in composing the public papers, which express their views concerning the faith of Christ. But amidst these and other avocations he did not neglect his flock; and his diligence among them was attended with visible success. They form now a very numerous, pious, and respectable body of people. They greatly esteemed their minister while he lived, and since his death have shown the most dutiful respect to his memory, by ordering a handsome monument to be erected over his grave in the church-yard of Barnet; and by making provision for his family. He has left a widow and five children, (the youngest of whom was born since his death) who very sensibly feel the loss they have sustained ;but he often committed them unto the Lord, who will be faithful to his promise, in being a Father to the fatherless, and a Husband to the widow.

To attempt to delineate the character of this eminent servant of Christ, would require one possessed of equal abilities. He was critically acquainted with the holy scriptures, which he daily studied in the original languages. His distinct views of evangelical truth, rendered him always acceptable in his public discourses, to those who had any savor for the things of God: while his extensive acquaintance with the history, constitution, and order of the church of Christ, made him very useful to the Presbytery of which he was a member. He had a plentiful measure of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, which shone forth in his great humility, weanedness from the world, solemnity of carriage, and in his being a man of prayer, and always deeply impressed with a sense of the Divine Majesty. He was much favored with intimacy with his God: he frequently spent days, yea, whole nights, in prayer and wrestling with God. At sacramental times he slept little, and his conversation was very heavenly. He was ordinarily much countenanced in his ministry on such occasions.

He was well acquainted with the writings of the Reformers, and with the rise and progress of the Reformation, together with the wonderful events of Divine Providence in bringing it about. Indeed, he was possessed of the same spirit with these eminent instruments, in the hand of God, for bringing about our glorious deliverance from the tyranny of Antichrist; and had nothing more at heart than the further reformation of the church of Christ in his own day. In one

"He had (says the Editors of the Christian Magazine) the satisfaction to see the church with which he was connected, spring up as from a tender shoot, till it became strong, and spread its branches through various parts of the United States of America."

word, it may be said, that very few in this age possess an equal assemblage of gifts and graces, with as few imperfec tions, as Mr. Beveridge did.

His body lies in the church-yard of Barnet, in the ground appropriated for the use of Mr. Goodwillie's family, and at the side of those two children who died of the same disorder with himself. On his tomb-stone is the following inscription:

"In hope of a blessed resurrection, rests under this stone, the mortal part of the Rev. THOMAS BEVERIDGE, late minister of the Gospel at Cambridge, in the State of New-York, and member of the Associate Presbytery of Pennsylvania. He was born at East-side, Parish of Fossoway, and Shire of Fife, Scotland.-Ordained to the holy ministry at Edinburgh, in September, 1783, by appointment of the Associate Synod, with a view to a mission to North America, where he arrived the ensuing year, and was admitted to his pastoral charge in September, 1789; in which he labored with uncommon care and diligence, and his labors were crowned with visible success. He came here to assist at the dipensation of the Lord's Supper, and departed this life on the 23d of July, 1798, in the 49th year of his age.(Rev. xiv. 13,) Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, from henceforth; yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors: and their works do follow them.' (1 Thess. iv. 14,) Them that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.'

"The Associate Congregation of Cambridge have caused this Sepulchral Monument to be erected, as a lasting memorial of their sense of his great worth, and their respect to his memory, which will be long held in remembrance among them."

SERMON,

BY THE REV. THOMAS BEVERIDGE.

(Preached at Philadelphia, Oct. 31, 1788, at the
Ordination of the Rev. David Goodwillie.)

"Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not." (2 Cor. iv. 1.)

THE work in which they are engaged, who carry the Lord's message to his church, is great, and quite above mere human strength. They are ambassadors for Christ; and, being men compassed with infirmity, they seem very unfit for such an high office. They are employed to deal with enemies, as though God did beseech these by them; and as in Christ's stead to pray these, "Be ye reconciled to God." This proposal of peace is often despised; yea, they who in the Lord's name make it, are for his sake exposed to reproach, to suffering, and to death. "Behold," says Christ to his messengers, "I send you forth as sheep among wolves." If we act with a single eye, and with an upright heart, "serving God with our spirit in the gospel of his son," we may lay our account with much ill-will, and many sore thrusts to make us fall, among this adulterous and sinful generation. But, we must "endure hardship, as good soldiers of Jesus Christ." We are in the service, and under the care of a gracious master, who knows our frame, and will not lay upon us more than is meet; he hath said, "as thy days so shall thy strength be." Lo I am with you alway, even to the end of the world." "Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not."

The grace given to Paul, made him shine as a star of the first magnitude in the New Testament church. It may be said of the other apostles, that they did excellently; but he excelled them all. He was eminent in faith; eminent for his knowledge in the mystery of Christ; eminent in abilities for

the work of the gospel; eminent in zeal for the house of God; eminent for that holy fortitude, which made him so cheerfully hazard his life in the cause of Christ. "What mean ye,' said he to his friends, on a certain occasion, "to weep, and to break mine heart, for I am ready, not to be bound only, but to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." He had, however, nothing save what he received, and nothing more than he needed. He was carried through his work as all the Lord's servants then were, and still are, by daily communications of strength from on high; and, therefore, he owns himself a debtor to mercy, as much, or more, than his brethren. "Seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not." Communications of grace are made to some saints more abundantly than to others; but those who have least shall not perish in the way; he who gathereth the lambs with his arm, and carrieth them in his bosom, will bring them safe to glory, "a bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench," and those who have most will find, on many occasions, that they have use for it all.

The Corinthians were, as many still are, disposed to make light of the ministry of reconciliation, on account of the suffering state and mean appearance of those employed in it. Therefore, the apostle in the preceding chapter shows them, that the glory which attended the proclamation of the law at Sinai, was in no wise so great as that of the New Testament Church. The former was the ministration of death; by the law was the knowledge of sin, and from the law issued wrath to devour the transgressors; but that in which he and his brethren were employed, was the ministry of reconciliation; by the gospel was the knowledge of Christ the Saviour, "in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness. of sins, according to the riches of his grace."

When the law was proclaimed, the thunders, the lightnings, the dark cloud, the voice of the trumpet waxing louder and louder, the burning mountain, and the earthquake were so terrible, that all the people trembled, and Moses himself said, I exceedingly fear and quake. The sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of Mount Sinai, in the eyes of the children of Israel, an emblem of the wrath which will consume the breakers of that law. The gospel speaks better things. The sum of it is: "That God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them;" and that "he hath sent forth his son, made of a

woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons."

The law being weak through the flesh, the holy commandment stirring up the enmity of the corrupt heart against God, it revived sin; it could not take it away. Had not salvation, through the Messiah, been made known in the promise, and held forth in the types and shadows of the Old Testament dispensation, the law published at Sinai would have profited Israel nothing. Believers at that time fled from it (as they still do) to Christ; expecting salvation, not through their obedience to the precept, but through the grace manifested in the promise.

The law was wrote and engraved on stones, at Sinai; but in the more glorious ministration of the spirit, it is wrote and engraved on the hearts of men. The former writing perished; the latter endures for ever.

Terror and darkness attended the ministry of Moses; his face indeed shone, but the children of Israel could not look upon it. This light filled them with dread; and it had no sanctifying influence upon them. They continued to murmur, rebel, and go astray; but the light of the glory of God, shining in the person and mediation of Jesus Christ, is not a terror to us, it is our life, and our salvation. The Old Testament saints enjoyed the dawning of it. Abraham saw the day of Christ in the sure signs of the morning, "and was glad," and so likewise did all who in those early ages were partakers of like precious faith with him. Now the day is broke; the shadows are fled away: and the Son of righteousness is risen with healing in his wings. "We all" says the apostle, "with open face beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, as by the spirit of the Lord." Therefore, adds he, seeing we have this ministry, which is so glorious, committed to us, we find life to ourselves in the word which we preach to others, and are upheld by that mercy which in the name of the Lord we proclaim to all the wretched, and poor, and miserable, and blind, and naked. We are not only messengers to tell others of the Lord's goodness, but we are monuments of it ourselves; "troubled on every side, yet not distressed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed."

This text leads us to speak, first, of the ministry of the gospel, next, of the peculiar trials which usually attend those who are employed in it, and lastly, of the mercy which preserves them from fainting.