hope for : and get your hearts more in unison with that of the Apostle, when he burst forth into that song of praise, " Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ ! " Then shall you find that these truths, which are a stumbling-block to many, shall to you be as marrow and fatness to your souls.]
Eph. i. 7, 8. In ivhom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace ; tvherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence.
IN no part of the inspired volume are the wonders of redemption more fully opened, than in the passage before us. The pardon of sin, adoption into God's family, and a participation of eternal glory, are all distinctly specified as blessings which under the Gospel we enjoy : and all are traced to Christ as the procuring cause, and to the Father as the prime source, from the riches of whose grace they flow, and to the praise of whose glory they are all or- dained But as the subject would be endless
if we entered into it in this general view, we shall limit our observations to the words which we have just read, and notice from them,
I. The substance of the Gospel —
" In Christ we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins." Here notice, 1. What is implied in this declaration —
[It is here supposed that we are in a state of bondage to sin and Satan, and under guilt and condemnation on account of sin. And this but too justly describes the condition of every child of man. We are in a state of bondage to sin and
Satan And we are under guilt and condemnation on
account of sin We cannot more truly mark the state
of man, than by comparing it with that of the fallen angels. They fell ; and for their sins were cast out of heaven, and con- signed over to merited punishment in hell, where they are " reserved in chains of darkness unto the judgment of the