upon every important and striking text, from Genesis to Revelation. That would be more than the work of the longest life. What I do mean, I hope has been stated with sufficient clearness already. Keep back nothing, explain away nothing, modify nothing, conceal nothing;-but just declare all the counsel of God, and leave it with him, whose prerogative it is, to make his own word "quick, powerful, sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and the spirit, of the joints and the marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intents of the heart."

And

I repeat it, preach all the doctrines of grace clearly and earnestly, whether your people "will hear or whether they will forbear." Some may be offended and go away, and walk no more with you. what if all should be offended, and drive you from your post for your fidelity, would the fear or even the certainty of such a result, excuse you for keeping back any part of the truth? Has Christ anywhere set his ministers such an example? Did the Apostles and other primitive preachers ever adopt this manpleasing, time-serving policy? Did they not on the contrary, voluntarily expose themselves to persecution and death, by their inflexible and uncompromising adherence to the letter and spirit of their divine commission? The holy martyrs of the two first centuries, how many of them might have saved their lives, by promising to "speak no more in the name of Jesus ;" but did they hesitate between duty and the fagots— between the commands of their Master and the terrors of a violent and frightful death? Did Luther

refrain from denouncing the corruptions of popery, because the thunders of the Vatican threatened to smite him, as an apostate who had sinned beyond forgiveness? No. "I would go to Worms, if I knew there were as many devils there, as there are tiles on the houses." This, as you know was the spirit of that illustrious Reformer. And every servant of Christ in the ministry ought to preach the whole truth, though it should empty his church, or consign him to beggary. Who would not rather descend to the lowest menial service, with a good conscience, and toil for a crust, under the approving smiles of his Master, than to remain pastor of the most popular church in the land, by the forfeiture of his allegiance?

But what class of ministers, in point of fact, have the largest congregations, and enjoy the highest confidence of their people, and are least liable to be driven from their pulpits? If it is those who are most accommodating or indefinite in their preaching, then my observation and enquiries have deceived me. I believe it will be found, on the contrary, with very few exceptions, that other things being equal, those pastors enjoy altogether the most encouraging and desirable popularity, who preach what are called the hard doctrines just as they stand in the Bible. At all events, they do the most good; for they use not a part, but all the means which God has appointed, to bring sinners to the knowledge of the truth, and "to edify the body of Christ." Nothing can be more unsafe, may I not add, nothing can be more criminal, than to substitute our short-sighted wisdom and pru

dence for "the wisdom of God in a mystery." Those very weapons of our warfare" against the powers of darkness, which the world would persuade us to throw aside as wholly unfit for use, are often found to be the " mightiest through God, to the pulling down of strong holds." "Thou, therefore, my son, endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Be faithful unto death, and he will give thee a crown of life."

I am very affectionately, &c.

LETTER IX.

MY DEAR E.

You must have felt, in reading over my last letter, that it bears heavily upon those ministers, if there be any, and I think there are some, who try to atone for the deficiency of their preaching, by the orthodoxy of their creed. When they are examined for ordination, they unhesitatingly avow their belief in all the evangelical doctrines; and wish to have it understood by their people, that they are as sound in the faith, as any of their brethren. But you may sit under their preaching for years together, without ever hearing discourse upon any of the more difficult and controverted points. They seem to be afraid to grapple with them. The most you can expect from a preacher of this class is, that he will now and then glance at the more abstruse articles of his own creed and the creed of his church, by the way of inference towards the close of a sermon. He deems it inexpedient and unprofitable, to bring them into the pulpit in the way of free and full discussion; and the first consequence is, that his people are led seriously to doubt, whether he himself more than half believes them; for if he did, they argue, he would feel himself bound to make them more prominent in his public ministrations. The next consequence of this omission is, that the congregation and not a few members of the church, are gradually prepared to reject, first one and then

another of the prominent doctrines contained in their own confession. It is not necessary to preach against any doctrine to undermine it. Only keep it out of sight, and it will fall as a matter of course. It was not by preaching against the Trinity, the Divinity of Christ, man's total depravity, the necessity of regeneration by the Holy Spirit, and the like, that these fundamental doctrines of our puritan fathers were ultimately thrown out of so many of the churches which they planted. It was by letting them alone, by leaving the congregations to forget them, or to regard them as antiquated and unimportant, if not absolutely erroneous. And the same thing will happen uniformly, where a similar course is pursued. Doctrines must be preached, or they cannot be retained-those in particular which exalt God and humble the pride of man. No matter how scriptural and evangelical the articles of any church may be. Let the pastor of that church omit to explain, prove and enforce them, for a quarter of a century, and they will cease to be believed by the great body of his hearers. He cannot after that preach them if he would. They will not be endured. It is idle, therefore, for a minister, however correct his own speculative opinions may be, to think that they can be perpetuated, without being preached. Omitting to bring them forward in their proper place is, to all practical purposes, the same thing as giving them up.

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But as I have laid so much stress upon doctrinal preaching, you will ask perhaps, whether, if some ministers have been deficient in this part of their duty, others have not gone into the opposite extreme,