:

who fled from and denied Him: "Go tell my brethren," says He. He did not say, Go tell those traitors; but, "Go tell my brethren, and Peter:" as though He had said, Go tell my brethren in general, and poor Peter in particular, "that I am risen;" O comfort his poor drooping heart, tell him I am reconciled to him; bid him weep no more so bitterly for though with oaths and curses he thrice denied Me, yet I have died for his sins, I am risen again for his justification: I freely forgive him all. Thus slow to anger, and of great kindness, was our all-merciful High Priest. And do you think He has changed His nature, and forgets poor sinners, now He is exalted to the right-hand of God? No, He is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, and sitteth there only to make intercession for

us.

Come then, ye harlots, come ye publicans, come ye most abandoned of sinners, come and believe on Jesus Christ. Though the whole world despise you and cast you out, yet He will not disdain to take you up. O amazing, O infinitely condescending love! even you, He will not be ashamed to call His brethren. How will you escape if you neglect such a glorious offer of salvation? What would the damned spirits, now in the prison of hell, give, if Christ were so freely offered to their souls? And why are not we lifting up our eyes in torments? Does any one out of this great multitude dare say, he does not deserve damnation? If not, why are we left, and others taken away by death? What is this but an instance of God's free grace, and a sign of His good will towards us? Let God's goodness lead us to repentance! O let there be joy in heaven over some of you repenting! Though we are in a field, I am persuaded the blessed angels are hovering now around us, and do long, "as the hart panteth after the water-brooks," to sing an anthem at your conversion. Blessed be God, I hope their joy will be fulfilled.

An awful silence appears amongst us. I have good hope that the words which the Lord has enabled me to speak in

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your ears this day, have not altogether fallen to the ground. Your tears and deep attention are an evidence that the Lord God is amongst us of a truth. Come, ye Pharisees, come and in spite of your satanical rage and fury, the Lord Jesus is getting Himself the victory. And, brethren, I speak the truth

see,

in Christ, I lie not, if one soul of you, by the blessing of God, be brought to think savingly of Jesus Christ this day, I care not if my enemies were permitted to carry me to prison, and put my feet fast in the stocks, as soon as I have delivered this sermon. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God is, that you may be saved. For this cause I follow my Master without the camp. I care not how much of His sacred reproach I bear, so that some of you be converted from the errors of your ways. I rejoice, yea, and I will rejoice. Ye men, ye devils, do your worst: the Lord who sent will support me. And when Christ, who is our life, and whom I have now been preaching, shall appear, I also, together with His despised little ones, shall appear with Him in glory. And then, what will you think of Christ? I know what you will think of Him. You will then think Him to be the fairest among ten thousand: you will then think and feel Him to be a just and sin-avenging judge. Be ye then persuaded to kiss Him lest He be angry, and so you be banished for ever from the presence of the Lord. Behold, I come to you as the angel did to Lot. Flee, flee, for your lives; haste, linger no longer in your spiritual Sodom, for otherwise you will be eternally destroyed. Numbers, no doubt, there are amongst you, that may regard me no more than Lot's sons-in-law regarded him. I am persuaded I seem to some of you as one that mocketh: but I speak the truth in Christ, I lie not; as sure as fire and brimstone was rained from the Lord out of heaven, to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, so surely, at the great day, shall the vials of God's wrath be poured on you, if you do not think seriously of, and act agreeable to the gospel of the Lord's Christ. Behold, I have told

you before; and I pray God, all you that forget Him may seriously think of what has been said, before He pluck you away, and there be none to deliver you.

The last Farewell.

I was

Now I must come to the hardest part I have to act. afraid when I came out from home that I could not bear the shock, but I hope the Lord Jesus Christ will help me to bear it, and help you to give me up to the blessed God, let Him do with me what He will. This is the thirteenth time of my crossing the mighty waters. It is a little difficult at this time of life; and though my spirits are improved in some degree, yet weakness is the best of my strength. But I delight in the cause, and God fills me with a peace that is unutterable, which nobody knows, and a stranger intermeddles not with. Into His hands I commend my spirit, and I beg that this may be the language of your hearts, Lord, keep him; let nothing pluck him out of Thy hands.

I expect many a trial while I am on board. Satan always meets me there; but that God who has kept me, I believe will keep me. I thank God I have the comfort of leaving everything quite well and easy at both ends of the town; and, my dear hearers, my prayers to God shall be, that nothing may pluck you out of Christ's hands. Witness against me if I ever set up a party for myself. Did ever any minister, or could any minister in the world say, that I ever spake against any one going to any dear minister? I thank God that He has enabled me to be always strengthening the hands of all, though some have afterwards been ashamed to own me. I declare to you that I believe God will be with me, and will strengthen me; and I believe it is in answer to your prayers that God is pleased to revive my spirits: may the Lord help you to pray on. If I am drowned in the waves I will say,

Lord, take care of my London, take care of my English friends; let nothing pluck them out of Thy hands.

And as Christ has given us eternal life, O my brethren, some of you, I doubt not, will be gone to Him before my return. But, my dear brethren, my dear hearers, never mind that; we shall part, but it will be to meet again for ever. I dare not meet you now, I cannot bear your coming to me to part from me, it cuts me to the heart and overcomes me; but by and by all parting will be over, and all tears shall be wiped away from our eyes. God grant that none that weep now at my parting may weep at our meeting at the day of judgment; and if you never were among Christ's sheep before, may Christ Jesus bring you now. O come, come, see what it is to have eternal life; do not refuse it; haste, sinner, haste away; may the great, the good Shepherd draw your souls. Oh! if you never heard his voice before, God grant you may hear it now, that I may have this comfort when I am gone that I had last, that some souls are awakened at the parting sermon. O that it may be a farewell sermon to you; that it may be a means of your taking a farewell of the world, the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eye, and the pride of life. O come, come, come to the Lord Jesus Christ; to Him I leave you.

And you, dear sheep, that are already in His hands, O may God keep you from wandering. God keep you near Christ's feet. I do not care what shepherds keep you, so as you are kept near the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls. The Lord God keep you, lift up the light of His countenance upon you, and give you peace. Amen.

JOHN WESLEY.

On the Death of Mr Whitefield.

But how shall we improve this awful providence? And the answer to this important question is easy: (may God write it

in all our hearts)! By keeping close to the grand doctrines which he delivered; and by drinking into his spirit.

1. And first, let us keep close to the grand scriptural doctrines which he everywhere delivered. There are many doctrines of a less essential nature, with regard to which, even the sincere children of God (such is the present weakness of human understanding!) are, and have been divided for many ages. In these we may think and let think; we may "agree to disagree." But meantime, let us hold fast the essentials of “the faith, which was once delivered to the saints;" and which this champion of God so strongly insisted on at all times and in all places.

2. His fundamental point was to give God all the glory of whatever is good in man, and, in the business of salvation, set Christ as high, and man as low as possible. With this point he, and his friends at Oxford, the original Methodists, so called, set out. Their grand principle was, there is no power by nature, and no merit in man. They insisted, all power to think, speak, or act right, is in and from the Spirit of Christ: and all merit is (not in man, how high soever in grace, but merely) in the blood of Christ. So he and they taught: There is no power in man, till it is given him from above, to do one good work, to speak one good word, or to form one good desire. For it is not enough to say, all men are sick of sin: No, we are all "DEAD in tresspasses and sins." It follows, that all the children of men are by nature children of wrath. We are all guilty before God, liable to death, temporal and eternal.

3. And we are all helpless, both with regard to the power and to the guilt of sin. For "who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?" None less than the Almighty. Who can raise those that are dead, spiritually dead in sin? Nonc but He who raised us from the dust of the earth. But on what consideration will He do this? "Not for works of righteousness that we have done. The dead cannot praise