depending on his grace, and aiming at his glory. It leads him, in a word, to receive the Saviour for all the ends and purposes for which he is revealed in Holy Scripture *.

I ask, then, whether such a person may not be said to have the Son. Is not Christ his? Has he not an' interest in his benefits, a share in his salvation? Does not Christ, as it were, make over himself and all his blessings to him? Does he not come unto him and take up his abode with him? Does he not dwell in his heart by faith? Is there not such an intimate, though mysterious, union between the Saviour and the believer, that he " spiritually eats the flesh of Christ and drinks his blood, is one with Christ and Christ with him?" He has the Son. The eternal Son of God is possessed in the highest and most important sense, not by the heavens where he displays his glory, nor by the angels who worship before his face, nor by the devils who feel his power, nor by the creation which is supported by his providence, but by the lowly heart which bows to his grace and glories in his salvation.

And if the true believer thus has the Son, I farther ask, WHETHER HE HAS NOT LIFE? Is

* See on the important subject of faith, "Christian Essays, by the Rev. S. C. Wilks,"-a work of great merit and deserving an attentive perusal.

+ Communion Service.

he not justified freely by God's grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus? Are not his sins cast, as it were, into the depths of the sea? Is he not cleansed by the blood of Christ from all sin? Is not the law of God satisfied, and the sentence of death reversed, and the gift of life bestowed? Does he not stand as righteous in God's sight? Is he not accepted in the Beloved? Is not the righteousness of God reckoned to him as his property, and put upon him as his vesture? And is not this acquittal, this justification, this deliverance, life in the highest and most obvious sense? Was he not dead in the eye of the law, waiting only the execution of the sentence; and is he not now alive by a free acquittal? Does he not stand reconciled, absolved, adopted, beloved? Yes, he has eternal life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my words and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life.

And has he not life also in the way of incipient glory and communion with his God? What is the true life of the rational creature, but the knowledge and love and service of God; and what then are righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, but the life of the soul? What is regeneration but the communication of a new life to the man before dead in trespasses

and sins? What are confession and self-abhorrence and hatred of sin; what are faith and love, holiness and communion with God; the duties of prayer, the emotions of gratitude, and the songs of praise, but the evidences of an awakened and quickened soul? And what is the source of all these but union with Christ?

And shall not these foretastes and earnests of heaven issue in that eternal life for which they prepare the Christian? For what is glory but grace consummated? What is everlasting life, but the perfection of spiritual life? What is the kingdom of God above, but the same kingdom which was begun here, completed at last in all its parts, pervading the whole man, heightened, refined, indissoluble, eternal?

He then that hath the Son, hath life. He who possesses the fountain, commands the streams. He who buys the field, gains the treasure. He who obtains the Son, has all the blessings which flow from the Son, even pardon and holiness here, and eternal life hereafter.

But to strengthen the impression of these statements, we must now proceed to consider the awful reverse HE WHO HATH NOT THE SON OF GOD, HATH NOT LIFE. This is indeed implied in the direct affirmation of the preceding part of the sentence; but it is added here,

*

in a manner usual in the Holy Scriptures, in order the more explicitly to declare what are the only means of obtaining the gift of God in the Gospel. Until the Son be in some sense ours, our possession, our property; we have no share in his blessings, nor any title to his salvation. All who are in the city of refuge, derive from it the protection which it affords; but they who have not entered this city, remain exposed to the destruction which impended over them. God has given to us eternal life; but it has pleased him to constitute his Son the only medium of obtaining it. Those therefore who receive the testimony of God and have the Son, enjoy the proffered benefit; while those who have not the Son, have not the life which is laid up in him.

It is obvious, then, who are the persons that are here said not to have the Son. Assuredly it is not necessary to observe that the infidel who denies the truth of the Scripture generally, or who impugns particularly the several great doctrines revealed in it, has not the Son. Those who deny the mission, or the glory, or the atonement, or the intercession of the Son of God, can never possess the Saviour whom they contemn. But it is more generally important in a Christian country to remark that the vicious also and the profligate, who serve their own lusts, and live in the contempt of true godliness, who trample on the laws of God, and

riot in the gratification of sensual pleasure, have not the Son. Nor have those the Son, who live in a vain and giddy circle of folly and inconsistency, though free from gross immoralities. Nor has the grave and calculating worldling, whose God is his gain. Nor the proud and formal professor of Christianity, who, relying on his own works, and establishing a presumptuous claim to life, secretly disdains to be saved by grace as the free gift of God in Jesus Christ. Nor yet again has the speculative adherent to an orthodox creed, who, with loud claims to religion, disgraces by his spirit and conduct the doctrine he ought to adorn. All these, and an endless variety of similar characters, are included in this awful sentence; THEY HAVE NOT THE SON. They have not repented of their sins, have not returned to God, have not received his testimony, have not believed in Christ for everlasting life, have not obtained the gift of righteousness, have not partaken of the renewing grace of the Holy, Ghost. Whatever else therefore they may have, they have not the Son of God. They may have worldly wisdom, learning, and philosophy; 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 in