Substance of a Sermon on the Bible Society / preached at Beccles, October 29th, and at St. Mary's Church Bungay, on Friday, Dec. 1st, 1815

Transcribed from the 1816 Brightly and Childs edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org
SECOND EDITION.
By the Rev. F. CUNNINGHAM. A. B. RECTOR OF PAKEFIELD, SUFFOLK.
BUNGAY:
Printed by Brightly and Childs ;
AND SOLD BY GOWING, LOWESTOFT; SEELEY, LONDON; CONDER, IPSWICH; ASTEN, BUNGAY; AND CATTERMOLE, BECCLES.
1816.
MARK xvi. 15. Go ye into all the world , and preach the Gospel to every creature .
This was nearly the last command of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, addressed to his disciples: and to it was annexed in another gospel, a promise , which shows that this was not only intended as a commandment for that period, but for the present day. “Lo I am with you alway ” (he said at the same time) “even unto the end of the world.” The command then extends to as long a period as the support is promised to be continued, i.e. to the end of the world.
In placing myself therefore as an advocate for a society, the purpose of which is, the distribution of the word of God, I have not thought that I could choose a text which more strongly and persuasively urges upon you a zealous promotion of this great work, than a command so directly laid down upon this subject, and to the fulfilment of which such large assistance is promised. For what is the gospel which the disciples of our Lord are commanded to preach? The Gospel in its strictest sense is good news; it is all that good news of happiness now, which is promised in the ways of religion, and of salvation hereafter. The gospel which is here recommended is all the communication of God to man, which has been made to us in the holy Scriptures. It conveys all the information which man has of his condemned state by nature before God, and points out at the same time a prospect of a full propitiation for his sins in the death of Jesus Christ. It offers to sinners, to all who are weary and heavy laden, a free invitation to come, without any merit of their own, to receive the benefits of Jesus Christ’s death; it affords to those who are assured of their salvation, a measure by which they can determine whether their hope of salvation be reasonable, or whether it be founded upon their own delusions; it gives us a standard for every duty, an encouragement for every exertion, a wanting against every sin; and whilst on the one hand it declares that “without holiness no man shall see the Lord,” on the other it testifies that “there is no condemnation with God to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit.” Such is the gospel which we are commanded to preach to every creature, and which is unfolded to us in the word of God.