sirous of grace and glory everlasting as they are of temporal riches and honour, you would think nothing too hard to do for the attainment of it; but would do every thing that is required towards it with more ease and pleasure than ye can ever find in prosecuting any worldly design. Do but make trial of it for a while, and you will find it to be so by your own experience. They who never entered upon this Christian race, may dream of a thousand rubs and difficulties in it; but when ye are once got into it, and have exercised yourselves for some time in it, ye will feel it to be so plain, so smooth, so pleasant, that ye will never think that ye can run fast enough, and yet will never faint nor be weary, till ye come to the end of it: or, as the Scripture delights to speak, till you are gathered to your fathers, to the innumerable company of Saints, who while they were upon earth as you now are, ran so as to obtain the crown of glory in heaven.

2.

Wherefore," my beloved, "seeing we also are com- Heb. 12. 1, passed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us; and let us run with patience the race that is set before us; looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith; Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is [now] set down at the right hand of the throne of God," where He is preparing a place, a place of joy, and bliss, and glory, more than we can imagine, for all that run so as to obtain it.

Let us therefore now resolve, by His assistance, to run for it as others have done before, and some, we hope, are now doing and why should not we do it as well as they? The prize is as free for us as it was for them. Let us therefore run with them, and strive which shall run fastest and surest, without stumbling, still keeping the prize in our eye, that inestimable prize, "the crown of righteousness," "the crown of glory," "the incorruptible crown," which the eternal Son of God hath purchased for us, with the price of His Own blood, and is always ready to set it upon the head of all that run as they ought for it.

Which God grant that we may all do, through Him Who liveth and reigneth with the Father and Holy Ghost, one God blessed for ever!

[2 Tim. 4.
[i Pet. 5.4;

8.]

Cor. 9.

25.]

SERMON CXIX.

CHRIST THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE.

SERM.
CXIX.

JOHN XIV. 6.

Jesus saith unto him, I am the Way, and the Truth, and the
Life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.

It was a great privilege which the Jews had above all other people, that they had often prophets inspired and sent by God among them, to acquaint them with His will, and had always a certain way to know it upon any great occasion for, if they did but go to the high-priest, he, putting on the breast-plate of judgment, by the Urim and Thummim in it, perfectly understood the mind of God in the business they came about, and accordingly gave his responses or answers to it. We have no such way of consulting Almighty God under the Gospel: and the reason is, because we have no need or occasion for it; for now God Himself, in the form and likeness of men, hath with His Own mouth revealed all things to us that are necessary for any man to know, and hath caused such His oracles, or Divine revelations, to be committed to writing, and left upon record, that all may freely consult them, and from thence be informed of His will and pleasure in all things, wherein any man can be under any obligation or necessity to know it. So that, if there be any doubt, scruple, or difficulty, which cannot be resolved from something that is there said and delivered to us by God Himself, we may certainly conclude that it is God's Will that we should not trouble our heads about it: for He, be sure, Who came into the world on purpose to make and to shew us the way to happiness and Salvation, hath told us all

things that He would have us to know, in order to our obtaining of it. And therefore what He hath not told us, we may be confident it is no matter whether we know it or no: and that he would have us lay aside all such impertinent and unnecessary questions which He hath not seen good to determine, and to apply ourselves wholly to the study of such great truths as He hath revealed to us, and to take them upon His Word: looking upon that as the answer of God to all such questions which we are any way concerned to be resolved in. And if we thus consult His oracles upon any such question, we may there find as clear and certain solution of it as the thing is capable of.

13.

ver. 18.

As for example, the chief thing that we all ought to inquire after is, the way whereby we may go to Him that made us, so as to have His love and favour, in which our life and happiness consisteth. This is that which Moses, when he had the nearest access that ever mortal had to God, desired to know of Him, saying, "I pray Thee, if I have found Exod. 33. grace in Thy sight, shew me Thy way, that I may know Thee, that I may find grace in Thy sight;" where he plainly desired to know the way which God had appointed, whereby men might come to the right knowledge of Him, and find grace and favour with Him. Which he afterwards expressed by saying, "I beseech Thee, shew me Thy glory;" this being the way whereby God designed to manifest the glory of His grace and truth to mankind: in answer to which request the Lord said to him, "I will make all ver. 19. My goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the Name of the Lord before thee." And, accordingly, "The Lord Exod. 34. passed by before him, and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and fourth generation;" which words being so solemnly proclaimed by Almighty God Himself, there must needs be more in them than what is commonly thought of. To me the whole mystery of the Gospel seems to be contained in them, the wonderful way which God

6, 7.

SERM.
CXIX.

[2 Cor. 1. 20.] John 1. 17.

hath made for the reconciling Himself unto mankind, by His Son Jesus Christ. It is in Him that God hath promised to be gracious and merciful to them. It is in Him that all such "promises are Yea and Amen." It is in Him, that He is "abundant in goodness and truth; for goodness or grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." It is in Him that God forgives iniquity, and transgression, and sin; and yet by no means clears the guilty, or rather, will not suffer sin to go altogether unpunished: for He hath laid the punishment of it upon Him; visiting the iniquities of mankind upon His Son, as he visiteth "the iniquities of the fathers upon their children, and their children's children, unto the third and fourth generation," even in the highest manner that could be, so as to have full and complete satisfaction made unto Him for them. Thus God shewed Moses His way how to find grace in His sight, even by Christ the Saviour of the world, according to the request that Moses had made to Him: and thus David prayed to God, that His "way might be known upon earth, and His Ps. 67. 2. saving health," or as the word signifies, "His Salvation unto all people." Even that way, whereby they might all be saved, by Christ, the promised seed, who is our only Saviour, for there is "no Salvation in any other." But He is not only our Saviour but Salvation itself.

Acts 4. 12.

Luke 2. 30.

Thus even in the Old Testament God was pleased to shew men the way of Salvation, at least so much of it, as rendered them inexcusable unless they walked in it. But in the New, it is made as plain as words can make it; so that if we do but consult the oracles of God, which are there recorded, we cannot miss of it, but may have it from His Own infallible Word, how we may come to Him so as to be eternally happy in Him. This he hath there often told us with His Own Divine mouth: particularly in my text, where the Eternal God our Saviour expressly saith, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father but by Me."

The occasion of His uttering this Divine sentence, was this: He being now to leave this world, lest His Disciples should be overwhelmed with too much grief and sorrow for His departure from them, He acquainted them that He was

only going home to His Father's house, and that He went thither to prepare a place for them, and all that should believe in Him. And that afterwards He would come again and receive them to Himself, to live with Him for ever. John14.1-3. When He had said this, taking it for granted that they all understood Him, He adds, " And whither I go ye know, ver. 4. and the way ye know." But St. Thomas, one of the twelve, not apprehending His meaning aright, said, Lord, we ver. 5. know not whither Thou goest, and how can we know the way?" Upon which our blessed Saviour, according to His usual way of replying to any thing which was said to Him, so as to utter something at the same time that should not be only pertinent to that particular purpose, but likewise of universal consequence, and necessary for all mankind to know; He took occasion to utter this Divine oracle, “ I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no man cometh unto the Father but by Me." Whereby He certified both that Apostle and all other men, not only whither He was going, even unto the Father, but likewise of the way whereby they may go after Him, so as at last to come unto Him, even by Himself. And the better to assure them of it, He doth not only say, "I am the Way," but adds, " I am the Truth, and the Life." That is, the true and living Way in the highest manner that can be, in the very abstract, the truth and the life itself; so that we may certainly depend upon Him as the Way unto the Father, seeing He is the Truth, and not doubt but He can carry us through that Way, and bring us to the end of it, seeing He is the Life too, and so can quicken, actuate, and enable us to walk in that Way without fainting or stumbling. And that we may know that He is not only the Way, but the only Way, He adds, "No man cometh unto the Father but by Me."

But that we may both fully understand and be duly affected with this great truth, uttered by Him Who is the Truth itself, it will be necessary to consider what He means by coming to the Father, and how He Himself is the Way, and the only Way, so that “ no man cometh to the Father but" by Him, and that by Him any man may come unto the Father.