SERMON XXI.

CHRIST THE GIVER OF ETERNAL LIFE.

1 John v. 2.

"AND THIS IS THE RECORD, THAT GOD HATH GIVEN TO US ETERNAL LIFE, AND THIS LIFE IS IN HIS SON."

THESE Words have a close connexion with some questions which I would propose for our present consideration: 1. Whether Jesus Christ is declared in the Scriptures to be the giver of eternal life;

2. Whether, on that account, he is necessarily to be regarded, and whether, in the Scriptures, he is represented, as the supreme and original author of this blessing;

And 3. What the blessing itself, according to the Scriptures, includes;-what is required in order to its being received ;-and what are its natural effects upon those by whom it is really received.

These inquiries, it seems to me, will conduct us to conclusions capable of a very important practical application. In leading us not only to perceive but to make the application, may our serious attention to the subjects proposed be largely blessed!

1. Our first question is, whether Jesus Christ is declared in the Scriptures to be the Giver of eternal life.

I will refer you first to those passages which would seem to justify us in calling him its Author as well as Giver.

In Acts iii. 15, we find the Apostle Peter speaking of our Lord as "the Prince of life;" and in the margin of our larger Bibles we observe the word "Author" proposed as another rendering instead of "Prince." We observe also a reference to two passages in the epistle to the Hebrews, where the same word occurs in the original. One of these is ch. ii. 10, where Jesus is called in our English translation "the captain of our salvation." The other is ch. xii. 2, where he is held forth to our contemplation as "the author and finisher of our faith."

We have thus the same Greek word rendered by. the three different English words, "Prince," "Captain," "Author;" the last of which comes, perhaps, nearest to its strictly literal meaning of "first or chief leader," "beginner." Accordingly, many translators of the New Testament, and among them Mr. Wakefield, have adopted, in the passage of Acts above mentioned, the same rendering which we find in the margin of our Bible; and, consequently, it becomes a passage which might be urged in justification of our calling Jesus "the author of life."

But it seems to me that there is a more striking, and one in itself abundantly sufficient, justification of our giving him that title, in Hebrews v. 9, where we read of our Lord, that, "being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him." Here the word rendered "author" is, in fact

incapable of any other rendering. It is not the same word which occurs in the passages before quoted, and for which, as was mentioned, we find in our common translation three different English words. It is one about which there can be no doubt or hesitation. It clearly and unequivocally means "the causer," "the efficient agent," that is, "the author." Now to say of Jesus that he is "the author of eternal salvation," is only to say, in other words, that he is "the author of life," even that life which is the great theme of the New Testament writers, "eternal life.”

I would now direct your attention to some passages in which our Lord himself declares that it is his office to bestow this inestimable gift on mankind.

In John vi. 33-35, we read; "the bread of God is he " (or, perhaps, more properly, that) "which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life he that cometh unto me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst."

Again, in John x. 27, 28, we find our Lord using this remarkable language; "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me : and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand."

And farther, in John xvii. 2, we have our Lord solemnly declaring it to be the object of the power given him over all flesh, "that he should give eternal life to as many as God had given him."

To these passages might be added those in which he represents himself as "the life," "the resurrection

and the life," and as having in his power to give that living water" of which "whosoever drinketh," it "shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." And to these might be added other passages from which the natural inference is, that he who would receive life unto his soul, he who would have the favor and peace of God abiding on him, he who would "not come into condemnation," but "have everlasting life," yea, and be assured that "he is passed from death unto life"-must come unto Jesus and learn of him—must say with the apostle Peter, "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life."

But I do not think any passages necessary in addition to those in which we have the express and solemn declarations of our Lord above quoted. I do not think the aid of inferences and implications required to make us believe his own assertions, that he giveth life, even eternal life, to those who hear his voice and follow him. Our first inquiry then is answered.

II. Our next question is, whether our Lord is also to be regarded as the supreme and original giver of the life which he certainly professes to give.

Now, in the first place, I see no absolute necessity for so regarding him in even the strongest expressions of the passages which we have been considering. Allowing that Peter calls him "the author of life," as the writer to the Hebrews calls him "the author of our faith ;" and that the latter writer, with still greater force in the original word, proclaims him "the author of eternal salvation ;"-still I know not why the mere use of this term should prevent us from looking beyond him to One

from whom he may himself have received that which he gives to mankind. We are continually speaking of parents as the authors of existence to their children, without the least idea of thereby denying, or occasioning to be forgotten, the Divine and original Creator. We are continually speaking of human beings as the authors, causers, and efficient agents of various events, circumstances, and conditions, without meaning to call in question the great doctrine of an all originating and all over-ruling Providence. Why, then, when our Lord is represented as the author of any benefits to us, must we immediately conclude that he is their supreme and original author? In like manner, when he is said to give, however great and glorious the gift may be, why should we at once infer that the power to give it must have been, absolutely and independently, his own, and not a power which he himself also has received?-He is properly the author and giver to us of that which he begins in us, and of that which we receive directly from him. But this is no proof that he does not stand in some dependent and subordinate relation to another Being. The question whether he does so or not, is left quite open to farther inquiry, as far as any passages of Scripture are concerned, in which we have found him declared to be the giver of eternal life.

In the next place, even if, on farther inquiry, the Scriptures did not expressly and positively decide the question ;-if, for instance, we could only meet with one set of passages declaring Jesus, and another set representing God, to be the bestower of eternal life;—or, if there were no passages at all in which this gift is ascribed to God; yet we should be compelled, by the