5
THE RICHES OF CHRIST.
entered into the heart of man to conceive what God hath laid up for thoſe that love and obey him.’ All precious things to which this world gives a name and moſt eſteem, are not comparable to them, as a drop of water to the ocean, or a grain of ſand to the whole maſs of earth. And how great then ought our love to be towards him, that not only renders us this treaſure, but ſhed his rich redeeming blood to purchaſe it for us, and to draw us out of the ſnares of deſtruction when we lay in darkneſs and the ſhadow of death.
How great ought our veneration to be for ſo tranſcendant a love and favour as this! when the innocent ſubmitted to die to ſave the guilty from the power of the ſecond death; ‘for he hath delivered us from the wrath that is to come,' 1 Theff i. 10. ſo that, ‘to them that are ‘ in Chrift, there is no condemnation,'Rom. viii. 1. This being the main promiſe of God, That whoſoever believeth in him, ſhould not periſh, but have everlaſting life' John iii. 15, 16. For this great conqueror has overthrown him that had the power of death, (that is, the devil,) delivering them, who through fear of death, were all their
