In subordination to the Father, HE in whom we have eternal life, is our friend[26], and therefore entitled to our warmest love: he is our greatest benefactor[27], and therefore claims our utmost gratitude: he is our only master[28], and of course, must be followed with all observance: he is our redeemer, and sole mediator between God and man[29]; therefore he challenges an implicit, an exclusive trust and confidence from us: he is the appointed judge of the world[30]; therefore to be regarded with the humblest fear and veneration: lastly, he is the only begotten Son of God[31], nay our Lord and our God[32]; to whom therefore we are to pay transcendant honour, so as to honour, the Son even as we honour the Father[33].
These are some, the chief of those duties, which, as Christians, we are bound to perform towards the Author of our salvation. The relations from which they spring, could not be discovered by the light of nature; but, when made known to us by revelation, they require as certainly, and as reasonably, the several duties which correspond to them, as the relations in which we stand to God and man, as discoverable by nature only, require their respective duties.
You see, then, the sphere of a Christian’s duty is much enlarged beyond that of the natural man: and not in these instances only, for the gospel has made known another divine person, (so we are obliged to speak) the holy Spirit of God, who stands in a distinct relation to us; and to whom, therefore, his proper and peculiar honour is due. But of this divine person in the glorious Trinity, I shall find another occasion to lay before you, at large, what the scriptures have brought to light.
For the present, it may suffice to have put you in mind of what we are taught concerning the grace of God in his Son Jesus Christ; to the end that, religiously observing all the duties which this revealed doctrine requires of us, we may fully correspond to the gracious intentions of the revealer, by having our fruit unto holiness; and the end, everlasting life. For the wages of sin (be it ever remembered) is death: but eternal life is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord[34]: To whom be all praise, thanksgiving, and honour, now and for evermore. Amen.
SERMON XXXI.
PREACHED JUNE 12, 1774.
Gal. vi. 8.
He that soweth to the spirit, shall OF THE SPIRIT REAP LIFE EVERLASTING.
Without staying to point out the immediate occasion of these words, or to enumerate and define the several senses of the word spirit, in sacred scripture, it is sufficient to my present purpose to observe, that the text affirms a general and fundamental truth of the Gospel, more clearly and particularly explained elsewhere. It is this: That he who in this life conducts himself according to the rules and admonitions of God’s holy spirit, which the Apostle calls, sowing to the spirit, shall, through the influence of the same spirit, obtain, that is, in the Apostle’s figurative style, shall reap, life everlasting.
But, what! you will say, everlasting life is the gift of God through Christ: how is it then that we receive this gift at the hands of another, of God’s holy spirit?
To resolve this difficulty, and to open to you at the same time the Christian doctrine of grace, together with the concern which we have in it, I shall consider,