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Suiting our wants exactly, approves itself to our judgments. Unfolding the most exalted friendship, and most unmerited favour, it excites our warmest and purest affections.

Recollect what has already been said, that the love of Christ is the love of a Friend and of a Master of a Friend, who is not captivated by any real or imaginary excellence in us; of a Master, whose laws we had broken. The testimony of God concerning Christ exhibits this love. It says, "Christ, who needed not your love, and "might justly have punished your hatred, "has died for you." This testimony, addressed to the hearts of sinners, by the Spirit, has resistless energy. They feel that they are dead, prone to evil, unable to do good. They feel that they deserve wrath, and expect it as their due. In the utmost distress at the discovery of their state, their hands hang down, their knees become feeble. They are sinking into the pit, when the Saviour is revealed to them, in the simple testimony of the Gospel, as able and willing to save them. They hear the voice, "This is my "beloved Son." They look to him, and

believe on him; that is, they believe he is such a Saviour as they need. They believe that he has satisfied the broken law, and appeased the wrath of Jehovah ; that he is abundantly able and willing to save them, vile and miserable as they are. They love him as a Friend, and honour him as a Master. Their faith, that is, the cordial credit which they give to God's testimony concerning Christ, produces this love and this honour.

Love to Christ, as the Friend of sinners, is connected with gratitude and devotedness. Honour to Christ, as the Master of his people, is intimately allied with reverence and submission. Such is the case, even in common worldly matters. Where we have a friend who has benefited us, we are grateful for the favour, and devoted to the interests of that friend. Where we honour a master, who has pardoned our offences, and restored to us his good will, we will reverence him for his magnanimity, and submit cheerfully to his authority. This is the manner, then, in which the love of Christ operates on the heart. It gives a completely new direction to all its affections, and that in perfect subordination to an enlightened

understanding. The love of Christ has dispelled spiritual darkness from the mind, and, as a necessary consequence, introduced spiritual light, with its inseparable attendant, purity of heart.

This love constraineth" believers; it fills their whole soul; it binds them to Christ, as with chains; it bears them away in his service, as by a torrent; it transports them: and what shall I add? There is a force, a meaning in the apostle's language, which baffles description. Believers, however, feel and realize it. It is the spring which regulates the machinery of their hearts. Its power never diminishes, unless the heart grows cold through temptation and sin. Wealth, honour, pleasure, fame, are weak motives to their votaries, compared with the love of Christ, where it is experienced in its power. It swallows up every other motive: " Many waters cannot

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quench" the "love" which it excites, "nei"ther can the floods drown it; if a man would

give all the substance of his house for love, "it would utterly be contemned"."

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συνέχει. See Doddridge's Note on the text. Schleus. Lex, e Solomon's Songs viii. 7.

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III. And last particular proposed, which was, to unfold the effects of this love on the life and conversation. These effects are thus described by the apostle: "He died for all, "that they which live should not hence"forth live unto themselves, but unto "him which died for them and rose again. Wherefore henceforth know we

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no man after the flesh yea, though we "have known Christ after the flesh, yet 66 now henceforth know we him no more. "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is "a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become "new."

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To live to ourselves, is to live in sin; to live to Christ, is to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. He came, we are expressly told, "that he might re"deem us from all iniquity, and purify unto " himself a peculiar people, zealous of good "works.

To know any man after the flesh, is, in other words, to be swayed by personal re

f Tit. ii. 14.

spect, or the prospect of favour and the like, in our intercourse with men.

To know Christ after the flesh, is to view him as a temporal prince, according to the opinions of the Jews, or as is evinced among professing Christians, to call him Lord, but in works to deny him. The love of Christ prevents believers from living to themselves, or from knowing Christ or any man, after the flesh. It is founded upon a true knowledge of Christ, of ourselves, and of others. It therefore constrains believers to live to Christ, who died for them, and rose again.

Recollect what has been already said. We are dead in sins; our nature is in ruins. Jesus Christ has died that we might have life; has become Emmanuel, God with us, to restore our nature to its original honours. Believers, realizing their natural state, receive the testimony of God concerning Christ with their whole heart.

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The love of Christ unfolded in this testimoexcites love, with its attendants, gratitude and devotedness, all felt towards Christ, as the Friend of sinners. It produces honour, with its attendants, reverence and submission, all

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