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have loved them with a peculiar regard, and in a sense in which he did not love others. It is only of his love to his church that we are now called to speak; and, without appealing to other passages, the text itself may teach us that his love to his church is "wonderful, passing the love of women;" passing all the modifications of human and created affection, and, indeed, passing knowledge." It has often happened that the husband has loved his wife as himself; that he has doated on her with sentiments of foolish and extravagant admiration; but in all such instances there is beauty or loveliness, or other qualities, to engage his love. Did the spouse of the Saviour present originally any such qualities to excite his regard? No, my brethren. She is destined to become at last "a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing:" but, with the single exception of her misery, which was fitted to move compassion, every quality in her original character, and the circumstances of her original condition, were calculated not to attract, but to repel affection. Instead of riches and splendour, there were poverty and wretchedness; instead of comeliness and beauty, there were disease and deformity; and, instead of purity and dignity, there were filth and debasement. Listen to the following description given by an ancient prophet, of the condition of the Jewish nation, at the time when the Almighty selected that people for his inheritance,-a description to which there seems to be an allusion in the passage before us:-" Thus saith the Lord God unto Jerusalem, Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite. And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born, thy navel wast not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all. None

eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, to the loathing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born. And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, live ;-yea, I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, live. Now, when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold thy time was the time of love and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest mine." This description of a new born infant, exposed to perish in the open field, is not less applicable to the moral and spiritual condition of those whom Jesus Christ selects to compose his church; only it does not present an adequate view of their guilt and vileness. Was it not wonderful, then, that he should have fixed his love on creatures like us? When we contemplate his character-when we consider that in his person was combined whatever is venerable, or excellent, or lovely; and when we consider that he is the author of our being, and of all our blessings, it need not have appeared wonderful if we had loved him. But it is inexpressibly wonderful that he should love us. Our meanness and insignificance rendered us unworthy of his notice. Our rebellion against his just authority, and our innumerable violations of his righteous law, rendered us liable to the fearful penalty of his offended justice. Our moral impurity and depravity rendered us objects of aversion and abhorrence to his holiness; and when in that state of guilt and apostacy, instead of being inclined to return and supplicate his favour, we were obstinately

* Ezek. xvi. 3-8.

and sullenly bent on remaining at a guilty distance, or rather were disposed to withdraw further and further from him. How amazing, then, that he should have loved us! "Herein is love, not that we loved him, but that he loved us." If the love of Christ to his church appears great and wonderful, when we contemplate his dignity and excellence, and her original meanness and vileness, it will appear more wonderful still when we consider,

2d, The proof which he has furnished of that love. "He gave himself for her." This expression evidently refers to his sacrifice, intimating that he died for his church; and, accordingly, in the beginning of this very chapter, it is said, "Christ hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God, for a sweet-smelling savour."

It was a true saying, though uttered by the father of lies, when he declared, "All that a man hath, will he give for his life." In laying down his life for another, or in giving himself for another, a man gives what to himself at least is far more valuable than all his possessions; and he virtually gives his possessions too, for he quits them all. And hence said the Saviour himself, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."* Now, Jesus Christ laid down his life for his church, and "gave himself for her."

In reference to his ancient people, the Most High declares, "I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee." Such was the price paid for the political deliverance of ancient Israel. If material riches would have availed for the redemption of his church, her Husband could have given them in unmeasured

*John xv. 13.

abundance; for not only is the world his, with all its empires and treasures, its oceans and continents; but he is the maker and proprietor of the whole creation. But so immense was the debt which we had contracted, that the treasures of the created universe could not furnish an adequate ransom. Something unspeakably more precious was requisite to satisfy the high demands of God's eternal justice, and to purchase our liberation from captivity and bondage. "Ye are not redeemed with corruptible things, such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot."*

"He gave himself for his church." He himself was the ransom paid for his bride; and, in considering that ransom, it is absolutely necessary to keep constantly in view the divine dignity of his person; to remember that he possessed in common with the Father, unlimited knowledge, almighty power, universal and infinite moral excellence; for it was this divine dignity and excellence which rendered the ransom infinitely valuable, which imparted to his sacrifice infinite worth and virtue, and which rendered his love, in giving himself for his church, ineffably and immeasurably great. And to what did he give himself? To whatever was necessary to be done or suffered for our deliverance. He assumed a human nature; and, in that nature, he gave himself to abasement and poverty; to toil and hardship; to insult and reproach; to a life of unparalleled affliction and temptation; and to a death of unutterable sorrow and anguish.

Reflect, then, on the infinite greatness of the person. of Christ, and on the indescribable greatness of his sufferings; and you will not wonder that his sacrifice

* 1 Pet. i. 18.

should accomplish what all the treasures of created nature could not have effected, and prevail to the redemption of the church. You will not wonder that such a ransom should have been accepted in payment even of an infinite debt; but you can never cherish sufficient wonder, and admiration, and gratitude, at that love which prompted the Lord Jesus to pay that

ransom.

II. The text directs our attention to the glorious destiny for which the church is intended, and to the preparation by which she is to be qualified for that destiny.

The first of these topics is described in the 27th, and the last in the 26th, verse. Christ is to present the church to himself at last "a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing: but that it should be holy and without blemish." And for that glorious destiny he prepares her, "by sanctifying and cleansing her by the washing of water by the word." These two topics I shall consider in the order in which they are stated in the text.

1st, Let us attend, then, to the process by which the church is to be prepared for her ultimate destiny. "Christ loved the church, and gave himself for her, that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word." On looking to the text, you will perceive that the first and last expression in the 26th verse, ought in all probability to be taken in connexion for the meaning seems evidently to be that "Christ sanctifies the church by the word." The intermediate expression, "that he might cleanse her with the washing of water," seems to refer to the ordinance of baptism, which exhibits an emblematic representation of our purification from the defilement of sin. We have here, then, an account both of the