But if you should escape unhurt morally-which would be little less than a miracle-still you may experience bitter trials; and under these crosses you will not be able to look up to God for support and deliverance, with the same cheerfulness and confidence you would feel if they were afflictions of his sending. But you have chosen them. Hence painful reflections of mind. Hence you may expect to hear, as the inquiry of conscience, and as the censure of Providence-"Hast thou not procured this unto thyself? Thou hast done foolishly, from henceforth thou shalt have wars." Yea, something of this kind must be expected." If my children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments: if they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments: then will I visit their transgressions with a rod, and their iniquity with stripes." He has said, "If ye walk contrary to me, I also will walk contrary to you." And he is a faithful God. And he is able to make good his word. He can take satisfaction out of our chosen delights. He can remove them in his anger. He can leave them to produce leanness in our souls. Though he forgives the iniquities of his people, he takes vengeance on their inventions.

To which we may add-and these are natural and unavoidable consequences-the painful anxiousness of living with those from whom you fear you shall be separated for ever; and the peculiar disagreeableness of being connected with those who are incapable of the principal part of your affection. Love them you may indeed, as husband or wife; but not as believers; not as followers of our Lord, to whom you are allied by stronger ties than human. Must not this be a vast deduction of happiness; a bitter ingredient in the cup; a kind of daily death?

SECTION IV.

The Mischief historically considered.

We may take another view of the breach of this law, and see the evils that resulted from it, as natural effects, or as judgments from God, as they are held forth in the Scriptures of truth. This was the particular sin for which God drowned the old world. Some of Lot's daughters married in Sodom, and perished in the overthrow. Both Ishmael and Esau married irreligiously, and were both rejected, and turned persecutors. The first blasphemer that was stoned by God's command, is marked as an offspring of one of these marriages-his mother had espoused an Egyptian. The first captivity of the Jews after their settlement in the holy land is ascribed to this cause. The whole passage is very instructive. It is said that the remains of the nations "were to prove Israel, to know whether they would hearken unto the commandment of the Lord, which he commanded their fathers by the hand of MosesAnd the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, Hittites,

Amorites, and Perizzites, and Hivites, and Jebusites; and they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons, and served their gods. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and forgat the Lord their God, and served Baalim and the groves: therefore the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Cushanrishathaim, king of Mesopotamia: and the children of Israel served Cushanrishathaim eight years." David married the daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur, by whom he had Absalom-the disgrace and curse of his family.

The case of Solomon is a warning to all ages.

His son Rehoboam, that lost the ten tribes, sprang from one of these forbidden marriages-his mother was an Ammonitess. The marriage of Ahab is thus awfully noticed. "And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Zidonians, and went, and served Baal and worhipped him. But there was none like unto Ahab, who did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up."

What was it that Ezra so grievously lamented, and so sharply reproved? It was, that "the holy seed had mingled themselves with the people of the land."

And what says the zealous reformer Nehemiah? "Their children spake half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews' language, but according to the language of each people. And I contended with them, and cursed them, and smote certain of them, and plucked off their hair, and made them swear by God, saying, Ye shall not give your daughters unto their sons, nor take their daughters unto your sons, or for yourselves. Did not Solomon, king of Israel, sin by these things? yet among many nations was there no king like him, who was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel: nevertheless even him did outlandish women cause to sin. Shall we then hearken, unto you to do all this great evil; to transgress against our God in marrying strange wives?"

Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.

(To be continued.)

GOSPEL PREACHERS DESCRIBED AND DIRECTED. (Continued from page 257.)

I come now, in the second place, to speak of the call of a man to the great work of preaching the Gospel.

VOL. XLII. MAY, 1819.

Question. By whom should men be called to preach?

Answer. Certainly by the Lord himself; for a call from men, without a call from God, is not sufficient to authorize a man to take upon him the office of preaching the Gospel. 'Tis true, that many do take upon them to preach, who are not called to it by God; but, as they are not in fellowship with him, 1 John i. 3, he doth not give success to their labours. Hence we need not wonder that there are so many unprofitable ministers, both in the Church of England, so called, and among · those who dissent from it. "I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. Therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the Lord." Jer. xxiii. 21, 32. I sent unto you all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, Oh! do not this abominable thing that I hate." Jer. xliv. 4. "I was no prophet," said Amos, chap. vii. 14, " neither was I a prophet's son; but I was an herdman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit and the Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord said unto me, go, prophesy unto my people Israel." "Follow me," said Jesus, "and I will make you fishers of men." Acts xiii. 2, we read, " Separate me Barnabas and Saul, for the work whereunto I have called them." And, chap. xxvi. 17, 18, his words to Paul are, "Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are. sanctified by faith that is in me." And, Romans x. 15, this apostle asks, "How shall they preach, except they be sent?" Yet I appre

hend that it may be lawful, and, in many cases, highly expe dient, to receive ordination, licences, and appointments from men, to preach, if it be done in subordination to an antecedent call from God.

Question. How are men called by the Lord to preach?

Answer. Not with an audible voice, as Samuel was called, 1 Sam. iii. 4, 6, 10. Not like Moses, by an appearance of the Lord, and an articulate voice, Exod. iii, 2, 4. Nor like Paul, Acts xxvi. 13-19. But in an internal and spiritual manner, by the Holy Ghost, whereby a man may be as fully persuaded in his mind, that he is called to preach, as if he were to hear a voice speaking to him out of the clouds, or to see some uncommon appearance; yea, and more so, for voices and appearances may be illusions of Satan, but those whose call is assured to them by the Spirit of God, cannot be deceived by him, because he is the Spirit of truth, John xvi. 13. "Now we," says St. Paul," have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God: that we might know the things that are

freely given to us of God." Yet I believe that some, who are called by the Lord to preach, have not (at least at first) this full assurance from the Spirit, that they are called to the work.

Question. How then may such a man know that he is called. to it?

Answer. First, by reflecting on the dealings of the Lord with, him, both with respect to the work of grace on his soul, fitting. him in a measure for it; and also in the course of his providence, the footsteps of which are sometimes so conspicuous, that an intelligent person may clearly see the Divine hand leading him, though perhaps, at first, he may be uncertain what the Lord's will is concerning him. This may help a man to discern his call.

Secondly, When with these qualifications, above described, there are exceeding fervent desires raised in the soul, by the Spirit of God, and poured forth to God with supplications and tears, that the Lord would be pleased to use him as an instrument in his hand, to advance his glory, and increase his church, by the conversion of sinners; longing to be engaged in this Divine employment, not from a principle of pride and vain glory, but simply for the glory of God, and the good of souls.

But, thirdly, Although there are these fervent desires raised in man's soul by the influence of the Holy Ghost, yet there is on the other hand such a sense wrought in him of his entire helplessness and insufficiency for the work, (I mean if abstracted from, or unassisted by the Divine Spirit), and such ideas of the greatness and importance of the undertaking, that they make him shrink from it, and draw back, through timorousness and humility; so that, notwithstanding his earnest desires after it, and prayers for it, when it appears at a distance, yet when he should proceed to action, he is afraid to engage in it, and hath need of being thrust out to labour. See Exod. iv. 10.

"How ready is the man to go,

Whom God hath never sent;

How timorous, diffident, and slow,
His chosen instrument:

Lord, if from thee this mark I have

Of a true messenger,

By whom thou wilt thy people save,

Yet let me always fear."

Mr. CHARLES WESLEY, on Exod. iv. 10.

Fourthly, If, after having begun to preach, he find, by repeated experience, that his soul doth not receive so much profit in the use of any of the other ordinances of God, as in preaching; and that, if he desist from the work, either in whole, or in part, his soul beomes dry and barren; and, if upon close examination, he can find no other reason for his barrenness and langour, he may justly conclude that his desisting from preaching is the cause of

it; and from hence also may draw this conclusion, that he is called to preach.

Fifthly, If he find, time after time, the presence of the Lord with him in his preaching, giving him encouragement, and assisting him by the powerful influence of his Holy Spirit, so that he feels the effects of Divine goodness to him to be inward peace, and holy confidence, joined with a humble desire of persevering in the sweet employment; thence also he may infer, that he is called by the Lord to the work, because he receives from him so many tokens for good, whilst he is engaged in it.

Sixthly, If we add to what has already been advanced, that the Lord is pleased, from time to time, to apply by his Holy Spirit, the word spoken, to the hearts of them that hear it, either to the conviction and awakening of sinners, or to the comfort and edification of his people, without doubt that man, so owned and blessed by the Lord, is called by him to preach the Gospel.

Undoubtedly there are a variety of exercises and workings in the mind of the man who is called by the Lord to preach: sometimes he desires earnestly to be employed; at other times he shrinks back from it: sometimes he is almost ready to resolve that he will not attempt it, or, if he hath begun, that he will not preach any more; but at other times he feels that the word of the Lord is as fire shut up within him. Jer. xx. 9. Sometimes the expectation of having some particular persons for his hearers will cause a man to be dejected, as thinking himself not qualified for speaking before critics; but, at other times he feels such life and zeal, that he thinks he could preach Christ to thousands of people if he had an opportunity.

A man may be much tempted by the devil to desist from preaching, and have a very deep and abasing sense of his own unworthiness and helplessness; also the preaching of the Gospel may be an exceeding heavy cross, which he may sometimes think he cannot bear; yet he should not give way to these discouragements, for they are not proofs that he is not called to the work, but, on the contrary, they are rather evidences of his call, because Satan and carnal nature very much oppose the will of God, as being diametrically opposite thereunto. And that preacher who hath been always free from these exercises, (if he is of any long standing), was never called by the Lord to preach the Gospel.

It is highly necessary for a preacher to know his call to the work; for though profit, worldly advantages, obtaining a livelihood, or such like things, may induce a man on the one hand; and pride, vain-glory, ostentation, and desire of applause, on the other hand, may impel for a time; yet, when there are no worldly emoluments, but, on the contrary, persecution, toil, hardship, such as being exposed to the scorching rays of the sun, and sultry heats of summer, and the piercing cold of the wintry frosts,