424 / 674
404
CHRIST ADMIRED
AND
GLORIFIED
EDtSC.
vr.
We
shall,
many
of
us,
be a
wonder
to each
other,
as
well
as
to ourselves,
and
we
shall all review,
and
admire
the
grace
of Christ
in
and towards us
all.
Among
the
rest
there are
two
sorts
of
christians, whóse salvation
shall
be
a
special
matter of
wonder, and these are the
melancholy
-and
the
uncharitable.
The
melancholy
chris-
tian
shall wonder,
that
ever such a sinner
as
himself
was
brought
to
heaven
;
and the
uncharitable
shall
wonder,
how
Such
a sinner
as his
neighbour
came there.
The
poor
doubting
melancholy
soul,
who
was full
of
fears,
lest
he
should
be
condemned,
shall
then have
full as-
surance,
that
he
is
elected
and
redeemed,
pardoned and
saved, when he
sees,
bears,
and
feels
the salvation and
the
glory
upòn
him,
within
him
and
all
around
him,
and
be
shall admire and adore the grace
of God,
his
Saviour.
The
narrow- souled christian,
who
said
his
neighbour
would
be
damned
for
want of
some
party-
notions,
or for
seine lesser
failings, shall confess his
uncharitable
mis-
take; and
shall wonder
at
the
abounding
mercy
of
Christ,
which
has
pardoned
those
errors
in his
neigh-
bour,
for which
he
had excommunicated and condemned
him.
Both these christians in
that
day,
I
mean,
the
timorous and censorious,
shall
stand at
his
right-hand,
as
monuments
of
his
surprising
grace, who forgave
one
the
defects
of
his
faith, and the
other
his
want of
love
;
and their
souls
and their tongues
shall
join
together
to
rejoice
in the
Lord, and
their
spirits shall magnify their
God and Redeemer: Christ
shall have
his
due
revenue
of
glory
from
both
in
the hour
of
their
public salvation.
O
what honour
shall
it
add to the
overflowing mercy
of
Christ,
what
joy
and
wonder to
all the saints,
to see
Paul,
the
persecutor and
blasphemer,
there,
and Peter,
who
denied the Lord
that bought
him,
and Mary Mag-
dalen,
that
impure sinner
!
See
what a foul and shame
ful
catalogue, what children
of
iniquity,
are at last
made
heirs and
possessors
of
heaven
; 1
Cor.
vi.
9,
10.
"
The
fornicators
and idolaters,
the
thieves
and the
covetous,
the drunkards,
the revilers,
and
the extortioners." Such
they were
in
the
days
of
ignorance and
heathenism,
fit
fuel for
the
fire
of
hell
;
and
in
those circumstances they
are
utterly excluded
from the kingdom
of
God,
but
now
they
find
a
place in
that
blessed assembly
;
and
the con
-
verting grace
of
Christ
is
admired and
glorified,
that