he was called and sent of God. The prophet Habakkuk tells you how God exercised him before he was sent.-" O Lord, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save! why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance?" Hab. i. 2, 3. The prophet tells us what effect this had upon him—“ When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice: rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble," Hab. iii. 16. He likewise informs you of praying, and then setting himself on his watch. "I will stand," says he, 66 upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved. And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.' "And now it comes-" Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith," Hab. ii. 1-4. The prophet Jeremiah prefaces his book with the dealings of God with him thus-" Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee,

and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." Read Jeremiah i. 4-10. And Amos also informs you how God called him; as it is written, "Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, 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."-And he gives a most cutting prediction to his opposer" Now, therefore, hear thou the word of the Lord: thou sayest, Prophesy not against Israel, and drop not thy word against the house of Isaac. Therefore, thus saith the Lord, Thy wife shall be an harlot in the city, and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy land shall be divided by line; and thou shalt die in a polluted land; and Israel shall surely go into captivity," Amos vii. 14-17. This is his call, his message, and the fortitude of mind with which he delivered it. But time would fail me to tell of all the prophets' calls and commissions.

The apostles also inform us how Christ had revealed his will to them; as it is written, "I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit; and that your fruit should remain," John xv. 16. And that he bid them "go and preach the gospel to every creature," Mark xvi. 15; as soon as they had received the Spirit of power from on high, Acts i. 8.

And on the day of Pentecost a cloven tongue of fire sat upon each of them, Acts ii. 3. And why did the blessed Spirit appear in the shape of a tongue?-to shew that he would inspire them to speak the mysteries of heaven with celestial eloquence, and that in all languages; as it is written, "Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, In those days it shall come to pass that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations," Zech. viii. 23. And why did he appear as a fiery tongue?-to shew that their hearts should burn with love to God, Luke xxiv. 32; their understanding shine as a candle, Luke xi. 36; and their whole souls be inflamed with zeal for the honour of Christ; and that the word of the Holy One should be as a flame, Isa. x. 17. It is this that makes a minister a flame of fire,

Heb. i. 7.

And they were burning and shining lights. And he appeared as a cloven or cleft tongue, to shew that they should separate the elect from the reprobate, the vile from the precious, as God's mouth, Jer. xv. 19; that they should make a proper distinction between the law and the gospel," rightly dividing the word of truth." And thus, sirs, he teaches us also to divide the persons of the glorious Trinity, though not the essence; yea, and to divide the work of each person of the Trinity in the salvation of man; and yet they all concur in seeking their own honour and our eternal happiness.-And like

wise to divide between men's traditions and God's truths; between the doctrines of God and the doctrines of devils; between the form of devotion invented by men and the ancient model delivered by God: and to this end the Holy Ghost appears a cloven tongue of fire: and, wherever he preaches by an instrument, he either inflames the heart with his own flame, or leaves the sinner twice dead, fit fuel for everlasting burnings.

The Saviour says, The good man shall bring forth out of his own heart good treasure; and David calls to all that fear God to come and hear what God had done for his soul; and, for my part, if I never hear a minister mention the operations of God's Spirit on his own soul, nor any thing of his call to the ministry from God, I always think he preaches an unknown and an unapplied Christ; however every experimental Christian ought to stand in doubt of him.

Preaching and writing the borrowed testimonies of other men do not make a man a minister of the Spirit; he is but a minister of the dead letter at best.

But perhaps my reader may object, and say the call of the prophets and the apostles was miraculous; but miracles have now ceased. True, in some senses they have ceased; but the spiritual substance of every miracle still continues. Did Christ raise Lazarus out of his grave? He

did; and by his own Spirit he raises dead souls out of the grave of original pollution, where they have covered their souls over, deep enough, with actual transgressions; as it is written, "Then he said unto me, Son of Man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost; we are cut off for our parts. Therefore prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, and shall put my Spirit in you, [this is the spiritual resurrection] and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land; then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord," Ezek. xxxvii. 11-14. And to this agree the Saviour's words, "The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live," John v. 25. Nor is the miracle of rebuking the waves of the sea ceased; for I read that the wicked, in persecuting the righteous, are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt," Isa. lvii. 20. But God "stilleth the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves, and the tumult of the people,” Psalm lxv.7.