1st. The love of Christ in dying for us, and rising again; and the end and object of that love. And,

2dly. The influence this love had on the Apostle, and which it ought to have on us.

Let us endeavour first to take a view of the love of Christ in coming thus to die for us.

This indeed, brethren, is a boundless and astonishing subject, in which we soon find ourselves lost: for, as the same Apostle elsewhere observes, there is a "breadth, and length, and depth, and height in this love which passeth all our knowledge." Even the angels desire to look further into it; and we shall never know its full extent, nor our obligations to this Saviour, till we attain to that clearer and purer knowledge which shall enlighten us hereafter; till, through the merits of this all-sufficient Saviour, we come to that blessed state where we shall know, even as we are known, and join in everlasting hymns of praise and thanksgiving to Him who has thus "redeemed us to God by his blood."1

We may first observe, that the text represents us and all mankind as in a lost and miserable state; and that Christ came to rescue us from that state, to die for us, as an all-sufficient sacri

1 Rev. v. 9.

fice and atonement, to reconcile us to God, and restore us to a power of obtaining life, happiness, and salvation, through him. That mankind were in this lost and wretched condition, the Apostle plainly and unequivocally expresses in one short, but most significant and comprehensive word, when he says they were "dead." "All were dead;" that is, spiritually dead; exposed not only to the temporal death of the body, but to the higher and spiritual death and ruin of the soul. In the figurative language of Scripture, life and death are often thus opposed to each other. Thus, it is said, "You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins."1 "She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth;"2 dead to all the purposes of a spiritual life. "To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 993 "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord."4

That mankind are now in a fallen state, naturally lost to God and his favour, and the true knowledge of Him, and therefore to true, real happiness, is not only the universal language of Scripture, but abundantly confirmed by the history of the world from the fall of Adam to this

1 Ephes. ii. 1.

2 1 Tim. v. 6. 4 Rom. vi. 11.

Rom. viii. 6.

moment, and (when honestly consulted) by the testimony of every man's conscience. When we see what men are in their unconverted state, even in this land of Christian light and knowledge, in what way multitudes contentedly live and as contentedly die, without God, without hope, and without any care about their eternal interests, is it not manifest that "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God ?" Whence the misery, which, all feel and confess, abounds more or less every where in the world, and under which "the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now, ," but from the same sad and fruitful source, sin? Were there no sin, there could be no misery in the world: and though the earth is still filled with the tokens of God's goodness, mercy, and forbearance, yet it also abounds with marks of his displeasure. Nor can we conceive that God could have created man in such a state; or have suffered such calamities to exist, had man continued in his primitive innocence and obedience.

Moreover, this is not only our sad condition by nature and natural practice, but we know not naturally any way of escape-of deliverance from such a state. Men who never think seriously at

all on the subject, or whose eyes and hearts are blinded by prejudice and sin, may treat it very lightly; or borrowing a light from that revelation they choose to reject, they may reason of the mercy of God. But the best and wisest of the heathen felt and judged very differently: and so will the conscience of every awakened man when he looks into himself, and compares his heart and life with the holy and spiritual law of God. Instead of attempting to justify himself, or plead his own merits before God, he will be humbled in the dust before Him who "is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, and who cannot look upon sin." His language will be that of Job: "I have sinned; what shall I do unto thee, O thou preserver of men?" or with David he will say, "Enter not into judgment with thy servant; for in thy sight shall no man living be justified."

In this wretched and helpless state were we, and all mankind, when Christ came to deliver us; when he came, not only to live, but to die for us men and for our salvation. We contemplate his death not merely (as some do) as that of a martyr to a just and good cause, as that of one who was sacrificed to the fury of his enemies, whose power and malice he could not avoid; but we view this all-astonish

1 Job vii. 20. 2 Psalm cxliii. 2.

ing event as the grand completion of that plan, ordained in the eternal counsels of heaven, for the salvation of men. In doing what they did, through envy, and blindness, and hardness of heart, the Jews were the instruments to accomplish the purposes of God for man's salvation; though that does not furnish an excuse for their unbelief and hardness of heart in rejecting, persecuting, and crucifying that Messiah whom their own prophecies so clearly foretold, and the whole of which our Lord so literally fulfilled. The Apostle says, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." Indeed, the very meaning of the word salvation sufficiently proves this; for salvation presupposes that we were in danger of being lost, and could not save ourselves, and needed therefore a Saviour. We are taught that in the fulness of time he became incarnate, took our nature upon him, and not only lived for a while in that nature, but at length at the appointed hour voluntarily, cheerfully, in free unmerited love to us, and in obedience to the will of God his Father, died upon the cross as a proper sacrifice and atonement for sin; to reconcile man to his offended God, and lay an everlasting foundation for the salvation and

11 Tim. i. 15.