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astray; we had turned every one to his evil way; we had come short of the glory of God; we had exposed ourselves to eternal punishment by our transgressions; and in this condition we were unable of ourselves to help ourselves, and no natural means of escape were open to us from the wrath to come. "But," adds the Apostle, "God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved,) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus; that in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus."

This full and impressive passage teaches us, first, some especial blessings which God bestows on his people; and, secondly, the fountain from which they flow.

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First, Let us consider the inestimable blessings here mentioned. These are, being quickened with Christ; being raised up together with him; and being made to sit in heavenly places in him. In the former chapter, the Apostle had spoken of the exceeding greatness of the power of God to usward who believe," or, in other words, the converting and sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit on the heart of the Christian, as a power similar to that "which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the beavenly places." The same allusion seems to be continued in the text. Our new creation, our spiritual privileges, our growth in holiness, our hopes of glory, and our final admission to the bliss of heaven, are spoken of in reference to the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. In baptism, we were buried with him; and, as he rose from the grave, so by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit, we are raised from the death of tres

passes and sins, to a life of righte ousness, the prelude to an eternal life of glory in heaven. By means of the union which exists between the Christian and his Saviour,' the resurrection and ascension of Christ become pledges as well as emblems of that spiritual resurrection and ascension which are the privilege of all true believers.

The blessings here mentioned will appear the more exalted, the more closely they are examined. Some blessings are universal; such as creation, preservation, and the gift of God's beloved Son for the redemption of a lost world. Others are more limited in their operation; such as many temporal mercies, and those outward religious privileges which are afforded to different ages, nations, and individuals in very various degrees, and for which each person will have to account, according to his opportunities of knowing the will of God. But the blessings mentioned in the text are the peculiar privilege of those who receive the Gospel in faith and obedience; they alone, either in possession or in prospect, are quickened with Christ, raised with' him, and made to sit in heavenly' places. All other persons' are, as the Ephesians once were, dead to God, and without any well-grounded hope for futurity. The blessing is indeed freely offered to all; but it actually belongs only to those who have earnestly sought after it in the divinely revealed way of God's appointment.

1. The Christian is "quickened."-Spiritual life is breathed into his soul. He is made alive with Christ by a new and heavenly birth: he opens his eyes on new prospects; he is influenced by new principles: he is no longer insensible to his own sinful and perishing state by nature; but he feels it deeply, and is anxious to learn the scriptural way of escape from the perils of his unhappy condition, and to flee to the Saviour for pardon and acceptance with God. This is no slight change:

it is as distinct from man's natural state since the fall, as light is from darkness, as life from death, as the ways of heaven from the ways of hell.

2. Thus quickened, the Christian is further "raised." Motion returns with life; and he quits that grave of sin and insensibility in which he had lain so long torpid. He begins to act from the impulse of his newly acquired perceptions; he enters cordially and diligently into the service of God; he sets about making his calling and election sure; he echoes both in his creed and his life, the sentiments of the Apostle, that "like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even So we also" we who are raised together with him-" should walk in newness of life; for if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection." Nor is even this the whole extent of the privileges enumerated in the text; for,

3. The Christian is made" to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Not only is he admitted outwardly and sacramentally into the fellowship of the Christian religion, but he partakes of its spiritual blessings; he experiences somewhat of its enjoyments; even on earth his hopes and his conversation are heavenly; and before him is the eternal reversion of the heavenly world. He is risen with Christ; and therefore he seeks those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. And as he is risen with Christ, he shall ascend with him; the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead, dwells in him; and therefore he that raised up Christ from the dead, shall quicken his mortal body, by his Spirit that dwells in him, and both body and soul shall be for ever with the Lord.

These blessings are spoken of in the text as the gift of God: it is he who quickens us, and raises us, CHRIST, OBSERV. No. 250.

and makes us to sit in heavenly places; both figuratively in our conversion and sanctification, and literally at the resurrection of the last day. All the steps in our salvation-the gift of Christ, the promised influences of the Holy Spirit, our repentance, faith, conversion, growth in grace, and eternal glorification-are traced up by the Apostle to the great Source of every good and perfect gift. This leads us,

Secondly, to consider the fountain from which the blessings mentioned in the text flow. The nature of the blessings themselves we have already seen; and the medium through which they are derived to us is abundantly evident. That medium is Christ Jesus: his is the only name given under heaven by which men can be saved; he is the only Mediator with the Father; the only way by which, since the fall of man, any individual of our guilty race can approach his justly offended Creator with acceptance. The whole passage before us points out this sole medium; and that not only expressly, as when it says that "the kindness of God and the riches of his grace" are shewn to us "through Christ Jesus," but also virtually in its general argument, in which there is a reference to the hope of pardon and glory by the resurrection and ascension of Christ, and also to that union between true believers and their Saviour by means of which his resurrection, ascension, and glory, become symbols and pledges of their spiritual resemblance to him in these points here, and their still more literal resemblance as respects their entrance on the future world.

But though we have thus considered the blessings themselves, and the medium through which they flow to us, the question still returns; What fountain supplied such immeasurable benefits? Whence originated the plan of human redemption, involving as it did no less costly a sacrifice than the un

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fountain then of all our blessings was,

utterable sufferings and death of the incarnate Son of God? What was the first cause of this vast scheme of beneficence to a lost world? Was there any merit in mankind to constitute a claim to this stupendous display of Divine philanthrophy? Were there even any mitigating circumstances to smoothe the way to its exertion? The farthest from it possible. Nothing can be stronger than the language of the Apostle, in the very verses which go before the text, as to the universally sinful and guilty condition of the whole human race; and these expressions are in full accordance with the general tenor of the sacred Scriptures. Merit then is completely out of the question. If Divine compassion had waited till mankind deserved the exercise of it, or even till they earnestly sought after it, their case had been hopeless. The blessing, spring from whatever source it might, must, as far as respects us, be free, without money and without price; a point so essential to be known and felt, that the Apostle, in the fifth verse, stops in the very middle of his argument to enforce it. By grace ye are saved;" a parenthesis short but most significant, and leading us to beware of imputing any of the merit or the power of our spiritual life, resurrection, or salvation to ourselves. In order, however, to prevent any possibility of misapprehension as to this vital point, he does not content himself with the parenthesis in the text; but the moment he has finished his sentence he repeats and enlarges on the doctrine in the succeeding verses (the 8th and 9th), where he says," By grace ye are saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast." As far then as respects us, there was nothing, except indeed our extreme misery and helplessness, to cause the infinite display of Divine beneficence recorded in the text. The

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1. "The great love wherewith God loved us." God is love this is the original bond of union between him and the creatures whom he has made, the inexhaustible source from which flow all the blessings of creation, preservation, and redemption. We are not to view the Almighty as a tyrant, more prone to inflict penalties than to confer mercies. Such is not his character: he is "the Lord God, full of compassion and gracious, long suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth." The whole plan and accomplishment of human salvation originated in this Divine attribute; for "God SO loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoso believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life."

2. But the Apostle speaks not only of the great love of God as the source of the benefits bestowed on us, but also of the "richness of his mercy." Love was the moving cause; but this love had been abused and requited with ingratitude: our sins also had separated between us and our Creator; his image in our souls was defaced, and there was nothing left in us calculated, if we may so speak, to attract the kind regard of an equitable and Holy Being. On the contrary, he was justly displeased with us on account of our transgressions, and even the love which he bore to his once innocent, but now fallen and rebellious creature, would not interpose to thwart the severe claims of truth and justice. Under these circumstances love took the form of mercy. He loved us because he had created us; and he compassionated us because we had fallen from the high privileges of our creation. Love was his inclination to do us good: mercy was pity added to love, and displayed in compassing and completing our redemption.

3. But the Apostle adds yet

another motive which co-operated in the Divine Mind in the work of our salvation, namely, "that in the ages to come God might shew the exceeding riches of his grace, in kindness towards us through Christ Jesus." He saw fit to connect the exhibition of his own glory with the redemption and sanctification of our fallen race. He determined to add lustre to his attributes in the eyes of his universal creation, by making mercy and truth to meet together, righteousness and peace to kiss each other. "The ages to come," that is, both the times of the Gospel dispensation and the eternal ages of futurity, were to witness this exuberance of the Divine compassion, and to celebrate and adore the Author of so inestimable a gift. Greatly as the perfections of God were exhibited in the works of creation and the ordinary dispensations of an all-wise Providence, it was his "kindness towards us in Christ Jesus," in mercifully effecting our redemption, in bringing us to the knowledge of it, in leading us to newness and holiness of life as the grateful recipients of it, and in bestowing on us its blessed fruits in a future world, that was most mphatically to exhibit "the exeeding riches of his grace." Strictly speaking, we might suppose that himan happiness could add nothing to the unalterable self-derived felcity of the Supreme Author of all blessings; yet God has not disdained to humble himself to our capacities by representing the exhibition of his glory as a motive with him for causing his love to operate for our redemption, sancti fication, and eternal happiness.

What then remains but that we seriously ask our own hearts; "Are we partakers of these benefits?" Are we quickened by the Holy Spirit? Are we raised from the death of trespasses and sins? Are we exalted in our affections to spiritual and heavenly objects? Or, on the contrary, are we stil living without God and witho

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hope in the world, dead to religion and heedless of our everlasting welfare. Let conscience fairly answer these momentous inquiries: and let it be our constant and earnest prayer that God would bestow on us a new heart and renew a right spirit within us; and that we may henceforth live as becomes those who profess to be quickened and raised with him who is by name at least and profession their Lord and Master and Example.

Tothe Editor of the ChristianObserver. I WAS much pleased to find a correspondent, in your Number for August, drawing the attention of your readers to some points of the highest interest to University students. On the common occur rences of life, books without number have been solidly, beautifully, I might say divinely, written. Whether our peculiar affliction be from loss of friends, fortune, or health, our peculiar temptation from irreligious superiors, dangerous stations, in life, or inward corruption, we may find in the writings of eminent Christians abundant consolation or warning. But from the application of these general topics the case of a student is in a considerable measure removed; and his chief temptations are the more dangerous, because the world tells him that the passions and motives which as a Christian he has to dread are in themselves honourable and useful. He must labour diligently for honours which he professes not to desire: he must exert every nerve to gain an eminence which, trembling at the thought of its numerous temptations, he often sincerely fears to reach. He is perhaps cut off from the society of religious friends, the guides of his childhood and youth, and is forced: into a degree of contact with individuals of far other spirit. His literary duties, which require intense devotion of mind, necessarily call off his thoughts in a great mea4 N 2

sure from dwelling on heavenly objects. He seems to the world to be making fame his idol. The man of business may shew that his affections are not set on worldly possessions by his works of charity and love; but how can a religious student inform the world that he seeks not honour for its own sake? Failure perhaps is the only thing that can prove the state of his heart, by manifesting his cheerfulness under disappointment; and there may be moments in which he may feel disposed to pray even for failure, if failure be necessary to vindicate, either to himself or to others, the real character of his religious principles *.

The following passages in the late Mr. Hey's letters to one of his sons contain so much useful advice to college students, and place in so Christian a light the grounds on which they should diligently cultivate their academical studies, that I cannot refrain from quoting them:-"A candidate for a degree should submit to an examination as a matter of duty, not for the purpose of exaltation. I wish you and your brother to be diligent in your studies, because God has commanded you to be

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Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.' Be not greedy of honours; they have a great tendency to puff up the vain heart of man; but be diligent from higher motives." "I consider academical honours merely as tokens of your having at tended to the duties of your station;empty and vain in themselves; but not to be despised, as evidences of the respect you have paid to your academical duties.

"I sent you forth into the danger of a college life, because I judged that life to be a proper, and, in some sense, a necessary, preparation for the ministry which you have chosen. But I would not have you go one step out of the way of duty for all the honours which it is possible you should obtain. Reasoning on these solid principles, I consider the situation into which you wonld throw yourself by going to S. You would de prive yourself of all the means of grace which you might enjoy in our family, in our religious society, and in our public worship, And for what end are you to

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This mental conflict-a conflict which involves a paradox worthy of Christianity-is a source of great anxiety in addition to the ordinary circumstances which depress the student; such as his seclusion, the solitude giving birth to melancholy, the lassitude arising from continued exertion of mind, and, to use a com mon phrase, the "nervousness" which these usually produce. Those who have never been in the situa tion alluded to can scarcely imagine the dreariness which a severe stu dent often experiences, when at midnight, while every thing is still and at repose around him, he at length closes his books and feels that all his labour is indeed, except so far as it conduces to higher objects, vanity and vexation of spirit." And thus exhausted in mind and body he is to meet his God before retiring to his feverish repose. It is to this point I would urge particular attention. Among the several snares of a college residence, by which, unless great vigi lance be used, the means of grace will be rendered ineffectual to the soul of the student, and (to use the words of your correspondent) "the heart will almost invariably become cold to the most affecting and im portant subjects," the circun stance just mentioned deserves o be seriously considered and guarded against. Let the religious student never reserve his regular devotions for the last half hour before retir ing to rest. It is indeed a pious and delightful practice to give the close of each day to God; but let the student appoint a much earlier period of the evening for his more

quit these inestimable privileges, and encounter the temptation arising from the want of such helps?—That you may be a step or two higher on the Tripos! I tell you freely, that I had rather hear you were the first senior óptime by keeping in the way of duty, and the enjoyment of these spiritual privileges, than the first wrangler by running yourself into needless tempta tation. These are my views,"

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