before to-morrow; but " whom Christ loves, he "loves to the end; with him there is no variable"ness nor shadow of turning;" his faithfulness never fails; "heaven and earth" shall sooner

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pass away," than his word, his promise fall to the ground:—and thus is he possessed of every quality that can engage our esteem as well as command our veneration.-It is our duty, our delight, to esteem a kind and bountiful master, an indulgent father, an affectionate brother, a zealous and faithful friend. What a flow of af fectionate esteem then is due by all, and will be paid by every generous heart, to him who is all these, and much more than all these endearing relations in one, to his people!-But this is not all; there is another ingredient in love to Christ, which in every sensible ingenuous mind will rise fully as high as any of the other two, which was the

Third particular to be illustrated, namely, gratitude. As an object of this, the Bible represents him to us, as "wounded for our transgres

sions, and bruised for our iniquities;" as "the "Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the "world" as "a propitiation" for the sins of lost mankind; as " the good shepherd laying down "his life for the sheep," and in a variety of other

images no less striking and affecting, which occur in a great many passages of the book of the prophet Isaiah, and through the whole of the New Testament. What, with regard to men, commands gratitude, is a great favour unmerited; and he that is capable of returning evil for good, hatred for love, is justly detested and abhorred, by a mind that is sensible of any thing noble and generous: but the highest possible pitch of human generosity, as the apostle Paul supposeth, is, that "for a good man, peradventure, some "would even dare to die." But what is even that, if human nature be capable of it, in comparison of what Christ has done for every individual member of his family? This will appear in the most striking light, if we consider what Christ is, what he has done, and for whom. He is God, equal with the Father; the second person of the adorable Trinity; possessed of all possible perfection and happiness. This state of consummate bliss, which he enjoyed from all eternity at the right hand of the Father, he, " in the fulness of "time," withdraws himself from, leaves heaven's glory, descends into this world, clothes his bright divinity in a veil of human flesh, wherein he becomes subject to, and fulfils the whole of his own law; submits to all the hardships and sinless infirmities of mortality, and even, at last, to the

hellish torture of being nailed, hand and foot, to a cross; where, after suffering the most extreme and cruel agonies of body, and anguish of soul, he expires, is taken down, and consigned to a sepulchre, where he remains under the power of death, during the space of three days and three nights. And all this he endured to redeem from. the wrath of a justly offended God, a race of poor, miserable wretches, who were left destitute of all means to help themselves, and were even insensible of that fiery deluge of eternal indignation which was ready to swallow them up. Can we then but love him, be grateful to him, who, by suffering so much for us, proved how dear we were to him? We shall, then, sum up all that has been said in one word. Love to Christ consists in feeling toward him all the veneration that is due to a bountiful creator and preserver; all the esteem that is due to a kind, zealous, faithful, and affectionate friend, and all the gratitude that is due to a compassionate Saviour. We proceed in the

Second place, to consider what is meant by keeping his commandments. And here we must go back to the origin of all things, and observe, that when God had at the first created man, he entered into a covenant with him, which pro

mised eternal life, upon condition of his perfect obedience and conformity to the law of God; and threatened him with death in case he should transgress it. This penalty he by his disobedience incurred the consequence of which was that he involved all his posterity in the same guilt, as their head and representative, and they were thereby rendered utterly incapable of fulfilling the law, and of course, he with all his posterity, must inevitably have suffered the punishment threatened, had it not mercifully pleased God to open another way of salvation for lost mankind, through the incarnation and sufferings of Jesus Christ, which is the only method whereby sinners can be saved. By this means, we are delivered from keeping the law, as a covenant of works, which is "a yoke neither we, nor our "fathers were able to bear," and therefore this cannot be the obedience our Lord here requires, as a proof of our love to him; for that were to command an impossibility. As man had by his apostacy from God exposed himself to the curse of the broken law, and rendered himself unfit for the keeping of it, Jesus Christ, man's great substitute, by his death atoned for the breach, and in his life conformed himself exactly to all the precepts of the law, which is commonly called his active and passive obedience. By this

God's justice is fully satisfied, and man is freed both from the curse threatened, and the perfect obedience stipulated in the first covenant; but as Christ made the law a rule of his life, and has"in all things left us an example, that we "should follow his steps;" it certainly is to be made the rule of our conduct; and this beyond doubt, is the obedience meant in the text. Our Lord himself tells us, he was "not come to destroy "the law and the prophets, but rather to fulfil."— The best and surest way of illustrating this head, will be in our Saviour's own words; the greatest part of his Sermon on the Mount, of which we have a transcript in the fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters of Matthew, is employed in explaining his sense in the precepts of the law; which as he observed in the strictest manner himself, so he recommends to the practice of his followers. The language of the law is, "Thou shalt not kill;" but Christ says, "Thou shalt not so much as be

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angry with thy brother without a cause;" thou shalt not speak maliciously, no, not even lightly of him; on the contrary, thou shalt spare no pains to be reconciled to him, to gain his good will, if he have aught against thee. The law says, "Thou shalt not commit adultery." But Christ requires even " purity of heart;" requires the "cutting off, and plucking out," what is dear