heart responds to the truths revealed there, and assures us that they are of God. So we may suppose a person coming from a distant land, and speaking to us of one whom we have known or loved, as if he was also his own dear friend. He confirms his words, by stating circumstances known to that person, and known to ourselves: but which could only have been known to another, if that distant friend had communicated them. We can no longer doubt. He is what he professes to be. And such is the nature of the witness which the believer has in himself. The words of Scripture, the truths it reveals, the promises it contains, so suit his heart, and are so congenial to his feelings, that he is sure they must come from God: must come from Him who knows the heart, and has access to it. The Scriptures tell him of his secret thoughts. tell him of his wants, and their relief: of his fears, and their remedy. He needs no farther proof of their truth than the answer of his own heart supplies. They speak the language which is understood by him, and must come from the country, the stamp of which they profess to bear.

But he that believeth on the Son of God hath another witness in himself. He feels a power within him striving against the sin of his nature. He feels a power enabling him to resist, to conquer it to do that of which St. John had before been speaking to overcome the world. This, he knows, cannot be his own power: cannot come from anything in himself. It is not nature to resist nature.

And, therefore, in proportion as he is able to mortify the flesh with the corrupt affections: to subdue pride and self-conceit: to practise humility and meekness: to despise worldly things, and fix the heart on things above: to bring his thoughts to agreement with the principles of the Gospel, and his habits to the obedience which God requires ;so far as he has done this, he hath the witness in himself, because he has proof of a power" working in him both to will and to do," what of his own accord he would not will, and of his own nature he could not do.

Happy are they who possess this witness. Let them cherish it, as that which is of all testimonies the surest. We assent to what is told us, we believe what we have heard; but there is a certainty about those things which we have felt within, and of which we have an inward consciousness, which seals the outward testimony, and enables us to say, "We know that the record is true."

LECTURE LXXVII.

ETERNAL LIFE GIVEN IN JESUS CHRIST.

1 JOHN v. 11, 12.

11. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life; and this life is in his Son.

12. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

6 Phil. ii. 13.

The testimony, or truth, which each believer has in himself, as the apostle had just now said, is to this purpose, that God hath given to us eternal life; and this life is in his Son. Such is the record: the thing recorded that to which Scripture bears witness. Many truths are revealed in the Bible, great and important truths; but this is the record, compared with which all others sink into insignificance. It deserves, therefore, to be attentively considered.

And what must first strike us in these words, is the way in which God has given to us eternal life. Not as the use of reason is granted, as the power of motion is granted, to the whole race alike. It is not given as a sure and universal possession, to be enjoyed by every man without an effort of his own: not like an estate which descends of course from a predecessor to his heir. But God has offered to us eternal life, through certain means. He that hath the Son hath life. He has made it dependent on certain circumstances. He that hath not the Son of God hath not life. He has declared to us, who have it, and who have it not. He has told us where it is to be found, and how it is to be secured. He has given it, as health was given to Naaman the Syrian, when he came to the prophet Elisha to be recovered of his leprosy. That health which the prophet gave to him was in the river of Israel. "Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thou shalt be clean." So has God given to us eternal life; and that life is in his Son. It was the same with the Israelites in the wilderness, when they were

1 2 Kings v.

dying through the bite of venomous serpents, and it pleased God to supply a remedy. He did not restore them to immediate health: he did not speak the word, and they were healed; but he commanded Moses to raise on high the figure of a serpent, and whosoever looked on it should live. So is it in regard to life eternal: God gives it through a certain mode of communication: 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.

Plainly, therefore, the first consideration, the most needful inquiry, must be, What is it to have the Son? The Son of God might be possessed in a manner which John had himself once known and experienced, but which is not intended here. The apostle does not speak of the bodily presence of the Son. He does not mean that security which he and his brother apostles once had, when, tossed and endangered by a storm, they received the Lord on board their vessel, and the wind and sea were lulled. He could not be alluding to this kind of security for long before St. John wrote these words, the Lord had ascended up to heaven, and was absent from this world in body. But as the apostles received him into their ship, and joyfully received him, because they knew that with him there was safety; so must those, who seek through him eternal life, receive him into their hearts, that they may dwell with him, and he with them. As his words are, Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man will open the door, I will come in unto him, and sup with him, and he with me."

:

66

" 4

2 Numb. xxi. 6-9.

3 John vi. 21.

4

Rev. iii. 20.

Whosoever then opens the door of his heart, and admits the Son, and retains him there, he hath the Son, and through the Son hath life eternal. So the Ethiopian had the Son; of whom we read in the book of Acts, that Philip, explaining to him the prophecy of Isaiah, "preached unto him Jesus." 5 The Lord, no doubt, opened his heart, that he received the things spoken of Philip: saw that all which Isaiah had foretold was completed in Christ Jesus. And he desired to be baptized in his name. "Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." This was to have the Son. So likewise the people of Antioch.“ Paul and Barnabas proclaimed to them that "the Lord had set him to be a light unto the Gentiles, that he should be salvation to the ends of the earth. And when they heard that, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord; and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed." From that time they had the Son, and in him eternal life.

And we are here shown what put them in possession. On one part is the offer, He that hath the Son hath life. And now the Ethiopian, and the Gentiles of Antioch are in possession of the gift, and

66

go on their way rejoicing." The intermediate means, through which they have gotten possession, is their faith; their conviction that eternal life is bound up in Christ Jesus, and their willing desire to receive it at his hands. To the dying Israelites in the wilderness, the means through which they

5 Acts viii. 30-40.

6 Acts xiii 47, 48.