under our feet fhortly, and not fuffer us to be tempted above what we are able to bear, and mayeft, with the temptation, make a way of escape. What afflictions, by the death of one another, or otherwise, are appointed for us, we commit to thee as our God, afflicted in all our afflictions, that thou mayeft regulate them as to time, manner, measure, and instruments, and mayest fupport under, fanctify, and fweeten the fame. What pleasure and comfort we may have in our married lot, that thou mayeft render it a means of our tasting the goodness that is in thyfelf, and of lifting our heart to thee as our exceeding joy. What children thou mayest lend unto us we devote as an heritage to thee, our God, and the God of our feed, that, even in their earliest period, thou mayeft blefs them with all spiritual bleffings in Chrift Jefus. What fubftance thou haft, or mayeft hereafter give us, we devote to thee, to be preserved and difpofed to thy glory and our fpiritual advantage.

This folemn profeffion and deed of accepting thy everlasting covenant, well ordered in all things and fure, as all our falvation and all our defire, we, through thy grace, heartily, cheerfully make and fubfcribe, as we fhall answer at the last judgment, before these witneffes, our own confciences, one another, before the elect angels, but chiefly before the FATHER, SON, and HOLY GHOST, as God, even our God; and hereby confent to, and crave the divine registration of it in the records of infinite mercy and of a Saviour's heart above, and the records of our own confcience below,-- If we, or any other man, love not this Lord Jefus, and this God reconciled

in

in him, let him be ANATHEMA MARANATHA. And, fenfible of our own weakness and treachery, and of the manifold fnares that furround us, we commit this folemn vow to thee as our God-keeping covenant and mercy, that thou mayeft accept and for ever establish ́the fame.

A. M.

K. B.

TWO

ON

GOSPEL PREACHING,

AND ON

THE EXEMPLARY BEHAVIOUR OF MINISTERS,

Br JOHN BROW N,
Late Minister of the Gofpel, Haddington.

ORIGINALLY COMPOSED FOR THE USE OF HIS STUDENTS.

SIR,

LETTER I.

On Preaching the Gospel.

LET me here touch the principal point. A preacher's . elocution may be charming, his action perfectly regular, his language elegant, his method exact, and his matter fcarce chargeable with error; and yet he may not truly preach the gospel of Christ. The Christian religion is the religion of SINFUL men. If the preacher's difcourfe be not therefore adapted to render finful men truly religious, to what purpose doth it ferve but miflead and impofe on his hearers. I could point out many fermons which might have done pretty well had they been preached and published to inen that were in no wife polluted or guilty before God,-men that had no evil heart of unbelief, no hard and ftony heart, deceitful above all things and defperately wicked,-men that were

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not, nor had been under the law, which is the strength of fin,-men that had little or no need of Chrift as a juftifying or quickening head, or of his fpirit of grace, fupplication, and comfort. But, alas! to us, finful men, these and their preachers are forgers of lies, and physicians of no value. They falfely represent our cafe, and prescribe remedies which are altogether improper.

The divine Jefus, who knows human nature infinitely better than any modern preacher can pretend, commanded his apoftles to preach the GOSPEL or glad tidings to every creature, every finful man. In this manner an angel preached, that to Anful men was born a Saviour, Chrift the Lord. The apoftle of the gentiles determined neither to know nor make known any thing among his hearers, fave Jefus Chrift and him crucified. He declares the faithful faying worthy of all acceptation to be, That Chrift Jefus came into the world to fave finners, even the chief.

He repeatedly curfeth, to everlasting damnation, the man who should dare to preach another gospel than that of the tidings and offers of a free and full falvation. through the imputed righteoufhefs of Chrift. The other inspired apoftles, filled with the Holy Ghost, preached it on this wife, That God, having raifed up his Son Jefus Chrift, fent him to blefs his betrayers and murderers, in turning them from their iniquities, giving them repentance and forgiveness of fins. Not only an apostle, but the fixfold witness of heaven and earth affures us, that this is the record that God hath given to us finful men, eternal life, and this life is in his Son; and that he who believeth not this record hath made God a liar.

Thefe, and many fuch things in the oracles of God, plainly manifeft that, if divine truths be not exhibited in their true connection with Jehovah's free, fovereign, redeeming grace, and with Jefus Chrift's perfon and righteoufnefs as their grand centre, the fermon is but an ignorant or wicked attempt to pervert the gospel of Christ.

Nothing is more common, eafy, or agreeable to corrupt nature, than to preach a multitude of the precious truths of God in a broken and disjointed manner, without ever preaching the gofpel of Christ. If a preacher defcant upon the perfections of God, but do not reprefent him, as in Christ, well appeased for his righteoufnefs fake, and reconciling the world to himself in giving them his Son as their all-fufficient Saviour, and himself, in him, as their God, merciful and gracious, abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thoufands, forgiving iniquity, tranfgreffion, and fin, there is no gofpel, no glad-tidings without this. I, a finner, can only confider his fplendid harangue, upon uncreated and unbounded excellencies, as a tormenting celebration of that which I cannot enjoy, nay, as a celebration of my most high, most powerful, and inveterate enemy; and so it cannot fail to work wrath in my heart against him. How cruel for a preacher to entertain me, a sINNER, with his defcants upon the glories of heaven, if it be not reprefented as a better country, to which Jefus, the Saviour from fins, is the fole, the new, the living, the free, the open way,-as a poffeffion purchafed by his blood, and given in his gracious promife to finful men,—and as a happiness which confifts in the everlast