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forming view. "But we all with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord,” 2 Cor. iii. 18. And in this act faith reaches her hand to the highest thing attainable in this life, namely, to the eternal love of God in Christ Jesus. When our dear Lord hung upon the cross he bore our sins in his own body on the tree, then the sting of death took hold of him; and by faith in him our hearts are purified; then, "O death, where is thy sting?"

He was condemned, though innocent, and died the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, 1 Peter iii. 18.

He was made a curse for us, that he might redeem us from the curse of the law, Gal. iii. 13. The sentence of death and the wrath of God in a broken law took hold of him as our surety. "He treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God," Rev. xix. 15. And he laid down his life for his sheep.

His body

an offering "Into thy

He suffered temporal death also, which is a separation of the body from the soul. went into the tomb; but his soul, as for sins, went into the hand of God. hands I commend my spirit." In all these he sweetly exhibited the eternal love of God to poor sinners, “That he by the grace of God should taste death for every man,” Heb. ii. 9. Wonderful is this divine expression of tasting death; for this was all done in his own person, and not in

his body mystical, the church: and in this tasting of death he opened a way to God upon earth, and drank a saving health to a multitude of sinners. That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations," Psalm lxvii. 2. Now, when Christ comes to present his victory over death to poor sinners, he not only tells us that he has tasted death for us in his own person, but even that he swallowed up death for all the family who feel their need of him; for he declares that he will destroy it in them. "And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death in victory: and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces," Isaiah xxv. 7, 8.

The plain English of all this is, that, as our surety and representative, he tasted of every kind of death for every one of his family; he laid down his life for all his sheep; and, though in his own person he tasted death for his people, yet in the application of the saving benefits of his cross, when it comes to be applied by his Spirit to the children of Zion, it should be swallowed up in his body mystical. That by faith in him, and in his finished work, not only death in all its formidable branches should'

of it, by a s

and even ke

but perfect

oted up, but even the fear lying love, be cast out, ere is no fear in love, out fear, because fear

hath torment: he that feareth is not made perfect in love," 1 John iv. 18. And at the resurrection morning, when the dead in Christ shall rise first, temporal death, which is what all the highest favourites of heaven to this day lie under, shall arise; and in their resurrection shall the above passage have its full accomplishment. "He will swallow up death in victory." "So, when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory," 1 Cor. xv. 54. The condemned sinner finds it no difficult thing to believe the spirituality of God's law, because the curse and wrath of God are both applied to him; and he will believe, and tremble too, who is filled with reproof and rebuke: but for a polluted sinner that sees his own vileness, and who is under the deepest impressions of the holiness, justice, and immutability, of God; for such a poor wretch to believe that he is an object of God's everlasting love, is what nothing but faith from above can credit. This has always appeared to me to be the difficult work of faith. Tell the poor awakened sinner of this, when he is in the horrible pit and in the miry clay, and I should not wonder if he answered you, as the unbelieving lord answered Elisha, "If God would make windows in heaven might such a thing be:" or like poor Job in his affliction, who declared that, "If I had called, and he had answered me,

yet would I not believe that he had hearkened unto my voice; for he breaketh me with a tempest, and multiplieth my wounds without cause," Job ix. 16, 17. But so it is; what God applies, that man believes. When the commandment comes with power the sinner will say, with David, "Teach me good judgment and knowledge: for I have believed thy commandments." Nor will the sinner ever tremble at God's word until he believes and feels God's word to be levelled at him. He that is convinced of all, and judged of all, and has the thoughts of his heart made manifest, will report that God of a truth is in such speakers: but a sinner in such circumstances dares not report what he does not believe. So, when Christ comes into the heart, and we feel and enjoy the benefits of his death, we believe, as Paul did; "I live by the faith of the Son of God, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." But sometimes we have more than we can believe. We may have the grace of faith when we have not the light of faith. It is one thing to get wisdom, which is the principal thing; but it is another thing to get understanding, or light to see what we have gotten. I believe that Christ was in all his elect disciples in the days of his flesh; but I much question if they all knew it, because the Lord said unto them, "At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you," John xiv. 20. So it is also with respect to the love of God in Christ: the sinner may and

does believe in it, because it is clearly revealed; but, if he has no discoveries, views, or prospects of it; no feeling sense of it, or hope in it; he cannot believe it with an application to himself, because of the powerful workings of unbelief, which Satan stirs up, strengthens, and improves to the uttermost, against him. The same Spirit that works faith in the heart presents to faith's view, and applies to the hand of faith, all things that are to be believed and embraced. "He shall take of the things that are mine," says Christ, "and shall show them unto you." But, until we have some experimental knowledge of the love of God to us, we cannot believe with an application to ourselves. It is true that charity believeth all things: but this charity must come first; "We love him," says John, "because he first loved us!" and John sets knowledge before faith; "And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us: God is love; and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him," 1 John iv. 16. Paul expresses his faith in the love of God in Christ the fullest of any in the Bible. "For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord," Rom. viii. 38, 39. But this same Apostle tells us that the love of God was shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Ghost

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