round you? We follow you by land and by water, and yet you say, no man can come unto you except the FATHER draw him: What unintelligible stuff!" Just so it is in our days. If ministers enforce the duty of coming to JESUS for salvation, of coming spiritually by an inward and constant motion of the heart towards CHRIST, they are accounted enthusiasts, or, at least, are supposed to affect new and strange methods of leading their flocks out of the beaten track. And if they go farther, and declare that all going to church and going to the LORD's table, without this spiritual coming of the soul to CHRIST, is nothing but an empty form, a round of pharisaical, hypocritical duties, which, like broken reeds, will pierce the souls of those that lean on them; the complaints run higher, and their hearers openly murmur against them, as the Jews did against our SAVIOUR for the same

reason.

But the indignation of our LORD's disciples rose higher still, when he added, in verse 53, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you."-Except you get a divine life, a life begun and preserved by feeding in an unspeakable manner upon my body which shall be broken for you, and by drinking spiritually my blood which shall be shed for you, you will remain dead to GoD, as you are, dead in trespasses and sins, and ready for the second death, for you have no life in you.-At this saying, many could no longer contain themselves, and went away, complaining of the harshness of the LAMB OF GOD, and the severity of his heavenly doctrine. How many do the same in our days, when we tell them, as our LORD did his followers, that they are dead, if out of CHRIST; that they have no life in them till they get a heavenly power to feed upon CHRIST in their hearts by faith; that though we enjoy an animal life, as the beasts of the field, and a rational life, as the prince of the air and his angels, yet, till we are joined to CHRIST in one spirit, we are dead to GoD, and condemned already to the second death. But it is a comfort to us under the opposition which we may meet with in enforcing this fundamental doctrine, to see that herein we only sip the cup which our blessed LORD and MASTER drank before us; for the Evangelist observes in the 60th verse, that many of our LORD's disciples, when they heard that we are spiritually dead, that there is no life in us, till we live upon him by faith, said, "This is a hard saying, who can bear it?" Here some expect, perhaps, that our SAVIOUR, seeing many of his hearers offended, and ready to leave him, began to palliate the matter, to preach to them in a smoother strain, and to indulge a little their carnal and worldly notions. Just the reverse: he stands to his doctrine, and enforces it more than ever, though all should forsake him and flee. Does this offend you? says he; what if

ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before, how much more incredible will it then appear to you that he should give you his flesh to quicken your dead souls? And what was the consequence the text informs us. "From that time," says the Evangelist, "many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him." And are we above our blessed LORD? No, dear JESUS, we are not above thee: and if, because thou didst speak the plain truth, many of thy disciples, even those who, the day before, would have made thee a king, went back, and left thee, what can we expect of sinners who despise thee, thy ordinances, and thy word! But O leave us not to ourselves, lest we betray both thee and thy gospel; help us to stand to thy truth, though many of our friends and acquaintance should forsake us for it; yea, help us to resist even unto blood, if thy Providence call us to set to our seal that thy word is the word of truth!

II. Having thus showed what offended so much many of our SAVIOUR'S disciples, that they departed and walked no more with him; by the assistance of the LORD, I am to prove next, that as, out of CHRIST, there is nothing but eternal death for sinners, so in CHRIST there is eternal lite for the chief of sinners. Both these points of doctrine are contained in St. Peter's answer to our LORD. When JESUS saw that many of his disciples were gone, he said unto the twelve, "Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of everlasting life."

That expression-"To whom shall we go?"-shows that man is helpless as well as wretched, and that he is both spiritually dead, and incapable to raise himself to spiritual life, since he must go to another for it. "To whom shall we go?"-here also appears an utter despair of finding relief, not only in one's self, but also in any creature, thing, or means under heaven, but in JESUS CHRIST. To instance in some particulars:

1. To whom shall we go for salvation and eternal life? Shall we go to Bishops, Priests, or Deacons? Shall we go to the Apostles themselves? No, no: they can only point us to CHRIST the Way, the Truth, and the Life: they are neither the way, the truth, nor the life: they are but men, and what says the Scripture, "Cursed is he that putteth his trust in man," Jer. xvii. 5. It is not so with CHRIST, for though he is the Son of Man, he is also JEHOVAH-GOD blessed over all; in him, therefore, we may safely trust.

2. Shall we go to the Pope, the pretended successor of St. Peter? Behold, St. Peter himself says, "To whom shall we go, but unto thee, O LORD? LORD, save, or I perish." And how can PETER'S pretended successor help us, if Peter cannot help himself?

3. Shall we go to any one denomination of Christians, to the Church of England, to the Church of Rome, to the Baptists, Presbyterians, Independents, or Quakers? Behold, the twelve disciples, the founders of all Christian churches, the sacred college of the Apostles, declare, with one consent, by the mouth of Peter,-Salvation is not in us: To whom shall we go, but to CHRIST? If, therefore, the purest church that ever was or ever will be, a church composed of Apostles only, must go to CHRIST for salvation, how mistaken are those who trust to the denomination they belong to, as if a Protestant out of CHRIST was a hair's breadth beyond a Christless Papist, a Turk, or a Jew. In the Revelation, our SAVIOUR Compares the seven purest churches of Asia to seven golden candlesticks. Now, you know that a golden candlestick is as useless without a light as a brazen one. CHRIST alone is the light that is or ought to be placed in all churches; he is alone the light which shines in darkness, though the darkness comprehends it not: There is then no more salvation in the purest church, if CHRIST does not shine in our hearts, than there is light in a candlestick of purest gold, when the taper is put out.

What are, then, the greatest preachers in the world, what is Paul himself, who spake with the tongues of men and angels, when compared to CHRIST the living way? Just as much as a finger-post to a traveller, and no more; as the finger-post is not the way, but shows the right way, so Paul and all the preachers in the world are nothing, but as they point us to CHRIST the Way.

4. Shall we go to the Virgin Mary, with the Roman Catholics? "Behold," says she, "my soul rejoiceth in God my SAVIOUR;" therefore, she stood in need of CHRIST, as her GoD and SAVIOUR, as much as any one of us: salvation is not then in her, though it is in the fruit of her womb.

5. Shall we go to angels or departed saints? Behold, angels are the servants of those who shall be heirs of salvation, so far from being their saviours; (Heb. i. 14;) and as to dead saints, they can absolutely do nothing for us," for a living dog," says Solomon, is better than a dead lion." If saints could save us, it would be rather living saints than dead ones. It is well for the Virgin Mary and the saints, that they know nothing of the prayers which poor superstitious Christians address to them: if they knew of them, the very thought of such a piece of idolatry committed upon them, to the horrible contempt of CHRIST the only Mediator, would damp all their joy in heaven.

6. To whom shall we go then? Shall we go to the writings of the dead, to books of piety and devotion, or to the Scriptures themselves? Alas! life is not in the letter: thousands of wicked men have written and read very good books: good books and the Scriptures are of infinite use in showing us the way of life,

but still they are not the way; and when all the Bibles and libraries in the world shall be burnt up with the world itself, CHRIST the Way will stand, and, as he is the living Way, he will live for ever a mighty SAVIOUR to all that come to GoD through him. "Search the Scriptures," said he to the Jews, "for in them you think to have life, and they are they which testify of me;" John v. 39. The grand use, then, of all good books, and of the Scriptures themselves, is to bear witness of CHRIST.

7. Shall we make a saviour of our church-walls, steeple, and bells? Shall we cry up the Cherch! the Church! as the Pharisees cried up the Temple! the Temple! Far be such a superstitious, such a worse than Popish notion from us:-this building has no more in it that can contribute to our salvation than the synagogue out of which they cast our SAVIOUR and his Apostles. If there was any thing in any one building in the world more than in another, it was in the temple of Jerusalem, an eminent type of CHRIST, honoured several times by his bodily as well as spiritual presence: and yet one stone is not left upon another on the spot that bore the consecrated walls. But, blessed be GoD, the living temple of CHRIST'S body, that was destroyed for three days, is now built up again, and stands for ever at the right hand of GOD; and in that temple it is, that the holy Catholic Church worships GOD night and day, in spirit and in truth. Vile drunkards, abominable swearers, filthy whoremongers, covetous extortioners, lying cheats, profane sabbath-breakers, all sorts of sons and daughters of darkness, resort at times within these walls, and remain unsaved from their wickedness. Salvation is not, then, within the walls of any one place of worship in the world, unless CHRIST manifest himself there as he does not to the world.

8. Where shall we go, then? Shall we go out of this wicked world, and retire into a wilderness or a nunnery, as thousands do in the Church of Rome? No; salvation is in neither, out of CHRIST. Whom did CHRIST find in the wilderness but the Tempter? Whom do Monks and Nuns find in convents but the Tempter, and corrupt nature, worse than the Tempter? Shall we go to our closet? Yes, to seek CHRIST there, but not to make our closet a saviour, as too many do? Shall we go to the LORD's table? Yes, to seek CHRIST there, but not to make the ordinance a Saviour as the Roman Catholics do, and too many who call themselves Protestants. The Pharisee, because he rested in his devotions, and sought not CHRIST in them, was made more the child of hell by his fasting and prayer: and when Judas received the sop, he received the seal of his destruction, the Devil entering into him, instead of GOD's good SPIRIT. Therefore, ordinances help not, out of CHRIST.

9. To whom shall we go then? Will you give me leave to put off for a moment the character of a preacher of CHRIST'S righteousness, such as I desire to be found among you, and to put on that of a fashionable preacher. Will you permit me to "prophesy smooth things to you, to prophesy deceit?" Well, then, I say, "O man, you ask, with St. Peter, to whom you shall go for salvation. To whom but to yourself, to your own endeavours? Do your best, O man: fulfil all relative and religious duties: be honest, and go to church, wrong no man, murder nobody, be courteous and civil to all: and if those good works do not take you quite up to heaven, then CHRIST will lend you a hand at the last."-This is, my Brethren, the diabolical scheme which prevails almost every where, in opposition to the Bible and the doctrine of our Church; this is the master-piece of Satan; this is nothing but Deism refined, nothing but heathenish morality gilt over with the name of Christianity. This overturns the cross of CHRIST, and makes man his own saviour in part, if not in whole; this tramples under-foot the glorious robe of CHRIST'S righteousness, to exalt the filthy rags of man's own righteousness; this sets at nought the blood of CHRIST, the SPIRIT of GOD, and the operations of divine grace upon the hearts of men. This supersedes the fundamental doctrines of the fall in Adam, and the new birth in JESUS CHRIST. This, instead of ascribing salvation to him that sitteth upon the throne, and to the LAMB for ever, impiously ascribes it to free will and pharisaioal morality. And what is this but saying, I will remain in myself for salvation; I have the words of everlasting life;-than which there can be no greater blasphemy; for it is the very quintessence of Luciferian pride. This is the wolf in sheep's clothing, which destroys the lambs of the LORD by thousands: this is the detestable doctrine which Paul overturns, and curses, with the preachers of it, in his epistle to the Galatians; "Though an angel from heaven," says he, (i. 8,) "preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached, let him be accursed." And what is that gospel, but that which is contained in the text, "LORD, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of everlasting life." Yes, O thou LAMB OF GOD, that takest away the sins of the world, we are dead, lost, damned for ever, without thee! Our souls, like Noah's dove, cannot find whereon to fix themselves in all the creation: thou alone art the true, the living ark, built by the living GOD, to save souls alive. There is neither health nor life in us; but thou hast the words of eternal health and life. Ah, LORD, speak them to thy servants, and we shall be whole! Restore thou them that are penitent. LORD, save, or we perish! O LORD, make speed to save us; O LORD, make haste to deliver us! -This is the language of Peter, of our Church, and of every