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 discourse, 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*.

* I am well aware of the controversy on this text, and have attentively weighed, so far as I have been able, the 1 3 arguments

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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 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

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.

all the most important transactions of life are suffered to depend on its accuracy, surely the testimony of God is greater-is more iudisputably 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 mean time, 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

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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 wicz ked 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 testimony 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 com