A Christ, in being "the power of God to salvation, to those who believe." The work of Grace still continues; though not in that degree it did in March. Precious souls are still brought to the knowledge of the truth;" and there is much reason to be encouraged at the prospect of the returns of the "times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord." There is one or two cases of the power of Divine Grace, in this revival which may be worthy of particular notice. The man who had been sometime employed in finishing our new Meeting-house, together with his family and all his hands who were at work on the Meeting-house, have embraced religion, and been brought to experience its efficacy to the joy of their souls. They are all very steady and good men, and will doubtless be ornaments to their profession. Another case which I will mention, is somewhat similar,-Brother L-'s partner (Mr. M.) and, with the exception of one, all the hands employed in their shop, who were not previously professors of religion, have been made the happy subjects of redeeming grace, and joined themselves to the church-making in this one Mechanic's shop, about a dozen witnesses for Jesus! These are "the Lord's doings, and they are marvellous in our eyes." We are truly a highly favoured people. The Lord has "turned again our captivity;" He has "enlarged our borders and strengthened our stakes;" "He hath put our feet upon a rock, and established our goings; and he hath put a new song in our mouths, even praises unto our God." and let us all All hail the power of Jesus name! Join in the universal song, And crown him Lord of all. I remain, my dear, and much esteemed brother, Yours, &c. REV. JOHN COLLINS. SAMUEL WILLIAMS. THE METHODIST MAGAZINE. FOR JULY, 1820. Divinity. From the English Methodist Magazine. THE WISE STUDENT, AND CHRISTIAN PREACHER. A SERMON, Preached at Broad-Mead, August 28, 1780: being the day of the Annual Meeting of the BRISTOL EDUCATION SOCIETY. BY JOHN RYLAND, A. M. INTRODUCTION.—I do not address myself this day to my honoured fathers and brethren in the ministry here present; I have need to be taught of them, and will freely at all times sit at their feet for instruction. I do not immediately address myself to the congregation before me; my highest ambition is to be useful to you, my dear young friends, who are Students in this little seminary of Religion and Learning. I have known what it is to be in your situation, or rather below you; and if I can drop a few hints for your use, it will finally terminate in the satisfaction and honour of the elder ministers now present, and likewise in the edification of the Christian people of this and many other churches of Christ. 1 TIMOTHY IV. 15.-" Give thyself wholly to them." THE things in my text, if taken in a limited sense, refer to all the wise instructions the Apostle had given to his son Timothy, in the preceding part of the epistle; but considered in a more extensive view, we may take in the whole of divine Revelation, and the whole work of the Christian ministry. In treating on this passage of Scripture, Give thyself wholly to them, or, as the original expresses it, Be in them; I propose to shew: 1. What is requisite to our being in the things of God, which are here referred to. II. The hindrances and opposites to being in them. VOL. III. 31 IV. The glorious advantages and pleasures of such a state of mind. I. What is requisite to our being in the things of God which are here referred to. And above all things in the world, regeneration, or a divine change in all the powers and affections of the soul, is essentially necessary; and without which, it is impossible to be in the great things of God. Regeneration is the infusion of divine life into the soul; without it we are spiritually dead; and a dead man will never give himself wholly to the things of God. Life is a state of active existence; animal life is the motion of the blood; rational life is the operation of the understanding, and a capacity of receiving ideas of truth; spiritual life is divinely active existence arising from the agency of the Spirit of God on the soul, it is the motion of God in the creature, as conversion is the motion of the creature to God: this life is the union of the soul with God, hence arises an activity in the understanding to discern the beauty of God; an activity in the will, to choose God as the purest good; an activity in the conscience to fear God; an activity in the memory to recollect God; an activity in the passions to admire and love God, and delight in his perfections; and this divine activity is unbounded in its hatred of sin and love to holiness. How is it possible for any man who is totally destitute of this divine life, to relish the glorious discoveries of divine Revelation? Regeneration is an impression of the image of God on the soul and how can a man be pleased with the display of the moral perfections of God in the Scriptures, who hath no correspondent impression of the wisdom and goodness, the holiness and justice of the divine Nature on his own heart? Regeneration is the inscription of the divine law on the soul and conscience, it includes a spiritual perception of the vast extent of the law, a cordial approbation of the purity and beauty of the law, an ardent inclination to obey the law, and a sweet joy when we exercise that obedience in any degree: the soul always dislikes itself when it feels itself fall short in obedience; and it is pleased with itself when it can feel in itself any measure of conformity to the holy will of God. Regeneration is a divine change in the conceptions, choice, and affections of the soul: a man that is born again has new conceptions of God and of himself, he hath new views of sin and holiness, new conceptions of Christ and the blessed Spirit, new prospects of the world and time, of life and death, heaven and hell he hath a new choice of God for his eternal portion, and a new bent and determination of his will for Christ and holiness; he has new affections towards good and evil in all their circumstances as present or absent; he loves all moral good, and hates all moral evil; he pursues the one, and flies from the other, with great eagerness and vivacity; he has new hopes and new fears, new joys and new sorrows, new anger at himself and sin, new gratitude to God for his great salvation. Now, my dear brethren, is it possible for any man to give himself wholly to the things of God, and the work of the ministry, before this divine change is passed upon his heart? Can a blind man delight in colours? Can a deaf man take pleasure in the most charming music? Can a dead man relish the sweets of a feast, or delight in the sublime conversation of wise and worthy men? And how then can you expect a man under the power of a carnal mind, and full of pride and enmity against Christ, to delight in the glorious discoveries of the Gospel? Our Divine Master has determined this by an immutable decree, "Ye must be born again; except a man be born again, he cannot enter, nay, he cannot see the kingdom of God," John iii. "They that are in the flesh, cannot please God," Rom. viii. "Without faith it is impossible to please God," Heb. xi. "And without holiness no man shall to eternity see God, so as to be happy in him," Heb. xii. 14. This blessed work of regeneration will always shew itself in persons called by God to the Christian ministry, in these four ways; Love to Christ-a sound taste for true divinity-a spirit of prayer-and tender compassion for immortal souls. 1. Love to Christ.-Love to Christ consists in a vast esteem of his worth, and boundless admiration of his infinite perfections, attended with sincere love to him, and fervent gratitude for his blessings. Love implies a spiritual understanding, or a conception of clear and just ideas of him, a sense of interest in his heart, and a forcible inclination of the will to him considered as the supreme God; this will produce a lively emotion of the purest passions towards him as the supreme truth and beauty. In Christ there is every possible excellence to feed the passion of love, and raise it to the utmost force and fire: God the Father determined in the constitution of the person of Christ, to furnish out an object that should infinitely exceed the warmest love of men and angels; an object that should exhaust and distance all created powers and affections; an object that should exceed all others, and be absolutely unrivalled and unparalleled to eternity. In the person of Christ you see the lowest humility and infinite glory, the sweetest meekness and infinite majesty, the deepest reverence of God, and yet full equality with God in all divine perfections: you see in him patience under the worst of evils, and yet he was worthy of all possible good: an exceeding great spirit of the most humble obedience and supreme dominion over all-perfect resignation to the divine will, and absolute sovereignty over heaven, earth and hell: extreme poverty and reliance on God for a crumb of bread, joined with all-sufficiency for ten thousand worlds. In the actions of Christ, you see the most amazing humiliation and divine glory: love to God in the highest exertions, and at the same moment the utmost love to God's enemies. He appeared most zealous for God's justice, and yet suffered most awfully from justice: he displayed the most illustrious holiness; and yet was treated as the most guilty man that ever lived in the world he was dealt with as most unworthy, and yet was never more worthy than when he sweat blood in the garden, and died on the cross: he suffered most extremely from those very persons to whom he shewed the greatest love: and when he was most of all in the power of his enemies, he then gained the most glorious victory over his enemies.-This is the glorious person who is the supreme object of your love: and is he not worthy of your utmost esteem, your ardent desire, your strongest good-will, and your most intense delight? This is the great God-man who ought to be the end of all your studies, the end and matter of all your sermons, and the end of your life and existence for time and eternity. Another fruit of regeneration will always be, 2. A sound taste for true divinity. The only true divinity, is that which humbles the sinner, and brings him deep into the dust before God. "I am nothing," says the greatest of all mere men, 2 Cor. xii. "Less than the least," Eph. iii. 8. At the same time, divine Revelation exalts Christ above all creatures and worlds, it speaks strong consolation to every distressed sinner, and promotes holiness in the most effectual and glorious manner. And you may be as sure as you are of your own existence, that all sermons and writings of a theological kind, which have any tendency to puff up the soul with a vain pride, to degrade the Redeemer to a mere man, or any way eclipse his supreme divinity, to distress convinced sinners, to deprave the divine law, to lessen the evil of sin, and give us slight thoughts of the commission of the least iniquity: you may be sure that these are not the truths of God, but the inventions and errors of men. Because God has purposed to stain the pride of all flesh, (Isa. xxiii.) and has eternally decreed, that no flesh shall glory in his presence, 1 Cor. i. 30 A sound taste in true divinity, includes a clear knowledge of the beauty and harmony of the doctrines of the gospel, with power to receive pleasure from every beautiful discovery of God in the holy Scriptures: the Bible is the standard of religious taste and it is of the utmost importance for a student or a preacher to form a good taste very early in life: this true taste is a fund of perpetual pleasures to ourselves, and it hath the happiest tendency to produce and cherish the same excellent quality amongst our people and the churches of Christ. I re |