1

whose genius pours new light over every topic that engages his notice.

3. A third, and a most favourable characteristic of the present times, is the improved state of preaching, and the more abundant supply of the public means of grace. The preaching of the gospel has been appointed and acknowledged by God as the grand instrument of converting sinners and saving souls: the doctrine of Christ crucified (however it may be regarded by the disputers of this world) has been proved, in every age, to be "the power of God to the salvation of every one that believes;" to be the weakness of God, which is stronger than men; the foolishness of God, which is wiser than men. During the latter part of the last century, and down to the present time, there has been a manifest increase and improvement of Christian instruction. Evangelical truth has been administered in a purity and abundance to which preceding ages bear no proportion. And here, in justice to the established clergy of the realm, I cannot but remark the great advance in piety and diligence which they have exhibited during the last half-century. They have gone forth in numbers, rekindling the lamp of heavenly truth where before it had burned with a dim and sickly ray; they have explored and cultivated many a neglected spot, into which other labourers could not (for obvious reasons) gain admission with equal facilities of influence; and far be it from any of their dissenting brethren to regard their success with any other than a godly jealousy, a holy emulation!

Turning from our own country to heathen lands, we behold yet more striking indications of an improving age. The present is the very era of missions: all the various denominations of Christians, as with one great simultaneous impulse, have started up from their long slumber of missionary inaction, awakened on a sudden to the magnitude and obligation of this neglected enterprise. There seems to be a universal feeling among Christians that the time is come for fulfilling our Saviour's last command, going forth into all the world, and teaching all the nations; and that, if we should any longer hold our peace, the very stones in our streets would cry out against us! The Spirit of Christ no longer contains itself within its accustomed bounds; it breaks forth from its undue confinement, and spreads its influence in every direction. No part of the earth so remote, so forsaken, that has not begun to be invaded, that is not at least proposed to be attempted by some of those devoted champions who have gone forth in the peaceful warfare of the gospel. Nor are the symptoms of preparation less favourable among the heathen themselves: a general spirit of readiness appears to be presented in the islands of the Pacific, in the districts of the Cape, of India, and America. Every thing seems to announce that though the labourers are as yet but few, the fields are already white for the approaching harvest.

4. The advancement of the Bible as the great and only standard of Christian faith and practice is a fourth remarkable feature of our times. The Scriptures have always been professedly received as the highest authority among Christians; but never was that authority so publicly and completely recognised as in the present age. The Church of

Rome early impaired, and at length almost entirely abolished, the authority of the sacred volume, by her multiplied additions to its contents, as well as by her extreme ignorance of its genuine instructions. Her priests were exalted from humble ministers of the Word into arbitrary legislators: for he that has the power of annexing to the law whatever interpretation he may please is not an administrator of the law, but a tyrant. As an instance of the disuse and oblivion into which the Scriptures had fallen among the Romish clergy, it is related of the celebrated missionary Xavier, that having met with a copy of part of the New Testament before his going out to India, he resolved to take it with him, as he thought it might be of use in his missionary labours. What a change in the state of the Christian world, with regard to the estimation in which the Scriptures are held, has taken place since the days of Xavier! That eminent person-who possessed, one would hope, amid all his errors, some real piety-thought he might as well take part of the New Testament with him when he went as a missionary to India; he conceived it might possibly be of some use! The Bible is now carried abroad in the front of the ministry; and the missionary preachers aim, as much as possible, to lose themselves in the effulgence of its heavenly light. It is a remarkable fact, that the most devoted, the most successful advocate, beyond comparison with any other, which the Bible Society has yet found, is himself a priest of the Romish church; a man who presents the extraordinary phenomenon of a popish clergyman protesting, in the very bosom of his church, against her iniquities; and declaring his determination to persevere, in spite of the devil and the prophetic beast, in diffusing those Scriptures, of which he has already circulated several hundred thousand copies.

Such exertions, it is reasonable to believe, will prove instrumental to the purifying of Christendom from papal corruptions at no very remote period. In the event of a persecution among the Romish clergy being occasioned by such exertions, a secession, similar to that of the Protestant reformers, might probably once more take place within their own body. God grant that such may be the issue! Would to God that the apocalyptic warning might be heard and obeyed by multitudes of that corrupted hierarchy, which owes the perpetuation of its influence to the suppression of the Scriptures; "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and receive not of her plagues!" Never before was there such a universal consent among Christians as to the supremacy and sufficiency of the Bible in all religious questions: never before was the maxim of Chillingworth so practically acknowledged, that "The Bible, the Bible alone is the religion of Protestants." In all disputed points, it is now agreed that we should appeal solely to "the law and the testimony;" and, where these are silent, that we should imitate their silence.

5. As a fifth "sign of the times," may be mentioned that increasing harmony which prevails among the genuine disciples of Jesus Christ. At last the central principle of union begins to be extensively felt and acknowledged: amid all the diversities of external discipline or subordinate opinion, the seed of God, the principle of spiritual and im

Leander Van Ess.

mortal life implanted in the soul, is recognised by the sincere followers of the Lamb as the transcendent point of mutual attraction in the midst of minor differences. Even Protestants and Catholics, influenced by a kindred piety, can now cordially embrace each other; as in the case of that zealous professor of the Romish church to whom I before referred, who corresponds in terms of cordial affection with the Protestant secretary of the Bible Society for its foreign department. The essential spirit of religion begins to assert its ascendency over all besides. The most enlightened, the selectest Christians in every denomination are ready to cultivate an intercourse with kindred spirits, with all who hold the same essential principles, in any other. Formerly, such an intercourse was rarely indulged, and accompanied with reserves and apprehensions: good men looked more at their distinctions than their resemblances, at points of repulsion than those of attraction. Now the case is altered; and it may be truly said that, in this respect, the former things are passed away. Now, the saying of our common Master has received a fulfilment almost unknown before: "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, even by the love ye bear to each other."

The reason why Christians have been so tardy in arriving at a disposition so much to be desired, is principally to be found in those exaggerated notions of the importance of church government under some particular form, which so long swayed the minds of excellent men: the difference of outward garb concealed the unity of the spirit which inwardly animated their hearts alike. In the seminal principles of their religion, in their equal dependence on an incarnate Redeemer and a sanctifying Spirit, they have now discovered a centre of attraction,-a common chord to which all their hearts vibrate in unison: and thus, without the smallest sacrifice of their respective sentiments or practices, they can indulge the most entire affection, and exert the most zealous co-operation. Can it be supposed that such an improvement will not silence the old sarcasm of infidels, derived from the prevailing dissensions of those who professed themselves the disciples of one Master? Can it be questioned whether the Christian army, thus closely imbodied, will prosecute with redoubled vigour their warfare against the powers of darkness? If the kingdom of Satan, when not divided against itself, is able to stand, can we doubt that the family of Jesus Christ, no longer disunited, will prosper in its consentaneous exertions? Besides which, the unanimity of Christians is at once an indication and a presage of the Holy Spirit's more copious effusion on the church; at once an effect and an earnest of the love of Christ to his followers; while it affords a delightful emblem and foretaste of that perfect state in which all are for ever united in harmony and affection.

6. In the last place, I cannot but number, among the prognostics of the destined triumph of Christianity, that extension of civil and religious liberty by which the present times are distinguished. In this view, I cannot but cordially rejoice in the political revolutions which have recently taken place in Spain, Portugal, and Naples. Nothing could be imagined more unfavourable to the cause of religion than the

prior condition of those kingdoms, in which a despotic tyranny prevailed alike in the church and the state. Such revolutionary commotions among the nations must be still expected, until the arrival of that happy period when liberty, civil and religious, shall be universally established.

The enjoyment of civil liberty is essential to the development and exertion of the best and noblest energies of the human mind. Deprived of this, nothing truly great can flourish in the moral world. There exists, indeed, an indissoluble connexion between the civil and the religious freedom of a nation; and, whatever may be thought of other considerations, every friend to the prosperity of religion must rejoice in the advancement of that liberal and enlightened policy under which alone it is favoured and fostered. It is only under a free representative government that this can be the case. Never did religious liberty flourish in the chilling, deadly atmosphere of despotism: it can open and spread only in the sunshine of political freedom. As the greater includes the less, the civil implies also the religious liberty of a state. Religion grows and blooms among the highest and most palmy branches of the tree of liberty, and ripens in luxuriance among its topmost boughs. This is the natural, established order of things in the present world: and, let it be remembered, we are not entitled to expect any miracles, properly so called, to facilitate the coming of our Saviour's kingdom. In the whole course of missionary enterprise there has not been a single check upon the accustomed laws of providence, not one interruption of the connexion which subsists between primary and secondary causes, not one deviation from the ancient course of nature. It is by a favourable arrangement of political circumstances that religion is most likely to be advanced; by the establishment of that genuine and legitimate freedom, which is equally removed from the extremes of anarchy on the one side, and tyranny on the other. It is this that seems to be the precise temperature, the genial climate of religion: and doubtless God will prepare his own way in this as in every other respect every valley shall be exalted, every mountain and hill brought low; the crooked rendered straight, the rough places plain; and all flesh shall see the glory of the Lord; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

Had

In glancing at the different institutions which have arisen in these later times for the moral and spiritual benefit of mankind, it is pleasing and striking to observe how exactly they have fitted in, and, as it were, dove-tailed with each other. First appeared the missionaries, as pioneers to break up the ground and open the way; then the Bible Society followed; and, at last, the system of education completed the design. Each arose, in its order, to sustain and aid the others. any one of these existed alone, it would have proved inefficient for want of the rest. As it is, the finger of Providence is discernible in the very succession in which these institutions made their appearance; while, in their union and co-operation, they constitute an apparatus completely adapted to promote the Christian renovation of the world: regarded in the order of means, the teachers, the lesson, and the power of reading it, appear well adapted to make the man of God perfect in

every good word and work. We speak, you will observe, of external instrumental preparations: there is still needed, as you are aware, another and a higher preparation of the heart in man; á spirit within us which must be imparted from above. The machinery is provided, but the Spirit alone can move the wheels.

With respect to the institution for which I have the honour to be an humble advocate on this occasion, if there be any force in the preceding remarks, few words are necessary to recommend it to your patronage. As you would live in a land of Bibles and readers of the Bible, in a nation dignified as a seminary of religious instruction; as you would desire, when called to quit the present stage of being, to leave your children in a nation of Christians; it becomes you, more especially in a season of public alarm, to support an institution which justly assumes the name of national. If the man who rescues from barrenness a neglected portion of the country, and spreads over its face fertility and beauty, deserves and obtains our praise, shall that society solicit our support in vain which rescues from all the evils of ignorance multitudes of those in the humbler walks of life, who might otherwise perish for lack of knowledge; while it opens their understandings, at least in a degree, to understand the Scriptures of eternal truth and life? It is impossible to doubt that such an institution is one of the great means which the Divine Being employs for the accomplishment of his own great end. He does not christianize the world by magic: we are not to expect religion to descend from heaven, or to rise upon the earth like a beautiful vision! It will indeed descend from heaven, and arise upon the earth; but this will be by regular, appointed, adapted means; by means such as those which are now set at work, and require our continued assistance: means which afford an omen of the desired success; since we cannot conceive why all this energy should have been impressed on the minds of men, if not for the providential accomplishment of one grand result-the transformation of the kingdoms of this world into the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ.

XII.

THE LOVE OF LIFE.*

JOB ii. 4.-And Satan answered the Lord, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.

[PREACHED AT BRISTOL, FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE BAPTIST MISSIONS, Nov. 1820.]

THOUGH these words were uttered by the father of lies, they are no lie. The truth of a communication does not always depend on the character of those who convey it.

* Printed from the notes of the Rev. Thomas Grinfield.