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who still waits to be gracious, form the reply. Let THIS KINDLE YOUR DESIRES TO TURN TO HIM. See, he stands with outstretched arms to save you. Hear his voice, complaining, as it were, from the cross, Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by ? behold and see, if ever there was sorrow like unto my sorrow! Look, then, sinner, to the Son of God whom you have crucified. Fall at his feet; acknowledge your transgressions; Take with you words, and turn to the Lord; beseech him to bestow on you the Spirit of grace and supplications. He has promised to give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him. This sacred Spirit can enable you to pray, can soften your heart, can discover to you the mysteries of the Cross, can grant you true repentance, and produce a genuine mourning for sin. Only implore his gracious aid. Do not harden your hearts. Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation. Seize the opportunity. Begin this most necessary duty; and cease not your efforts till you have seen your sins and seen your Saviour, till you have repented, and believed the Gospel, till you have become a truly contrite and holy and obedient Christian.

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SERMON V.

ETERNAL LIFE THE GIFT OF GOD IN JESUS CHRIST.

1 JOHN, V. 11, 12.

And this is the record, 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.

THE chief truths of religion are revealed so plainly in the Holy Scriptures, as to be intelligible to every serious inquirer. Whatever obscurity may rest on some parts of the sacred Volume, every thing is perspicuous in proportion as it is important. Thus the leading doctrines of the fall of man and his recovery in Christ Jesus, lie on the very surface of Holy Writ. God has been pleased to direct our regard to them with peculiar solemnity. The Witnesses of heaven and earth* attest by an express record the eternal life which is in the Son of God. To such a testimony who would refuse credence? To a

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truth delivered in a way so authoritative, who would not bend his utmost attention; especially, when the attestation relates to the greatest benefit which was ever bestowed on a lost world? God does not require us to believe so extraordinary a fact as that of his having given to us eternal life in his own Son, without an adequate record; and when he condescends to bear witness to such a fact, we may be assured it is one of unspeakable moment. Let us then consider with due anxiety,

I. The gift which is here said to be conferred; .

II. The only means by which it can be obtained.

We notice,

I. THE GIFT WHICH IS SAID TO BE CONFER RED: God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

The gift which God bestows is ETERNAL LIFE. This life, strictly speaking, is that glorious state of endless happiness which the saints in light enjoy before the throne of God; but it is frequently used in the Scripture to designate all those blessings which precede it and prepare the way for it; and is opposed to that everlasting death which our sins had merited. With this latitude it is to be taken in my text.

ETERNAL LIFE, THEN, CONSIDERED IN ITSELF,

is that state of consummate peace and holiness and joy which awaits the righteous in a future world. It is the unveiled presence of God. It is "the fruition of his glorious Godhead *." It is the rest which remaineth for his faithful people. It is the inheritance incorruptible and undefiled; that fadeth not away. It is the fulness of joy which is in God's presence, and the pleasures which are at his right hand for evermore. It is the blessedness which the sacred writers antici→ pate, when they speak of beholding God's face in righteousness, awaking up after his likeness, and being satisfied with it; of being with Christ; and of falling down before the throne, and saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing. This will be life fitly so called; a life with no decay or impurity, no change or interruption, no satiety or weariness. It will be spiritual and perfect; immeasurable in its degree, eternal in its duration.

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But, in addition to this, ALL THOSE BLESSINGS WHICH PREPARE the Christian for this unutterable felicity, are also included in the expression Eternal Life. He that believeth on the Son of God HATH everlasting life. He be comes entitled to it upon his pardon and justifi

* Collect for the Epiphany.

cation before God, and his acceptance and adop tion into the divine family. He is an heir of God. He has the Spirit of holiness communicated in regeneration, which is in him a well of water springing up to everlasting life. He has the pledges and anticipations of his full redemption in the seal and earnest of the Holy Ghost. The hope of eternal life is itself a prelude of heaven. Besides which, the happiness of com munion with God, the enjoyment of his paternal love, the calm pleasure of holy meditation, and the visits and manifestations of his Saviour's mercy, are all evidences that the Christian has eternal life abiding in him. These are of themselves unspeakable blessings; blessings, indeed, such as, previously to the full display of them in the Gospel, eye had not seen, nor ear heard, neither had entered into the heart of man.

In order, however, to understand better these remarks, we must contrast this eternal life with THE EVERLASTING DEATH WHICH IT REMOVES, For we were by nature children of wrath even as others. We had incurred by our sins the righ teous curse of God's holy law. We were enemies in our mind by wicked works. We were under condemnation. Banishment from the di vine presence, the torments of a corroding conscience, misery unutterable of body and soul, the dreadful society of the devil and his angels, all the full inflictions of infinite wrath and infi

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