten Son of God, chearfully and with his whole heart, engaged to be our furety, was made man, made under the law, made fin for us, had our fins charged to his account and punished on him: how he fuffered once for fin, the just for the unjuft, that he might bring us to God, bare our fins and iniquities, our griefs and forrows, that by his stripes we might be healed; how, having by the holiness of his manhood, the obedience of his life, and fatisfactory fufferings, finished tranfgreffion, made full atonement for fin, completely obeyed and magnified the broken law, fulfilled the condition of the new covenant, ratified all its promises in his blood, and brought in an everlafting righteousness suited to every finful man, in respect of its value and form-he was raifed from the dead for our juftification, and received from his Father-all glory and power in heaven and earth, all fullness of gifts and graces for men even the rebellious, -power over all fleth that he might give eternal life to his elect, and that our faith and hope might be in God,-and is by his Father exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance and remiffion of fins,-fent to feck and to fave that which was loft, and to blefs us in turning us from our iniquities, and turning away our ungodlinefs,—and fo came, not to call the righteous, but finners to repentance; and in the most engaging and earneft manner freely presents and gives himfelf to us as an all-fufficient Saviour, made of God to us, who are finners, ignorant, guilty, unholy, enflaved; made to us witdom, righteoufnels, fanctification, and redemption,--to be by faith received by us in his perfon and fulinefs, as the infinitely precious free gift of God, bestowed without money and without price, that by fpiritual union and fellowship with him we may be juftified, adopted, fanctified, and become poffeffed of eternal life.

SELECT

SELECT SENTENCES.

F thou defire to improve in knowledge, despise not the inftructions of another. He that inftructs him that thinks himself wife enough, hath a fool for his fcholar: and he that thinks himself wife enough to inftruct himself, hath a fool for his mafter. QUARLES. Man overlooks the most inftructive book in his ftudy, if he reads not himself.

Dr. YOUNG. Only to think well and not do well, amounts to no more than only to dream well.

If we do not fubdue our anger it will fubdue us—It is the fecond word that makes the quarrel.

A good word is an easy obligation--but not to speak ill requires only our filence, which cofts us nothing.

Covetous perfons refemble sponges, which greedily drink in the water, but will not return a drop of it till they are fqueezed.

As the fun, when it appears in the heavens, not only dif covers itself, but difclofes all thofe objects that furround us; fo when God manifefts himself to the foul, he not only gives the knowledge of himself, but makes us acquainted with our own hearts, and all thofe truths revealed in his word, which are infeparably connected with falvation.

A

ANECDOTES.

LADY of fufpected chastity, and who was tinctured with infidel principles, converfing with a minifter of the gospel, objected to the fcriptures, on account of their obfcurity, and the great difficulty of understanding them. The minifter wifely and fmartly replied,--" Why, madam, "what can be easier to understand than the feventh com"mandment---Thou shalt not commit adultery?"

Had the not failed in the practice of what the knew, the need not have complained of what the did not know.

The famous Mr. Shepheard, when on his death-bed, faid to fome young minifters about him.---That their work was great, and called for great ferioufnefs. For his own part, he told them three things:-Firft, That the ftudying of every fermon coft him tears: Secondly, Before he prea ched any fermon, he got good by it himfelf: Thirdly, He

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