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SERMON XXV.

1 John v. 11.

This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal

life: and this life is in his Son.

WHY do not all to whom these good tidings are pub. lished, receive them with humble gratitude and joy ? Are they expressed in terms so dark and ambiguous, that their meaning and import cannot be fully ascertained? or is the offer of life loaded with such hard condi. tions, as exceed the powers of those to whom it is ad. dressed? Were either of these the case, unbelief would be furnished with something more than a plausible excuse. But every body must be sensible, that neither of these objections can, with any colour of justice, be charged upon the record as it lies before us in my text. To what then shall we attribute the cold reception it meets with from the bulk of mankind; the contemptuous rejection of it by many; and the violent opposition that is made to it by not a few.

I shall not pretend to enumerate all the different cau. ses that might be assigned. There is one which, however it may appear a paradox to some, doth, in my opinion, unfold the most dangerous and fruitful source of infidelity. It is briefly this:—The gospel-record is too plain to be understood, and too gracious to be believed.

Here is nothing above the level of the lowest capacity; nothing beyond the reach of the most degenerate among men. It requires no acuteness to discover what

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is meant by a gift; and if the gift be free and disencumbered, all to whom it is offered are equally qualified to receive it. This pulls up at once the deepest laid foundations of pride and vain-glory, and thwarts that love of distinction and pre-eminence which, from the date of the apostacy, hath been the fatal inheritance of the human kind. We cannot bear the thought of being fed at a common table, how richly soever that table may be furnished. Each of us would wish to have a portion peculiar to himself; something that might denote a preference to others, and flatter that partial opinion which every one fondly cherisheth of his own personal importance.

Hence it is, that the record of God hath either been altogether rejected, or so interlined with the glosses of vain philosophy, as to alter its very frame, and render it not only ineffectual, but even adverse, to those salutary purposes for which it was intended.

The Almighty Independent Sovereign of the universe hath been tried at the bar of his own rebellious subjects. There it hath been decided what is fit and becoming the high station he holds. Plans of administration have been laid down for him, formed upon those systems of human government, which to each daring projector appeared the most complete: whereas the absurdity, as well as the arrogance, of all such attempts, are detected and reproved by two very plain questions, which the apostle Paul proposes in the 11th chapter of his epistle to the Romans, at the close; “Who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? Or who bath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?" No man of common understanding will hesitate a moment in giving an answer to these questions, but will readily reply,—None bath

been bis counsellor, neither is there any who hath first given to God; “ for," as it immediately follows, “of him, and through him, and to him, are all things.” And yet how obvious, and how important, are the consequences of such acknowledgments ?

For if noue hath been his counsellor, it is plain that none can know his mind till he shall be pleased to reveal it; por even then can it be known any further than it is revealed. To supply what is concealed, with conclusions drawn from the reasonings of our own minds, would be the height of presumption: We must take his counsel as it lies before us in the record he hath given us, without adding to it or subtracting from it. Again, if none hath first given to him, how erroneous must it be to measure the divine administration even by the most perfect models of government among men? Nay, if it would not seem another paradox, I could almost venture to affirm, that the more perfect any constitution of human government is, the less it is adapted to be a standard in this matter. We reckon that system the most excellent, because most agreeable to the soundest principles of reason, by which the original equality of all men by nature is most effectually preserved; where established law, to which the highest are subject, restrains the hand of violence, and supports the meanest individual in the possession of those privileges which, without such protection, he might be unable to defend. But here no parallel can be drawn with regard to the divine government; nor is there room to reason from the one to the other, even by the remotest analogy. The frame of human policy, the whole system of legislation, is built upon the basis of private right and property; whereas, in the kingdom of God, there is, there can be, no such thing as property on the side of the governed :

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All the subjects are the creatures of the Supreme Ruler; and whatever they possess, they derive from him. The more they receive, the greater debtors they are to his bounty; and when they improve their trust to the ut. most extent of their capacity, they have no merit to plead; their fidelity can amount to nothing higher than innocence; while the least failure renders them crimi. nal and liable to punishment.

So that, in the very nature of things, whatsoever God bestows upon the most perfect of his creatures, must be the effect of pure grace and favour. And if all be favour to the innocent, who bave never left the station in which he placed them; surely what is bestowed upon the guilty must flow from the purest grace, the most condescending exercise of sovereign mercy.

And this is the light in which my text presents to our view the record of God with regard to fallen man; where the whole contents of the gospel-constitution are comprehended in this short but emphatical sentence,

God hath given us eternal life: and this life is in his Son.

It consists, you see, of two parts.
1. God hath given to us eternal life.
2. This life is in his Son.

I. The first part of the record represents the great Lord of all, in the endearing character of a muvificent benefactor and tender-hearted father, regarding his guilty creatures with an eye of pity, and graciously interposing for their relief, after they had wilfully destroyed themselves.

I need not detain you with a tragical description of the fatal effects of our apostacy from God. It may suffice to remind you of what is written, (Rom. v. 12.) “ By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin.” This

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is the view which my text leads us to take of the present state of fallen man. He is not only become mortal, or liable to death, in the common acceptation of that term;

but he is already dead, in the most important and awful sense of the word. He is separated, or cut off, from the only source of life; and though he is still alive in this material world, from which too he must soon remove, yet his connexion is broken with the spiritual world; so that the dissolution of the body terminates at once his enjoyments and his hopes. Every thing beyond the grave must wear an aspect of horror: nothing remains for him after that fatal period, but“ a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation."

Tbis may help us to a proper conception both of the nature and worth of the blessing here mentioned. The foundation of this eternal life is laid in reconciliation with God; for by that we pass from death to life; the essence of it consisteth in likeness to God; and it is

perfected in the beatific vision, and full enjoyment of God in heaven.

The epithet eternal, sufficiently distinguisheth it from that precarious kind of life we at present find ourselves possessed of. It is a life that is not subject to death; neither is it interrupted for one moment by the dissolution of the earthly tabernacle : on the contrary, it requires new vigour, by that stroke which separates the soul from the body; and then only arrives at full maturity, when the man ceaseth to be any more an inbabitant of this world.

But instead of enlarging upon the nature and excellence of this inestimable blessing, I would rather direct your attention to the manner in which it is bestowed. And here the record is abundantly plain, God hath GivEn to us eternal life. The true import of the word given,

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