the fear of GodV Having a good hope that he is " accepted in Christ," he will labour to purify himself, even as Christ is pure1, j
Then, through the combined influence of these, it works its destined end —
[The soul is, by nature, narrow and contracted : its desires both originate in self, and end in self. Self is its centre and circumference. The natural man will indeed assume, on many occasions, an appearance of generosity ; but, of the " charity that suffereth long, and is kind ; that envieth not ; that vaunteth not itself; that doth not behave itself unseemly ; that seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil : rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth ; that beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, en- dureth all things™;" of that charity, I say, he knows nothing. But the Gospel expands the soul ; filling it with a sense of the Saviour's love, and stirring it up to a holy imitation of it ; and bringing home to it, with irresistible force, this blessed truth, " If God so loved us, we ought also to love one another"." Thus, at the same time that it disposes the soul for love, it also forms love in the soul. It brings men into the closest union with the Lord Jesus Christ, and with each other in him, so as to make of all " one body in Christ." All look to him as their common head ; and all regard each other as members of the same mystical body ; and, in consequence of that union, are penetrated with a love that is reciprocal and universal. The degree of affection that is experienced by them is unknown in the whole world besides. The union, that from thenceforth subsists between them, is so close, that nothing short of the union between Almighty God and his only dear Son can ade- quately describe it. This is what the Lord Jesus Christ himself has affirmed : " I pray for them, that they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they may all be one in us. And the glory which thou hast given me, I have given them, that they all may be one, even as we are one ; I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one0."
This, then, may suffice to shew us, not only what the true end of the Gospel is, but when that end may be said to be truly and properly attained : for it never is truly wrought in us, till we are brought into this union with each other in Christ, and are made to exercise the dispositions which must neces- sarily result from it.
That I may not be thought to have insisted too strongly on this matter, let me confirm it from the express declaration of
k 2 Cor. vii. 1. '1 John iii. 3. m 1 Cor. xiii. 4 — 7.
n 1 John iv. 10, 11. o John xvii. 21—23