sing his name. Dominion does well in Christ's hands, but not in the hands of mercenaries. He uses it as a shepherd's crook, they as an iron rod over his sheep; where Christ would heal, they wound, sting, bite, and devour the flock, and would totally destroy it, if they were not prevented. Love of pomp naturally follows the love of dominion; all which are as contrary to Christ as Satan; and as opposite to his cause and interest, as infidelity. The spirit, faith, conduct and character of God's real servants are so clearly described in scripture, that it is impossible for a spiritual man to be mistaken; there is, therefore, no possibility of accounting for false faiths, but from the avarice and designs of men of corrupt minds, destitute of the saving knowledge of the truth. False faiths will therefore multiply in proportion as hirelings make merchandize of them and the gospel; fiery zeal accompanies love of lucre, which is the soul of persecution against God's dear servants. These fashionable gold ring men, and popular ring-leaders of this awful day clothe the gospel in the garb of hypocritical imposture, like a diamond on the muzzle of a swine. I appeal to every spiritually enlightened reader, if such characters, are not as deeply sunk in the mire as the most ignorant and brutish; and if they are not convicted by their own spirit, and conduct, of high treason against the just God and Saviour, how many poor bewitched souls are led captive by the devil, in the form and unsuspected appearance of their respective ministers. It is the peculiar privilege of the servant, who is also a son, to believe to the salvation of his own soul;" but may not a man be a servant and not a son; and as a servant of Christ, be qualified with gifts to preach those truths he may be pleased to bless for his own children? This hath been the case; in reference to Balaam, he had the gift of prophecy, and prophesied of glo . If rious things concerning the church of God, which words have been blessed of the Lord at various times: we, likewise, read, that Judas was called to be an apostle, and if an apostle, a minister, and as such, was qualified for the work of the ministry, and, if qualified, was qualified by the Lord; for it is not in the power of any man, or any set of men, or any college or academy, to qualify a man for the ministry of Christ: it is, likewise, said, that" some will say; Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works? and then will he profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity." Matt. vii, 22, 23. If they had the gift of prophesy, Christ must have given them that gift; for "he received gifts for men, even the rebellious also:" Psalm lxviii, 11. they did cast out devils, they did it by the power of Christ; unless it can be proved, they did cast out devils, by Beelzebub, the prince of devils, yet Christ will say to them; " I never knew you;" I never approved of you as my children: they were never regenerated, therefore, lived and died workers of iniquity; unto whom Christ will say, depart. It is my desire that the subject may be seriously considered; for it is a solemn subject, and every one, who professeth to be a minister of Christ's will do well to consider it, namely, the possibility or impossibility of a man, possessing ministerial qualifications, being made useful in the conversion of sinners, and establishing the saints, die in repute, and then go to hell. A solemn circumstance, of this kind, took place some time since in the awful death of a minister who was very popular. The confession he made, previous to his departure, (though he had been preaching and writing about Christ for above twenty years) was, that he knew nothing of him savingly; and that he had been : acting the hypocrite during that time. I will mention another circumstance, equally awful and alarming in an account given by a minister. Being, says he, some years since, in company with a minister, I asked him by what means he was brought to the knowledge of the truth, to which he made a reply with which I was not satisfied with great pain of mind I informed him, that he was under a delusion. He acknowledged the truth of my assertion, and appeared to be seriously affected with a sense of his alarming situation. I felt some pleasure in his frank acknowledgement, and a hope that the Lord would make the conversation useful to this young minister. But my hopes soon vanished, for he contiuued to preach as usual; and, possessing an aptness for talking, he met with general acceptance, and continues to be a popular preacher. I greatly fear, that this is the case with many that are considered popular preachers. Their popularity is from having great gifts, yet without grace, for that would produce an humble, meek, and quiet spirit, and not one puffed up with pride, and self-importance, which God beholds afar off. Such preachers are very conversant with Blair's Rhetoric, Watts' Logic, and Cobbett's Grammar; and their heads are stuffed with authors, but the heart is destitute of grace, which only will lead a minister to aim at God's glory, aud the good of souls. Grace makes a bad man a good man, not gifts; a man may have great gifts and not be a good man, as the case of Judas and Balaam prove; grace is useful to a man's self, gifts are chiefly useful to others; grace makes men fruitful, when gifts leave them barren in the true knowledge of Christ; grace is lasting, when gifts fail, cease, and vanish away; grace will abide the fire of persecution, when gifts will not; grace is sovereign, gifts are not. Every sermon these false shepherds study, they do but draw up a bill of September 1844.] indictment against themselves, and every time they preach, they do but pronounce the sentence of their own condemnation; and woe to such pastors, who set themselves over Christ's sheep, but shall themselves be found, at the last day standing among the goats. At a little distance, a counterfeit may have much better appearance than real coin. It is possible for a wolf in sheep's clothing to excel the real servants of God in outward appearance; but their cloak is so very thin, that, with a little wear, some hole appears, through which their hypocritical deformity is discovered. The visible church abounds with so many impostors that the real servants of the most High God, instead of improving the privilege of communion, seem all to be afraid one of another. A man that does not know God, if he be a preacher, is sure to bury the Lord's simple ones either in legality, outward forms, or speculative notions of the doctrines and experience picked up from Huntington, Hawker, Gill &c. without knowing any thing savingly by the teaching of the Holy Ghost in himself. Many of these pass for popular experimental preachers, but it is evident from their proud and haughty spirit in taking the judgment seat, the only prerogative of God alone, and passing sentence of death eternal upon individuals, because they do not come up to what they call their standard of experience; and many of them, their experience is little more than the devil and dead mens' bones and rotrenness, which is their feast of fat things, more than the glorious person and finished work of Christ received by faith of the operation of God. If you sit under such blind guides, they throw you down, wrap you up in a napkin, like Lazarus in his grave clothes, bind you hand and foot, and throw dirt upon you; whereas the faithful servants, they are exchangers, and know how to trade with the people of God, and thus DD been engaged in the work; and what end they had in view in coming forward in the field; what travail of soul they have had for the welfare of God's children; and whether they have enjoyed the liberty of the gospel, or sensibly feel the pardoning love of God to their souls, by the Spirit's witnessing with their spirits, that they are God's children, both by adoption and birth. If they give not an answer to these questions, agreable to sound doctrine and christian experience, it is because they are destitute of spiritual life; of course they neither know God, nor themselves, but are strangers. John x. 5. Such only bewilder the minds of God's dear children, destroy the peace of the church, and sow discord among brethren. The above-described are always to be found in the garden of nature, springing up like mushrooms in a dewy morning, or like the trees of a pros. perous wood. These grow from a corrupt seed, sown by the corrupt hand of pride, watered by the god of this world, and covered over by the element of darkness, which when grown to perfection, men of corrupt minds are brought forth, and false doctrines of every description, are immediately propagated. They are Achans in the camp, and troublers of God's Israel. "Miserable comforters they gain more ; For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance; but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath." A man may be capable of preaching up all the glorious doctrines of grace contained in the gospel, such as the trinity in unity, the divinity of Christ, covenant transactions, electing love, eternal union, predestination, adoption, justification, complete atonement, imputed righteousness, the new birth, final perseverance of the saints, the destruction that shall come upon the finally impenitent, and the awful consequence of living and dying without hope and without God in the world. And also christian experience made ready from the labours of other men's hands. If this description be really true, may not a real believer in Christ be ready to think he may be deceived by such an impostor, to the dishonour of God, and the distress of his own soul, and, of course he will enquire how he may know such a wolf in sheep's clothing from one sent of God? To this I answer by the rule laid down in 1 John iv. 1. Try the spirits whether they be of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world." If you ask me how such are to be tried? I answer, ask them in plain words, in the sight of God, how he first wrought on their minds, to bring them to a knowledge of themselves as sinners and the way of life and salvation by Christ alone?" They are wizards that peep and Ask them in what manner God first apprehended them; how he found them; where he met them; in what manner he wounded them; by what means he healed them; whether he made them feel their own bondage: and how they came into liberty; what evidence they have had of God's love towards them; what induced them to take upon them the office of a minister; or in what manner were they called to the work of the ministry; what tokens they have had of God's approbation since they have are they all." They are wicked messengers, false witnesses uttering lies, little foxes that spoil the vines." mutter, dumb dogs that cannot bark; greedy dogs, that never have enough, they feed on others, a deceived heart turns them aside. Their tongues mutter perverseness, they neither call for justice nor plead for truth; they trust in vanity and speak lies, they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity, they hatch cockatrice eggs, and weave the spider's web: he that eateth their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper." I make no doubt but a person of good natural parts, may, by dint of study, attain a carnal knowledge of spiritual things, but the apostle will not allow such acquirements to be real knowledge; therefore, he saith, "Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." The eternal Spirit is that blessed agent, which delivers a sinner from a state of spiritual death; this will not be denied by the person translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son, but it cannot be known experimentally, by those whose minds are blinded by the god of this world, and who are led captive by the devil at his will. The Spirit's power displayed in the regeneration of a sinner, forms a great part of the ministerial office; and that preacher cannot be considered a minister of the Spirit, that does not insist on the necessity of the Spirit's power, in order to a proper understanding of the law's spirituality, the infinite evil of sin, or the Mediator's person and work; but many, very many such preachers there are, who, instead of doing the work of an evangelist, casting up the way for the heavy-laden sinner, and speaking a word in season to them that are weary, are doing the devil's work— casting stumbling-blocks in the way of God's people, and sending the freeborn citizens of Zion to Moses's school for instructions in the "new and living way," as though the grace that is in Christ Jesus, received of him by the Spirit, and poured into the heart of a believer, were not sufficient to answer Zion's every purpose. It is manifest to every one blessed with a spiritual understanding of Christ Jesus, that the bulk of religious preachers and professors are utter strangers to the justifying righteousness of Immanuel, as also to the Spirit's marvellous work in the heart; and that though they speak of comfortable frames and illuminations, it is only a vision of falsehood, and not the impressions of the Spirit of grace, for he always leads the happy partaker to cleave with full purpose of heart unto Christ, as his " wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption." This fruit is produced in every regenerated child of God, and is the consequence and proof of his union with Christ the true and living vine; but the barren tree, planted in God's vineyard, or the visible church by mere profession, though he may put forth numerous branches, or make a fair shew in the flesh, his root shall be rottenness, and his blossom shall go up as dust. His leaf shall fade, and that shall be taken away that he seemeth to have." Now he may walk in the light of his own fire, and dance round the idol himself hath set up; may feed on the ashes of human applause, and drink with grediness the sweet but poisonous doctrines of human merit and self-sufficiency, but anon, when God shall make manifest the secrets of all hearts, his covering will be but as a spider's web; with all his profession he will then be found an enemy to Christ, and treated accordingly; namely, the righteous sentence will be passed, and he will be driven into darkness. spiritual minister hath two things to relieve him agninst all his distrustful fears: adoption and particular providence. God is his Father, and such though he may have little or nothing in hand, it is enough that the Father keepeth the purse for him, whose care extendeth to all things and persons, who hath the hearts of all men in his hand, and who worketh all things according to his own will. It is a matter of comfort to those who are in the world, but not of it, and therefore are hated by it, and sick of it, that they shall not be in it always, they shall not be in it long. We must be awhile with those that are pricking briars, and grieving thorns. But thanks be to God, it is but a little while, and we shall be out of their reach. Our days being evil it is well they are few. God's prophets, says one, are glad of A bread and water, while the four hundred trencher prophets of Jezebel feed on dainties; they dwell in dens and caves of the earth whilst these lord it in pleasant groves. Outward prosperity is a false note of truth. It is no new thing for those who are feasted with the dainties of heaven, to be hungry and thirsty, and to want daily food; for those that are at home in God, to be strangers in a strange land; for those that have put on Christ and preach him faithfully, to want clothes to keep them warm; for those that have healthful souls to have sickly bodies, and for those to be in prison that Christ has made free. "All the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and he will direct his path." In temptations, he bears them upon the wings of grace; in a world of snares, he plucks their feet out of the net; when the flesh hangs back, he helps them on by secret sup. plies of his Spirit; when they totter and are ready to fall, he upholds them with his almighty hand; that their persons may not be hurt, he will keep them night and day; that their graces may not decay, he will water them every moment; in their wants, his treasures are at hand to supply them; in their afflictions, he himself is afflicted as taking them to his heart; in fainting fits, he hath rich cordials for them; in the midst of encompassing infirmities, he spares them as a man spares his own son that serves him; their groans he hears, their sighs he regards, their tears he bottles, their cries he will attend unto, and their persons he will deliver, and they shall glorify him. Oh, my fellow labourer, in the gospel of Christ; the more eminent thy graces are, the more need hast thou to pray to be kept humble; for the tallest cedars had need have the deepest roots, for they are more exposed unto the winds, storms, and tempests of temptations, than those which appear as mean shrubs and drooping plants; those that do not truly love Christ, will never truly love the souls of men, nor will such care for their state and condition, nor will that minister love his work, that doth not love Christ. Nothing but the love of Christ will constrain ministers to go cheerfully through the difficulties and discouragements they meet with in the work. 2 Cor. v. 13, 14. The faithful preachers of the truths of God, says one, though they behave themselves with ever so much prudence and meekness, yet must expect to be hated and persecuted by those who feel themselves tormented by their testimony. Rev. xi. 10. God has wicked men in a chain, and what mischief soever they would yet they can do no more than God will suffer them to do. The malice of persecutors is impotent, even when it is most impetuous; and when Satan fills their hearts, God ties their hands. God's servants are sometimes wonderfully protected by undiscernable, unaccountable means. Their enemies do not do the mischief they designed, and yet neither they themselves nor any one else can tell why they do not. do; Christ had his hour set which was to put a period to his day and work on earth, and so have all his ministers; and until that hour comes, the attempts of their enemies against them are ineffectual; and their day shall be lengthened as long as their Master and Lord has any work for them to do; nor can all the powers of earth and hell prevail against them, until they have finished their testimony. Hallelujah. A poor itinerant-start not at the sound!— Despised and unattended journies he; care, |