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possessed, or a certain sense of unhappiness, leading to undefined longings for something yet to be possessed; something the mind grasps after, but cannot attain-a feeling which many have believed, or at least for a time imagined to be satisfied, by having all the affections and powers of the mind drawn out and fastened upon a particular object. But this, which constitutes the nearest approach that man can provide for the removal of such a feeling, is at best but a temporary and uncertain remedy for a continual evil.

It was the will of God that man's state

should be changed; and to effect this, atonement must be made for sinfulness, and provision for want.

In relation to man, the work of Christ was remedial. Its ultimate object was to bring glory to God in the highest; but so far as man was concerned, it was remedial, and therefore adapted to his character and circumstances, with respect to sinfulness and

want.

In the first respect, an atonement, full, free, and sufficient, was required:-full, for it must include the whole world; free, or doubt could could not be excluded; sufficient, or conscience could not be released. No created being could offer such. Man was a condemned creature, and needed deliverance from condemnation; he was a sinful creature, and needed a justifying righteousness; but he was, moreover, an unhappy creature, and needed to be brought back to happiness. The breath of life imparted to him, came originally from God: the circumstances in which this heaven-derived soul was placed after the fall of man, became different from its origin. It was created holy, and the circumstances in which it was placed when man enjoyed his Maker's presence and communion, were suited to its origin; but the moment Adam fell, its circumstances changed. It is fallen; but it is still the breath of life, eternal life it is an immortal principle; and from that hour it has continued to gasp

for more than merely mortal circumstances can yield. The immortal aspirations of the soul have rendered all the possessions that are bounded by time unsatisfying. But man was an unholy creature, and could take no pleasure in allowing those aspirations to go forth in their original direction, and found ease only in proportion as he succeeded in confining them to the things that are congenial to an unholy state.

Holiness is happiness to man: it is his original state. Man was created holy and happy, but he wandered into circumstances foreign to his origin; and till brought back he is an unhappy creature. "God formed man upright, but they have sought out many inventions."

Without holiness man's state in regard to God is terror: the emotions of his soul when they stretch to eternity, cannot rise higher than selfish terror aiming at selfish escape; they are still, however, the actings of what originally came from God, struggling in a

state foreign to its origin, but become in its present natural state incapable of love to God, and therefore taking no account of the unutterable misery of separation from God.

It was the purpose of God, and the will of God, that man should be happy; he formed him abundantly capable of happiness; he provided him liberally with the means of happiness; but having departed from his original circumstances, his character and state required to be changed before this purpose could be effected.

God himself provided a remedy for man's fallen, sinful, and sorrowful state; and it has pleased God to inscribe on that remedy, "the exceeding sinfulness of sin:" but it has also pleased Him, in the adaptation of that remedy, to bring out into glorious manifestation his own divine attributes, Wisdom,-Knowledge, -Love,-Wisdom, in the plan and provision of the remedy:-Knowledge of our need, and of its suitability to that need:-Love, in the unspeakable gift that constituted the remedy.

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The gospel of Jesus Christ offers the only sufficient remedy for man's state; it presents

a sacrifice meeting his guilt, and a means whereby he is brought back again to union with God; whereby the immortal soul can again enjoy that communion which is congenial to its origin, and from which sin has separated it.

We read in the gospel the simple fact, that "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,"-and the fact is in itself amazing; but looking into the circumstances of the fact, we see, what at first we may have overlooked, the admirable adaptation of the gift to our need; so that, gazing into the provision there made for our supply, we are enabled to see the meaning of the apostle, when, in speaking of Christ, he says, “Ye are complete in him."*

There is much meaning in the term complete as here employed; it appears to signify

• Col. ii. 10.

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