(Preached before the University of Oxford.) He that winneth souls is wise. Prov. xi. 30. In a place where philosophy or the love of wisdom is so universally professed and so care, fully cultivated, where so many are obliged by their office to study and practise this particular sort of wisdom, and where more are designed and endeavouring to qualify themselves for the same sacred function, it cannot but be highly proper to make that wisdom the subject of our consideration, which so great a part of us are engaged by such peculiar ties to recommend both by our lives and doctrines ; and to explain and enforce this important truth, " He that winneth souls is wise." He that winneth souls that draweth them from vice to virtue, from rebellion against God to obedience to his holy laws that recovers them from darkness and the shadow of death to the paths of light and peace that disentangles them from the fatal snare from which they had no hope, nay, no desire of escaping that disappoints the de stroyer of his prey, even when he said, " there is none to help them " he is wise indeed ! as will be evident if we consider : First, the end he proposes ; Secondly, the means that lead to it. First, the end he proposes. Winning souls may be considered first as bringing glory to God. It is true, no action of any created being can do this in a strict sense, can at all add to that essen tial glorywherewith hisCreator was clothed from eternity : yet, in a lower sense, whatever we do may be done to the glory of God; that is, may at least remotely tend to manifest his glory, to increase the honour paid to him by his creatures,

to make him more known and more beloved by spreading his holy name, and adorning his gospel. And in this sense he that winneth souls eminently advances the glory of God, by displaying his glorious nature and attributes to the sons of men, who alone of all the visible creation are capable of contemplating them. Man alone of all the inhabitants of this world can acknowledge and praise Him that made it ; can raise his thoughts and affections from sen sible objects to Him " whom no man hath seen or can see:" and to persuade him to make this true use of the privileges he enjoys, to declare to him the wonderful vorks which God hath done, the wisdom and goodness he hath shown in all his works, is as noble a way of advancing his glory as any to which any creature can aspire. It was for this very thing that God wrought those works, that his eternal power and god head might be known; that the invisible nature of him might be seen in them: " He spake and they were made." With this de sign were the heavens and the earth created, and all the hosts of them ; for this, the Al ii 2

mighty formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life ; with the same great view he preserves what he has made, and upholds all things by the word of his power with the same view, he withheld not from us his Son, his only Son ! He gave Him to us after he had freely given us all things ! that his name might be known and glorified amongst men. This purpose it is which the Omnipotent God hath uniformly pursued through our creation, preservation, and redemptions; and this purpose it is (seeing the glory of God is inseparably connected with the winning of souls) which the wise man, of whom we are speaking, is continually pro moting, as well as its necessary consequence : with regard to which, we may, in the second place, consider the end he proposes, namely, the good it confers on every person whom he wins to glorify God. Now this is of two sorts; deliverance from misery and advancement to happiness. Of the former we need only ob serve this one circumstance, that it is eternal: this alone is abundantly sufficient to show us the greatness of it ; to evince that, if it were

proposed either to save the whole world, or to save a soul to preserve ten thousand millions from suffering pain sixty years, or to save one man from being in pain, though but equal pain, to all eternity a wise man would not pause a moment which were the nobler in stance of mercy; seeing, although as many men as there are sands on the sea shore were to be miserable for sixty years, the whole sum of misery they sustained would bear no pro portion to the endless misery of one, than finite to infinite, than time to eternity. This simple consideration is enough to give us a general notion of that happiness, the en joyment of which is secured to him who is rescued from endless misery. That this happiness is eternal we know, and therefore need not inquire into the particulars ; nor indeed can we know, if it were possible to man to utter them. St. Paul, doubtless, after having been in the third heaven, would have been best able to have done it ; but since even he was unequal to such a task, well may we decline so fruitless an attempt : only we are expressly told that no pain is there, but inexhaustible rivers of plea

sure ; that the soul that hungers and thirsts after righteousness shall there be satisfied with good, and no desire return unsatisfied and empty ; and that part of this happiness will be an intimate union with the spirits of just men made perfect, of the general assem bly of the first-born, of an innumerable com pany of blessed angels, and lastly, the pre sence of God, the judge of all, and of Jesus, the adorable mediator of the new covenant. Here is wisdom ; the pursuing such an end as this ; the recovering him that was just sink ing into the gulf of misery to happiness in comprehensible, eternal! This is the good which he is the means of procuring to that soul which is brought into the path of holi ness, over and above the delight and good which results to himself ; which is thirdly to be considered. And no small part of this is the honour of answering the end of his cre ation, promoting at once the glory of God and the good of mankind ; of sharing in the office of those superior natures who continually minister to the heirs of salvation ; of working together with God! of being a fellow-labourer

with the ever blessed Spirit, and Jesus Christ the righteous ! an honour, which, however lightly it be esteemed by those who account zeal to be madness, is justly prized by all whose supposed foolishness is wiser than the wisdom of this world ! an honour which shall not fail to be repaid them, in part, at the very moment they endeavour to rescue the fallen, if not by men, yet by those more discerning beings who disdain not to call good men their fellow-creatures; and by their common master, who hath expressly declared, " Those who honour me, I will honour." Nor.can it even be said of this honour, as is true too often of the honour of men, that it brings no advantage ; this is never the case with the honour which cometh from God. None can be conscious of this, without an im mediate advantage ; without such an internal satisfaction as words cannot express. None can resemble their heavenly Father in extend ing his mercy even to the evil and unjust, without experiencing even at that time some degree of His happiness and goodness whom he imitates. No human creature can have so

little of the law of kindness written in his heart, as not to feel it burn within him while he is saving a soul from death. A fore taste this of that more ample reward which shall hereafter enlarge his heart, wlien he, with those whom he hath been a means of saving, shall together enter into the joy of their Lord. We need not dispute whether St. James touches upon that reward, in those re markable words, " Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him, let him know that he which converteth a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins." Now supposing those be only the sins of the persons restored to virtue and happiness, and not the infirmities of the guide who restored him, yet how will every good man rejoice in the joy of the Penitent ! and how eminent a share must he possess who was the in strument of his salvation ! who has occa sioned that joy in heaven which is more over one sinner that repenteth, than over ninety and nine just persons that need no re pentance ;v to whom under God it is owing that

all his sins which he hath committed are not once mentioned unto him, that the hand writing against him is blotted out, and his name written in the book of life. Neither need we inquire what foundation there is for this opinion of the ancients, that the same reward awaits those who give witness to the truth by dying for it themselves, or saving a soul from death : for whether the reward of a martyr or of a winner of souls be one or not, sure we are that either is eminently glorious above that of common Christians. Neither the word of God nor his attributes suffer us to doubt that different men will have different re wards in heaven ; that as one star differeth from another star in glory, so will it be in the resurrection of the dead. Every man shall re ceive his own reward according to his own labour ; and some of the highest of these re wards are promised to the converters of sin ners. All who are admitted into the presence of God will be glorious, but these shall ex ceed in glory : they that are wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever. Such is the wisdom of him that winneth souls ; such is the end which he proposes : the means which lead to the end, I come now, under my Second head, to consider. The first of these is, the regulating the under standing ofhim whom he endeavours to reclaim ; the removing those confused apprehensions of things, those false judgments and ill-grounded conclusions which he has long been planting in himself, and which, perhaps, have been striking root for many years. Whether the first seeds of these were early sown by education, or after wards by ill advice or example ; whether they relate to faith or practice in general, or to any particular branch of either ; whether they are errors of a whole sect of men, or peculiar to the person infected, they are carefully to be extirpated, and no root of bitterness be left. In particular there is an absolute necessity of removing the confused notion which most vicious men entertain of piety. They apprehend religion "as a terrible spectre looking down

from heaven only to enslave the earth, stand ing over them with so horrible an aspect as damps the vigour of all who behold her :" and such a monster as this they cannot but regard as the bane of happiness, the destroyer of de light, and the imposer of numerous burdens too heavy to be borne; whence they naturally infer, that to cast off her yoke is the surest mark of a good understanding, and that the first rule of prudence is, " Be not wise over much ;" he who is so, they are persuaded, de stroys himself, and cannot be over-wise. To induce one who thus reasons to be wise unto salvation, he must have his mind enlight-. ened, and his judgment informed. That this absurd notion of true religion may be removed, he must be led to examine the truth, that he may perceive the monster of his imagination was a false image, and had neither the real shape or native loveliness of genuine piety ; that he may be taught to know that righteous ness hath looked down from heaven, in order that mercy may flourish upon earth, that men may have a light to guide them to her, whose ways are ways of pleasantness, and all whose paths are peace. He is to be convinced that religion forbids no pleasure butwhatwould deprivehim of agreater, nor requires any pain to be embraced, unless in order to obtain more than equal pleasure. The plain consequence ofwhich, he may readily observe, is, that a good understanding have all they that do thereafter ; and that there is the very same danger of being righteous over-much, provided a man knows what righteousness is, as of having over-much ease and safety in this life, or over-much happiness in the other. But the convincing a vicious man of these truths is only one step towards his conversion, and often no step at all, since every conviction is not a lasting one. No, a man who has long been wedded to a mistake, if he be at last convinced, will soon unconvince himself, if he wishes it, if his xvill opposes the truth, which has only fixed itself in his understanding, not in his heart. Old prejudices, though not soon dismissed, are easily received again ; and the new opinions

which seemed so firmly implanted in their place, are by an obstinate mind quickly re established. Therefore to confirm those who are brought to the knowledge of the truth is as necessary as to convince them ; and when this is done, when due care has been used to strengthen his understanding after enlightening it, then is the time to employ the other great means of winning souls, namely, to regulate his affections. Indeed without this the other is of little effect. He that would enlighten the head must cleanse the heart, otherwise the disorder of the will again disorders the intellect, and perverseness of affection will cause an equal perverseness of judgment ; for whatever incli nation is contrary to reason is destructive of it, and whoever makes the world his god, the God of this world will blind his eyes. This then is the most important work of all, namely, the "laying the axe to the root of the tree ;" the prevailing on a man to pray for the grace of God to enable him to purify his heart till it be holy and undefiled ; to resolve upon sacrificing all his darling lusts which will not submit to the law of God ; to stifle every inch

u nation which is contrary to the spirit of holi ness, which would rather prevent his entering upon, or retard his progress in, the race set be fore him ; to lay aside pride, malice, envy, re venge, covetousness, intemperance, in short every passion, every habit, which would keep him a stranger to the covenant of promise, an alien from the commonwealth of Israel, with out hope, and without God in the world. When he has determined to renounce these inclinations which are evil in themselves, the next point is to bring him to a resolution of transferring those which are not so to new objects, of setting those affections on things above, and not on things of the earth, on things that were designed to be the delight, and en gage the desires, of rational creatures, and are accordingly adequate to their capacities, which no perishable objects are ; to a resolution of seeking his happiness, not in things that are seen, but in things that are not seen : not like the half Christian (to speak in the words of an excellent man) to " use God, and enjoy the world," but as one who knows his privilege better, " who uses the world, but enjoys God."

After inspiring a sinner with this generous resolution, one step more is to be taken, and that is to fix him in it, to guard him from a relapse, lest his last state should be worse than the first ; in spite of the arts which his old enemies will soon use to draw him from his steadfastness, to hold up his goings in the way that his footsteps slip not ; to watch over his soul till he has fully proved the whole armour of God, that he may be able to wrestle with principalities and powers, with the rulers of the darkness of this world, to quench every fiery dart of the wicked, and, having done all, to stand. He who hath thus enlightened the under standing, and regulated the will of a sinner, he hath eminently advanced the glory of his divine master, he hath rescued a fellow-being from destruction, and for such a one there is pre pared, " an exceeding weight of glory," " eter nal in the heavens ;" for he that " winneth souls is" truly ec wise." But is not this a higher degree of wisdom than any one born of a woman hath yet attained ? This is the inference that a man i

of reflection would naturally draw from what has been said of it. Who is sufficient for these things ? who is equal to so vast an undertak ing ? We have heard indeed that it is easy for a designing man to lead others whither he pleases if his object be to lead them into evil, to bring them into just what opinions he chooses, and set their affections by his own. But he who has seen how slowly a confused appre hension is cleared, or a prejudiced judgment rectified, and how unwillingly men admit a truth which they have long despised, even as it were a sword piercing through their hearts to rend asunder a darling error ; he who has observed that a wicked man is almost as easily induced to cut off a right hand, or pluck out a right eye, as to set his affections on things above, and mortify his beloved lusts ; in a word, he who knows that the persuading an ungodly man to be happy is the persuading him out of his fancy, judgment, and incli nation, all which must take an entirely con trary bias, must undergo such a change as is from death to life ; he knows that the winning a soul is a work of no common, no human

agency ; and that, after every help of nature and of art, after the closest observation both upon men and things, and even the longest expe rience, " with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible !" This is our anchor ; this bids us go on and prosper ; this commands us not to doubt, but when we have ourselves fled to the Rock ofAges, and the Holy Spirit of God hath given us grace unto salva tion, then he will entrust others to our care. What though we can do nothing of ourselves, ' we can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth us! What though we are not able to turn away the least in our enemy's army, He who is with us has counsel and strength for the war, and his power is sufficient for us ! Never will that power forsake the duly prepared and commissioned labourers in his harvest, but as their day so shall their strength be ; they shall reap if they faint not. I would not here be understood to exclude all but those from having any share in this glorious work ; no ! God forbid ! How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed by denying them the blessing ofjoining with us in convertc

ing some from the error of their ways. Far be it from us, the ministers of mercy, to be guilty of such arrogant cruelty as to condemn all who have not a part in our ministry as reprobate from God and from the benefits of it ; which we must do if we forbid this work of God, so far as he hath given us ability; since our Lord himself declares, " He that gathereth not with me scattereth : he that gathers not, as he is able, subjects to my kingdom, scattereth them away from it ;" he that is not, according to his power, an agent for God, is a factor for the devil! Several acts of our blessed offices indeed there are which may not be performed unless by commissioned officers ; but here a general commission is given to all the servants of Christ to tread in his steps, to do what in them lies in their several stations to save the souls for which Christ died. We are, it is true, am bassadors of Christ, and as such, are entrusted with many powers, which those who are not his appointed ministers, are not entrusted with : but what scripture denies any man the power of beseeching others for Christ's sake to be reconciled to God ? God forbid that

we should thus outrage the feelings of our fellow Christians, that we should thus magnify our office, by speaking as from God what God hath not spoken, as to exclude any who go not beyond their measure, from the wisdom of winning souls. Indeed, if Solomon had only said, " the priest who winneth souls is wise," they would have had some colour for saying to all who are not invested with the sacerdotal office, " Ye have neither part nor lot in this wisdom ; even with such sacrifices God is not pleased when they are offered by unhallowed hands ;" but Solomon's words are universal, " He that win neth souls is wise." And who is he that is wiser and inspired with abetter judgment; let him stand forth and make the restriction. But is this a time for making restrictions? for binding the hands of our fellow labourers ? when the avowed opponents and blasphemers of our holy religion, are so zealously endea vouring to destroy souls ; when those who have made themselves shipwreck of the faith, so

earnestly labour to plunge others in the same gulf; when even among ourselves have men arisen speaking perverse things; and, not content themselves to deny the Lord who bought them, seek to draw others into the same condemna tion ; is this a time for turning back any sol dier of Christ who offers to set himself in array against the destroyer ? Is there not a cause that we should cry aloud, " Who is on our side, who ? " who will rise up with us against the enemy, who will stand with us in the gap against these wolves, that no longer put on sheep's clothing, but wander about in their own shapes, seeking whom they may devour? The emissaries of Satan labour one and all : shall any of the servants of God stand idle? Every one of those is zealous to destroy : shall not every one of these be zealous to save ? Yea, in this let the heathen teach the Christian ; let us do something from the least to the greatest ; In these times surely we ought to suffer even the little children to fight for Christ, and for bid them not, lest it be said of us, with more justice than it has been, " Ye take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi." Let us cut off this occasion of reproach from them that seek occa sion, nor let it always be true, that " the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light ! "