me ministers of Christ that are here, help me with your prayers: ye servants of the living God, help with your prayers. O with what success did I preach in Moorfields when I had ten thousand of God's people praying for me; pray to God to strengthen my body: don't be afraid I shall hurt myself to-night: I don't care what hurt I do myself if .God may bless it; I can preach but little, but may God bless that little. I weep and cry and humble myself before my God daily for being laid aside; I would not give others the trouble if I could preach myself. You have had the first of me, and you will have the last of me: the angels of God waited for your conversion, and are now ready to take care of the soul when it leaves the rotten carcase. The worst creature under heaven, that has not a penny in the world, may be welcome unto God. However it has been with us in times past, may our souls prosper in time to come; which God grant of his infinite mercy. Amen.

SERMON IV.

THE GOSPEL A DYING SAINT'S TRIUMPH. A FUNERAL SERMON.

MARK xvi. ver. 15, 16.

And he said unto them, go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned.

I

AM persuaded I need not inform this auditory, that when ambassadors are sent to a

prince, or when judges go their respective circuits, it is always customary for them to show their credentials, to open and read their commissions, by which they act in his Majesty's name. The same is absolutely necessary for those who are ambassadors of the Son of God, as they would be faithful to their Lord; since they are to sit with him on the throne, when he shall come the second time to judge both evil angels and men. If any should ask me, where is their commission? it has been just now read unto you. Here it is in my hand, it is written with the King's own hand, by the finger of the ever-blessed God, and sealed with the signet of his eternal Spirit, with his broad seal annexed to it. The commission is short, but very extensive; and it is remarkable, it was given out just before the Redeemer went to heaven; he reserved it in infinite wisdom for his last blessing, to appoint and employ vicegerents to carry on his work on earth. He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear what the Son of God says to a company of poor fishermen. There was not one scholar among them all. What does he say: Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel unto every creature. Let us pause a while, and before we go further let us see what mercy, what love, and yet withal, what equal majesty are blended in this expression or commission. Go ye, ye poor fishermen, ye that the letter-learned doctors will look upon as illiterate men; Go ye, that have hitherto been dreaming of temporal preferments, quarreling who should sit on my right hand and on my left hand in my kingdom: Go ye, not stay till the people come to you, but imitate the conduct of your Master; Go ye, remembring that the devil will not permit souls to be fond of hearing

you: Go therefore; where? into all the world: there is a commission for you; there never was such a commission on the earth; there never was any like this; Go into all the world, that is, into the Gentile as well as the Jewish world. Hitherto my gospel has been confined to the Jews; I once told you, you must not go to the Gentiles; I once told a poor woman that came to me, it is not meet to take the childrens bread, and give it unto dogs: but the partition wall being now broke down, the veil of the temple being now rent in twain, he gave them a universal commission; Go ye, therefore, into all the world; how! what go into other ministers parishes? for there was not a district then but what was settled with Shepherds, such as they were; yes, yes, Go into all the world and though I will not pretend to say, that this enjoins ministers to go into every part of the world; yet I insist upon it, and by the grace of God, if I was to die for it, I will say, that no power on earth has power to restrain ministers from preaching where a company of people are willing to hear; and if ministers were of a right temper, they would say as a minister did at Oxford, that used to visit the prisoners there? I remember once I went to ask him whether I might go and visit some of his parish, whether he was offended at our going to visit the prisoners? No, no, says he, I am glad I have any such young curates as you. And if ministers were of such a temper now, O dear, the devil would fly before us. As good Mr. Philip Henry said to the minister of Broad Oaks, from whence he was ejected, but preached afterwards in a barn, and meeting the minister after sermon was over; ir, says Mr. Henry, I have been making bold to throw

a handful of seed into your ground. Thank you, Sir, says he, God bless it, there is work enough for us both, we may talk of what we will, search into the bottom, it is not for want of light, but of more zeal and love to the Son of God: if we were as warm, and full of the love of God as we ought to be, these pretty excuses we urge to save our bones, would not be so much as mentioned; we should go out and leave these carcases to the grace of God. I don't see how we can act as priests of the church of England without doing it. Be so kind as to read the Ordination Service as soon as you go home; for the office of ordination and consecration of bishops, priests, and deacons, is left out of most of the common prayerbooks, so that people are as ignorant of it as if it The office of a priest is this; he is not to confine himself to his place, no; what then? why he is to go forth, and seek after the children of God that are dispersed in this naughty world; these are the very words that the bishop speaks to us when we are ordained; but if we are confined to one particular place, and are to be shut up in one corner, pray how do we seek the children of God that are dispersed in this ughty world? Parishes and settled ministers there must be, but we are not, I insist on it, to be hindered from preaching Christ any where, because he bids us go into all the world; here is our licence.

was not.

I ac

knowledge the Chapel is licensed: here is my licence; and wherever I go I will produce my license; where? why out of the 16th of Mark; Go ye and preach the gospel to all the world : there is the licence, and the Spirit of Christ helping us to preach by that licence, will make all the devil's children cowards before us. We have

tried them these thirty years, would to God we set about it now; if I had strength I would set about it to-morrow: I only grieve that my body will not hold out for field-preaching, else Kennington-Common should be my pulpit, for any place is consecrated where Christ is present. Well, what must we go forth to do? Go ye into all the world, and preach; preach! what is that? why the original word for preach is to speak out, as a crier does that cries goods that are lost; proclaim it. And Isaiah would be reckoned a dreadful enthusiast if now alive. How does he preach? he preaches in the King's chapels such language and eloquence as would carry all before it; and yet how does he preach? Ho every one that thirsteth. O, he lifts up his voice like a trumpet. And the word preach signifies to proclaim; to cry aloud, and spare not. How do you like one that cries your lost goods if he only whispers? would you chuse to employ a man that you could not hear two yards? O, say you, I shall never find my goods: and if persons have what qualifications they may, if they cannot be heard at all; they need not preach at all. I know a prebend in the cathedral of York, who spoke so very low nobody heard him; somebody said, they never heard such a moving sermon in all their lives in that cathedral, for it made all the people move out, because they could not hear. The matter of the ministry of the gospel is of infinite importance: unless, my brethren, we could be heard, what do we preach for? It implies earnestness in the preaching, and the preacher. You expect a person, like one that is crying your goods, to be in earnest; and if we preach, and make the King's proclamation, we should be in