down first, and count the coft. The young man addreffed Chrift in a refpectful manner on the most weighty fubject. But he had not laid his account for oppofition. He came not expecting to hear of difficulties and croffes in the way to life. He came not as one determined to pursue that way, whatever it might coft him. When he was told of felf-denial and the crofs, his courage immediately failed. Difappointed and fad, he continued with Chrift no longer. His earthly riches were dearer to him than his foul.

We may not infer from hopeful beginnings, from partial regards to religion, from prefent warmth, that the principle is fixed, or really introduced. If Chrift hath any rival in the heart, there is not the fpirit of religion. Education, cuftom, reputation, regard to health, a certain tenderness of conscience, may reftrain from many vices, and excite to various virtues. This temptation may overcome one perfon; and that another. The proper trial of every one is in regard to the fin which does cafily befet him-whether pride, avarice, fenfual indulgence, or any other. Many lay reftraints on their own reigning paffion for awhile, and in certain fituations, anticipating the fuller gratification of it in time to come.

Laftly, the confidence which the young man placed in the externals of virtue, in a negative holinefs, inftructs us to beware of a fimilar confidence, and of every false foundation of hope. Others, judging from appearance, may think us Chriftians: but God looketh at the heart. The heart is deceitful. Deceiving their own heart, men feem to themselves to be religious. Much care and felf-examination, with fervent prayer to him who is greater than our heart, are requifite, left a deceived heart fhould turn us afide. "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and "know my thoughts: See if there be any wicked te way in me; and lead me in the way everlasting." Any known, allowed, habitual fin proves that the

66

heart is not right, whatever a man may do in religion. "No man can ferve two mafters: For either

he will hate the one, and love the other; or he will "hold to the one, and despise the other." Christ is the foundation, other than which no man may lay. All the attempts and doings of finners, which do not refer to, which are not built upon, this foundation, all the hopes of falvation which are not bottomed upon it, muft, like the house on the fand, fall to ruin, when the winds blow, and the floods of temptation come. Refusing to come to him, to accept his terms, men must die in their fins. For no other hath the words of eternal life. Coming to him is to take his yoke upon us-to learn of him who was meek and lowlyhaving every thought brought into captivity to him. The Spirit of life in Jefus Chrift hath made such free from fin, and fervants of righteousness. Having the fruit unto holiness, the end is eternal life.

It was propofed, SECONDLY, To confider the enquiry in the text in a more general view.

Should it be asked, What is meant by eternal life? an apostle has anfwered, It doth not yet appear. Another apostle hath told us, " Eye hath not feen, nor "ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of "man the things which God hath prepared for them "who love him. We fee through a glafs, darkly. "We know in part." Eternal life is oppofed to death, the wages of fin. "This corruptible fhall put on in"corruption; and this mortal, immortality." The image of the earthly Adam fhall be exchanged for the image of the heavenly-fashioned like unto his glorious body. "We wait for the redemption of the body from "the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty "of the fons of God. When he fhall appear, we shall "be like him, and fee him as he is." As an earnest of this, the believer is born of incorruptible feed. He has the witness in himself. Eternal life is begun and abideth in him. The feal of the Spirit is the earnest

of the glories of immortality, as the first fruits were of a full harvest.

"Eternal life is the gift of God through Jefus "Chrift, who hath abolished death, and brought im"mortality to light." The bleffed God and the Redeemer of the world folicit our acceptance of this gift. Will you go away from him who gave his own life to fave your fouls from eternal death? in whom you may have life abundantly? What do fuch despisers forego? to what trifles do they facrifice the great falvation? They set the highest value on temporal things, which fatisfy not; and account eternal things as of no value.

On the credit of liftory we believe things long fince past. On the testimony of others, we believe things which we never faw. Now the witnefs of God is greater than that of man. "This is the witness of "God, that he hath given us eternal life in his Son." He hath fet his feal to the miffion of Jefus. Shall we not, by believing this record, fet to our feal that God is true? Shall we not confent to have life through the name of the only begotten Son of God, giving himfelf a facrifice for our fins, and now ever living to make interceffion? alike able and willing to fave to the uttermoft? Could we look up, and fee him at the right hand of God, it would be infupportable. God dwelleth in light to which flesh and blood cannot approach. We may believe what we fee not; and believing, rejoice with joy unfpeakable. We may believe him who came down from the excellent glory. If we patiently wait for that we see not, and, by continuance in well-doing, feek for glory, honor and immortality, we shall inherit eternal life. Shall then the prize of our high calling be forgotten, in an anxious care for the body and time?

Viewing man as fallen from original uprightness, who will hew unto him his tranfgreffion? how or whether the heirs of death and wrath may be reftored? The beft informed among the heathen, whatever their

idea that the Deity may be propitious, devised means of atonement which are rather calculated to incenfe than to reconcile him. God might have abandoned finning man as well as the angels that finned. We learn not from the oracles of human wisdom, but from those oracles to which the feal of heaven is set, that dying finners of our race may live. The language of God is, I have found a ranfom. The Ransomer, was to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness; but to them who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Chrift the power of God, and the wifdom of God. Neither is there falvation in any other. The faith which receives the record God hath given' him, faith unto life, worketh by love-fuch love as accounteth all things lofs for the excellency of the knowledge of Chrift-that we may be found in him, having the righteoufnefs which is of God by faithmay be crucified to the world, and the world to usmay prefs toward the mark for the prize of our high calling. The believer, renewed by the Spirit of life in Chrift Jefus, fees in him adequate provision for the removal of the guilt, pollution, and all the effects of fin. The pardoning voice of God, by his word and Spirit, is to him as life from the dead.

As fallen creatures, accountable, designed for a future, eternal exiftence, and placed upon probation under the difpenfation of a Mediator, it highly concerns every finner to receive it as " a faithful faying, worthy "of all acceptation, that Christ Jefus came into the "world to fave finners"-to fecure an intereft in him-to embrace him as offered in the gofpel. "This "is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom "he hath fent." This work of faith, as appears from the connection, is to labor for the meat of eternal life, not for the meat that perifheth. The latter compared with the former fcarce calls for our labor. For that is the one thing needful, the good part which shall never be taken away. "If Chrift is yours, all things are yours;

"the world, and life, and death, things present and ἐσ things to come." He is the only object on which the foul can fix, and find reft. There is a fulness in him for all its wants-a fulness of light and truth, pardon and peace, grace and glory. To know him, to be conformed to him, to take the dimenfions of his love, is to be filled with all the fulness of God. The Spirit which Christ giveth to every believer is as a well of water Springing up to everlasting life.

But how can they believe, who prefer the honor of men to that of God? How can they believe who make earthly treasures their hope and confidence? How can they believe who are given to pleasures? Neither of these claffes will take up the crofs, and follow Christ. Self-denial would imply an entire change in their character. None ever found, but in religion, that good which answers to the defires of the heart. Obferve the various and ardent pursuits of worldly men-their inquietudes, the vain fhow in which they walk. See the folly of feeking a portion in this life.

It is an error, on the one hand, to fuppofe that we have nothing to do, in order to obtain eternal life. It is an error, on the other hand, to imagine that we can merit it by any obedience of ours-or indeed that we have any ability, either to will or do, independently of power from on high. All we have or hope for is of grace, without and contrary to merit. We have merited death and wrath. But the God of all "hath grace "no pleasure in the death of finners. He fo loved the 66 world, that he fent his only begotten Son to be a propitiation for fin. Whofoever believeth in him "fhall not perish, but have everlasting life." The Spirit of life in him is given to begin a good work, and perform it until the day of Chrift: It operates on our reafon and confcience, hopes and fears: It quickens the dead in trespasses: It breathes on dry bones, and they live. All our fufficiency is of God. Without his preventing grace, finners make no enquiries about eternal life:

66