THE OBLIGATIONS OF CHRISTIANS TO CHRIST.

45

The Lord himself also speaks of this subject: "I am the first and the last, I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore.' "a It is only as God that he could assert, "I am the first, and the last." And it is only as man, that he could declare "I am he that liveth and was dead." The subject is wonderful, above the reach of our powers, but not of our praise.

§ 8. The Christian is represented as under the greatest obligations to the adorable Saviour, and as sensible of those obligations.

"While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." "When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son."c "Who gave himself for our sins, to deliver us from the present evil world."d

"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us." "Jesus, who delivered us from the wrath to come."f "God hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ; he hath made us accepted in the Beloved. We have redemption through his blood; are made nigh by the blood of Christ; are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God." "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him." "Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever."i "And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy, for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing."

"h

the

With what union of heart and voice do the disciples of Jesus thus express their obligations to him! The grateful acknowledgments of earth become the theme of heaven; song of praise begun by men below, is carried on by saints and angels in the realms above; and the Lamb that was slain is the boast and theme alike of earth and heaven. Christians

(a) Rev. i. 17, 18.

(e) Gal. iii. 13. (h) Rom. v. 1, 2, 9.

(6) Rom. v. 5, 7. (c) Rom. v. 10. (d) Gal. i. 4. (f) 1 Thess. i. 10. (g) Eph. i. 3-7.

(1) Rev. i, 5, 6.

(4) Rev. v. 9, 12.

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REFLECTIONS ON THE LOVE OF CHRIST

are described not as anticipating, but as actually possessing, blessings of inestimable value. And all this multitude of blessing flows from no superiority or virtue of theirs, nor from the mere mercy of their God, but all is enjoyed through the blessed Jesus. Are they reconciled to God? it is through his death. Have they peace with God? he made it through the blood of his cross. Have they redemption? it is through his blood. Are they delivered from this present evil world? he gave himself for their deliverance. Have they received the atonement? it is through the Lord Jesus. Are their sins forgiven? he is their propitiation. Are they delivered from the curse of the law? he was made a curse for them. Are they saved from the wrath to come? he died and delivered them. Are they rich? it is through his poverty. Are they accepted? it is in the Beloved. Are they complete? it is in him. Have they hope? Jesus Christ is their hope. Are they made divinely righteous? he was made a sin-offering to render them Are they made nigh to God? it is by the blood of Christ. Have they all spiritual blessings? they have them in him. His atoning blood has done so much for them, as to justify the expression of a pious minister, "We are floating to heaven in the blood of the Deity."

SO.

§ 9. The subject of this chapter displays in the most amazing manner the love and condescending of the Lord Jesus Christ. The apostle represents this love as incomprehensible; "that ye may be able to comprehend with all saints, what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge." "1 We have reason to believe the Saviour's incarnation the most amazing event that ever happened, even in the records of eternity; and to believe that through an eternity to come, it will never have an equal. Had Gabriel, from benevolence to insects, left the presence of God, to assume an insect's form, such condescension and love might have excited astonishment in every angel's breast; but with what astonishment must they have beheld the incarnation and the sufferings of Jesus.

They saw him the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his person. They worshipped him as the King of kings, and the Lord of lords. He had created the heavens and the earth, and upheld them in being for four

(1) Ephes. iii. 18.

DISPLAYED IN HIS INCARNATION.

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thousand years. He had peopled earth with myriads of immortal beings, and he had filled heaven with ranks of glorified angels. Seraphim and cherubim, thrones and dominions, principalities and powers, owed to him their being, their dignity, and happiness. He had kindled up the seraph's fire, and arrayed with immortal youth, and beauty, and glory, every angel's form.

In heaven these immortal multitudes enjoyed happiness beneath his smile. Below, all things appeared supported by his hand, and governed by his power. All was harmony above, and all, excepting man, order and subjection below. Thus he reigned, blessing and blest: heaven his throne, the universe his kingdom. At length a time of inexpressible wonder and astonishment arrived. From the heights of eternal glory he descends. The infinite enjoyments of heaven he leaves; forsakes the bosom of the Father; quits the regions of eternal day; and, in a way surpassing all thought and investigation, this divine Person unites himself to human nature; so unites himself as to become literally man; and though rich to become poor. And though he thought it not robbery to be equal with God, so connects himself with the nature of man, that he made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, proceeding in his career of humiliation, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.TM Thus in one wondrous person God and man are united. When he had thus taken human nature, this divine Person spends more than thirty tedious years below. He is wearied with labour. The sun scorches him by day; and the cold chills him by night. Friends forsake him, and enemies murder him. He stoops to all. What a succession of wonders! What unequalled love! What condescension is here! And this displayed for creatures, meaner, compared with him, than a moth compared with an archangel! Creatures, whose destruction could not have taken one ray from the sun of his glory, nor one drop from the ocean of his joy. Creatures, whose very world` he could have destroyed by a word, as easily as a moth is crushed by a human hand; and have banished them, and sin, and misery together, into everlasting

*(m) Phil. ii, 6-9

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REFLECTIONS ON THE LOVE OF CHRIST.

nothingness and oblivion. But, with love unparalleled, he descends to this dark, polluted world; and lives and dies for deceived, guilty, and wretched man. O love divine! where are thy limits? Great God! beyond the sight of mortals and of angels! The stupendous sun, the brilliant moon, the amazing stars, the extended firmament; these have their bounds, but that love has none. It extends,

"Beyond the flaming bounds of space and time."

It reaches from,

"The living throne, the sapphire blaze,
"Where angels tremble as they gaze,"

to man's humblest habitation.

Lift up your eyes and behold this vast world, the product of his power! See its continents and its oceans extending for thousands of miles; those continents may be measured, but not his love, who, though God, became man, for man to die. Sooner would those unfathomable oceans be fathomed, than the depths of his compassion. Lift up your eyes to the heavens! Survey the countless glories of the starry firmament, all its fixed or "moving worlds of light!" Let your thoughts rove from star to star! How great is he who formed them all! How glorious he who has bid them shine with undiminished splendour through six thousand years! and to whom they are mean as a speck of flying dust! Yet he who hung out those brilliant fires, stooped from his amazing heights of bliss and majesty to assume mortal flesh, and appear a feeble infant, and a suffering man. Far sooner should you measure their immeasurable distances, and count their countless numbers, than tell the vastness of his love, and the blessings it bestows.

The sun is darkness, compared with his superior glory who hung it in the heavens, and yet he humbled himself to the dark abodes of misery and death for guilty man. O! when you gaze upon the blue expanse, or when the solemn stillness of night banishes from your mind the thoughts of a vain, departing world; when you behold the midnight sky, and mark the thousands of its glowing fires; then think, that he who fixed them there once hung on Calvary for you, that you might shine a star, a sun, in heaven, when all those stars shall shine no more. Think that he was once mean and dis honoured, stained with blood, and blue with blows, that you

THE UNION OF CHRIST AND HIS DISCIPLES.

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might have a treasure greater than a thousand worlds united, and infinitely more lasting than the countless lights which illuminate the firmament. Amazing love!

But vain is language, and vain is thought, it cannot grasp this love, nor by all the powers of imagination reach it, much less by words express it! And vain is time. Its ages, were they as numerous as the drops of winter rain, would not suffice to unfold all the wonders of this mysterious wonder! nor to declare the heights, and depths, and lengths, and breadths of this myterious love! Were "all the love of all the men that ever were, or shall be on the earth and all the love of all the angels in heaven, united in one heart, it would be a cold heart to that which was pierced with the soldier's spear.' Holy Jesus, thy creatures can but dishonour thy love, when speaking of it. But come, ingulf me in it! Come, overwhelm my sinking, rising soul, by the amazing view; at least, so far overwhelm it, that I may speak, and think, and act, and live, and love for thee!

§ 10. While the Scriptures represent the love of Christ and the obligations of the Christian as so great, they furnish an important view of the Christian character, by declaring that an intimate connexion subsists between the eternal Saviour and his blood-bought flock." To describe this union, ideas are borrowed from those unions in the present world that are of the most close and binding nature. Is the tie of marriage a strong, indissoluble tie? the believer is described as married to the Lord Jesus. Is the connexion between parent and child most affectionate and lasting? the Christian is represented as the child of the Saviour. Is the relation between brethren most dear and intimate? Jesus owns his followers as his brethren. Are the vine and its branches, the body and its members, but one? Jesus is the vine, and his disciples the branches; he is the head of the body, and his disciples the members. How dear, how close, how inestimable is that connexion with the adorable Saviour, which such language is used to describe! But on this occasion these passages are adduced chiefly as descriptive of the Christian character. In that view glance at them again. Does marriage express a union of affection and interests? the sincere Christian cherishes such affection, and (n) Rom. vii. 4. 1 Cor. iii. 23. John xx. 17. Matt. xii. 50. John xv. 1. Eph. i. 23. 2 Cor. vi. 15. Eph. iv. 16. v. 29. 30. * Maclaurin.

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