in some poor measure to comprehend its unexplored heights, its unfathomable depths^!]
3. The objects for whom he interposed —
[It was not for angels, the highest order of created beings., that Jesus interested himself, but for man : he passed by them, and deigned to notice us^. But was there any thing in us more than in them, to recommend us to his regard ? No : we were destitute of any the smallest good ; and full of all imagi- nable evil ^. There was not a faculty of our souls that was not debased by sin, nor a member of our bodies that was not pol- luted with iniquity ^ We were even haters of God himself *= ; and so full of enmity against him, that; we were actually incapable of obeying any of his laws'*, and as far as our influ- ence or example could prevail, we strove to banish him from the worlds
Our misery too was as great as our wickedness. We were under sentence of condemnation, and exposed to all the curses of the broken law : " the wrath of God abode upon us ;" and nothing remained but that the thread of life should be cut, and we should have been miserable in hell for evermore. Yet such was his compassion that he interposed for us, and became our mediator with God, our " advocate with the Father." How wonderfully does this enhance the grace he has manifested ! It would be a marvellous effort of love, if a king should put himself in the place of a condemned rebel, and suffer the sentence of the law in his stead : but for the Creator himself to become a creature, that he might suffer in the place of those who deserved nothing but death and hell, well may this be termed " the exceeding riches of his grace," the very master- piece of Divine love^!]
4. The state to which, by that interposition, he
exalts us —
[If he had procured a remission of our sentence, and the favour of annihilation, what a mercy would it have been ! and what a mercy would the devils account it, if they could obtain such a favour at his hands ! But this would not satisfy our adorable Saviour : he had far higher views in undertaking for us : he determined to restore us to a state of reconciliation with God ; to renew our nature, and thereby fit us for the
y Eph. iii. 18, 19. ^ Heb. ii. 16.
a Jer. xvii. 9. Gen. vi. 5. ^ Rom. iii. 10 — 18.
c Rom. i. 30. ^ Rom. viii. 7.
e Rom. i. 28. Eph. ii. 12. and Ps. xiv. 1. "No God," that is, I wish there were none, f Eph. ii. 7. Rom. v. 8.