Sermon 10. - On What Terms Christ Gives Life.

not only forsake Christ, but also rise up in arms against you for cleaving to his word, stand to the text. In you there is nothing but sin, death, and damnation, says our Church. “In me, that is, in my flesh, (says Paul himself,) dwelleth no good thing.” Up then with the apostle; not only renounce with him all other saviours, but go, this moment go, to him whom God has exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour for you. Say not only, “To whom shall we go?” but go directly, with all your sins, with all your misery, to your dying Saviour. Tell him, “Lord, thou hast the words of everlasting life: speak them in my soul.” Give him no rest till he say to you, as he did to David, “I am thy salvation;” till he give you the blessing which he gave to the thief upon the cross, to Zaccheus upon the tree, to Nathanael under the fig tree, to the harlot that wept behind him, to the woman who touched the hem of his garment, to the returning prodigal, to the penitent publican in the temple. Fear not; only believe; one grain of the faith of the centurion will remove all your sins upon Christ, who took them away upon the cross. Hear what David says: “As the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he put our sins from us.” Look up then, believe, and live. Does not the Lord even now speak the word that, going justified to your houses through the blood of the everlasting covenant, you may praise and serve him without fear all the days of your lives? SERMON 10. - ON WHAT TERMS CHRIST GIVES LIFE.

“Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life,” John 5:40. LAST Sunday I showed that Christ has an indubitable right to call us to receive spiritual and eternal life at his hands; because, having stood us our surety, he has fully satisfied Divine justice, and exactly answered the demands of the Divine law: so that now he is the author of eternal salvation to all those that seek it through his merits. I expostulated next with the convinced and awakened sinners; answering their most common objections for putting off their coming to Jesus Christ for life. But as time did not permit me to do such an important subject justice, I shall to - day, by the grace of God, show more particularly upon what terms Christ gives life to those that come unto him: describe four classes of sinners who will not come to Christ that they might have life: prove, by some unanswerable arguments, that unbelief (or not coming to Christ for life) is the most abominable and damning of all sins; and then I shall conclude by exhorting those who are guilty of it to arise, and go to their Saviour for pardon and life. And, in the meantime, may the power of Divine grace, and the virtue of Jesus’ name, be so present to wound and to heal our souls, as to make us willing and able to come to him now, that henceforth we may live to the glory of him who died for us!

I. I am to show upon what terms Christ gives life unto those that come to him.

To come to Christ that we may have life is, in general, to believe in him only for salvation. It is to pass through faith, from a state of nature unto a state of grace: from a state of guilt and sin, into a state of peace and holiness: it is to forsake the old Adam and his deeds, and to go unto Christ so as to dwell in him, and to have him dwelling in us. It is, in short, to make an exchange of what we are, for what Christ is or hath: giving all we are worth to buy this pearl, as the wise merchant in the gospel. This exchange, without which it is impossible to get life, implies four things chiefly.

1. The giving ourselves to him; head, heart, tongue, body, soul, because he bestows himself upon us freely. Then we are enabled to say with the believing soul, Song of Solomon 6:3, “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine.” When we do this sincerely, we sit already in heavenly places with our blessed Saviour. His Father is our Father: his throne is our throne; and we reap the benefits of his triumphs over death, hell, and the devil.

2. Coming to Jesus Christ for life implies giving all our sins to Christ; confessing them, loathing them, leaving them, casting them upon that Lamb of God, so as to receive rest for our souls from the guilt and power of them. When we do this we are made the righteousness of God in him, who, though he knew no sin, yet was made a sin offering for us.

3. Believing in Jesus Christ, or coming to him for life, implies a giving up our name, pleasure, profit, life, for him and his Gospel; because he gives his crown and honour, his life and all unto us. Thus, when nothing seems to be delightful and glorious unto us but Christ, he takes us into a share of all his delights and glory.

4. Our blessed Lord expects, when we come unto him for life, that we forsake all dependence upon our own righteousness, and place our entire reliance upon his merits; and then we shall obtain absolution from guilt, and be fully and freely “accepted in the beloved.” Now, glorious as these conditions are, it is remarkable that no one ever submitted to accept of them till he was driven to an extremity; no sinner ever coming to Jesus Christ for life till he sees that he is a dead man without him. We all shift for our ourselves, as long as we can, upon the stormy sea of the world, caring little whether Christ is far or near, whether he wakes or sleeps; but if, happily for us, a storm arise in our conscience, and we see ourselves just ready to sink into the gulf of God’s judgment, then, and then only, are we made willing to come to Jesus Christ: then, and then only, we cry with the trembling disciples, “Lord, save us, we perish! Lord, quicken our souls by thy saving health, or we die the second death!”

And to convince you of the truth of this amazing assertion, I come, II. To describe four classes of sinners who make up almost the whole of Christ’s visible Church in our day, and yet will not come to Christ for life.

1. The first class consists of those who have well nigh filled up the measure of their iniquities, and sinned away their day of grace. These, like Cain and Judas, seeing their sins very great, and feeling their hearts almost past relenting, scorn to sigh and mourn, and ask for mercy: and unable to bear the consideration of their dangerous, desperate state, like mad dogs they break the chains of restraining grace, and run to the vomit of sin upon the dung hill of profaneness, till they leap into the lake that burneth with unquenchable fire. Of these (humbling and melancholy thought!) there are not a few among us. These you will find running into excesses and debauchery, as far as their shaken constitution and shallow purse will permit. These are noted for rambling from one house of public entertainment to another; for breaking the Sabbath, as far as the fear of the laws will allow them; despising all religious worship, and scoffing at all those that seem soberly and religiously incited. These are the first born of Satan, and the boldest of his visible agents among men: they worship openly their Father; and were their lip prayers (if they pray at all) to be weighed in a balance with their hearty curses and desperate wishes for damnation, you would find that the service they offer to God Almighty bears no proportion to that which they offer to the devil. These people are each of them a living hell; sunk into brutish lusts, and worse than brutish stupidity: swelled with diabolical passions, they have nothing human but the shape, and (blessed be God!) a capacity to come to Jesus Christ, that he may rescue them from the jaws of eternal death. But to these, among us, he says in vain, “Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life.” Formerly, indeed, such publicans and sinners flocked to hear the word, and entered into life before the righteous Pharisees and learned scribes; but in our degenerate days both publicans and Pharisees seem to vie who shall slight the Gospel most.

2. The second class of those who refuse to come to Jesus Christ for life, is that of careless, reputable sinners, who, trusting in themselves that they are righteous, (or at least that they are safe, because less unrighteous than others,) slight the invitations of Christ’s messengers. Do they hear an offer of Christ? Instead of wondering at the love of the Lord, in making it to them, they regard it not. After the most searching sermon they go home as unaffected with grace and sin as if they had been hearing a ballad, or seeing a horse race. You may know them by such language as this, when the tedious discourse is over: “It is very fine weather to - day. Well, what do you say of the man? For my part I believe he means well; but do you not think he overdoes the matter? Did you see such a one at church? We had but a thin congregation to - day, the roads are so dirty.” Thus he will speak of the weather, the congregation, the minister, the sermon, and what not? but if ever you hear him mention the love of God in Christ, or the sinfulness of his heart, and the danger of his unconverted state, represented in the sermon, you may wonder, for the leopard has changed one of his spots. These careless sinners, who are every where the most numerous tribe, are for the world, their farm, their merchandise, their wife; they have married or intend to marry, and the care of the perishing body engrosses almost all their thoughts. As the Gadarenes, disturbed about the loss of their herd of swine, came to Jesus, and besought him to depart out of their coasts: or like the devils, who, when our Lord was going to cast them out of the man, cried, “What have we to do with thee? Art thou come to torment us before the time?” So these worldly, careless sinners, when we invite them to rend their hearts, and turn unto the Lord with weeping, fasting, and praying, account our ministry troublesome and dangerous. They wish we would depart out of their coasts, or complain that we try to make them uneasy before the time. Scorning to yield to conviction, and stifling the checks of their own conscience, they soon grow so careless, or rather so hardened, that they make no more of the offer of Christ than of the offer of a straw. Were a good bargain put to them, they would forget all their business to accomplish it: but when it is only Jesus Christ and life that they are invited to, they suppose it time enough to think of that; they pray to be excused for the present; or madly suppose that they have already accepted him. I want words, brethren to express the greatness of the danger of these Laodicean sinners, who say, “I am rich, and increased in goods, and have need of nothing.” I shall only observe, that if the blood of Abel cried to heaven for vengeance against Cain, the blood of Christ will one day cry much louder against these unbelievers, who, by slighting it, spill it afresh every moment. To these, then, as well as against desperate unbelievers, the man of sorrows and Lord of glory says, with great reason, “Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life.”

3. The third sort of sinners that reject this kind offer of our Lord, is that of presumptuous unbelievers; who, seeing what sins they have committed, and it may be, having now and then some touches of sorrow for them, catch notionally at Christ, and hope to be saved by him, before ever they come to feel sin as a heavy curse. These catching notionally at Christ, and hoping that they have him already, shut him out of the future, and so in fact reject him. This is the case of most of those who are only half awakened. The Prophet Micah describes them in these remarkable words: “The sin of Israel is great, and unrepented of, yet will they lean upon the Lord and say, Is not the Lord among us? None evil can come upon us,” Micah 3:11. You will never hear people that are in this dangerous state complain of their utter want of faith, but only of the weakness of their faith; and they will not be beaten off from the notion, that they are true but weak believers. Let them hear never so much of their real misery, and see never so much of their desperate sinfulness, yet they will hold their imaginary trust in Christ: as if one could savingly trust in Christ, before he has truly experienced the bitterness of sin, and been clearly convinced of unbelief, John 16:9. Therefore, these also, (though they profess with their lips and conversation to come to Christ for life,) yet in fact keep at a distance from him with their heart, as well as desperate and careless unbelievers. This was the case of the foolish virgins. They made great profession of going to meet the bridegroom, as well as the wise ones, and really thought they had oil in their vessels, or faith in their hearts; but being mistaken, they justly perished for their wilful delusion.

4. The fourth, and last class of unbelievers, who make Christ complains that they will not come unto him that they might have life, is that of those who are convinced they have not life, - they perceive in general that they are in a bad state, — they have some confined sight of their sins, and of their need of Jesus Christ, - but after all, they do not know whether they had best come to him or not. They see some good in a Saviour, for which they fain would have him; such as peace, grace, pardon, and heaven: but they see many things in his offer of life that overbalance those advantages. They must bid adieu to all their foolish pastimes, and vain diversions: the drunkard must renounce his cups, and the silly virgin her love of dress: the gamester must part with his cards and dice, and the jovial man with his foolish talking and jesting: the covetous man must cut his right hand, that is, give to the poor what he laid up for himself: the unclean person must pluck out his right eye, that is, part with the gratifying of some base lust, which is dearer to him than a right eye; and Nicodemus must confess Jesus openly, even before Pontius Pilate: all must take up the cross of their Saviour, and follow him through evil report, slander, and cruel mockings. Now all this is very hard to flesh and blood; and people who are disturbed by the dread of the cross, and the fear of man, being drawn by the love of the world, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life, of course remain irresolute and unsettled in their principles: they will lean this way, and that way; now they put their hand to the plough, and the next moment they look back: to - day they resolve to sell all, to buy the pearl of great price; but to - morrow they think it is venturing too far, and begin to hope that they can be saved at a lower rate. With the young man in the Gospel, they will ask you in a fit of devotion, “What they must do to inherit eternal life?” But if you tell them that all the good they have done from their youth up, or can do to their dying breath, will stand them in no stead without Christ; that they must sell all, renounce all their sins, without excepting the most delightful, fashionable ones, and follow their Saviour through the regeneration; though they have perhaps not much of this world’s goods, yet they will go away sorrowful, as well as he that had great possessions. If ministers could show them some by way to steal into heaven without bearing the reproach of the cross, and denying the flesh, then they would embrace the Gospel: if we could teach them how to follow the world and Christ at the same time, and how to die the death of the righteous after having lived the life of the worldly, they would rank us among the best preachers: if we gave them to understand that they might compound the matter between Christ and Belial, and keep upon fair terms with the world and God at the same time, they would be converted this very day. But from such half conversion, good Lord, deliver us and them! Of such half conversion our Saviour speaks, Matthew 13:20: “He that receiveth the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it: but as he hath not root in himself, he dureth only for a while; for when tribulation, temptation, or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended,” and falleth back to the world. These sinners are the most unhappy of all: they enjoy neither the pleasures of sin, nor those of godliness: they have neither earth nor heaven; for as they halt between Baal and God, and serve neither faithfully, they are rewarded by neither. They are a kind of mongrels in religion, a monstrous compound of Christianity and worldliness. One day they cry, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” and seem to confess him in his doctrine, and the next day, drawn away, or overawed by the scribes and Pharisees of the age, they join the general cry, “Away with him, his doctrine is too strict; his conditions are too hard; his offers are too full of restriction; at this rate who can be saved?” Thus these also, in the end, are found despisers of Christ, as well as desperate sinners, careless sinners, and presumptuous sinners; all refusing to come unto him that they might have life upon his own terms. I hasten now,

III. To show the greatness of their sin, which consists in wilful unbelief; or, in other terms, in not coming to Christ that they might have life.

1. It is the most heinous of all sins. By committing all other imaginable sins, we indeed trample under foot the holy law of God: but by the sin of unbelief, by not coming to Christ to receive life from him, we trample under foot the blood of the Son of God, and look upon it as a common thing: and in this state there is absolutely no salvation for us, Hebrews 6:6.

2. If you are guilty of murder and adultery, of drunkenness and injustice, you sin against the justice and holiness of God: but by unbelief, by not coming to Christ for life, you sin not only against the justice and holiness of God, but against his mercy too; and thus shut against yourself the only door at which you can escape from endless ruin.

3. Unbelief, or not coming to Jesus Christ for life, is the only damning sin under the Gospel. In fact, suppose a reprobate, guilty of all the abominations of Manasses, the extortions of Zaccheus, the oaths of Peter, and the wickedness of the dying thief: if such a monster, loaded with these mountains of repeated and aggravated guilt, comes sincerely to Jesus for life and pardon, will the Son of God cast him out? Or will he save to the uttermost the chief of sinners? He will, he must save him. The promise hath passed his lips. He can in no wise cast him out. For he that believeth in him, though he were dead in all manner of sins, yet shall he live, and with Manasses and David shall praise a pardoning God. So true it is, that a grain of living faith will remove the highest mountain of sin into the sea of Jesus’ blood. On the other hand, suppose a man as exact in all religious and social duties as the Pharisee mentioned in the Gospel: suppose again, if you please, that he has always lived as sober, as pious a life as the hopeful young man that had kept the letter of all the commandments from his youth; yet what will that avail him in that day? If, resting upon his goodness, as the Pharisee, or thinking the Gospel terms too hard, as the young man, he never comes to Jesus Christ for life, or goes away sorrowful before he receives it, he must perish in his blood, he must die the second death, as surely as if he had the guilt of all the sins of David and Manasses upon his conscience. And that for two reasons: first, dying out of Christ, he dies in the old Adam, dies a natural man, dies unrenewed; and such a one can never see the kingdom of God, John 3:3. Secondly, there is but one way to get into that kingdom, namely, Christ, the way, John 14:6. And if a child of Adam should be never so circumspect in his conduct, without entering this way, he could never see life, but must inevitably perish: unless you suppose he can climb up some other way, contrary to John 10:1. Upon these considerations, it is acknowledged by all sound divines, that had Judas come to the blood of sprinkling as Peter did, he would have been pardoned as well as he, notwithstanding his most horrible crime; and that, on the contrary, Nicodemus, with all his piety and morality, would have been damned as well as Judas, had he not come to Jesus that he might have life. Whence flows that Christian axiom which sounds like blasphemy in the ears of every unconvinced sinner, but which will stand as long as the Gospel stands: one single sin will damn for ever the best liver, if he does not come to Jesus Christ that he may have life, and be born again of the Spirit. And on the other hand, all manner of sins and blasphemies shall be forgiven to him that comes to Jesus for life: so that the once abominable Manasses, dying in Christ, lifts up his eyes in endless glory; and the virtuous Pharisee, dying out of Christ, lifts them up in eternal torments. So true is that saying of our Lord, “ The last shall be first, and the first last.”

4. It is the sin that God will punish with the hottest place of hell. Capernaum was a town where our blessed Lord often invited people to come to him for life, both by his preaching and miracles: but it was then as it is now, they made light of the invitation. Some went to their farms, and others to their merchandise, and not a few reviled our Saviour and his doctrine, accounting him uncharitable, or out of his senses. This engaged the Son of God, mild and gentle as he was, to make, for our warning, this amazing declaration: “Thou Capernaum, that art exalted to heaven,” that supposest thou art in the way to heaven, and as it were, already there, “shalt be brought down to hell:” thy inhabitants shall be consigned to hell, and shall have the hottest place there: “For I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable in the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon, yea, for Sodom and Gomorrah, than for you.” Who could ever have believed this, had not the Son of God revealed it again and again? What! shall those who call themselves God’s people, and think they are sure of heaven; who lead a moral life, and attend God’s ordinances, as the Capernaites; shall they be more severely punished than those impure children of Belial. the inhabitants of Sodom, who met a hell upon earth, and were visibly driven, by flakes of fire from heaven, into a lake burning with brimstone in hell? Yes! so heinous in the sight of God, so abominable is that sin of unbelief, of not coming to Christ for life, that He who judgeth righteous judgment has pronounced it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than for Bethsaida, in the day of judgment. Archbishop Usher, in one of the sermons that I read to you last summer, accounts boldly for that amazing instance of Divine severity. “The inhabitants of Sodom,” says he, “sinned against nature, and their own blood; whereas unbelievers sin against grace, and the blood of the Son of God.”

5. It is the sin which brings the greatest dishonour to God. It is not only an open contempt of his authority, but of his mercy and love. It is also a direct reflection upon the Divine veracity: for “he that believeth not God, hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.” The prodigal son made himself vile and abominable by his riotous living; but yet pity and mercy pleaded for him in his father’s breast. But suppose he had refused the kiss of peace which his father gave him, had slighted the best robe, and determined still to wear his filthy rags; would not such behaviour have stabbed his father to the heart, and have appeared more monstrous in his sight than all his former miscarriages? This is exactly the case with us: till we come to Jesus Christ for life, we are all prodigal children: we have all squandered away our portion - the Divine favour and image: we have all fed the devil’s swine far from our native country, heaven: we have all indulged our sinful appetites, and kept at a distance from God with our hearts, even when we drew near to him with our lips. And now that our Father is come from heaven, in the person of the Son of his love, and sends to us day by day the ministers of his Gospel, to offer us the kiss of peace, and the best robe of righteousness; can we fill up the measure of our iniquities in a manner more cutting to his loving heart, than by spurning his mercy, and finding fault with the terms on which he offers us salvation?

6. It is the most desperate of all sins. If a man has cursed and sworn a hundred times in his life, I grant that he has a hundred times sold his soul to the devil for naught, and given himself a hundred deadly wounds; but yet his case is not hopeless. If he come to the Son of God for life, he will bring him back from the jaws of destruction, and cure all his wounds with the balm of Gilead, his most precious blood: but if he only neglect to come to Jesus Christ, he desperately rejects the only remedy: “There remaineth no other sacrifice for sin,” says St. Paul; he cannot be renewed to repentance any other way than that into which he refuses to come. In short, he cuts his own throat, and then madly refuses the surgeon’s help, and dies as stubborn, presumptuous, and hardened as Lucifer himself. This is the lamentable end of all those who let Christ complain in vain, that they will not come to him that they might have life. And I cannot but incline to the opinion of many eminent divines, among whom is Bishop Latimer, who affirms, this wilful unbelief, this careless neglect of Christ and his blood, if persisted in to the end, is the only unpardonable sin, because it overturns the very means of forgiveness by rejecting the application of the blood of Christ.

7. It is a sin of so deep a dye, that all the devils in hell cannot commit the like. Our Saviour never prayed, wept, bled, and died for devils. He never said to them, “Ye will not come unto me, that ye might have life.” They can never be so madly ungrateful as to slight a Saviour. Mercy never wooed their stubborn, proud hearts, as it does ours. They have abused grace, it is true, but they never trampled mercy under foot: this more than diabolical sin is reserved for thee, careless sinner, who goest on in vanity without calling on Christ for a broken and contrite heart, and supposest thyself safe, though the blood of Christ never washed thy filthy soul, and melted thy stubborn heart. O what despairing reflections dost thou prepare for thyself, when Christ, in his turn, shall bid thee depart! Now thou hearest him compassionately say, in the text, “Ye will not come unto me,” and thou remainest unmoved. Shut up in unfelt guilt and unbelief, thou wonderest perhaps what we mean, by speaking so much of coming to Christ for life: but the time cometh when thou shalt wonder at thy madness for making light of the gracious offer. The time cometh when Jesus, who meekly intreats, shall sternly curse: when he who in tender patience says, “Ye will not come unto me for life,” shall thunder in righteous vengeance, “Depart from me, ye cursed; depart unto the second death, the fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” In vain wilt thou plead then as thou dost now, “Lord, I am no adulterer, I am no extortioner, I used to eat at thy table, I was baptized in thy name, I was a true Churchman, there are many who are worse than I am.” In vain shalt thou thus say, “Lord, Lord:” this will not admit thee into the kingdom of Christ. His answer will be, “I know you not: you never came unto me for life.” This is the condemnation, says he, John 3:19, this is the true cause of your condemnation - “the light [Christ and his grace] is come into the world, and you love darkness rather than light:” you remain shut up in your natural darkness, and care not for the light of God’s countenance, which shines again in Christ upon believing souls. Yea, some are so far from caring for it, that they explode it as the visionary dream of men whose brain is turned by religion, or whose tongue is actuated by hypocrisy. But wisdom shall be justified of her children. In the meantime our commission stands in full force: “Preach the Gospel to every creature.” And what is that Gospel? “He that believeth, he that cometh to the Son that he might have life shall be saved; he that believeth not, he that cometh not to the Son for spiritual life, for a new birth of the Spirit, shall be damned,” Mark 16:16. For he only that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son, were he as good a man as Nicodemus, or Cornelius, hath not life, 1 John 5:12; yea, is condemned already, John 3:18: he shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him, John 3:36.

And will you remain any longer in this state, my dear brethren? Estranged from Jesus Christ, the source of all life, grace, and glory? Will you thus continue without God, and without Christ in the world? Strangers to the hope of Israel, the forgiveness of sins through the blood of Jesus, and unacquainted with the love of God, which flows from the sense of that forgiveness? Can neither the broken law, which curses you? Nor the arm of Divine justice lifted up against you, till you are grafted into Christ? Nor hell, moved from beneath to meet you at your coming? Nor the consideration of your manifold aggravated sins, that cry for their wages, your eternal death? Can none of these things drive you to Jesus Christ, in prayers of distress and faith? Shall he still complain that you will not come to him that you might have life? Shall he still weep over ungrateful Jerusalem, and say, “O how often would I have gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but ye would not! Behold I am come from heaven to seek my lost sheep: I am the good Shepherd, that have laid down my life for the sheep: I call them by name: my every look, my every breath, says, Sinners, come unto me for life: but you know not my voice, you follow strangers. The world never sweat blood for you, and yet you leave me for the world: the flesh never opened to you the kingdom of heaven, and yet you forsake me to fulfil the desire of the flesh: the devil never expired upon a cross for you, and yet you renounce me to cleave to the devil and his works! O hard - hearted, ungrateful sinners, what can I do more for you? Can tears move you? Behold I have poured out my soul in tears and strong cries to God on your behalf, Hebrews 5:7. Will you not be wrought upon put by tears of blood? Behold, all my pores, like so many weeping eyes, distil blood, great drops of blood falling to the ground, to wash away your sins; and yet you will not come to me that you might have life. Must you see me pant, and bleed, and die for you in unknown agonies of body and soul? Behold me nailed to an accursed cross, a spectacle to angels and men! I stand your surety between earth and heaven. I discharge your debt in blood. I make reconciliation: I bring in everlasting righteousness: I expire for your sins. Now the covenant is sealed: my heart, my loving heart is pierced for your transgressions: the fountain of purifying blood and living water is opened: you may come, wash, and be clean. And if you suppose that, because I died for your sins, I cannot give you life: see me rising triumphantly for your justification. Now, the eternal conqueror of death and hell, I sit upon my throne, offering life to all mankind, and to you; and yet ‘ye will not come unto me that you might have life.’” Thus complains the lover of souls in the text. Ah! my dear fellow sinners! let us yield to his gentle rebuke and moving expostulation. Let us go to him, for he only has the words of eternal life. This moment let us cast our helpless, guilty, damned souls upon his atoning blood. Through faith let us draw life out of his death, and more abundantly life out of his resurrection. Behold, sinners! the ark is ready. The storm of God’s judgments gathers amain. A flood of Divine vengeance is going to sweep away the wicked from the earth. The patience of God is well nigh exhausted; and the true Noah, Jesus Christ, says once more, “Come unto me that ye may have life.” O come now! Enter the ark to - day! In the ark there is salvation. In Christ, and in him alone, there is pardon and life. “But will he indeed receive me? Will he take in such a leprous, guilty soul as mine?” Yes, thou poor, afflicted, dejected sinner! he will, he does take thee in: for he came not to call the