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SERMON V.

CHRIST THE ONLY WAY OF SALVATION.

JOHN XIV. 6.

I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

MEN are subject to three very ancient evils, sin, ignorance, and death. When I survey all the religions which have appeared in the world, all the sects of philosophers, all the arts which have been invented, to find remedies against these three evils; I seem to behold human nature in the situation of those diseased persons, who, among certain nations, used to be placed at the doors of their houses, that every passenger might contribute his advice or medicine for their cure. For want of skilful physicians, and a solid and regular practice, to which they were strangers, all were in the habit of prescribing for their neighbours, and each individual communicated the result of his own experience.

But what multitudes passed by us and considered our maladies, before one was found able to cure them. Philosophers came with their pretended discoveries, their counsels and their precepts: they proposed to dissipate our gloom, and to restore us to happiness by reclaiming us to virtue. They gave us nothing but words; they wrote fine books, and made large promises to our wants, but were

not able to relieve them. They called upon man to arise; and they gave him no strength to obey the exhortation. They called upon him to look; and they afforded him only a transient, glimmering light, insufficient for the discernment of objects. They dissuaded from the fear of death; but they never disarmed him, or supplied any means of escaping from his power. The world with its policy and prudence, the arts it has invented, its power and protection, has never been able to effect more than a temporary oblivion of these evils; it has left them as great and incurable as ever. All the religions which appeared before Jesus Christ, were equally unsuccessful in their attempts to remedy them. Most of them established the dominion of ignorance and vice, instead of delivering from their power; and they vainly attempted to purify their votaries and appease the divinity, by their sacrifices, victims, and lustrations. Moses himself and the law which he promulgated, only declared—We are not "he that is to come; look ye for another:" they only made the patient more sensible of his disease and more ardently desirous of its cure.

At last Jesus Christ came, and with him every thing came. Of him may be truly affirmed what the philosopher caused to be falsely inscribed on his school: Here is a remedy for all evils. Yes, Christians, in him we find a remedy against sin, ignorance, and death; and in vain would you hope to find one, except in him and his religion. He declares, "I am the way, and the truth, and the "life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.' You must not expect us to say every thing that

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might be advanced on this comprehensive text. These few compendious words comprise all the glory of our Mediator, all the benefits he bestows upon us, all the advantages we derive from his alliance, And who could fully develop all these things in the short period allotted to this exercise? We shall only endeavour to exhibit the most essential and important lessons which the passage contains.

The text naturally divides itself into two propositions, very closely connected, and mutually explanatory of each other. The first shews what titles Jesus Christ assumes with reference to us. "I am," says he, "the way, and the truth, and "the life." This we shall endeavour to elucidate in our first part. Then we shall examine the second proposition, which shews that this great Saviour, to the exclusion of every other, is our only conductor to the Father. "No man cometh unto the Father, but by me." The explication and proof of this important truth will form our second part,

I. To develop and elucidate the meaning of these magnificent words, "I am the way, and the truth, "and the life," we shall do two things. First, we shall consider the three appellations generally, and shall offer some useful remarks on the union, extent, and force, of the three connected together. Then we shall consider them separately, and, as far as we can, shall exhibit the meaning, beauty, and truth, of each of these glorious titles.

Our first observation must relate to the occasion of this discourse. Jesus Christ was about to leave his disciples. All the grief and terror which the

fear of a melancholy desertion could excite in the mind, the apostles felt; and amidst the trouble into which sorrow had plunged them, they no longer knew what they said, or remembered things with which they ought to have been most deeply impressed. He had spoken of his absence as a journey on which he was going to prepare a place for them, after which he would come to them again. Upon this, Thomas said: "Lord, we know not "whither thou goest, and how can we know the

way?" Jesus replied: "I am the way, and the "truth, and the life." You say that you know not the way to follow me, and I am myself the way by which you must go to the Father, a way that you ought to know; it is unnecessary to seek for another. "Because I have said these things to you, sorrow "hath filled your heart." But if “ ye believe in God, believe also in me. I am the truth." Confide in my promises; "I will come again, and "receive you unto myself." You fear the world and its persecutions; my approaching death terrifies you, and you tremble for yourselves; "I am the

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life, I will come again, I shall rise from the "dead on the third day.* Because I live, ye shall "live also. He that loseth his life for my sake, “shall find it"† again in and by me; for by me is the only way of access to the glory of the Father.-This is the general sense and scope of the whole

text.

Secondly, whether you take these expressions separately, or join them together and consider them as exemplifying a figure very common in the style

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of the scripture as well as of profane authors; by which "the way, the truth, and the life" will be understood as denoting the true way to life, or the way which leads to life, or the true and living way in every form the proposition is true, and the sense just and certain. To affirm separately, that Jesus Christ is the way, that he is the truth, that he is the life, and conjointly, that he is the true way to life, is equally correct.

Thirdly, we remark,-that the language of Jesus Christ is evidently figurative, cannot be doubted. Here you perceive how very fainiliar and common the use of figurative terms was with him, even when he was conversing with his dearest disciples with a view to their instruction and consolation. Such modes of expression serve to convey an idea more vivid and powerful, and in fewer words than could be done by simple terms. There is something at once far more concise and energetic in Jesus's calling himself "the way, the truth, and the life," than if he had simply described himself as the guide to heaven, the teacher of truth, and the giver of life.

Fourthly, let us observe, that in order to a correct explication of these titles which the Saviour assumes, they must be applied to him in one and the same point of view. He is "the truth and the life," in the same character in which he is "the way." He is the way, considered as Mediator, God and Man, who not only has united in his person two natures infinitely different, but by the actions of his ministry has reconciled heaven and earth. When he says, in the next clause, "No man cometh unto

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