had never fallen, he would have had very narrow and con- tracted views of God, in comparison of those which are revealed to him in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. As a creature, he would have beheld the goodness of God : but he could have formed no conception of the justice, and holiness, and mercy, and truth of God ; and much less of the union and harmony of all these attributes, as simultaneously exhibited in the person
of a crucified Redeemer I add, too, that had he never
fallen, his happiness would have been only the gift of grace ; whereas, through the coming of Christ, every blessing that he shall enjoy in the eternal world, will bear upon it a stamp of the price it cost, and will be enjoyed by the soul as the fruit
and purchase of the Redeemer's blood Take this view
of the blessedness which Christ has obtained for us ; and I hesitate not to say, that it as far exceeds all that man would otherwise have enjoyed, as the noon-day sun exceeds in radi- ance the morning-star, or the feeble glimmering of the glow- worm ]
1. Let not any of you, then, be satisfied without
this light —
[Shall the Son of the living God have left the bosom of his Father, and assumed our nature, and died upon the cross for us, and we be indifferent about the life that he has pur- chased for us ? Would not " the very stones cry out against
us ? " Tell me, would the apostate spirits, if they were
favoured with one such message of mercy as is vouchsafed to you, make light of it as you do? I charge you, then, be in earnest; and, whilst the invitations of the Gospel are yet sound- ing in your ears, go to this good Shepherd, and seek from him the life which he has come from heaven to bestow ]
2. Let not any be satisfied with a small measure of
life—
[Christ came, " that you might have it more abundantly." O brethren ! you should not be content to live; but should seek to live in the richest possible enjoyment of the Divine favour, and in the most perfect meetness for glory. St. Paul, after all his attainments, " forgot what was behind, and reached forward to that which was before." And that should be the habit of your minds. This is the way to answer the ends of Christ's first advent; and it will be your best preparation for his future advent, when he shall come to judge the world in righteousness, and to bestow, in all its fulness, the life which he has purchased for you ]