REFERRING the reader to my introduction as in the last month's VESSEL, I proceed in stating that John Keeble was called home from earth to heaven in the month of April, 1824, after being the faithful pastor of the Baptist church at Blandford-street, Portmansquare, for twenty-six years. His funeral sermon, preached by Mr. John Chin, late of Walworth, is now before me. The text is most significant. "Though I be nothing." 2 Cor. "It was with difficulty he (Mr. Keeble) could be prevailed upon to select any portion for the occasion; but at last said, well if you must have a text, take this, "Though I be nothing." I have only promised the essence of Mr. Chin's important sermon, descanting more particularly on him whose removal to his everlasting rest, occasioned its being delivered.

xii. 2.

An unlettered man, scarcely able at one time to read at all, never able to spell, rude in speech, but not in knowledge; a scribe well instructed in the things of the kingdom of God. His ministerial labours owned and blessed to hundreds of precious immortal souls, and whose memory is as fragrant as a rose in June to this day.

"Though I be nothing."

These were the words of the great Apostle of the Gentiles, expressive of the mean opinion he had of himself, but whose ministry had been crowned with abundant success. Let us consider.

1. The inefficiency of all instruments, in

and of themselves.

2. Their selection and qualifications.

but often excited the envy of some who have made high pretentions to the sacred office. The well-known occupation of the Lord Jesus, gave great offence to his countrymen. They said, "Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter's son ?" The palace and the cottage have been the honoured birth-place of the Lord's servants. Fishermen have been called, and made "fishers of men." Not a few who have been engaged in the labour of husbandry, have been called to labour in the Lord's vineyard. Such was the occupation of our departed brother Keeble; for previous to his entering upon the public ministry, he never rose higher in society than a farmer's servant. Human prudence and sagacity are apt to dictate to Divine wisdom in the choice of ministers; but, "the Lord seeth not as men seeth; man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." "God hath chosen the foolish things of the world, to confound the wise; the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised &c." Why? "That no flesh should glory in his presence."

The qualifications also for the discharge of the ministry are equally of the Lord. To be a good minister of Christ, a man must be a possessor of the grace of Christ. The husbandman that laboureth must be first a partaker of the fruits; and, of all the methods employed for conveying Divine instruction, nothing has been so effectual as experimental preaching; or, what our departed brother Keeble used to

4. The success attending their labours. God, in carrying on his work among men employs such instruments as makes all the success to depend entirely on himself. And faithful ministers are like Paul, jealous of their Master's honour; so that he that planteth is nothing, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase, is all in all, Death has deprived the church of the labours of Paul, and of Wickliffe, of the zeal of Luther and Whitfield; and though John Keeble can no longer edify this congregation, yet the cause of God and truth must advance. Ordinary ministers continue not, by reason of death, but Jesus Christ doth, who is same yesterday, to day, and for ever." The Lord will support his own cause by the exertion of his own power; shewing his independence of man, and also convincing ministers and others, that, "they are nothing." God also secures the glory of all the success attending a gospel ministry, by the sovereign manner in which he selects and qualifies those whom he employs in the work. The Lord's chosen instruments, have not only surprised, VOL. XIV.-No. 160.

"the

the heart of the preacher keep pace together, then by manifestation of the truth he commends himself to every man's conscience in the sight of God. your attention under the ministry of your late pastor? Was it the neatness of his style, and the eloquence of his oratory? Oh, no! it was the importance of the truth he delivered, and his just description of the workings and counter-workings of the human heart, under the influence of sin and grace. Like Paul, he could accompany, and at times go beyond the most elevated of his hearers; with the afflicted and tempted he could sympathise; in patience and persevering supplication, he furnished a bright example; he knew him who had said, "Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will answer thee." He preached Christ to others while he enjoyed

What has so often fixed

him for himself. "He knew whom he be

lieved;" but in all, his humble acknowledg

ment was, "I be nothing."

But let us consider "the work" to which they are called. It is to preach the glorious gospel of the blessed God, and the end to be ac. complished by their ministry, not a mere

K

change of opinion in their hearers, and that within the sinner's power, but that a new birth may be effected, a new creation, a resurrection from the dead in sins, a rescue from infernal power, a translation from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son. They are made stewards of the manifold grace of God, and are required to be found faithful. They have many temptations, and are men of like passions with others; but, they obtain mercy of the Lord to be faithful.

The temptations of your late pastor were frequent and very painful. He has often told me how greatly he has been distressed for fear he should be confounded before the people; and, how he has employed the interval between praying and preaching, in crying to God, Lord, help thy servant this once!" And, said he, "the Lord has been very kind, and often made these some of my choicest seasons of personal comfort, enlargement, and benefit to others. And then, I have been tempted to neglect due prepara. tion but, we are not ignorant of Satan's devices." Our brother experienced much kindness from many dear friends; but his heart was pierced and wounded by the defection and unkindness of others. It was this, or something like it, that caused your late respected pastor, a few days before his death, when looking down on his afflicted limbs, and laying his hands on his bosom, the principal seat of anguish, to say, "A man may sustain his infirmities, but a wounded spirit who can bear " But these trials drive the man to God for supporting grace, and constrain him to acknowledge "as we have received mercy, we faint not."

We proceed to observe that the success that has attended ministerial labours, proves that "the excellency of the power is of God." How different have been the effects produced, by the preaching of the same gospel at different times! In some cases much good has been done in a short time; in others an amount of labour has been expended, and little or no apparent fruit has been brought to perfection. Isaiah anxiously enquired, "Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed ?" Our glorious Redeemer, who spake as never man spake! still, his faithful followers were comparatively few; while under a single sermon delivered by Peter, three thousand souls were converted. So also in this place; the gospel has been preached in its purity, and with no small ability too, even from its first erection, and yet but little good appeared to attend the ministry here, for some years, so that when our brother Keeble first came to Blandford-street, the things that remained were ready to die; but-by his plain and humble ministry God wrought powerfully. Hundreds have been savingly converted; and, for many years there was as much union, Christian affection, and spiritual prosperity, as have been enjoyed by any Christian society in our day so that of this church it has often been said, "what hath God wrought ?" If the weapons of our warfare are made powerful

it is only through God. Without the special influence of his Spirit, we can neither wound nor heal. And the more humble, devoted, and useful a minister is, the more conscious he will be of his own insignificance; and while he beholds the pleasure of the Lord prospering in his hand, will exclaim "'tis his work; I am nothing."

These sentiments will receive a further illustration from a consideration of the life, ministry, and dying experience, of our departed brother Keeble: an account of which I shall next month attempt to give you, with much plainness and all sincerity; and without any attempt to eulogize him, who is now merci. fully placed beyond the reach of praise or censure. I am perhaps the better furnished for this service, in consequence of my wellknown intimacy with him for many years. Our acquaintance commenced in the days of his prosperity, and I knew his soul in adversity. Our confidence increased with our acquaintance; and, when death came, our souls were not divided. Affliction somewhat interrupted our personal communion, but an epistolary correspondence supplied the deficiency. It is from this source that I have principally derived my information.

(To be continued in our next, which will contain Mr. Keeble's most truly interesting Memoir, with some valuable additions.)

MY GOOD THEOPHILUS, I now make a few remarks, (and they will be but few,) upon the resurrection and destiny of the lost; that the just, as well as the unjust; the wicked, as well as the righteous; the hated, as well as the loved; will be raised from the dead. We know, from express declaration of Holy Scriptures, that there will be a resurrection of the just and of the unjust; but with what body the unjust will rise is nowhere clearly revealed. Some, it is true, have by con. trasting the resurrection body of the unjust with the just, endeavoured to give us a fair idea of the resurrection body of the unjust; but the contrast, does not in some very material points, hold good; for if we say the one is as the glorious body of the Saviour, then, where is the contrast here? for although the unjust are spoken of as the children of the wicked one, yet satan has not a material body, therefore they cannot in this material respect, be like him.

Again, the just are to be raised immortal, but will the unjust be raised mortal? Will they not rather be raised in the same kind of durable existence as that possessed by satan? Yet there can be no doubt but the just and the unjust will, in very many respects, perfectly contrast with each other. The terms fox, wolf, serpent, viper, with many other terms of the like import, no doubt, most solemnly indicate the state of most awful degradation in which they shall rise; each feeling himself to

be all that which is implied in such terms; not one of them all will then be able to congratulate himself upon the possession of one good quality, yet possessing a soul capable of seeing, and feeling, the full force of such degradation. Alas! for poor, degraded, lost, and miserable man. Truly the judgments of the Most High are a great deep. I sigh as I write these gloomy lines, and, but for the humble hope, my good Theophilus, which we have in covenant mercy in Christ, I am sure that you with me, would wish you had never existed; it would, indeed, have been good for that man who dies in his sins, if he had never been born.

Now the wicked will be raised by virtue of their accountability to God, and I hope in my next letter to set this matter of human and Christian accountability to God somewhat clearly before you.

I will here just suggest that there are three causes of a sinner's condemnation.

I. The criminal cause. This criminal cause is two-fold: original and personal. 1st. The original is Adam's transgression; by which transgression judgment came upon all men to condemnation. 2nd. The personal. This will mean all sins against light and knowledge.

per

II. There is the legal cause of condemnation. The righteous law of God is the legal cause of condemnation; and from the laws, (all the laws of God, arise more from sovereignty, than what men are pleased to call his moral perfections; any deviation, therefore, from those laws, is a sin against his authority, and is therefore, a sin against all his other fections; and this is the reason that he that offendeth in one point is guilty of the whole." Because all laws arise from his authority, and they are holy, chiefly because of this. For what a number of things have the people of God done that were holy, simply because they were done by Divine authority. Take as sample the wars of the Jews with the Canaanites these wars, without Divine authority,

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Thus it is that he hath mercy upon whom he will have mercy. He wills one by the Saviour's meditorial work to life; the other he wills by the law for his sin to degradation.

Thus, my good Theophilus, you cannot rightly respect the blessed God in any of his perfections, unless you, first of all respect his authority, cavil at his sovereignty and all pretences to be holy and righteous will amount only to a little show before men, but in vain will you try to please God, all the time human sovereignty is put in the place of his sovereignty. Let us then tremble, and not trifle with his holy word: let his sovereignty as well as his justice be known in condemnation, and it will soon exclude boasting, and make us fly to the word of his grace for mercy and for hope.

a

Alas!

Nor will the hell of the lost be temporary; would to God it were; gladly would I sound abroad, the doctrine of a quenchable fire; gladly would I hail the news, that the punishment is not everlasting; that their torment is not for ever and ever; that that mysterious thing, the worm, does die. what is this mystic worm? is it the conscience? or, what is it, for it dieth not? Some do say, the punishment is not everlasting; that the worm will die; that the torment is not for ever and ever; but that these Scriptures ought to be understood in subservience to such Scriptures that say, that the wicked shall be burned up as chaff. But I fear the figurative must be subservient to the plain and literal, and not the plain and literal subservient to the figurative: everlasting punishment-tormented for ever and ever-the fire not quenched, and the worm dying not, are terms, which, I fear, must have their full absolute force and meaning. And, beside, those who contend for limited duration of punishment, or a second death, or annihilation by a fiery process, these admit that the unjust will have a future existence. Is not this admission fatal to the whole plan of the annihilation scheme; for, if they can exist at all in eternity, apart from eternal life in Christ; if they can exist at all in eternity, why not that existence be as likely to be two thousand years as one thousand years? and if two thousand years, why may it not be ten thousand years? and if ten thousand years, why not for ever? and I greatly fear it is so I believe it is so: and I must leave this awful and infinite mystery with him to whom secret things belong, and while, on the one hand, I will not speak reproachfully of those who conscientiously hold to the doctrine of the final cessation of the existence of the lost, yet, on the other hand, I do not feel that I dare to deny the eternity of future punishment. Thrice happy, indeed, is that man who is delivered from this mysterious second death, this unquenchable wrath to come!

My good Theophilus, I have written this short letter with a heavy heart, but still it is good sometimes, at least, to go to the house of mourning, but if it make me heavy hearted and gloomy in writing it, and you in reading it, what must the awful reality be? may well beseech the Lord to "teach us to num.

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