Use 1st, Information. And it hath six brandies, ist, It shows us the glorious fuhicss of Jesus Christ ; " he is all in all." Christ is a panoply, a magazine and store- house of all spiritual riches; you may go with the bee from flower to flower, and suck here and there a little sweetness, but you will never have enough till you come to Christ, for he is " all in all."
Now in particular, Christ is all in six respects: (1.) Christ is all in regard of righteousness. 1 Cor. i. 30., " He is made to us righteousness." The robe of inno- cency, like the vail of the temple, is rent asunder, ours is a ragged righteousness. Isa. Ixiv. 6., " Our righteousness is as fil- thy rags." As under rags the naked body is seen ; so under the rags of our righteous- ness, the body of death is seen ; we can defile our duties, but they cannot justify us ; but Christ is all in regard of righteous- ness. Rom. X. 4., " Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth :" that is, through Christ we are as righteous as if we had satisfied the law in our own persons. Jacob got the bles- sing in the garment of his elder brother: so in the garment of Christ our elder bro- ther, we obtain the blessing ; Christ's righ- teousness is a coat woven without seam. " We are made the righteousness of God in him." (2.) Christ is all in regard of sanctification. 1 Cor. i. 30., " He is made to us sanctification." Sanctification is the spiritual enamel and embroidery of the soul ; it is nothing else but God's putting upon us the jewels of holiness, — the angels glory by it, — we are made as the king's daughter, « all glorious within," Ps. xlv. 13. This doth tune and prepare the soul for heaven ; it turns iron into gold ; it makes the heart which was Satan's picture, Christ's epistle. The virgins, Esth. ii. 12., had their ' days of puriHcation ;' they were first to be per- fumed and anointed, and then they were to stand before the king; we must have the anointing of God, 1 John ii. 27., and be perfumed with the graces of the Spirit, those sweet odours ; and then we shall stand before the King of heaven. There must be first our days of purification before our days of glorification. What a blessed work is this ! a soul beautified and adorned with
grace, is like the firmament bespangled with glittering stars. O what a metamor- phose is there ! I may allude to that Cant, iii. 6. So, who is this that comes out of the wilderness of sin, perfumed with all the graces of the Spirit ? Holiness is the signa- ture and engraving of God upon the soul. But whence is this ? Christ is all ; he is made to us sanctification ; he it is that sends his Spirit into our hearts to be a re- finer's fire, to burn up our dross, and make our graces sparkle like gold in the furnace ; Christ ariseth upon the soul " with healing in his wings," Mai. iv. 2. He heals the understanding, and saith, " let there be light ;" he heals the heart by dissolving the stone in his blood ; he heals the will, by filing off" its rebellion. Thus he is all in regard of sanctification. (3.) Christ is all in regard of divine acceptance. Eph. i. 6. He hath made us favourites — so Chrysos- tom and Theophylact render it ; through Christ God is propitious to us, and takes all we do in good part. A wicked man being out of Christ, is out of favour ; as his ploughing is sin, Prov. xxi. 4., so his praying is sin, Prov. xv. 8. God will not come near him, his breath is infectious ; God will hear his sins, and not his prayers ; but now in Christ God accepts us, Eccl. ix. 7. As Joseph did present his brethren before Pharaoh, and brought them into fa- vour with the king. Gen. xlvii. 2 , so the Lord Jesus cai'ries the names of the saints upon his breast, and presents them before his Father, so bringing them into repute and honour ; through Christ God will treat and parley with us, he speaks to us, as Isa. Ixii. 4. Through the red glass every thing appears of a red colour ; through the blood of Christ we look of a sanguine complexion, ruddy and beautiful in God's eyes. (4.) Christ is all in regard of divine assistance; a Christian's strength lies in Christ : Phil, iv. 13. Whence is it a Christian is able to do duty, to resist temptation, but through Christ's strengthening? Whence is it that a sparkle of grace lives in a sea of corrup- tion, the storms of persecution blowing, hut that Christ holds this sparkle in the hollow of his hand ? Whence is it that the roaring lion hath not devoured the saints, but that the Lion of the tribe of Judah hath
CHRIST ALL IN ALL.
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