committing of it; how we bring God, with all his strength against us. Now, this is necessary for the sinner's entertaining the gospel. The sharp point of the law must prick the conscience, before the creature can by the promises of the gospel be drawn to Chi'ist. The field is not fit for the seed to be cast into it, till the plough hath broken it up ; nor is the soul prepared to receive the mercy of the gospel, till broken with the terrors of the law.
Section II. — The gospel itself saves not, except it be made known. ' If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost,' 2 Cor. iv. 3. Where God sends no light, he intends no love. In bodily sickness, a physician may make a cure, though his patient knows not what the medicine is that he useth ; bvit the soul m.ust know its remedy, before he can have any healing benefit from it. In Luke i. 77, John is sent to give knowledge of salvation for the remission of bins : — no knowledge, no remission. Christ must be lifted up on the pole of the gospel, as well as on the tree of the cross, that, by an eye of faith, we may look on him, and so be healed, John iii. 14. ' Look unto me, and be ye saved,' Isa. xlv. 22. A man that sees may lead another that is blind to the place he would go ; but he that would go to heaven, must have an eye in his own head to see his way, or he will never come there. ' The just shall live by his faith,' Hub. ii. 4, not by another's. Now, saving faith is a grace that sees its object ; it is ' the evidence of things not seen,' Heb. xi. 1 : that is, which are not seen by sense. ' I know whom I have believed,' 2Tim. i. 12. Therefore faith is often set out by knowledge : ' This is life eternal, that they might know thee tlie only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent,' John xvii. 3. Now how can they know Christ, and life eternal, till the gospel be made known which bringeth him and life by him to light? 2 Tim. i. 10. And by whom shall the gospel be made known, if not by the ministers of it? Thus, Rom. x. 14 : ' How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher ? ' So that this great work lies at the minister's door ; he is to make known the mystery of the gospel.
But what need now of preaching? This was the work of those that were to ])lant a church ; now the church is planted, and the gospel made known, this labour may be spared. The ministry of the gospel was not intended only to plant a church, but to carry out its growth also. What Paul plants, Apollos comes after to water, 1 Cor. iii. 6. When the foundation is laid, must not the house be built ? And this Christ gave ministers to his church for, — ' For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,' Eph. iv, 12. The scaifold is not taken down, till the building be finished, but rather to be raised higher and higher as the fabric goes up. Thus Paul went on in his ministry from lower points to higher, from founda- tion to superstructory truths, Heb. vi. 1. A famous church was planted at Thessalonica, but there was something lacking in their faith, which Paul longed to come and carry on to further perfection, 1 Thess. iii. 10. Surely, they that think there is so little need of preaching, forget that the gospel is a mystery, such a mystery as can never be fully taught by the minister, or learned by the people ; neither do they consider how many engineers Satan hath at work continually to undermine the gospel, both as a mystery of faith and godli- ness also ; hath not he his seedmen that are always scattering corrupt doctrine ? Surely tlien the faithful minister had need obviate their designs by makhig known the truth, that his people may not want an antidote to fortify them against their poison. Are there not corruptions in the bosoms of the best, and daily temptations from Satan and the world to draw these forth, whereby they are always in danger, and often sadly foiled? In a word, is not grace planted in a cold soil, that needs cherishing from the gospel ministry ? Do we not see, that what is got in one sabbath by the preaching of the word, is much impaired by the next ? Truly, oiu' hearts are like lean ground, that needs ever and anon a shower, or else the coni withers and changeth its hue. O, what barren heaths would the most flourishing chinxhes soon prove, if these clouds did not drop upon them ! The Chi'istians to whom Peter wrote, were of a high form, no novices, but well grounded and rooted in the faith ; yet the apostle says, 2 Pet. i. 12, 'I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye knov,- thcni, and be established in the present truth.'
TO MAKE KNOWN THE MYSTERY. §Q()