_His providential appointment to labour for the good of his neighbour, by preaching the gospel._ HE had from his first thorough awakening, a love to, and concern for the souls of others. The same cause which made him so solicitous for his own salvation, produced in him a tender sympathy for the souls of his neighbours, and the apprehensions he had of his own danger, impelled him to warn others also. The hand of God was, no doubt, in this, as well as in the whole series of his preceeding conversion. His adorable wisdom, had appointed him an instrument of saving souls from endless misery; having first prepared him for it (without his knowledge of any such design) by the hell, and heaven, so to speak, of his own experience. Even before he had obtained mercy, he began to warn others, exhorting all, with whom he had any sort of intercourse, to _flee from the wrath to come_. Thus (as he observes) “while I was in unbelief myself, I sometimes forgot my own condition through eagerness of desire for the salvation of other souls.” Mean time it was frequently impressed upon his mind, “You must preach the gospel. Thou shalt bear public testimony to the truth of God,” by openly declaring his loving kindness, in the redemption of the world. But he often resisted the thought, urging the impossibility thereof, from a variety of considerations, and saying in effect, _Send by whom thou wilt send; but send not me_. Indeed, though he might have never so much desired it, in submission to the will of God; nevertheless, when the thought first presented itself to him, being a conscious unbeliever, he might have justly said, and it was the language of his heart, “How shall I teach the world to praise? Unchang’d my heart, unloos’d my tongue? Give me the power of faith to prove, And Jesus shall be all my song.” Influenced by these kinds of considerations, he could not, while he remained himself under the bondage, think of publishing peace and liberty to others. But the case was, in some degree altered, after he had tasted that the Lord is gracious. He was then drawn out more abundantly with love to souls, and his conviction became still stronger, that he must preach Christ Jesus to the people.