*

true of only one: so many aggravations of sin present themselves to his view, so many checks and resolutions broken, so much light and grace resisted, so many mercies despised; surely no other offender ever equalled himself! But let these aggravations be what they may, the blood of Jesus Christ is adequate; you cannot have committed a sin which that blood cannot efface, unless you could suppose it to be the sin against the Holy Ghost, which you cannot have committed, if you have the least disposition to repent. The blood of Jesus Christ is a deluge that drowns all the mountains of transgression; that pure ocean washes away all stains of guilt. It is a sacrifice whose odour fills all worlds! a satisfaction that extends to all the principles of the divine government. The apostle seems almost to single out himself as a selected and designed monument of the unlimited extent of Christ's atonement. "This is a faithful saying, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me, first, Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them that should hereafter believe unto life everlasting." Some may think they have wandered too long in ways of sin, stifled too many successive convictions, and sinned away the virtue of Christ's blood. However long you may have sinned, yet if you will now repent, though at the eleventh hour, you shall be saved. Among the redeemed multitude, there will be found sinners of every extent and condition: some that early sought the Lord, and walked long with Him in grace; but others, also, called in their hoary hairs, after many years of rebellion. And Jesus Christ saves "to the uttermost," not only in regard to the first conversion of the sinner; there remains much yet to be effected after his conversion, and Jesus Christ effects it. Though the sinner is placed in a state of salvation from the moment of his receiving that faith which justifies with God, much yet remains to be purified, corrected, and wrought on the soul; and Jesus Christ is ever saving His people, going on to remove one hinderance after another, adding more grace, and supplying what is required. Moses never passed Jordan, as Joshua did, in triumphant possession of Canaan; and if Moses represented the law which he administered, Joshua, in this, is the type of Jesus, who has entered into heaven, with full power over all His enemies, the Captain of His conquering people. He has a right to bring in many sons to glory: "I will," says He, "that they whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am."

(2.) As to the other view mentioned, the extent of His ability through all duration, it is everywhere asserted. His blood, so to speak, is just as warm and fresh as when it was first shed: it

* There is a beautiful remark on this expression in a sermon, the only one which I heard deliv ered, by the Rev. S. Summers, Mr. Hall's esteemed successor as the pastor of Broadmead: "Paul had abundant evidence that his experience was a pattern; and, since his time, millions of copies have been taken. The plate is not yet destroyed, not even worn. They are still proof impressions, exhibiting every lineament of the same long-suffering kindness "-Sermon VIII. on Jesus Christ the Fountain of Grace, in the selection published after his death, 1836.-GRINFIELD

has an undecaying virtue. The Lamb forever appears as newly slain, though millions have been already saved, and millions more remain to be saved. He was offered once for all; He is an eternal, unchangeable High Priest; for God's law has been once for all fully satisfied by Him. No generation can arise that will not equally want this Saviour, and none that will not equally find Him sufficient; for all the fulness of God dwells in Him, and He ever lives to make intercession for us!

Thus far to the consolation of believers. But there are others that rather need to be awakened. Some are not in a state to receive the gospel consolations; persons that neglect God, and never repented. Let such now return; now he courts your friendship; He seeks, as it were, your reconciliation, and says by His servants, "Be ye reconciled to God!" All things are ready; a willing mind is the only thing you want. Let us all, then, give ourselves up from this time to the adorable Redeemer, and we shall find, by happy experience, that He is all we can desire; that "He of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption ;" that, in a word, "we are complete in Him."

XI.

THE LOVE OF CHRIST KNOWN BY CHRISTIANS.*

EPHESIANS, iii., 17, 18, 19: That ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 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.

[Preached at Broadmead, Bristol, Thursday evening, May 7, 1829, preparatory to the Lord's Supper.]

THESE words are part of the apostle's prayer for the Ephesian saints. The blessings which he asks are of such a nature that he despaired of their being bestowed by any power less than the mighty power of God. He invokes the Divine aid in the highest form of its manifestation. "For this cause," he says, "I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named; that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 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." It is a prayer of faith, founded on the revealed intentions of God; on the apostle's

From the Notes of the Rev. T. Grinfield.

own experience of spiritual blessings, and on what he knew of the covenant of redemption. And it behooves us, my brethren, who profess the same faith, the same Lord, to aspire to a participation in the fulfilment of this exalted and comprehensive prayer: otherwise our religion must be supposed essentially different from the religion of these early believers, and, consequently, it must be productive of different effects in another world. It by no means follows that, because we live in a different age of the Church, we are to differ in our Christian experience from the first disciples. The religion of Christ is essentially the same in all ages of His Church.

The apostle expects his prayer to be fulfilled by the bestowment of an experimental knowledge of "the love of Christ;" and he represents its qualities as such that it can be understood only by the operation of the Holy Spirit on the soul. Nothing can give us a higher idea of its greatness and sublimity than this. The language which he uses in describing this love is figurative; and, though it is not necessary that we should nicely distinguish the meaning of every part of the metaphor, yet perhaps we may understand the term "breadth" to express the extent of the benefit procured by this love; its "length" may denote its duration, from eternity to eternity; while "depth and height," which express the same dimensions viewed from opposite points, may represent its intensity. We estimate the degree of benevolence in any being by its effects; by what it has produced: and we must apply the same test here.

First, we may offer a few considerations tending to illustrate "the love of Christ ;" and, in the second place, we may consider what is the nature of that experimental knowledge of this love for which the apostle prays.

I. With respect to "the love of Christ," it is exhibited in actions, in what Christ has done for those who are the objects of His love; for those who believe in His name. It may be seen,

1. In the impediments which it overcame: it was a love victorious over all that opposed it. The grand impediment was the state to which man was reduced by sin; he was hateful to God as a sinner! carnal, an enemy by evil works. It was for a race dead in sin that Christ gave Himself; a race repugnant to the eyes of His holiness. In this "God commends His love to us, that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Instead of any thing to attract His favourable regard, there was every thing to repel it. Yet he formed a scheme to recover us from our pollution, and restore us to God.

2. Besides the impediments to be overcome, there were sacrifices to be made. It was a work that could not be done by the mere power of God: God's law and righteous government were concerned : whether it was fit that sin should be pardoned, was a question of Divine wisdom. Christ was not master of His purpose but by suffering what was required. "It became Him, of whom and by whom are all things, to make the Captain of our salvation perfect through sufferings." There was a necessity for such a vindication of His justice, and such a display of His law: satisfaction must be made to the rights of Deity. VOL. IV.-X

And how was this to be done? Infinite wisdom, which was the only judge, chose that which (we may presume) was the only way; since, had any other existed, we must suppose that it would have been adopted instead of that which cost the Father so great a sacrifice as the death of the only-begotten Son. It was by His partaking of our sinful flesh, without our sin, that He effected the purpose of His love, the pardon of our sin. He bowed His greatness from the highest heavens, and pitched His tabernacle here. The Lord of life became a mortal; after having stretched out the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth, He refused not the agonies of the cross! He loved us even to death: and this He did that God might be just, and yet justify us. This is a love whose magnitude must forever confound all estimate of finite minds. No other being could ever have offered up such a sacrifice. His Deity stamps upon His sufferings an infinite dignity. The greatness of God's love appears most of all in this, that He gave His Son to die for sinners!

3. The greatness of "the love of Christ" appears also in the benefits which He bestows. These are such as would never have entered into the conception of created minds. To have sin pardoned, to be set free from eternal death, this is an unspeakable deliverance; but the benefits are not only negative; they are positive in the highest degree. He accepts us, adopts us into His family: He gives His children portions of His own Spirit in their hearts; He makes them members of His body, fits them to dwell with Himself in a vast eternity, gives them to rejoice in the hope of the glory to be revealed, purifies them from their defilements, instructs them in heavenly truth, in death sustains their spirits, and after death preserves them in His holy presence for the great day when all shall be united in heaven!

4. This love, in its duration, extends from eternity to eternity. "I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee." Before the mountains were brought forth, before the earth and the world were created-then His delights were among the sons of men. This earth exists chiefly as the theatre of this love. Nothing short of having His people to dwell with Himself forever can satisfy His generous and immense benevolence. He cannot be content unless they are where He is. "Father, I will that those whom Thou hast given to Me, may be with Me where I am.” They partake with Him of His glory, and He says to each at the hour of death, "Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord!"

5. This love, farther, exists in spite of many things, on our part, calculated to alienate it from us. Who among us can think of the returns which he has made, the ingratitude, inconstancy, rebellion, which he has shown, without being confounded? yet, amid all, the Saviour's love is not extinguished; " many waters cannot quench its flame." Were it not that, from time to time, He revives our declining spirits, retouches His work of grace, and abides in our hearts to the end, we should fall and perish.

II. What is it so to know the love of God in Christ as the saints know it? Were it to be known merely as a theory, merely as a doc

trine, of revelation, it might soon be apprehended; and this, it is to be feared, is the only way in which many are content to know it. But it is an experimental knowledge of this love as it concerns ourselves: it is to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion that we are interested in it; it is this which St. Paul desires for his brethren. How, then, shall we know it thus? who shall go up to heaven for us, to read our names in the book of life? There is no need: we have only to consult our own experience. All who are the objects of this love are led to repent, to believe in the Saviour, to cast away every refuge beside, to embrace Jesus Christ alone, to close with His terms and promises. And all who thus believe are entitled to the strong consolation which the Gospel presents: Jesus Christ Himself has entitled them to it; for He has said, “He that hath the Son hath life; he hath the Father also." Jesus Christ ever liveth to make intercession for such: all penitents of this description He is able and willing to save to the uttermost.

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And they know that they believe in Him: perhaps they recollect the season when they committed themselves to Him by an everlasting covenant; but whether they recollect the season or not, they know their mind, that they have no hope but in Christ! And the fruit of the Spirit is joy:" we cannot know His love without rejoicing in Him: it is impossible that any one should contemplate with indifference this Saviour as his own. If we so believe in Him, as His first disciples did, we shall rejoice with a "joy unspeakable and full of glory" we cannot be sensible that we are entitled to such privileges without some portion of that joy in ourselves. And this love and joy will dethrone other objects of the heart. Many may be loved in their degrees, but none like [lim. His love will constrain us, because we judge that He died for all, that they might live to Him. You cannot believe yourself an object of such love without feeling that "to you He is precious." His love will impel you to obedience: you will feel the force of His own appeal: "If ye love Me, keep My command

ments."

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The world will be overcome by this love: the cross of Christ will crucify the world to us and us to the world. All its glory will be. darkened to our view, all its sweetness poisoned to our taste, by the contemplation of "the love of Christ." The life of faith will subdue the life of sense. "Who is he that overcometh, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?"

And hence, if we "know the love of Christ," we shall glorify Him in these two principal ways:

1. We shall obey Him; we shall bind His laws to our hearts; bind his reproach as a diadem on our heads like His apostles, we shall count it an honour to suffer shame for His sake. The true test of love to Him is a life of obedience to His law, and submission to His will.

2. We shall show forth His praise; desire that His true servants may increase, that His kingdom may come, and His will be done in all the world. We shall never lose sight of the essential distinction