they may have well-defined notions of religion; they may have forms, and confidence; they may have a speculative and presumptuous faith; they may have credit with a party, and influence over the minds of others but nothing of this kind will avail them as to the salvation of their souls. Without a true living faith there can be no interest in Christ. If, indeed, we were treating of subjects relating to this life, and the respect due to a merely reputable religion, or a fair social conduct, such persons might have some claim to notice; but when we speak of pardon, holiness, and eternal life, nothing can be a substitute for Having the Son.

All such characters HAVE NOT LIFE; they are dead in sin and under condemnation. They are still under the curse of the law, still exposed to the eternal death they have merited, still without either a title or meetness for the inheritance of the saints in light. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; but he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. Nay, the very circumstance of having rejected the greatest gift of God, and despised his offers of mercy in his beloved Son, will fearfully aggravate, instead of lightening, their doom. This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. He that believeth not, is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Awake then, sinner, to a conviction of your awful condition. Receive with faith the testimony of God as to the only way of life, and as to the condemnation which will overtake those who have not the Son of God. Let no delusions of your own mind, or any fascinating errors of the world, persuade you that you can be safe in your present state. Observe, I entreat you, what was noticed at the beginning of this dis

course, THE SOLEMN RECORD which God has delivered on this subject. He condescends to attest, to depose, to bear especial witness to this fundamental truth. All the doctrines of Scripture are, indeed, in a general sense, a part of the record of God. They come with divine authority, and challenge our implicit belief: but the commanding truth of my text is ushered in with a solemnity which is designed to awaken our most intense regard. There are three, observes the sacred writer, that bear record in heaven-to this one leading truth, that eternal life is in the Son of God, and in him only-the FATHER, by repeated declarations from heaven: the WORD, by his revelation of himself to the dying Stephen, to Saul on his way to Damascus, and to the beloved disciple in the isle of Patmos: the HOLY GHOST, by his descent like a dove on the incarnate Saviour.* And there are three that bear witness in earth to the same truth the Spirit, in the Holy Scriptures and in his gracious operations on the heart; the water of baptism appointed as one of the sacraments of the Christian dispensation; and the blood represented by the consecrated element of wine in the other. And to what do these witnesses bear record? What is it that is introduced with such circumstances of authority? What is it that all the testimonies of heaven and earth, all the declarations of the Almighty, at the first promulgation of the Gospel, and all its standing memorials in every subsequent age-what is it that they attest? What is the truth which is taken out, as it were, from the surrounding topics of divine

* I am well aware of the controversy on this text, and have attentively weighed, so far as I have been able, the arguments on either side. I incline, however, to the opinion of Dr. Hey, the late Norrisian Professor, that the text is genuine; and, with this impression, do not scruple to adduce it in this place. I observe, also, that the late Mr. Milner of Hull, a man of sound learning, and whose judgment was eminently discriminating, comes to the same conclusion,-See Milner's Sermons, vol. ii. on 1 John v. 14, 15,

revelation, and placed alone for our separate contemplation? It is this, THAT GOD HATH GIVEN TO US ETERNAL LIFE, AND THIS LIFE IS IN HIS SON; HE THAT HATH THE SON HATH LIFE, AND HE THAT HATH NOT THE SON OF GOD HATH NOT LIFE.

Now, if we receive the testimony of men, and all the most important transactions of life are suffered to depend on its accuracy, surely the testimony of God is greater-is more indisputably certain. Surely God knoweth all things, can neither mistake nor be imposed upon, is in himself essential truth, and will in no respect deceive his creatures. Shall we not then receive his record? Shall we not dismiss at once the vain phantasies of a corrupt imagination, and bow with reverence to this authoritative record of mercy?

And yet men are practically and in their hearts rejecting this testimony of God every day! They flatter themselves, after all, that there is life elsewhere than in Christ! They go on in folly and impenitence, and still hope to enter heaven. They trust in their own works and deservings, and disdain to receive the gift of free mercy. Satan persuades them, as he did our first parents, that they shall not surely die. They believe the current notions of the world around them; but they do not credit the truth of God himself. They form a false estimate of the nature of religion; and judge by far too favourably of themselves. In the meantime, they never humbly study the Scripture, nor implicitly receive its testimony, nor implore the teaching of the Holy Spirit. And thus, sinking from depth to depth in guilt, they come at last to mock God, and make him a LIAR-a consideration startling in the extreme! A condition awful beyond conception ! What! shall man dare to contradict his Maker, a servant his Lord, a sinner his Judge, a finite ignorant creature his infinitely wise Creator, a condemned

and lost criminal his gracious Deliverer! What madness and what presumption is this! What ingratitude, as well as folly! Shall not I visit for these things? saith the Lord; shall not my soul be avenged on such a transgressor as this?

Repent then, sinner, of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee. Bow thy understanding to divine instruction. Receive the word which is sent to guide thee to heaven. Too long hast thou hesitated; too long hast thou listened to the sophisms of a vain and wicked world; too long hast thou lived without faith. Now attend to the solemn attestation of God. Embrace with avidity that infinitely important doctrine, which is the sum of the Bible-the doctrine of Christ crucified. Examine the momentous point, whether you have, or have not, the Son of God. Be assured there is no life but in him. Go, prostrate yourself at the feet of that Saviour whom you have so long despised; receive his words; welcome his atonement; implore his grace and Spirit; lay hold of eternal life; venture on his promise. So shalt thou find life, and obtain favour of the Lord. Then shall the same testimony, which it was necessary to employ to convince you of your sins, become the source of your consolation and the foundation of your hope. The record of God, and that alone, will then sustain your trembling faith. The witnesses in heaven and in earth will then be necessary to save you from despair. The gift of eternal life will appear to you so astonishing, that you will only be encouraged to believe by considering the most solemn and repeated assurances, which God has vouchsafed to afford you. To credit the promise of eternal life in Christ Jesus, is indeed to a penitent, who sees something of the evil of sin and the corruption of his nature, an effort to be supported only by the irrefragable testi

mony of a divine witness.

On no other testimony

can the anxious penitent rely. But this witness shall never fail you. You shall find this testimony of God to be sure. You shall obtain pardon and righteousness through the infinite merits of Christ; you shall be brought to a life of faith, obedience, and communion by the indwelling of his Spirit; you shall have the foretaste of that eternal life which he has purchased for all believers, in the secret witness of your conscience, in the joys of faith, the anticipations of hope, and "the mysterious commerce of the Holy Spirit with your heart:"* and you shall at length come to the full possession of eternal life itself, the gift of the same Saviour, who died for you that he might wash you from your sins in his blood, and prepare and fit you for his immediate presence

and glory.

*Bishop Horsley.