of our guilt, and corruption, and inability to help and save ourselves, as that which God has appointed but we shall raise such objections, and act on such a preference, at our peril. Notwithstanding all our cavils and our predilections, it will still hold good, that "this life is in his Son;" and, consequently that if we do not seek for it from and through him, we shall most assuredly seek for it in vain.

For it is ever most seriously to be borne in mind by us, that though this eternal life through Christ is freely offered to all to whom the word of this salvation is sent; yet is it a blessing of which multitudes of those, who come within this description, will actually fall short: and it still holds good, as we must all acknowledge, unless we mean directly to contradict the words of our Redeemer himself, that the road which leadeth unto this life is narrow, and that the numbers of those who find it are comparatively few. Who, then, are the persons that shall finally partake of this inestimable gift of God? To this question, a question obviously of the utmost importance to us all, the text furnishes us with a most plain and explicit answer. For the record, which we are considering, refers not merely to the unmerited grant of our God, and to the channel through which that grant is conveyed to us, but also to,

III. The character of the individuals who will obtain the benefit of this grant, and of those who will fail of it. It assures us that "he that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life."

1. It is clear then, on the one hand, that we are interested in this grant of eternal life, if we have the Son? And it is equally obvious that the important point which we here have to determine is this, what is it to have the Son? What, by a just and sober interpretation, neither plunging into the unintelligible depths of mysticism, nor yet shrinking from the full and fair statement of the meaning of the record, are we to understand by this remarkable and very significant expression? Now it is perfectly easy for us to comprehend, generally, how we may have that, which we receive; and, consequently, how, in particular, we have the Son of God, when we receive him. But we then receive him, when we believe in him.

The ques

For St. John, in the twelfth verse of the first chapter of his Gospel, teaches us, that receiving the Saviour is precisely the same thing as believing on his name. tion, then, resolves itself into an inquiry respecting the nature of faith in Christ. possess this faith in Christ, when we not merely in speculation admit the doctrine of his divinity,

And we

the excellence of his instructions, the efficacy of atonement, and the reality of his exaltation as head over all: but when we so admit him to be God over all blessed for ever, as actually to honour and to confide in him as such; when in so practical and efficacious a manner we receive him in his prophetical office, as actually to rely upon the instructions of his word, and of his Spirit, for the attainment of that wisdom which is intimately connected with salvation; when, under a penitential sense of our deep unworthiness, we so receive him as our great High Priest, as actually and exclusively to rely on his obedience unto death, and on his intercession in our behalf in the sanctuary above, for the full and free pardon of all our sins, for the favour of God, and for the inheritance of eternal life; when too we so receive him as our King, as actually, through the promised assistance of his Holy Spirit, to aim at an uniform submission to his laws, and at yielding to him the willing and cheerful obedience of loyal subjects.

It is when in this way we believe in Christ; in other words, when we thus have the Son, that we have also eternal life; that this stupendous and unmerited grant of our God, conveyed through the channel of his own appointment, is made over individually to us. The proof and

confirmation of this point are obviously to be sought for, not from the remaining works of the fathers of the church, who were subject to mistake just about as much as we are, but from the unerring record of divine inspiration, and from that alone. And I could not fail of wearying you, were I to attempt to enumerate merely the multitude of these proofs which are to be found there; were I, without any encumbrance of comment, simply to recite those passages which coincide in this respect with the record of the text, and which teach us that he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, (John iii. 36,) in other words, that he that hath the Son hath life; hath, in the merits of his Saviour, a title to this life, and in the consolations and sacred influences and holy fruits of his Spirit, its foretaste, and earnest, and pledge.

2. And as it is the undisputed testimony of the record that he that thus hath the Son hath life; it is, on the other hand, a truth, most fearful indeed, but yet resting on the same undisputed testimony, that he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

He that hath not the Son of God, he who does not truly believe in his name; he who, from whatever cause, whether from a proud reliance on his own worthiness, or from sheer indifference to

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SERMON VIII.

THE SUPREME IMPORTANCE OF THE KNOWledge of chrIST CRUCIFIED.

1 COR. ii. 3.

“ For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified.”

In the words now read to you, the apostle states the grand, nay, the exclusive subject of his preaching. Though there is every reason to believe that his powerful mind was richly stored with the treasures of human learning; and though he was well aware that subjects, which admitted of more refined speculation, would be peculiarly agreeably to the polished Corinthians : yet he determined, not by a sudden resolution, but, according to the signification of the original word here used, upon the maturest exercise of his

lement, so to frame the discourses which he