estness how he must obtain the peculiar peace of a Christian, I would reply: He must labour to detach his heart, and wean his affections from the world, which is the grand rival of Christ. He must impress strongly upon his mind the vanity of the world, the folly of its cares, the emptiness of its enjoyments, and guard against indulging a desire for worldly things as his portion. I would further exhort him to pray that his eyes may be opened to see his true state. Let him implore God so to enlighten and strengthen him, that the salvation of his immortal soul may become the great object of his life; and that his affections hitherto misplaced, may be set upon those noble and substantial objects, which will endure when this world and all its concerns shall have long ceased to exist. We must not expect that such a total change of mind, such a moral revolution, will take place at once; but it ought at once to become, as Scripture and reason sufficiently demonstrate, our grand object to attain it. This must be the chief end of our endeavours-the important business of our lives.

And, further, our applications to the Son of God, the Saviour of the world, who alone can give light to the understanding, purity to the heart, soundness to the judgment, a right direction to the affections, and peace to the conscience, must be earnest and constant. Christ must become our Saviour, to whom we trust for life and happiness; our Master whom we are to serve continually. Bought by his blood, we are to surrender ourselves to him; and believing in him, we are humbly to expect salvation from his free and unmerited grace.

In this renewed state, it will become us to guard against every thing which would draw off our attention and our affections from Christ. We must cherish a godly jealousy and fear, lest through the subtility of Satan, the allurements of the world, or the corruption of nature, our hearts be drawn aside from God. Per

severing thus in the faith of Christ and in obedience to him, he will enable us to find rest unto our souls: He will teach us the insufficiency of all earthly things, and his own power and willingness to bestow it. Thus we shall enjoy communion with him, and experience a blessed reality in religion, and possess that peace "which the world can neither give nor take away,"

SERMON XV.

ON THE NATURE OF THE CHRISTIAN

MINISTRY.

Col. i. 28.

Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching ev

ery man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.

THE office of a minister of Christ is highly important, and the relation between him and his flock is of the most intimate kind. It is his office to watch over their souls as one that must give account, and deliver to them the word of God, by which they are to become partakers of eternal life. It is his duty to exhort, to reprove, to warn, to teach, with all patience and longsuffering. Whether, then, we consider the end of his labours or the subject of his discourses, we shall see them to be of the utmost importance, and such as to justify that earnestness and authority in the manner of his preaching, which, were not the nature of his office considered, might appear extravagant and assuming.

In my text the Apostle refers to these three points:

I. The end of a minister's preaching-"To present every man perfect in Christ Jesus."

II. The subject of his preaching, by which this end is to be accomplished-"Whom we preach." And, III. The manner of his preaching-"Warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom."

On each of these points I shall make a few observations, praying that the Holy Spirit, from whose influence only our preaching can derive any real efficacy, would be pleased to render what may be said effectual in producing the great design of that Gospel which is intrusted to us.

I. The end of a minister's preaching is to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.

The mission of Christ upon earth, as a Saviour, supposes man to be a fallen and ruined creature: it implies that he is in a corrupt state, a servant of sin; and therefore in need of a Redeemer from its guilt and power. It supposes further, that those who are made partakers of the salvation of Christ are regenerate; have become new creatures in him, and lead a new life. But as this great change is not accomplished in an instantaneous manner, but, like the ordinary operations of the Divine power, gradually and by the use of means; so there are different stages of advancement, according to which a Christian may be said to be in an imperfect or a more perfect state. Thus the Apostle, explaining Christian perfection in his Epistle to the Ephesians, compares it to the state of a man who has attained his full maturity of strength. God has given to the several members of his church various gifts, all of which contribute, in their appointed way, "for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ; till they all come, in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." From this statement,