"The mighty God will not despise
The contrite heart for sacrifice;
The deep-fetch'd sigh, the secret groan,
Rises accepted to the throne.

grace,

"He meets with tokens of his
The trembling lip, the blushing face,
His bowels yearn, when sinners pray,
And Mercy bears their sins away.

"When fill'd with grief, o'erwhelm'd with shame,
He, pitying, heals their broken frame;
He hears their sad complaints, and spies
His image in their weeping eyes.

Thus, what a rapt'rous joy, possess'd
The tender parent's throbbing breast,
To see his spendthrift son return,
And hear him his past follies mourn?"
And now let us, who long have been
The wretched slaves of hell and sin,
Repent-made wiser by the rod--
Come to ourselves-and then to God.

SERMON XIX.

CHRIST THE WAY TO GOD AND HEAVEN.

John xiv. 6.-I am the way.

F we believe there is a future state of happiness, called

a

any

can be nothing of greater consequence to us, than that we may obtain the one and escape the other. If we have serious thoughts of these things, we cannot but inquire, Which is the true way to heaven! Every thing that calls itself Religion pretends to be the way; but, as there are so many different ways, they cannot all be right: yea, we are bold to say they are all wrong, except one, and that one is declared in the text; "I am the way, said Jesus; no man cometh to the Father, but by me." Our Lord spake these words to his disciples when they were full of trouble, because he was about to leave them. He comforts them by saying he was going to heaven, his Father's house, to prepare a place for them, and that he would come again, and receive them to himself, that where he

was they also might be; and then he adds, "Whither! I go ye know, and the way ye know." But Thomas, who was rather of a doubtful turn of mind, replied-Lord, after all thou hast said, we are still at a loss about the place where thou art going, and how then can we know the way to follow thee? Jesus answered, I am the way; which is as if he had said, I am the Mediator between God and man; I am the means of intercourse between heaven and earth; whatever comes from God to a sinner, comes through me; and whatever, of an acceptable kind, goes from a sinful man to God, must pass through my hands. In treating upon these very important and useful words we shall show

I. To what Christ is a way; and

II. What sort of a way he is.

1. We are to consider, What Christ is a way to. Every way or road leads from some place to another; now, as he is pleased to call himself a way in condescension to our mean capacities, we are to consider what he is the way from and what he is the way to. We are to remember that we are fallen, guilty creatures, in a state of sin and liable to all miseries here and hereafter; and that we are far from God, from righteousness, and from heaven now, if ever we are brought back to God and a state of grace here, and to a state of glory hereafter, it must be in and through Jesus Christ alone. We say, then, that Christ is the way to God, and the way to heaven.

The first of these is directly expressed by our blessed Lord in the text: I am the way; no man cometh to the Father but by me. When man was first created, he lived in a happy state of nearness to God; he knew God, and delighted in him as his chief good; but sin, cursed sin, soon made a dreadful separation; and now we come into the world "estranged from God, and go astray from the womb;" we desire absence from God; "he is not in all our thoughts;" but we seek happiness in sin and folly. Yet is the Lord our God pleased to invite us back to him, by the promises and blessings of his Gospel, and by the ordinances of his house. And although multitudes despise these, and madly resolve to

pursue the way of destruction, yet a happy few there are, who hear the voice of the Son of God in his word, are made sensible, that, being far from him, they must perish, and that it is good for them to draw nigh to him. But these persons have oftentimes such an awful view of the glorious and dreadful majesty of God, as an infinitely holy and just being, and of the distance that sin has occasioned, that they know not how to approach him. The prophet Micah thus expresses the anxious desires of such an one, chap. vi. 6. "Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?" Blessed be the Lord, "he hath shewed us what is good?" He hath given us a full answer to these inquiries in our text. Jesus is the way. It is not by costly offerings of blood or oil, nor at the dreadful expense of sacrificing a darling child; but Jesus is the way. He not only came to show us the way, but to be the way. He did not come to tell us how we

may "make our peace with God," as some express themselves, but to be our peace; for "he made peace through the blood of his cross." It is by the death of Jesus that we draw near to God; so St. Peter tells us, "He suffered for our sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God." We were far from him; we had neither the will nor the power to return; and sin, if not atoned for, must have made an everlasting separation between a holy God and vile sinners; but Jesus, who was perfectly just and righteous, endured the most shameful and painful sufferings on the cross for us, that is, in our room and stead, that he might reconcile us to God, and bring us to a holy conformity to him, and happy communion with him here, and to the eternal enjoyment of him hereafter.

In this way, that is, in Jesus, we have free access to the glorious Majesty of heaven; we may, by prayer in "come with boldness to the throne of grace,"

his name,

"Hear

there to "obtain mercy, and find grace to help us.' what St. Paul says of this matter, Heb. x. 19, &c. "Having, therefore, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us, through the vail, that is to say, his flesh, let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith." What a glorious privilege is this! We may approach the great God, as our reconciled God and Father; we may use holy freedom with him in our prayers; we have this liberty of access by the merit of Christ's blood, and by the application of it to our consciences through faith therein. This is the way prepared for our use, even Jesus, who is "the way, the truth, and the life;" he is the truth and substance of all the ordinances of the Old Testament; with particular reference to the rending of that vail which separated the holy of holies in the temple from the holy place; and which rending took place at the moment of our Saviour's death; which signified that now the way to God and heaven is laid open for all believers ; and that is the second thing proposed.

2. Jesus Christ is the way to heaven. This indeed follows the other; for if we come to God by Jesus as our reconciled Father, if sin be pardoned, and we are admitted to a life of holy communion with him here, it is certain that we shall also have “an abundant entrance into his heavenly kingdom and glory." Jesus died, to "redeem us to God," to his favour and image here, and to his glory hereafter. He died, to "bring many sons to glory;" that they may be satisfied with the goodness of his house, even of his holy temple; that they may be pillars in that temple, never more to go out; that they may approach him in a more sublime way of worship than at present, without the help of means and ordinances; that they may 66 see him face to face," without a cloud to hide his glory from them, and without the clog of sinful flesh and blood. Now Jesus is the only way to heaven. This is the record of the Gospel-"God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." There it is, and no where else; and whoever thinks to get to heaven another way, misses the true road, and will be eternally disappointed. There are many ways to hell, but only one to heaven; and if Jesus be not

our way, we shall never get thither. As sinners, we have forfeited heaven and deserved hell; but Jesus Christ has not only redeemed his people from the curse, that they may not go to hell, but by his perfect obedience, or righteousness he has procured for them a title to heaven. The righteousness of Christ is "to, and upon, all who believe in him;" it is transferred to them, imputed to them, or reckoned to their account, as if they had themselves performed it; and on this ground it is that they are admitted into the realms of light and glory; "therefore are they before the throne, because they have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb;" and not on account of any goodness, virtue, or good works, of their own.

Besides this, there is a fitness for heaven, a meetness of disposition, and capacity of enjoyment, for that holy state, without which no man can see the Lord: for it is plain that a wicked man, a carnal man, could not enjoy heaven, were he admitted into it; there must therefore be a change of heart, a love of God and holiness, as well as a title to glory. This also we have from Jesus Christ. We are not pardoned by his blood, and then sanctified by our own endeavours (though these also are to be used,) but "Christ is made unto us sanctification." It is by the spirit of Christ, dwelling and working in us, that we are renewed in the spirit of our minds; the love and power of sin mortified; the world, with all its vanities, crucified to us; and we led into a spiritual life of communion with God here, as the preparation and pledge of our eternal happiness in heaven. Thus is Jesus, in every point of view, the way to heayen.

Having briefly shewn that Christ is the way to God and heaven, let us stop a moment, and ask ourselves whether we have any desire that he may be our way in these respects? Are there not some who are so far from wishing to draw nigh to God, that their hearts and lives plainly say, Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways:" You dare not say so in words; but your actions say so. God and sin cannot reign in the same heart; and when you choose sin, and indulge it, you do in effect say"God, begone! I hate your company, I love your enemy,