go for them-let them alone, for they will defpife my words, mock and crucify me; I will leave them to perifh in their own fins. But no; the bowels of the compaffi

its, and facrificed unto idols, and had not thofe Miffionaries who felt the value of fouls, gone forth with their lives in their hands preaching Chrift crucified, we fhould doubtlefs have been in dark-onate Saviour were melted in love, nefs and the fhadow of death. But his repentings were kindled to: now how manifold are the mer gether and he fays, how shall I cies which we enjoy in that reli- give thee up, Ofinner? How fhall gion which drives away the glooms I leave thee to eternal deathof ignorance by the light of life how fhall I caft thee off forever, and immortality? without offering thee life, even at the expenfe of my own? The cup of the bitterness of God's wrath was wrung out before the Son, and in the view of all his fufferings. He took it freelyhe drank it-and Oh, for us, he drank it all, without a murmur ! And fhall we who have tafted that the Lord is gracious, be cold and lifelefs in reaching out the cup of falvation to the heathen? Will it be an excufe before the Saviour, that they would not accept? No, our duty is to preach to them the gofpel, whether they will hear or whether they will forbear. If we are faithful, and still it is a favor of death to them, the fin will lie at their door. Let us labor in faith to prepare a high way in the defert for our God, that Jefus in paffing by, may give fight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and life to the dead; that he who is the fpiritual rock may open the ftream in the wilderness and pour its water among all the tribes 9 that they may go out with joy and be led forth in peace, the mountains and the hills breaking forth into finging, and the trees of the field clapping their hands, becaufe inftead of the thorn comes the fir tree, and inftead of the brier the myrtle.

A dispensation of the gofpel is committed unto us, and a woe indeed will be against us if we preach it not to the heathen in our land. Their perifhing fouls have long implored, have long demanded our exertions-but we have been cold and regardless of their condition, and have made none or feeble and doubting efforts to repel the wiles, or to oppofe the triumphs of Satan. With the means of falvation in our hands, we have feen them perifhing in their own blood, and have turned away and paffed by on the other fide; this we have done, this we are till doing in the face of fuch a promife as this, "For I will," faith the Lord, "extend peace to Zion like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like an overflowing ftream, and the heathen fhall know that I am God, and there is none else that exercifeth loving kindness and righteoufnefs in the earth." Shall we turn over our bibles and read fuch promifes, and yet fold our hands and fay the time is not come-the heathen will not hear, nor receive the knowledge of the Saviour crucified?

But may we not afk, what if the Son of God, when about covenanting to be a mediator for finners, had, in the view of their obinacy, rejection and cruel treatment of him, faid, No, I will not

Before the promises of God, all objections muft vanish. Let the eye of faith look back and mark the progrefs the gofpel has

as man.

made by means the most unlikely, leaning on the hand of Provi and against all the enmity and all dence, it has made substantial adthe power of the enemies of the vances towards its object. And crofs of Chrift. The ways of fuccefs in every refpe&t, as to providence are not ours; the funds, proper miffionary charac Lord feeth not, he worketh not ters, and the effect of the gospel His counfel fhall ftand, preached, has far, very far exand he will do all his pleasure. ceeded, the expectation of thofe The religion of Jefus among the who at firft were thought over nations, like the grain of muftard zealous. Multitudes through the feed, hath fent forth its branches, new fettlements will have occaladen with the fruit of life, and fion, through eternity, to blefs the Gentiles have fat down God, that by this means they under its fhade, with great de- have tafted that the Lord is graci light. Jefus was received up in- ous, that Jefus to their fouls is as to glory, to carry forward the the fhadow of a great rock in a glorious work of the falvation of weary land, and as fprings of was finners; he has blefied his faith-ter in the defert. By means of ful fervants; he does still blefs, this fociety the gospel has been exand will continue to blefs them-tenfively preached, many church, es have been formed, the ordinan; ces have been administered to thofe who might otherwife have fat in darkness. Hitherto the Lord hath helped us, and we will be glad thereof. To the natives but one Miffionary with his family has been fent forth by this fociety. To human view the prof; pect has at times been difcourag ing; but in God's gracious work of winning fouls to Chrift, there is no difcouragement, my brethren, As minifters, as ambaffadors, we

to fee of the travail of his foul and be fatisfied.

But I turn from objections to the favorable tokens of fuccefs, It is a time when the fpirit of the Apoftles fecms returning upon the friends of Zion. For the benevolent purpose of extending the religion of God manifeft in the Lefh, to the new fettlements and the natives on our borders, new combinations of believers are yearly forming and gathering ftrength, from the prophetic promifes, from fearching the fcriptures, from ex-muft implicitly follow his inftrucamining the benighted state of the heathen and the value of their fouls, from more frequent and fervent prayer, and from a more general confent, that the fet time to favor Zion is come. In Connec ticut, under Providence, a good foundation has been laid for communicating to our white and red brethren of the weft, the gofpelhofitate to go forward-fhall wo of Jefus in a more effectual man- after a weak and inexperienced effort, not perhaps without being preparatory for fuccefs, fhall we give up the heathen, and leave them to perish, while we have the means of falvation in our hands, and Jes

ner.

Scarcely five years have elapfed fince the formation of the Miffionary Society, and though entering on its duties with the trembling feps of a little, child,

tions, and they are too plain to be evaded-Go, difciple all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghoft, teaching them to obferve all things whatfoever I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always even unto the end of the world. Shall we for a moment,

1

of his infinite love of righteouf nefs, and the confummation of his mercy to the redeemed, by the

his tranflation in particular, is much more copious and diffufe. It is full of affecting and inftructive incidents, all uniting to exhi-glorious rewards of his grace acbit the fame character of piety, tually beftowed. By thefe examzeal and faithfulness. Humility, ples he defigned to inftruct and patience, felf-denial, devotednefs comfort his poor afflicted people to God, zeal and fortitude, are travelling in this dark and dreary the prominent features in his cha-wilderness-to wipe the tear of racter. His whole history is an affliction from the furrowed face uniform exhibition of thefe virtues of mourning piety-to dart a ray in exercise. Under the reign of of heavenly light through the wicked Ahab, in the midst of gloomy scene of mortality and the Pagan perfecution-in the moft grave, and by thefe affured tok. corrupted state of the public mor- ens, to confirm the faith of the als; when the whole nation of faints in their future refurrection Ifrael, from the prince to the and eternal glory." peasant, from the throne to the cottage, had almoft univerfally forfaken the worship and fervice of the true God, and proftituted themselves to the groffeft fuperftition and idolatry; he alone ftood forth the champion of truth, an undaunted hero in the cause of his God. By his timely and faithful exertions, he was inftrumental of reclaiming the nation from idolatry, and refcuing them from utter ruin.

By what God hath actually wrought in the perfons of Enoch and Elijah, his immutable purpose

of

grace towards all his faithful fervants is exemplified and decla red, and all his precious promifes of glory to the faints, ratified and confirmed. Like the etherial bow in the cloud, the inftituted pledge of God's covenant with Noah, thefe glorified fons of Adam are standing monuments to the faints in heaven and on earth, of his covenant faithfulness to the redeemed that they fhall all, in due time, be gathered into his heavenly Kingdom, glorified together in the whole man, and made happy forever in the beatific vifion and enjoyment of God.

Thefe, doubtlefs, were fome of

Thus in their lives, and their éxits in their line of conduct upon the stage of this world, and the manner of their departure out of it, these two extraordinary human characters exhibited a bright typical refemblance of the great head of the church; who was holy, harmlefs, undefiled and fepa-the principle points of inftruction rated from finners-rofe from the dead a glorious conqueror over death, hell and fin, and afcended in triumph to the right hand of the majefty on high. These were the men, in the feveral ages in which they lived and acted, whom God delighted thus fignally to honor. Thefe were the chofen veffels, by whom divine wifdom faw fit to make fenfible manifefta tions to the intelligent univerfe,

taught to the old teftament church, by the tranflations of Enoch and Elijah. But under the gofpel difpenfation, in this third and last period of the militant church, the fame things are more. eminently expreffed and confirmed by the refurrection and afcenfion of the Lord Jefus Chrift-by the glorified humanity of the great head of the church. In him, all the promifes of God are yea and

ämen. And of him both Enoch and Elijah were but the pre-figuring types. Behold, a greater than either is here! He is the refurrection and the life, and becaufe he lives, his people fhall live alfo. But now is Chrift rifen from the dead, and become the firft fruits of them that flept." Now the idea of firft fruits, neceffarily implies that of a fucceeding harvest. "And he is the head of the body, the church; who is the beginning, the first born from the dead." If then the head be rifen, what is this but an affured token that the body fhall not always moulder in the duft, but that the whole church fhall affuredly arife, and follow their afcended Lord to the bright manfions of eternal glory? Yea, fuch is the vital and indiffoluble union between Chrift and his people, that in the ftrong, metaphorical language of fcripture, the body, the whole church are repeatedly reprefented as being actually rifen, afcended and glorified with their divine head. What an inexhauftible fource of confolation is here prefented to the fuffering people of God? An anchor indeed entering within the vail. Let faith brighten into triumph and fay, O death where is thy fting! O grave, where is thy victory!

Saints fhould be joyful in their king,
E'en on a dying bed,
And like the fouls in glory fing;
For God fhall raife the dead."
ASAPH.

The days of youth are the most privileged and convenient period in life to attend to the duties of religion.

RIDING, the other day, in

to a diftant part of the country, I fell into company with VOL. IV. No. 1.

a minifter of Jefus, who informed me that, for fome time paft, there had been among the people of his charge, apparently more than a common attention to religion, which he hoped was the dawning of a fpecial revival. The people attended on weekly lec. tures and conferences with apparent delight, and the concerns of eternity feemed to claim a gen eral attention. He urged me to go home with him, and preach a lecture which had been appointed in confequence of these pleafing appearances. I went. The people affembled. A deep folemnity appeared depicted in the countenances of the whole affembly. It evidently appeared, that they had not affembled merely to shew themfelves; but to hear, and to hear the gofpel, as revealing to them the awful end of the wicked, who die in their fins, uninterested in the blood-bought pardon of the Redeemer; and as pointing out the only way of efcape and falvation, by a regeneration of heart, and cordial acceptance of the Lord Jefus. The affembly was not large; but it was as numerous as was expected. A number of youth of both fexes were present. Their vain and trifling airs were laid afide; their countenances fixed and deeply impressed; and the ftarted in their eyes. They seemtear, expreffive of deep concern, ed to feel convinced their fouls would never die; but exift eternally, beyond the grave, in the celeftial paradife of God, or in thefe impreffions will be lafting or the dark region of hell. Whether not, I pretend not to know ; nor do I know, whether they will bring them to an habitual and

perfevering attention to the all

important concerns of the foul, or in a few days, as is unhappily