f Col. ii. 15. g Eph. iv. 8. ^ Rom. xi. 15.
' Eph. ii. 12,13. k Eph. ii. 19. i Acts xx. 25. and xxviii. 31.
Now then learn,
1. What evidence there is of our commission —
[You may well inquire what authority we have to declare these things ; and expect that we should be able to adduce some testimony from God himself, as a seal to our ministry. Behold then, m a spiritual sense, the very testimonies with which the Apostles themselves were honoured. Did they " heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, and cast out devils™?" Such are the eifects wrought by our Gospel also, on the souls of men. Say, brethren. Are there none of you that were once sick, and leprous, yea, " dead in trepasses and sins," and " led captive by the devil at his will ;" and that have, through the ministry of the word, been " delivered from the power of darkness, and translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son"?" I trust that there are amongst you such "seals to our ministry °," and such witnesses for God in this sinful world. But where are these effects ever produced by any other doctrine than that which is here announced ? Where are men " turned from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God," by any other doctrine than that which Paul preached, the doctrine of the Cross ? If, then, this doctrine have wrought effectually amongst you, and be the only doctrine which is the power of God to the salvation of men, then have you an evidence that " the kingdom of God is come unto youP."]
2. What benefit you will derive from receiving our testimony —
[Form to yourselves an idea of all that the wisest and greatest monarch can bestow upon his most endeared favour- ites, and you will fall infuiitely short of what the Lord Jesus will confer on you ]
3. What necessity is laid upon you to submit to Christ—
[If those who slighted the ministrations of the Apostles, who could only say that the kingdom of heaven was at hand, were in a state " more intolerable than that of Sodom and Gomorrhai," what think you must be the state of those who pour contempt upon it now that it is established ? I pray God, my brethren, that this guilt may never attach to you ; lest, in the last day, the Saviour himself issue respecting you that awful sentence, " Bring hither those that were mine enemies, who would not that I should reign over them, and slay them before me."]
"> ver. 8. » Col. i. 13. « 1 Cor. ix. 2.
P Matt. xii. 28. q ver. 15.