are taught, that the ministers of religion are to labour in their parishes, with all the energies and faculties God has given them, to promote the spiritual improvement of their people, to set forth God's true and lively word, both by their preaching and living; to remind their congregations of the high privileges of Christians, as children of God, and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven, and to urge them to a corresponding life; to feel an anxious concern for all, and to endeavour "to bring all such as are, or shall be committed to their charge unto that agreement in the faith and knowledge of God, and to that ripeness and perfectness of age in Christ, that there be no place left among them, either for error in religion, or for viciousness in life." (D)

Without doubt the conversion of sinners, and the edification of saints, is the work of God's own sovereign power: no minister is sufficient for this; "I have planted," saith Paul, "Apollos watered, but God gave the increase." Nevertheless we, the ministers of religion, who are dust, earth, and ashes, no less than you, and men of like passions with you, are workers together with God, are instruments in God's hands, to instruct, edify, and comfort his faithful and obedient people, and to bring obdurate

sinners from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God: and it is our duty to build up believers in their most holy faith, and to instruct them more and more in the mystery of salvation, and the riches of God's grace, that they may grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; and to strive in every possible way to turn and draw the careless, and impenitent, and unbelieving from their evil and dangerous courses; that no soul may be lost through our neglect, and that God's name may be glorified through us.

But that I may shew more clearly and fully the purpose of the Lord in sending me to this Parish, I will exhibit it to you in another point of view, which I hope will not fail to be deeply impressed upon your minds.

"And now, behold," saith the Apostle in my text, "I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more. Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood For I have not shunned to de

of all men.

clare unto you all the counsel of God."

As God is one, and his will and word one, so ought the Gospel to be one, wheresoever and by whomsoever it is preached; and so it always was, and is, when separated from all human

mixtures and additions. The preachers and expounders of God's word should at all times. be careful not to put a meaning on the words of Scripture which the Holy Ghost did not intend ; especially so should I be now, when I am addressing my congregation for the last time, and shall have no opportunity to recal what I say.

At this time, therefore, I desire to express my conviction, that the Gospel, which I was ordained and sent to preach, is the Gospel of the kingdom, (or, as the word gospel means good news:) good news of the future glorious kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who having come once in great humility, and was contented to be betrayed, and given up into the hands of wicked men, to be crucified and slain; shall come again in glory and majesty, and shall openly resume his place and dignity, as Sovereign Lord of angels and men; which, at his first advent, he voluntarily laid aside, and made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and did humble himself even to the death upon the cross for us miserable sinners, who lay in darkness and the shadow of death, that he might make us the children of God, and exalt us to everlasting life.

The Scriptures of truth bear one uniform,

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harmonious, and consistent testimony to the great event, or period, which is here by Paul called the kingdom of God; which is also called in Scripture the "kingdom of Christ and of God;"*" and the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."+

In Genesis are two remarkable passages, which, if we compare them with other passages of Scripture, to which I shall presently direct your attention, can, I think, be regarded in no other light than as bearing testimony to the coming in our nature of the only begotten Son of God, to subdue all things to himself; to deliver the creation from the curse and bondage under which it groans; and to establish a kingdom of blessedness and peace, which shall extend over the whole world, and completely repair the mischief, and ruin, and multiplied evils of which Adam's transgression was the cause.

The first passage is in Gen. iii., where God, immediately after the fall of Adam through the subtilty of the serpent, declares, that the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head: which seed of the woman, we know, is God's own Son, who was manifested to destroy the works of the devil, and by whom the devil shall hereafter be bound, and chained, that he

may not go about to tempt and deceive men to their ruin. The other passage is in Gen. xii. where God, having called Abraham out of his country, and taken him from his father's house, promises that he will give him the land of Canaan, and make of him a great nation, and make his name great; and that all the families of the earth shall be blessed in him; which, we know from the Apostle Paul, is a promise of Christ; to be the Saviour and Prince of the nation, which was to spring from Abraham, and to reign over them in Mount Zion; that from thence his kingdom should extend over the world, and be a blessing to all the families of the earth.

Let us now mark well the following Scriptures, which are express testimonies to the future glorious coming and kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

The first direct testimony, which I shall bring from Scripture, to the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour, is in Psalm ii. "Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son: this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.