"The love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus
judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: and that he
died for all, that they who live should not henceforth live unto
themselves, but to him that died for them and rose again."
The man that has received Christ desires to be holy, because the
nature of the faith that lays hold on Christ worketh by love, and
longeth, yea, greatly longeth, that the soul may be brought not only
into a universal conformity to his will, but into his very likeness;
and because that state agreeth not with what we are now, but with
what we shall be hereafter: "Therefore in this we groan, being
burdened" with that which is of a contrary nature, "earnestly
desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven;"
which state is not that of Adam'a innocency, but that which is
spiritual and heavenly, even that which is now in the Lord in
heaven.
Blessed be God for Jesus Christ, and for that he took our nature and
sin and curse and death upon him; and for that he did also by
himself, by one offering, purge our sins. We that have believed have
found rest, even there where Christ and his Father have smelled a
sweet savor of rest: because we are presented to God even now
complete in the righteousness of him, and stand discharged of guilt
even by the faith of him; yea, as sins past, so sins to come, were
taken up and satisfied for by that offering of the body of Jesus.
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