6. When gofpel-ordinances and gofpel-minifters are contemned. Were not the gofpel received in vain, the house where his honour dwells, and the galleries where he walks, would be prized; and the feet of them that bear the glad tidings would be precious. But alas! all is contrary here. His ordinances arc trampled upon, his fervants are difcouraged, and broken on every hand. Few want brow enough to break over the awful hedge that God has fet about them: He that defpifeth you, defpifeth me. We are as little troubled with the fcrupulous in coming to us for information from the word concerning different practices, as with cafes of foul exercise.

7. When they are not thankful for it. The Lord hath done, great things for us; but the generation is waxed wanton, fo as there feems to be a fort of fondnels to fee the church in confufion again. Well, come when it will, it is like we will cool of that heat, and learn to prize what is now lightly lct of.

8. Lastly, Moft of all when Chrift is not received by faith into the foul, Matth. xxii. Were there never fo much frictnefs of life, mortification, reeling amongst the affections, and this be wanting, all is to no purpofe. Unbelief, or rejecting of Chrift, is the great quarrel that God purfues in time and eternity against the hearers of the gofpel. But ah! is not the preaching of Chrift faplefs at this day? are not our cyes held, that we cannot behold his glory? He is defpifed and rejected of men ftill.

Ifhall conclude with an improvement of this fubject. Take heed ye receive not the grace of God, the go. fpel, in vain. Two things ye would cfpecially take heed to in this matter.

1.Take heed the gofpel leave you not fill out of Chrift. It is certain, (1.) That the gofpel finds people growing upon the old stock, and out of Chrift, Ezek. xvi. (2.) That without Chrift men are without hope; let them profefs or be what they will, if they be not ingrafted into Chrift, they are nothing, Eph. ii. 12.

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John xv. 6. (3.) That the gofpel is the great mean appointed of God to bring finners to Chrift, the miniftry of reconciliation, 2 Cor. v. 18. It is by this that finners are brought to the marriage of the King's Son, Matth. xxii. O take heed ye receive not the gofpel in vain. The cry, Cant. iii. 2. ult. Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold king Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his efpoufals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart, is come to your ears; beware ye fit not ftill. Thefe invitations, Pfal. xxiv. 7. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory fhall come in; and Rev. iii. 20. Behold, I ftand at the door and knock: If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will fup with him, and he with me; beware they leave you not fo. There is a treasure in this field, one pearl of great price in this market, and it is in your offer.

2. Take heed it leave you not without a faving change in your hearts and lives. It is impoffible you can be faved without this, John iii. 3. Except a man be born again, he cannot fee the kingdom of God. Heb. xi. 14. And this gofpel is the mean of it, 1 Pet. i. 23. 24. 25. Faithful minifters will be in pain till Chrift be formed in people, Gal. iv. 19. What is their preaching, befeeching, exhorting, &c. but pains to bring forth? But alas we may fit down with that, If. xxvi. 18. We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind, we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth, neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen. O for that day when that promife fhall be accomplished, ver. 19. Thy dead men fhall live, together with my dead body shall they arife: awake and fing, ye that dwell in duft: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth fhall cast out the dead. And this is a change that must be carrying on while here, Eph. iv. 21. and that by the fame means it was begun, unlefs ye receive the grace of God in vain, John xv. 2. O Sirs, what branches of the old

man is this knife fnedding off? what hellish weeds is the gofpel in its ordinary preaching to you plucking up? Sure they are not wanting in our hearts and lives, and fure there will be fome execution doing on them, if ye receive not the gofpel in vain.

Dear friends, God has fent you the gofpel, and has fet up his ordinances among you; defpife not the treafure, because it is in fuch an earthen veffel. I would fain fee the gospel doing good, a day of God's power to Ettrick again. I dare not think I have been altogether ufelefs here: but truly when I look upon the cafe of this parish in general, and on the fuccefs of my miniftry in it, my heart finks, being afraid that I have beftowed labour in vain, yea worse than merely in vain: and God, though moft juftly, has dealt bitterly with me, and put a heavy heavy piece of work in my hand. But that the doleful ef fects of this reached no farther than to me! O that it were well with you, though my eyes were held not to fee it for my comfort! But the works of the flesh are manifeft, and continue and grow under a preached gofpel, to which the appetite is loft, while the beauty and glory of practical godliness is under a dreadful vail amongst us. I would not willingly ftand in the way of your mercy; but if I be indeed the ftumbling-block that lies between you and Chrift and the power of godlinefs, I pray the Lord may remove that block out of your way, what way he thinks best, that another face for Chrift, for the gofpel and true godlinefs, might be put upon the parish of Ettrick. But ftand I muft in my pott, till he that fet me in it call me off; and I defire to be doing while it is to-day, ere the night come on when there fhall be no more working. Wonder not that this matter is laid out with this weight: We are workers together with God, and therefore have need to blufh and be humbled, that we cannot be more deeply concerned that ye' receive, not the grace of God in vain *. Confider,

*The author here plainly alludes to the distracted ftate of the pas

1. We are workers with God. It is not our own, but our Lord's work that we are about. God has made our Lord and Mafter heir of all things, and he has fent us forth to court a spouse for him. There is none that can fay fo much to the commendation of their Lord as we may: for he is white and ruddy, the chief among ten thoufand, yea he is altogether lovely and there is no bride fo unworthy as the daughter of Zion. And fhall our Lord get the nayfay off the hands of ugly, hell-hued, beggarly fouls, and the prince of darkness be preferred to the Prince of peace? Our Lord has got the gift of the kingdom from his Father, and of this land among others, Pfal. ii. 8.; and he has fent us out to befeech you and command you in his name to fubmit to our royal Master: and muft we take him word, that ye will not have this man to reign over you? Luke xix. 14.

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2. God works with us. We are but the voice of one crying; the fpeaker is in heaven, and fpeaks from heaven, though by men, Heb. xü. 25. fore the flighting of our meffage is a flighting of the Lord himfelf: See Matth. xxviii. 20. Lo, I am with you alway even unto the end of the world. Have ye never had the fecrets of your hearts made manifeft by the preaching of the word? why then fall ye not down before our Lord? why fay ye not, We will go with you, for the Lord is with you? O fight not againit God. 3. The meffage we bring you is the grace of God; and fhall it be received in vain? This gofpel,

(1.) Is moft neceffary grace. What a dismal dark. nefs overclouded the world by Adam's fall, more ter-. rible than if the fun, moon, and stars had been for ever wrapt up in the blacknefs of darknefs, in which we fhould for ever have lien, had not this grace appeared as à fhining fun to difpel it, Tit. ii. 11. So the word

rifh, and the fea of trouble he was toffed in, on account of the unmanageable fpirit of the parishioners, fed by the malignant leaven which the Old Diffenters fpread through it, and of which he repeat-` edly and heavily complains in his Memoirs. ebo

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rendered appeared properly fignifies. And fhall we now like night owls flee from the face of the rifing fun, and like wild beafts get into our hellifh dens, when this fun is up? Are we ftruck blind with its light, and fuch creatures of darkness that we will love darkness rather than light?

(2.) It is uncommon grace. This fun enlightens but a fmall part of the world. The most part are yet without the gofpel; and this land had it not always. Nothing but grace brought it to, and has kept it with us. And fhall we receive it in vain? Ah! will not the wild Americans think us unworthy of a place in the fame hell with them?

(3) It is the greateft grace that God ever beftowed on the world. God has given fome nations gold mines, precious ftones, fpices, plenty of corns, &c.; and he has given fome the gofpel without thefe; fo that we may fay of them, Ifrael then fball dwell in fafety alone: the fountain of Jacob fhall be upon a land of corn and wine, alfo his heavens shall drop down dew. Happy art thou, O Ifrael: who is like unto thee, O people faved by the Lord, the field of thy help, and who is the fword of thy excellency! and thine enemies fhall be found liars unto thee, and thou shalt tread upon their high places, Deut. xxxiii. 28. 29. Barley-bread and the gofpel is good cheer, if people receive it not in vain, If. xxx. 20. 21. There is a treafure in the gofpel, Chrift in it is the greatest of all mercies, Matth. xiii. 44. Ah! fhall fuch a price te put in the hands of fools, that have no heart to it!

(4.) It is God's laft grace to the world, Heb.i.1. No other difpenfation of grace fhall ever the world fee more. Now, Sirs, the last ship for Immanuel's land is making ready to go; therefore now or never, Heb. x. 26. 27. For if we fin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more facrifice for fins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgement, and fiery indignation, which fall devour the adverfaries. This gofpel is the Lord's farewell fermon to the world. The Lord has made a feast for the world these five