heavenly enjoyment; let us now consider him as characterized by his possessions, "receiving the end of his faith, the salvation of his soul."

A believer's love to Christ is not a future, but a present principle: a believer's joy in Christ is not a future but a present blessing; and we may therefore reasonably conclude, that a believer's possession in Christ is not a future but a present salvation. The Scriptures, accordingly, represent the believer as actually invested with all the rights, and privileges, and possessions of heaven. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Our Saviour does not say, theirs will be, but theirs is, the kingdom; and Paul, treating of the grace of God by Jesus Christ, declares, that in Him believers "have redemption through his blood." He does not say, they may have it; he does not say, they will have it; but he declares they already have the gift of a free forgiveness, and a complete redemption.

That the salvation of the gospel is a present possession, made over of God into the hand of faith, will be more clearly evident, if we examine the subject, not in combination, but in detail. Accordingly, we would first observe, that the believer receives a present salvation in its principle. By Peter, believers are described as "born again; not of corruptible, but of incorruptible seed, by the word of God that liveth and abideth for ever." The principle of faith, the power of regeneration, the spirit of adoption, are an incorruptible seed. If the hand of the sower cast into the fertile field the seed of an earthly plant, and the rain falls, and the dews descend, and the sun shines; the seed buds, and grows, and blossoms, and ripens to the harvest. But take that same fertile field, and let the seed be sown, and let the ground be blasted by the winds, and scorched by the sun; or let the seed, unfitted for the waters, be long overwhelmed by the floods: the vital principle is destroyed, and no harvest ripens; and that, not because the soil was neglected, or the seed unsown, but because, in its nature, the seed was corruptible. And so might it be with the believer, were the seed of salvation a corruptible seed. It might bud, and blossom, in all the loveliness of Paradise, and wave and bend in the winds of heaven under all the weight of its fruitfulness; but, exposed to the uncertainties and severities of this blighting and earthly climate, its fruit might fall unripened, its branches be withered, and its root destroyed. But it is not so with the believer. The sower is the Spirit, the seed is the everliving Word, and the heart that receives it in the evidence of faith and the power of love, receives a salvation incorruptible in the fruits, because incorruptible in the seed, and enjoys a

present salvation, because he possesses a principle of salvation that can never be destroyed.

Again, we would observe, that the believer receives a present salvation in the evidence of it to his own soul. John, in his first epistle, declares that "whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God." The believer, therefore, has the evidence of his regeneration and adoption in the fact of his believing in Christ. Again, he declares, "he that hath the Son, hath the witness in himself." He that hath the Son of God in faith and love, has, included in himself, all the witness in his favour that earth and heaven can give. He has received the Son of God by faith and love; but in receiving the Son, he hath received the Witness of the Father, speaking from heaven, and saying, "This is my beloved Son, hear ye him ;" "my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased:" and in receiving the Witness of the Father, he receives the Witness of the Holy Ghost, who from heaven descended upon him visibly, and singled him out from the multitude as the Son of God. Thus the believer, by the act of receiving the Son, receives into his heart the evidence of all the heavenly witnesses. Now, this combined evidence of Father, Son, and Spirit, producing all the blessed fruits of such heavenly seed, do establish in the believer's soul a present salvation, by exhibiting and confirming to him the certainty of pardon, life, and glory. Thus, "the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God; and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ."

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Further we would observe, the believer possesses a present salvation in the enjoyment of it. "Being justified by faith," saith Paul, we have peace with God." "We have peace with God!" And is not peace with God a present salvation? Now Paul does not say, believers may have, or, believers will have; but he plainly affirms, believers now have peace with God.

Finally, we would observe, the believer possesses a present salvation in the power of it. Peter characterizes believers as being kept by the power of God, through faith unto salvation." Now, what is the power of God? The power of God is Almighty power, adequate to the accomplishment of all wise and holy purposes, and unconquerable by enemies, however malignant or numerous. This power of God, as an attribute of his nature, is not a mere abstract description of a quality, but is, like all other his attributes, of the very essence of God. The power of God, then, by which the believer is kept, is God himself, in the act of removing every obstruction, and energizing every agency, and effecting every design included in the believer's salvation. Held within the grasp of

Almighty power, the believer is safe, for " no one can pluck him from the Father's hand;" actuated by the impulse of Almighty power, the believer is successful, and "can do all things through Christ strengthening him." And though enemies besiege him from without, and though the deceitful heart would betray him from within, the believer enjoys a present salvation, the earnest of his future glory, being "kept by the power of God," "who is able to keep him from falling, and present him faultless before the presence of his glory, with exceeding great joy."

Hence, let us for the present learn, the measure of a Christian's duty, and the origin of a Christian's zeal, in the work of evangelizing the world. He has received a gift of incalculable value: God has bestowed upon him his own Son, and with that Son he has freely given him all things. The Christian has pardon sealed in his Saviour's blood; he has heirship in glory, by virtue of his union with the Lord; he has the presence of God, by his Holy Spirit dwelling within him, and sealing him for the kingdom. The mercy of God to his perishing soul has kindled within his cold heart a fire of unextinguishable love; the triumph of his Redeemer over Satan, and sin, and death, and hell, has awakened within his bosom an emotion of unutterable joy; he is happy-he is blessed; and just in proportion as he feels that blessedness, must be the desire and effort of his soul to bring a world that lies in wickedness, and therefore lies in misery, from the darkness of that wickedness, and the suffering of that misery, into the light of his own faith, and the enjoyment of his own blessedness.

SERMON III.

THE COMMAND AND ENCOURAGEMENT TO COMMUNICATE THE GOSPEL.

Preached before the LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY, at Craven Chapel, May 12, 1831.

BY WILLIAM ELLIS.

SIXTEEN years have nearly passed away, since, in the earthly sanctuary in which the esteemed brother who now ministers within these walls then dispensed the word of life, he who stands before you received the benedictions and the prayers of holy men, at his solemn designation to the missionary work. Little did the parties engaged in the transactions of that day, some of whom are with us now, anticipate meeting under present circumstances; but He, whose thoughts are not as our thoughts, at whose bidding, and with whose presence, I trust I went forth, having brought, and still detained me here, has not withheld the privilege of labouring in that cause for which we are now convened. Fathers and brethren in the ministry of the gospel, sustain me by your prayers, while, for the furtherance of this object, in dependence on Divine support, I attempt to direct your attention to

ISAIAH Vi. 1–9.—In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man

of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: and he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? then said I, Here am I; send me. And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.

It is not my desire to rush into the sublime mysteries these words disclose, with presumptuous daring, or vain self-sufficiency, but to approach them with emotions which the subject and the scene are adapted to inspire, and with earnest prayer that He, whose glory they reveal, may, with His milder presence, fill this temple, and that the Holy Spirit, who by the prophet's mouth then spake, may now, with celestial fire from the altar before the throne, touch the lip, and touch the soul of him who speaks, and touch the ear, and touch the heart of all who hear, as we approach a theme so incomprehensively glorious, and attempt to trace, in some feeble degree, the union of its awful grandeur and reality with the proclamation of the gospel to mankind.

This sacred cause has been robbed of the eminence God has given it in his word, and He, whose glory it exists but to promote, has been dishonoured by the manner in which it has been regarded, not only by the infidel and the profane, but by many who bear the name of Christ.

By some it has been viewed with a degree of sentimentalism, or an air of romance, better suited to historic fictions than the gravest verities the universe ever witnessed, or in which the interests of our species ever were involved. A degree of enthusiasm in this cause is indeed inseparable from spiritual health; but true enthusiasm, instead of constituting all that is missionary in the character in which it is cherished, only gives an impetus to the pursuit of that which, in the estimate of an enlightened and unbiassed judgment, demands the most energetic and continued effort.

By others, more numerous and less excusable, it is regarded as a sort of safety-valve, for the superabundance of feverish excitement which they suppose afflicts the Christians of the present age. Those who thus regard the missionary enterprise, think it quite possible to maintain their station among the people of God, through a long series of years, and to pass with honour from the church on earth