reconciliation with God ; who, I say, can reflect on this, and not desire to make it known to all the sinners of mankind ? In a word, who can have beheld "the glory of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ," and not desire to reflect the light of it on all who are sitting in darkness and the shadow of death ? This is undoubtedly our duty : we are not to put our light under a bushel, but to set it on a candlestick, that all the world, if possible, may see the light.]
This then being our duty to the Lord Jesus Christ, we will proceed to,
II. Call you to the performance of it —
Consider,
1. Your obligations to the Lord Jesus Christ —
[How inconceivably great are these ! If we attempt to estimate them, where shall we begin ? or, having begun, where shall we end ? If you have not yet experienced his converting grace, the very provision of a salvation for you, a salvation so dearly bought, and so freely offered, demands from you every tribute of love and gratitude that you can ever pay. But if you have reason to think yourselves partakers of this salvation, and are enabled with appropriating faith to say, " He has loved me, and given himself for me" there should be no bounds to your zeal and diligence in his service. Time, talents, property, yea life itself, should be esteemed by you as of no value, any farther than they may enable you to glorify his name. Enter then minutely into the consideration of this subject, and say, Whether, " if you hold your peace, the very stones will not cry out against you ? "]
2. The necessities of the heathen world —
[The whole Scriptures speak of the heathen world as perishing for lack of knowledge : and though we will not pre- sume to say, that none of them shall be made partakers of God's mercy for Christ's sake ; yet we are sure, that, as a body, they are under a sentence of guilt and condemnation. Can we then know the remedy which God has provided for them, and not feel ourselves bound to reveal it to them, and to labour, as far as possible, to extend to them its saving benefits ? Can we reflect on the unhappy state of the Jews, and not pity them ; blinded as they are by prejudice, and bent as they are on their own destruction? Can we look on all the different classes of the Gentile world, and see what penances they endure to pacify the supposed wrath of their senseless idols, and not feel a desire to proclaim to them the glad tidings of the Gospel ? If it would be our duty to stretch out our hand to one sinking in the waters, and to rescue him from destruction,