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plain, upright, and sincere in all their dealings; it would make them good friends, good subjects, honest men, and worthy to be trusted in any relation.

Therefore when a suitable practice accompanies its profession (which ought to be well looked after) the mystery must indeed be highly conducive to the first object of every wise government, as tending to the prosperity of that general, sure, and interminable union of which such government is a constituent part by the order of divine Providence. So that a Christian, or a professor of the mystery, to be a bad subject, or bad in any relation, must be at the same time a great hypocrite. For a man cannot address himself sincerely to the Author of that profession or mystery, saying, "Thy kingdom come" (Mat. vi. 10), who retains in his heart any principle that is repugnant to good order, and the best interests of society. And this mystery, while it upholds the dignity, and as one should say, the sanctity of government, will appear to be also admirably calculated by its constant preference for the lower orders of society, or the outcasts of Israel (Ps. cxlvii. 2), as the Psalmist calls them, to improve the worth of the subject, with which its honour is identified, and to preserve a rational liberty and equality among them; that is to say, such an equality as does not admit of one half of the human species being like brutes and wild beasts to the other: but that every man does as he would be done by, the lowest should have the importance of men, and be looked on as such by the highest.

For benevolence is the essential spirit of this divine institution; benevolence breathes in every property and particular thereof: it pervades the whole subject, and gives to it that simplicity of purpose, that uniformity of character, that were a man desired to say in one word, what is the Christian institution, or the mystery of the Kingdom of God in Christ? he might say, It is love or benevolence: as if asked again, What is love? he might say, "God is love" (John I. iv. 8). The mystery is there

fore divine, being one with God. Its spirituality, truth, wisdom, benignity, and other celestial properties all emanate from that source; and all the natural effects of the mystery directly tend to prove it: they all directly tend at once to prove its divinity, and to make it an institution not only becoming the excellence of its Author, and intitled to our highest veneration, but a blessing to creatures of every degree, from angels in heaven and saints upon earth, to novices who are but just emerging from the abyss of human imperfection and ignorance.

For this mystery is not a concern of private individuals merely, nor only of public characters of any degree, nor of men only, nor of angels, but of God himself with angels and men, whether public or private; the same being all equally related to it, though in different ways. If, e. g., we have the happiness to partake of this divine institution in any measure, we are related to the same as depositaries; and to beings far above ourselves, as partakers of the mystery with them and bearing the same relation to the mystery as they. And if we have the further honour and happiness of communicating this, or any other "good and perfect gift" to our fellow men, we may then be deemed to be joined in the same relation with their first bestower, though in an inferior degree, and as children of our father which is in heaven (Mat. v. 45). "For every good and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning" (James i. 17).

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To be placed in a relation with the Supreme Being, though in ever so humble and inferior a degree, and if it be but in part too is most flattering to human nature; it is truly a crowning of the same "with glory and worship' (Ps. viii. 5). It can be but in part that a man or any other being can enjoy this relation, for among the higher relations of the mystery He stands alone. He is its only Author: in this relation He has neither partner nor peer. There may be workers in the mystery together with God,

though "it is the same God which worketh all in all" (Cor. I. xii. 6.): but there cannot be joint authors with Him; notwithstanding some would flatter themselves that their inventions deserve to be ranked with his, and others would even go the length of preferring their own creation to God's, substituting some idle offspring of their own brain perhaps for his most glorious mystery. Some perhaps have no objection to the mystery with a few of their improvements: while others, not content with this, must also daub God's workmanship with their untempered mortar (Ezek. xiii. 10); and, with others, nothing less than a thorough reformation will make it tolerable. Whereas, if the mystery admitted of any improvement or reformation, it is not likely that its Divine Author would leave this part to any human operation. For he says, “ I am the Lord: that is my name; and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images. Behold the former things are come to pass; and new things do I declare " (Isai. xlii. 8, 9). The most that God has done himself in the way of reformation has been to keep the richest part of the mystery as it were in reserve for ages; until the fulness of the time was come which St. Paul speaks of; when "God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons" (Gal. iv. 4, 5).

The new part or dispensation which was brought forward on that occasion, may be called a reformation or improvement on the old; but was in effect more like a regular expansion, as we observe in the bursting of some long expected flower in its season, by which the glorious elaboration of the same is maturely disclosed. The ministers employed under this dispensation are engaged by its Author "as workers together with him" (Cor. II. vi. 1); being conservators, guardians, and dispensers of the Mystery—and nothing more, it might be observed; if the title of stewards given to them by the Holy Ghost did not

preclude the parties from every shadow of an equality or partnership with God in this important concern. For they are not intitled lords or masters, lessees or inheritors, much less Princes of the covenant (Dan. xi. 22), but literally Stewards; and that in different passages of the New Testament, as e. g., first by our Saviour (Luke xii. 42); next by St. Paul (Cor. I. iv. 1; Tit. i. 7), and also by St. Peter (Pet. I. iv. 10). But this, and the forementioned terms as well, are all terms that any one may be proud to deserve, and worth aspiring after; as they clearly imply a rate of dignity that is not natural to men, they being only objects or pupils of the Mystery, before they come to be first adepts therein, and next ministers and stewards, or dispensers of the same. But if any will be always hearing of this institution, and never practising it, like men beholding their natural faces in a glass (Jam. i. 23): or if they are content to be governed or otherwise benefited by the Mystery, through its stewards or dispensers, without carrying forward the obligation they receive to the benefit of others; if, in short, they are always to be taught in the Word, and never to teach; always to be governed by it like children, and never to govern by it so much as their own households; or to receive the blessing of it daily from above as their daily bread, without diffusing or endeavouring to diffuse the same around them-then are they not related to the Mystery in any perfect degree, but as very underlings, or like apprentices; and no great proficients either, seeing it requires one part as well as the other. "Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap" (Gal.vi.7): "he which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully" (Cor. II. ix. 6). If a man will devote his means, gifts and resources heartily and judiciously to any good mystery, and is only blessed at the same time with tolerably fair opportunities, he can hardly fail of deriving from it all the good that he proposes to himself: but if he will not strive for that good, that good will not come to him.

And with respect to the evidence of these assumptions; if it be asked on what grounds, or on what authority any one ventures to regard and assert the Mystery of the Kingdom of God in Christ as so beneficial a concern, and a source of so many first rate advantages?-(for it is a very likely thing to stagger the venal multitude, is the idea of a mystery or calling, the profits of which are as real as invisible, and may not be computed by any sterling medium)—and how may the Mystery be known to deserve these encomiums?—the answer is obvious, try it. For the thing is self-evident: a perfect system can need neither proof nor comment, as it proves and explains itself. Only try it, therefore, and see, if you do not find in its present return an earnest of future recompence.

For there is such a part as trying the Mystery, also as accepting, feeling and approving; too often likewise as forgetting and foregoing the same after it has been learned and accepted: and, worst of all, there is such a part too as retaining the Mystery, or its profession at least, only to make a wrong use of it. It is not for one man to judge another in this respect, or what may be any one's motive for accepting and professing the Mystery, or what passes for such with him; whether it may be fashion or credulity, or the love of wonders on one hand; or a divine impression, force of truth, irresistible conviction on the otherthey only who feel and are governed by any of these motives can tell; and not they either sometimes. But it may be fairly surmised, that both the motives and their followers or entertainers are agreeable to the objects of their choice: where righteousness and truth are the objects, it is not to be doubted that God and his Holy Spirit are the movers, and the followers-children of God." For (says the Apostle) as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God" (Rom. viii. 14). But where, on the other hand, folly and impiety are the objects of such choice, its motive must be either the world, or he who rules the fashion of the world-" the prince of the power of the air,

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