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"I have oftentimes remarked with admiration, that whatever subject I have been treating upon, after having spent time sufficient to explain and illustrate the truths contained therein, I have been naturally and easily led to Christ as the substance of every subject. If I treated on the being and glorious perfections of God, I was thence naturally led to discourse of Christ as the only way to the Father.'-If I attempted to open the deplorable misery of our fallen state, it was natural from thence to show the necessity of Christ to undertake for us, to atone for our sins, and to redeem us from the power of them. If I taught the commands of God, and showed our violation of them; this brought me in the most easy and natural way to speak of, and recommend the Lord Jesus Christ, as one who had magnified the law,' which we had broken, and who was become the end of it for righteousness, to every one that believes.' Never did I find so much freedom and assistance in making all the various lines of my discourses meet together and centre in Christ, as I have frequently done among these Indians.

"Sometimes when I have had thoughts of offering but a few words upon some particular subject, and saw no occasion, nor indeed much room, for any considerable enlargement, there has at unawares appeared such a fountain of Gospel-grace shining forth in, or naturally resulting from a just explication of it; and Christ has seemed in such a manner to be pointed out as the substance of what I was considering and explaining; that I have been drawn in a way not only easy and natural, proper and pertinent, but almost unavoidable to discourse of him, either in regard of his undertaking, incarnation, satisfaction, admirable fitness for the work of man's redemption, or the infinite need that sinners stand in of an interest in him; which has opened the way for a continued strain of Gospel invitation to perishing souls, to come empty and naked, weary and heavy laden, and cast themselves upon him.

"As I have been remarkably influenced and assisted to dwell upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and the way of salvation by him, in the general current of my discourses here, and have been, at times, surprisingly furnished with pertinent matter relating to him, and the design of his incarnation; so I have been no less assisted oftentimes in an advantageous manner of opening the mysteries of divine grace, and representing the infinite excellencies, and unsearchable riches of Christ,' as well as of recommending him to the acceptance of perishing sinners. I have frequently been enabled to represent the divine glory, the infinite preciousness and transcendant loveliness of the great Redeemer, the suitableness of his person and purchase to supply the wants, and answer the utmost desires of immortal souls; -to open the infinite riches of his grace, and the wonderful

encouragement proposed in the gospel to unworthy, helpless sinners;—to call, invite, and beseech them to come and give up themselves to him, and be reconciled to God through him; -to expostulate with them respecting their neglect of one so infinitely lovely, and freely offered;-and this in such a manner, with such freedom, pertinency, pathos, and application to the conscience, as, I am sure, I never could have made myself master of by the most assiduous application of mind. Frequently, at such seasons, I have been surprisingly helped in adapting my discourses to the capacities of my people, and bringing them down into such easy and familiar methods of expression, as has rendered them intelligible even to Pagans.

"I do not mention these things as a recommendation of my own performances; for I am sure, I found, from time to time, that I had no skill or wisdom for my great work; and knew not how to choose out acceptable words' proper to address poor benighted Pagans with. But thus God was pleased to help me, not to know any thing among them, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.' Thus I was enabled to show them their misery without him, and to represent his complete fitness to redeem and save them.

"This was the preaching God made use of for the awakening of sinners, and the propagation of this work of grace among the Indians.'-It was remarkable, from time to time, that when I was favoured with any special freedom, in discoursing of the ' ability and willingness of Christ to save sinners,' and 'the need in which they stood of such a Saviour; there was then the greatest appearance of divine power in awakening numbers of secure souls, promoting convictions begun, and comforting the distressed.

"I have sometimes formerly, in reading the apostle's discourse to Cornelius, (Acts x.) wondered to see him so quickly introduce the Lord Jesus Christ into his sermon, and so entirely dwell upon him through the whole of it, observing him in this point very widely to differ from many of our modern preachers; but latterly this has not seemed strange, since Christ has appeared to be the substance of the gospel, and the centre in which the several lines of divine revelation meet. Still I am sensible that there are many things necessary to be spoken to persons under Pagan darkness, in order to make way for a proper introduction of the name of Christ, and his undertaking in behalf of fallen man.

II." On the moral Effects of preaching Christ crucified.

"It is worthy of remark, that numbers of these people are brought to a strict compliance with the rules of morality and sobriety, and to a conscientious performance of the external duties of Christianity, by the internal power and influence of divine truths-the peculiar doctrines of grace-upon their

minds; without their having these moral duties frequently repeated and inculcated upon them, and the contrary vices particularly exposed and spoken against. What has been the general strain and drift of my preaching among these Indians, what were the truths I principally insisted upon, and how I was influenced and enabled to dwell from time to time upon the peculiar doctrines of grace, I have already observed in the preceding remarks. Those doctrines, which had the most direct tendency to humble the fallen creature; to show him the misery of his natural state; to bring him down to the foot of sovereign mercy, and to exalt the great Redeemer-discover his transcendent excellency and infinite preciousness, and so to recommend him to the sinner's acceptance-were the subject-matter of what was delivered in public and private to them, and from time to time repeated and inculcated upon them.

"God was pleased to give these divine truths such a powerful influence upon the minds of these people, and so to bless them for the effectual awakening of numbers of them, that their lives were quickly reformed, without my insisting upon the precepts of morality, and spending time in repeated harangues upon external duties. There was indeed no room for any kind of discourses but those which respected the essentials of religion, and the experimental knowledge of divine things, while there were so many inquiring daily-not how they should regulate their external conduct, for that, persons who are honestly disposed to comply with duty, when known, may in ordinary cases, be easily satisfied about, but--how they should escape from the wrath they feared, and felt a desert of,-obtain an ef fectual change of heart,-get an interest in Christ,--and come to the enjoyment of eternal blessedness? So that my great work still was to lead them into a further view of their utter undoneness in themselves, the total depravity and corruption of their hearts; that there was no manner of goodness in them; no good dispositions nor desires; no love to God, nor delight in his commands: but, on the contrary, hatred, enmity, and all manner of wickedness reigning in them:-And at the same time to open to them the glorious and complete remedy provided in Christ for helpless perishing sinners, and offered freely to those who have no goodness of their own, no works of righteousness which they have done, to recommend them to God.'

"This was the continued strain of my preaching; this my great concern and constant endeavour, so to enlighten the mind, as thereby duly to affect the heart, and, as far as possible, give persons a sense of feeling of these precious and important doctrines of grace, at least, so far as means might conduce to it. These were the doctrines, and this the method of preaching, which were blessed of God for the awakening, and I trust, the saving conversion of numbers of souls ;-and which were made

the means of producing a remarkable reformation among the hearers in general.

"When these truths were felt at heart, there was now no vice unreformed,-no external duty neglected.-Drunkenness, the darling vice, was broken off from, and scarce an instance of it known among my hearers for months together. The abusive practice of husbands and wives in putting away each other, and taking others in their stead was quickly reformed; so that there are three or four couple who have voluntarily dismissed those whom they had wrongfully taken, and now live together in love and peace. The same might be said of all other vicious practices.-The reformation was general; and all springing from the internal influence of divine truths upon their hearts; and not from any external restraints, or because they had heard these vices particularly exposed, and repeatedly spoken against. Some of them I never so much as mentioned; particularly, that of the parting of men and their wives, till some, having their conscience awakened by God's word, came, and of their own accord, confessed themselves guilty in that respect. When I at any time mentioned their wicked practices, and the sins they were guilty of contrary to the ght of nature, it was not with a design, nor indeed with any hope, of working an effectual reformation in their external manners by this means, for I knew, that while the tree remained corrupt the fruit would naturally be so. My design was to lead them, by observing the wickedness of their lives, to a view of the corruption of their hearts, and so to convince them of the necessity of a renovation of nature, and to excite them with the utmost diligence to seek after that great change; which, if once obtained, I was sensible, would of course produce a reformation of external manners in every respect.

"And as all vice was reformed upon their feeling the power of these truths upon their hearts, so the external duties of Christianity were complied with, and conscientiously performed from the same internal influence; family prayer set up, and constantly maintained, unless among some few more lately come, who had felt little of this divine influence. This duty was constantly performed, even in some families where there were none but fe males, and scarce a prayerless person was to be found among near an hundred of them. The Lord's day was seriously and religiously observed, and care taken by parents to keep their children orderly upon that sacred day; and this, not because I had driven them to the performance of these duties, by frequently inculcating them, but because they had felt the power of God's word upon their hearts,—were made sensible of their sin and misery, and thence could not but pray, and comply with every thing which they knew to be their duty, from what they felt within themselves. When their hearts were

touched with a sense of their eternal concerns, they could pray with great freedom, as well as fervency, without being at the trouble first to learn set forms for that purpose. Some of them, who were suddenly awakened at their first coming among us, were brought to pray and cry for mercy with the utmost importunity, without ever being instructed in the duty of prayer, or so much as once directed to a performance of it.

"The happy effects of these peculiar doctrines of grace, upon which I have so much insisted upon this people, plainly discover, even to demonstration, that, instead of their opening a door to licentiousness, as many vainly imagine, and slanderously insinuate, they have a directly contrary tendency; so that a close application, a sense and feeling of them, will have the most powerful influence toward the renovation, and effectual refor mation both of heart and life.

"Happy experience, as well as the word of God, and the example of Christ and his apostles, has taught me, that the very method of preaching which is best suited to awaken in mankind a sense and lively apprehension of their depravity and misery in a fallen state,-to excite them earnestly to seek after a change of heart, as to fly for refuge to free and sovereign grace in Christ as the only hope set before them, is likely to be most successful in the reformation of their external conduct. I have found that close addresses, and solemn applications of divine truth to the conscience, strike at the root of all vice; while smooth and plausible harangues upon moral virtues and external duties, at best are like to do no more than lop off the branches of corruption, while the root of all vice remains still untouched.

"A view of the blessed effect of honest endeavours to bring home divine truths to the conscience, and duly to affect the heart with them, has often reminded me of those words of our Lord, which I have thought might be a proper exhortation for ministers in respect of their treating with others, as well as for persons in general with regard to themselves, 'Cleanse first the inside of the cup and platter, that the outside may be clean also.' Cleanse, says he, the inside, that the outside may be clean. As if he had said, The only effectual way to have the outside clean, is to begin with what is within; and if the fountain be purified, the streams will naturally be pure. Most certain it is, if we can awaken in sinners a lively sense of their inward pollution and depravity-their need of a change of heart-and so engage them to seek after inward cleansing, their external defilement will naturally be cleansed, their vicious ways of course be reformed, and their conversation and behaviour become regular.

"Now, although I cannot pretend that the reformation among my people, does, in every instance, spring from a saving VOL. X.

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