perform duty with cheerfulness-and encounter temptations with success.

They grow in grace. Sensible of the imperfection of all their attainments, they desire to abound more and more in knowledge, faith, love, and every good work, and to reach the stature of perfect men in Christ.

The Apostle says, "We are quickened together with Christ."

Our spiritual life comes through him. "He bare our sins, that we, being dead to sin, should live to righteousness." It is through his atonement and intercession, that God grants the external means of life, and his quickening Spirit to attend them. "We are saved by the renewing of the Holy Ghost, which God has shed on us through Christ."

The spiritual life in believers is conformed to Christ. They have the same mind which was in him. His life is manifested, in them. Hence he is said to be formed in them, and they are said to grow up in all things into him.

2. God hath raised us up together with Christ.

On the certainty of his resurrection depends the credit of the gospel. "If he be not risen, our preaching is in vain, and your faith is also vain." This being the foundation of the christian faith, God took care that it should be firmly established by the circumstances of the fact-by the testimony of angels and men-of friends and enemies-by numerous miracles -and by the fulfilment of divers predictions of the ancient prophets and of the Saviour himself. Hence the Apostle says, "He was declared to be the Son of God with power, by his resurrection from the dead.

God is said to have raised up believers with him. The past time is used for the future to express the cer. tainty of the event.

His resurrection is the proof and the pattern of theirs. It is the proof of theirs. "Now is Christ risen and become the first fruits of them that slept." The first

"He is the head

fruits are the pledge of the harvest. of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the first born from the dead." If the head is raised, the members united to it will rise also. "If we believe, that Jesus died and rose again, even so them that sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him." Christ's resurrection shews our resurrection to be possible, and it confirms the truth of the gospel, which declares the event to be certain. "God has begotten us to a lively hope by the resurrection of Christ." On the ground of this assurance, believers are said to be raised with him.

His resurrection is the pattern of theirs. "We look for a Saviour from heaven, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like to his glorious body." Being planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall spring up also in the likeness of his resurrection." The Apostle adds,

3. God hath made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ.

Christ's entrance into heaven, is a full proof of the final salvation of believers. He as their friend and patron is gone to prepare a place for them; to take possession of the purchased inheritance and keep it in reserve until their arrival. They are said to sit with him in heaven, because he sits there for them, to take care of their interest, and in due time will bring them to sit where he is. "Their life is hid with Christ in God, and when Christ shall appear, they will appear with him in glory." Their happiness will greatly consist in being with him. This was his prayer for his disciples; Father, I will that they whom thou hast given me, may be with me where I am, and behold my glory." This was St. Paul's consolation in his persecutions; "If we be dead with him, we shall also live with him; if we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him." This was his joy in the prospect of death: "We are confident and willing to be absent from the body, and present with the Lord."

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How vast is the change produced in those who have received the gospel with faith and love !-Once dead in their sins, children of wrath, condemned to eternal punishment, they are now quickened with Christ, raised up and made to sit with him in heavenly places. They have passed from death to life-from guilt to pardon-from enmity to peace with God; and of the children of wrath they are become heirs of glory. Our text leads us,

II. To contemplate the mercy of God in this great change. "God who is rich in mercy for his great love hath quickened us with Christ. By grace are ye

saved."

Mercy is a particular branch of goodness, which is a disposition to communicate happiness. Goodness regards its objects as capable of happiness. Mercy respects them as beings in a state of misery or danger; and it operates variously, according to their circumstances, by averting, suspending, moderating, or preventing their misery, or overruling it to their benefit.

The mercy of God is in scripture illustrated by that compassion which we feel in the view of others in distress. He condescends to speak after the manner of men, and to represent himself as grieved and even afflicted in our afflictions, and as feeling his heart turned, and his bowels moved, when he inflicts on us his holy corrections. Such expressions are used, not to signi fy that there is really any commotion in the divine mind, but to give us a more familiar, as well as more exalted idea of the divine mercy.

"God is rich in mercy."

His mercies are rich in extent. They are not confined to us: They fill the earth-they are great unte the heavens-they spread over all his works.

They are rich in number. "How precious are God's thoughts toward us! How great is the sum of them! If we would count them, they are more than the sand."

They are rich in respect of constancy. They flow in an uninterrupted stream. They endure continually. We are loaded with them daily. When we lie down, and when we awake, we are still with God.

They are rich in variety. By them we are relieved in trouble, supplied in want, protected in danger, comforted in sorrow, guided in doubt, secured in temptation, strengthened in weakness and preserved to salva

tion.

They are rich in value. "God is our sun and shield, he gives grace and glory, and no good thing will he withhold from them who walk uprightly."

The Apostle, having asserted in general terms, that God is rich in mercy, selects a particular instance to illustrate the doctrine. "For the great love, wherewith he loved us, when we were dead in sin, he hath quickened us with Christ." And greater love cannot

be imagined.

He first loved us. His love to us originated with himself. "He saved and called us, not according to our works, for we were dead in sins, but according to his own purpose and grace." "It was in his own selfmoving mercy, that he gave his Son to be a propitiation for us-that he blessed the world with the light of revelation-that he assigned us a place within this glorious light-that he hath shined into any of our hearts and given the light of the knowledge of his glory in the face of his Son.

His love appears the greater, because it is exercised toward us, through Jesus Christ. "He that delivered up his Son for us, how shall he not with him also, freely give us all things?"

His love shines still brighter, when we consider what a Being he is.

He is infinitely above us. "He humbles himself to behold the things which are in heaven;" much more to regard the things which are on earth. We tread on worms and insects without concern, for we think

them too impotent to take revenge, and too contemptible to deserve regard. Does God treat us with this indifference? The stars are not clean in his sight: How much less man who is a worm ?"-" Yet he visits us every moment."

He is selfsufficient. His happiness is in himself. "If we sin, what do we to him? And if we are righteous, what receiveth he at our hands?" His mercy is wholly disinterested. It is what we did not deserve, and cannot remunerate. Our impotence cannot give, nor can his fulness receive a recompense.

"He is not worshipped by men's hands, as if he needed any thing." All creation was his work, and is at his command. If this were not sufficient for his purpose, he, who has the residue of the Spirit, can call into existence other systems to display his goodness, wisdom and power. There is reason to believe, that men make but a small part of the intelligent universe. Certainly there are orders far more noble than we; and probably they are far more numerous. How wonderful it is, that amidst the immensity of God's works, our race is so mercifully remembered!

His mercy appears more rich and glorious, when we contemplate it in connexion with his purity. His holiness abhors sin, and yet his mercy can forgive it. Our readiness to forgive is often an indifference to sin, rather than a love of mercy. But God's mercy to sin. ners is not at all restrained by his hatred of their sins. He would not that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance; and them who repent he abundantly pardons.

The gospel gives us the most exalted conceptions of God's character. That he is good and merciful is a dictate of reason: But that great love wherewith he loved us is discovered only by the revelation of Christ. The light of nature, whatever hints it may be supposed to give us concerning the character of God, could never teach us that he will be merciful to sinners