Here let us stand still and consider, how great and divine a power was necessary to make this mighty change on the heart of a poor, ignorant, guilty, sinful creature, and establish him a saint in peace and purity. It is not every one that hears this same gospel, that obtains the same salvation, and that feels the same glorious change; and many a true christian must confess, how long they sat under the same ministry and instructions before their hearts were brought to love God, or renewed to an heavenly life; Thus their experience teaches them, there was an Almighty virtue and efficacy at last attended this gospel, which made it more powerful in one day, or week, or month, than it had been in whole years before. There was a quickening spirit, that accompanied the voice of the word, and gave them life, while the word called them to arise from the dead. And this is yet more gloriously evident, when such changes have been wrought on sinners in an hour or two: They went to hear the gospel, poor, lame, blind, senseless and thoughtless of God and eternity; and they were awakened, convinced of sin and of righteousness; they learnt their ruin and their recovery at once, through the atonement and grace of Christ: The poor came home enriched with various graces: the blind see wonders, and the lame return leaping and rejoicing in the hope of glory. This gives plain proof of a divine doctrine, and a divine attending spirit and power. It is the blessed Spirit of God, who dictated these divine truths of the gospel, that accompanies them with his own power to the minds and consciences of those who hear the gospel preached, and by his own power works this glorious change in the hearts and lives of sinners: It is through the sanctification of the spirit, and the belief of the truth, that sinners are called by the gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ; 2 Thess. ii. 13, 14. It is by the preaching of this gospel, attended with this spirit, that the fornicators and adulterers become chaste, the thieves and extortioners are made honest and just, the covetous earth-worms become heavenly-minded, the drunkards are turned sober, and these heirs of hell are made fit to inherit the kingdom of God. The unclean are washed, the unholy are sanctified, and the guilty justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God: 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10, 11. It is the blessed Spirit the Comforter, that speaks peace to the conscience of believers, through the atoning blood of Christ; it is he sheds abroad the love of God in their hearts, by believing the gospel; Rom. v. 5. and it is he that fills them with love to God and to their neighbour; for this love is the fruit of the Spirit; Gal. v. 22, and when the Spirit of God shines upon his own work in the soul of man, and makes this glorious change appear to the self-examining christian, it is a noble testimony that it gives to the truth and divinity of the gospel of Christ.