This seems to me the true state of the case, with regard to sinners who hear the gospel. Pardon, and life, and blessing, are set before them for their acceptance, as the gift of God, “without money and without price." But either they have their thoughts and desires occupied about other things which they like better-and they thoughtlessly disregard the offer :-or the pride of their spirits is such, that they cannot think of renouncing all idea of title, and receiving the benefits as a gratuitous boon-and they scornfully disdain the offer. Thus the pardon, the life, and the blessing, do not become theirs, because they will not have them. They make light of the proffered donation; they proudly reject the bequeathed legacy. In the comparison used by Mr. Erskine, the deed of bequest is supposed to be absolute, and to render the legacy bequeathed the property of the person in whose behalf it is made, independently of acceptance on his part, and if I may so express it, whether he will or not. But in the constitution of the gospel, there is nothing of this kind. There is no blessing made the possession of the sinner independently of his own will. There must be the concurrence of his will, in order to any one of the benefits of the gospel being his. No man can be pardoned or sanctified against his will. The latter is, in the very nature of the thing, impossible; and the former is impossible from the instituted provi sions of the gospel, by which it is rendered necessary that the sinner fall in with the terms on which the pardon is offered, accepting it as the gift of grace through a Mediator. But on this topic I must not at present enter; even the remarks which have just been made are rather a digression.*

*If Mr. Erskine's comparison be inappropriate, no less so is another used by Dr. Malan, in a little tract entitled “The Assurance of Faith from God to his Elect, or the New Bartimeus,"—a tract which

SECTION II.

What are the things, that are written, by which God intends this people to know that they have Eternal Life?

Setting aside, then, as unscriptural, the views of those who would rest their personal knowledge of their state either on direct intimations to their

has been translated by some one who had no very correct acquaintance either with French or English, and which, on this account, leaves us occasionally in doubt whether we have the true sense of the author. But in what I now quote there can be no mistake; and it will sufficiently explain itself without taking in the connexion."Pastor.-Well, hear: suppose that you and I are in want of food, and that we have nothing to eat; we wander through the streets and highways, and nowhere find the smallest nourishment. We may imagine that there is enough of bread in this or that house for us; but this persuasion will not procure us that of which we stand in need. In this extremity, some one comes to us, and says, 'There is abundance of bread, and of all kinds of food, in the house of the Mayor.' Immediately you run, saying, 'I go to take my share.' I stop you with these words- Your share! are they yours?" 'Yes,' you reply, 'for I believe they belong to me.' Do you think your reply would be sufficient and just?-John. I do not see that the knowledge of the existence of bread gives me any right to possess it.-Pastor. You have then been stopped by this remark, and you remain in your dilemma. But then the servant of the Mayor approaches, and says, My master proclaims that whosoever is hungry, Jand will come, shall receive two loaves:' immediately I run towards tho house, crying, 'I am going to get some food. Some one says to me, 'Is the food yours?' I reply, 'Yes, it is mine; for the Proclamation is certain, Whosoever is hungry shall have two loaves:" I am hungry, and I know the Mayor does not lie; then two of these loaves are nine, for he has said it to me.'-John. O what a light you throw upon the subject by this explanation! Ah! I understand it now. This is God, who said that Jesus is the Saviour of sinners who believe in him; which does not mean sinners who work wickedly,that is as clear as noonday. God has said, that his Son is the Saviour of those who believe in him; and I ought also to believe, upon that declaration, that he is my Savieur." Pages 39-41. Now, who does not perceive that when John says, "I ought also to believe, on that declaration, that he is my Saviour," his belief of this is not direct but inferential? It is just this: Jesus Christ is the Saviour of those that believe in him; I believe in him; therefore he is my Sa viour. There might never be in John's mind a formal syllogism of

minds, or on direct testimony respecting themselves in the word, or on what is termed the appropriating nature of faith ;-let us now try if we can discover how the case actually stands ;-what are "the things that are written," by which God intends his people to "know that they have eternal life.”—In order, then, to our having a full and distinct view of this interesting part of our subject;-amongst various ways in which it might be treated, I prefer, for the sake of unity of method, a recurrence to the threefold division of eternal life formerly introduced, and considering, with regard to each, the scriptural ground on which our knowledge of possession must rest; pointing out, at the same time, the relation of

this kind. But unquestionably this is the mental process. There can be no other process by which the conclusion can be reached; there being no direct declaration, in the word of God, of John's being a believer in Christ, nor, consequently, of Christ's being his Saviour, in the sense in which he is the Saviour of those that believe; that is, in the actual bestowment of the blessings of his salvation.-Inasmuch as Christ's being his Saviour is admitted to depend upon his believing. Still, then, there must be the believing acceptance of the testimony, ere Christ and salvation can properly be ours; and therefore, that he is ours can be no part of the testimony. In the illustrative case supposed; the proclamation is," Whosoever is hungry, and will come, shall receive two loaves."-Now, is it not evident, according to the very terms of the proclamation, that no one can have the loaves but upon coming for them? A man might please himself with the fancy of two loaves being his, because they were his in offer -his in the Mayor's proclamation;-but till he came for them, they were not his; the proclamation and offer limiting the bestowment to those who should so come. It would have fared but poorly with either John or his pastor, even though they might call the loaves theirs, if the said loaves had remained in the Mayor's house. Would this kind of possession have satisfied their craving appetites? Suppose either of them had entertained a dislike to the Mayor, and had been disposed by that dislike to say-"I cannot bring myself to go-I will sooner starve!" what good would the two loaves have done him? the truth is, they were not his till he had them; and he could not have them but by going for them: so must sinners believe in Christ, and come to Christ for the blessings of salvation, before they can be theirs. -If their aversion to the "bread of life," and to Him who has it to bestow, and who freely offers it, be such as to prevent their coming to him for it, it can do them no good;-they must "perish for hunger."

these grounds, in the evidence, to each other, and the impossibility of their disunion, or separate existence.

1. First, then, with regard to life, as it respects state, or legal sentence; that is, as it respects justification-the cancelling of the sentence of death, and our passing into the state of acceptance and life.

We have already seen what is the simple and exclusive ground of justification; and also, what is the equally simple medium of interest in that ground. What, then, are the " things that are written," by which we are, in this respect, to "know that we have eternal life?"

In answer to this inquiry, I must again insist on the simplicity of the gospel testimony; its simplicity, as it appears in the New Testament, divested of all the mysticism in which it has too often been needlessly and perniciously enveloped. The "faithful saying" is, that "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." "This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." Jesus "finished the work, given him to do." Of this finished work, of righteousness and propitiation, God has testified his acceptance by raising him from the dead;—having practically declared by that event what he had verbally uttered from heaven at his baptism and transfiguration—

This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." In the name of this Mediator, there is mercy with God for the chief of sinners; a free, and full, and everlasting remission of all trespasses, as well as every concomitant and subsequent blessing of life and immortality, being held forth for acceptance to all, without exception and without difference, who, crediting the testimony, and renouncing self-dependence, come to God for mercy on the Redeemer's account. The invitation is unrestricted, unqualified. It is not to one description

of sinners more than another-not to sinners, for example, who have, in some way, previously prepared themselves for coming to Christ, or to God in Christ's name, and who fancy they have thus acquired a title, or warrant, or encouragement to come, which others have not, or which they themselves had not before ;-it is to all;-to all, without difference and without exception;-to all, as they are just as the message finds them. It is to men universally, as sustaining the generic character of sinners, that the message is addressed, and it is to their state as sinners that it is adapted. There needs no warrant for any to believe it but its truth, and no qualification for receiving the mercy revealed in it, but the sinfulness and guilt for whose removal it is designed. Why should we seek a warrant for believing what is true? The more difficult problem would be, to find a warrant for not believing it. The testimony of the gospel brings salvation near to every sinner in whose ears it is sounded. All are alike warranted, and warranted immediately, without the intervention or preparation of a moment, to receive it, to rely upon it, to rejoice in it.

It is very true that the terms of the testimony are general. What then? Being equally addressed to all, it is equally addressed to each. It contains no names, but neither does it except any. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him might not perish, but have everlasting life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him might not perish, but have eternal life."* Thus it was, in the camp'of Israel, at the time to which the Saviour, in these words,

* John Mi. 14-16,