infinite in his perfections, and from the decision of his judgments there is no appeal. The obstacles which would frequently deter men from engaging in an enterprise, are sometimes chosen by God as instruments of his work, and made conducive to those designs, which in themselves they are calculated to overthrow.

Placed beyond the influences of those motives which guide or bias human conduct, his modes of action surpass our penetration, and baffle our acutest researches. He reigns in inaccessible glory, and either creates new springs of action to subserve his purposes, or so touches those which are already in existence, as to excite our astonishment, while he changes the whole face of things. Intimately acquainted with the most latent propensities of intelligent beings, he can invert the order of established nature, and perform with ease those things which are impossible to man. He can cause the "Ethiopian to change his skin, and the leopard his spots," and make those who are accustomed to do evil, to cease from all iniquity and to do well. His power and his wisdom are such, as to set our calculations at defiance; and to prove in every thing that we cannot fully comprehend his ways. He not only surpasses the understanding of man, but that of all finite intelligences, and demonstrates in all his ways that he is God over all, blessed for ever. In every country he affords us evidences of these truths; but in no places so conspicuously as in those Islands which we are about to review. The instruments which are made use of; the places which have been selected for the scenes of action; the subjects on whom these important changes have been wrought; the moral and civil condition in which they were; will all unite to prove not only the infinity of his power, but the virtue of redeeming blood, and the efficacy of divine grace. In any of these cases, we behold such proofs as are sufficient to produce conviction; but when these evidences unite their forces, they press upon the mind with an effect which is irresistible. To repel that energy with which we are assailed, we must labour against our own persuasions; and with no other object in view, we must baffle the strength of evidence, to become the dupes of our own incredulity.

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When we consider the subjects on whom God has displayed the wonderful efficacy of his grace, the most unfavourable circumstances appear. Every event wears a forbidding aspect, without affording the most distant probability of success. customed to nothing but savage manners among those of their own colour, and living under the absolute dominion of every brutal passion, the negroes could have had no previous conceptions of those restraints which the gospel was about to impose. And consequently, as the design of Christianity was to oppose the lawless sallies of their unruly appetites, it must have acted in

direct opposition to their accustomed feelings and judgments; and have had to encounter all the violent prejudices of uncultivated life.

When modes of conduct have been once adopted, and pursued till they become habitual, they are the most difficult of all prejudices to be removed. They acquire strength from constant cxercise, and, sanctioned by common consent, they become venerable in proportion to their antiquity; and, while they afford momentary indulgence, they are not parted with without regret. Lost in an abyss of iniquity, the feelings by which these negroes were governed, were little more than mere animal sensations. The violence of their passions, and their habitual indulgence of them, must have nearly smothered the internal dictates of their consciences, and reduced every emotion of the soul to one common level, and melted all into one general mass. Unable to discriminate between perceptions which through their habits of iniquity were apparently allied, though in themselves distant and remote, they were incapable of analyzing their thoughts. Their ideas were few, and bounded by narrow confines; the gratifying of their inclinations seemed to encircle all. Thus circumscribed in their views, and acting under the impulses of those affections which were the only incentives to action; ignorance, the inseparable concomitant of savage life, seemed to shut up every avenue of the soul, and fixed a barrier, which prohibited all access. Their reasoning faculties having never been called into action, were in a torpid state. Of the truths of the gospel they had never heard; and on its excellencies or defects, they were incompetent to decide. Their passions were enthroned; and, reigning with absolute dominion, would submit to no controul. Thus shielded by ignorance, and impelled by their desires, influenced by that carnal mind which is enmity against the things of God, and acting with views that were bounded by contiguous objects, with distracted notions of a First Cause, too confused to admit of any regard, or to procure reverence; and with prospects of an hereafter too much obscured to incite to action, or to keep alive any adequate conceptions of rewards and punishments beyond the grave, Christianity had before it no prospect that could promise any success; or justify any attempt to introduce it into these benighted regions of the globe.

Such were the subjects on which God has displayed the saving powers of his grace, and manifested the rich discoveries of redeeming love!

But when from the subjects themselves we turn our views to the peculiarities of their condition, it will still appear more evidently, that the work which God has wrought is entirely through grace by faith. In their moral condition we behold them enslav

ed to every vice, and working all manner of uncleanness with greediness; and in their civil state degraded to the most abject condition into which human nature could possibly enter.

The gospel which was about to be introduced among them, had to assert as one of its fundamental principles, the wisdom and justice and power of God. But these circumstances opened new sources of difficulties. The wisdom of God was not conspicuous in his dealings towards them in a civil view; and his justice and power could not without difficulties, which to them were insurmountable, be reconciled together. To assert that God was "loving to every man, and that his tender mercies were over all his works," were points that were apparently contradicted by fact; and entitled to no credit, because they exceeded all belief. To conceal these truths, the ministers of Jesus Christ would have acted an unfaithful part, in not declaring the whole counsel of him by whom they were sent; and to divulge them seemed likely to defeat the design of their mission.

The negroes could have had no favourable notions of that justice which was avowedly infinite, and supported by power which was placed beyond all controul, while they beheld their own condition, and contemplated that state of degradation into which they were involved without any apparent cause. Their complicated distresses must have rather awakened jealousy than excited gratitude; and they must, according to all human modes of reasoning, have considered the introduction of the gospel as an attempt to impose shackles upon their minds; to stifle the pangs of agonizing nature, and reconcile them to their fate.

They could have had no predilection for a system which they could not understand; which promised happiness in another life; but which professedly came from that God, who, though infinite both in justice and power, had so mysteriously withheld it from them in the present life. The rewards and punishments which lay beyond the grave, could have but little influence, while even the existence of an hereafter was so problematical; the proofs of which, even admitting the fact, they could not comprehend. Of miseries in a future state they could have little to fear, while estimating their present circumstances; and of felicities they could have but little to hope, when considering that they depended entirely upon the mercies of that God who had permitted their present condition. A train of circumstances moving in the same direction, and originating in the same cause, must produce the same effects, and must have filled them with disgust, without awaking their hopes or fears.

Such are the views which we may naturally conceive they must have had of the gospel of Jesus Christ, while acting under the influence of those impressions, which a view of their civil

condition must have inspired. But how hostile soever these ob stacles might appear in the sight of man, they were no obstacles to God. Their souls enslaved to every vice, and their bodies enslaved by man, their prejudices arising from inveterate habits, sanctioned by custom and guarded by native ignorance, were trifles of no account in the sight of God. That divine power which had raised the dead, and cleansed the lepers, was able to quicken their mortal bodies, and to raise their souls from a death of sin to a life of righteousness; and to bring them into the glorious liberty of the sons of God, when they came unto him by faith.

The power of God which we thus view in theory, has been realized in fact. His grace has actually accomplished what his promises had taught his followers to expect. In opposition to every intervening obstacle, he has instituted means, through which his blessed gospel has reached the distant shores of their habitation, has triumphed over every impediment; and, what is of infinitely greater importance, has changed the hearts of thousands, who willingly followed "the drawings of the Father," and yielded to the operations of converting grace.

To work through the instrumentality of means, or without the medium of such subordinate agents, is exactly alike to God. The end for which he acts is his; and the way and manner through which that end is to be accomplished, are his also. In peculiar cases known only to himself, he conducts himself without the concurrence of any visible agent; but his ordinary mode of dealing with the sons of men, is through the medium of some instruments, which he selects. In his economy towards mankind we are not overpowered with an irresistible blaze of Omnipotence; but he condescends to reason with us, and to adapt his conduct to the understanding which he has bestowed. To act upon us with an irresistible impulse, would without doubt display his power; but in proportion as his power became conspicuous, his justice would be eclipsed, and his wisdom would be concealed. He must, in these cases, counteract the primary constitution of our natures, and destroy the probationary state of man; and, under these circumstances, obedience would cease to be an excellency, and impenitency to be a crime.

But in the conversion of these insulated heathens, God has made use of his ordinary methods. Had he acted in a different manner, many questions of considerable difficulty might have been raised, even though all were to admit "that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But 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? and how shall they preach except they be sent ?" From this train of interrogatives

we may safely conclude that "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." (Rom x. 13—17.)

The instruments which God has selected for this purpose, were adapted by himself for the important work in which he called them to engage. Neither deeply read in the abstruse sciences, nor critically versed in the liberal arts, without being adepts in philosophical disquisition, or pretending to those embellishments which gain access in polished life; they were men raised up by God himself, and instructed from on high, to dispense those blessings which had been previously communicated to their own souls.

Acquainted with the scriptures, and fully satisfied that their call was from above; and experiencing those truths which they were about to deliver, they possessed all those internal qualifications which were necessary for the accomplishment of their arduous task. The fact is proved beyond the possibility of contradiction; because God has owned their labours, and blessed their endeavours, and added through their instrumentality to his church, thousands that we have every reason to believe will be eternally saved. Neither their "speech nor their preaching was with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and with power, that the faith of those who heard should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." Knowing in whom they had believed, and feeling the powers of the world to come, they were enabled to speak with a becoming boldness, and to testify that Christ the Saviour of the world has power on earth to forgive sins.

Not dealing "in the false commerce of a truth unfelt," they spoke what they knew, and testified what they had seen; and thousands of those who attended their ministry received their testimony; and are now living witnesses to the verity of these accounts. Burning with holy fervour, and not counting their lives dear unto themselves, these servants of the most high God have gone forth in the midst of dangers to encounter difficulties, and to be exposed to perils in a variety of forms. Relying on the protection of that God, who upholds and directs all things by the word of his power, the pestilence which of late years has ravaged these occasionally insalubrious climates, has not been able to quench their sacred zeal. Though individuals have fallen victims to that fatal disease, the hearts of others have been moved to quit their Christian brethren; to take leave of their native country, and that perhaps for ever; to cross the vast Atlantic ocean; to enter into a burning zone, without any other pros pect before them than that of hoping to be rendered useful to the negroes in the salvation of their souls; and without any