there be great condefcenfion in it. We ufe to value a fmall favour, if it be done to us by one that is far above us, more than a far greater done to us by a mean and inconfiderable perfon. This made David to break out into fuch admiration, when he confidered the ordinary providence of God towards mankind: Lord, what is man, that thou art mindful of him! or the fon of man, that thou shouldft confider him! This is a wonderful condefcenfion indeed, for God to be mindful of man.

At the best we are but his creatures, and upon that very account at an infinite distance from him; fo that, were not he infinitely good, he would not be concerned for us, who are fo infinitely beneath the confideration of his love and pity. Neither are we of the highest rank of creatures; we are much below the angels, as to the excellency and perfection of their beings: fo that if God had not had a peculiar pity and regard to the sons of men, he might have placed his affection and care upon a much nobler order of creatures than we are, and fo much the more miferable, because they fell from a higher step of happiness; I mean the loft angels: but yet, for reafons best known to his infinite wifdom, God paffed by them, and was pleafed to confider us. This the Apoftle to the Hebrews takes notice of, as an argument of God's peculiar and extraordinary love to mankind, that he fent his Son, not to take upon him the nature of angels, but of the feed of Abraham.

Now that he, who is fo far above us, and after that we by wilful tranfgreffion had loft ourselves, had no obligation to take care of us, but what his own goodness laid upon him; that he fhould concern himself fo much for us, and be fo folicitous for our recovery; this is a great evidence of his kindness and good-will to us, and cannot be imagined to proceed from any other cause.

II. Another evidence of God's great love to us, is, that he was pleased to design fo great a benefit for us. This the fcripture expreffeth to us by life; and it is ufual in fcripture to exprefs the best and most desirable things by life; becaufe, as it is one of the greateft bleffings, fo it is the foundation of all other enjoyments: and therefore the Apoftle ufeth but this one word to exprefs to us all the bleffings and benefits of Chrift's coming into the world:

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world: God fent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.

And the expreffion is very proper in our cafe, because life fignifies the reparation of all that which was loft by the fall of man. For man, by his wilful degeneracy and apoftafy from God, is funk into a state of fin and mifery; both which the fcripture is wont to exprefs by death. In refpect of our finful state, we are fpiritually dead; and in respect of the punishment and mifery due to us for our fins, we are judicially dead, dead in law; for the wages of fin is death. Now, God hath fent his Son into the world, that in both these refpects we might live through him.

in

nus,

1. We were fpiritually dead; dead in trefpaffes and fins, as the Apostle speaks, Eph. ii. 1. 2. You hath he quickened who were dead in trefpaffes and fins, wherein in times paft ye walked, according to the course of this world. Every wicked man, though in a natural fenfe he be alive, yet in a moral fenfe he is dead. So the Apostle, fpeaking of those who live in finful lufts and pleasures, fays of them, that they are dead while they live, 1 Tim. v. 6. What corrupt humours are to the body, that fin is to the foul, their disease and their death. Now, God fent his Son to deliver us from this death, by renewing our nature, and mortifying our lufts; by restoring us to the life of grace and holiness, and destroying the body of fin that henceforth we should not ferve fin. And that this is a great argument of the mighty love of God to us, the Apostle tells us, Eph. ii. 4. 5. God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in fins, hath quickened us together with Chrift. It is an argument of the richness of God's mercy, and of his great love to us, to recover us out of this fad and deplorable cafe. It is a kindness infinitely greater, than to redeem us from the most wretched flavery, or to rescue us from the most dreadful and cruel temporal death; and yet we should value this as a favour and benefit that could never be fufficiently acknowledged : but God hath fent his Son to deliver us from a worfe bondage, and a more dreadful kind of death; fo that well might the Apostle afcribe this great deliverance of mankind from the flavery of our lufts, and the death of fin,

to

to the boundless mercy and love of God to us: God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, hath quickened us together with Chrift, even when we were dead in fins; when our cafe was as defperate as could well be imagined, then was God pleased to undertake this great cure, and to provide fuch a remedy, as cannot fail to be effectual for our recovery, if we will but make use of it.

2. We were likewife judicially dead, dead in law, being condemned by the juft fentence of it. So foon as ever we finned, eternal death was by the fentence of God's law become our due portion and reward; and this being our cafe, God, in tender commiferation and pity to mankind, was pleased to fend his Son into the world, to interpofe between the justice of God and the demerits of men; and by reversing the sentence that was gone out against us, and procuring a pardon for us, to rescue us from the mifery of eternal death; and not only fo, but, upon the condition of faith and repentance, of obedience and a holy life, to beftow eternal life upon us; and by this means, to reftore us to a better condition than that from which we were fallen, and to advance us to a happiness greater than that of innocency.

And was not this great love, to defign and provide fo great a benefit and blessing for us, to fend his Son Jefus to bless us, in turning away every one of us from our iniquities? Our blessed Saviour, who came from the bofom of his Father, and knew his tender affection and compaffion to mankind, fpeaks of this as a moft wonderful and unparallelled expreffion of his love to us, John iii. 16. God fo loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son. God fo loved the world, fo greatly, fo ftrangely, fo beyond our biggest hopes, nay, fo contrary to all reafonable expectation, as to fend his only begotten Son, to feek and to fave the finful fons of men.

If it had only in general been declared to us, that God was about to fend his Son into the world upon fome great defign, and been left to us to conjecture what his errand and bufinefs fhould be; how would this have alarmed the guilty confciences of finful men, and filled them with infinite jealoufies and fufpicion, with fearful expectations of wrath and fiery indignation to confume them?

them? For confidering the great wickedness and degeneracy of mankind, what could we have thought, but that furely God was fending his Son upon a defign of vengeance, to chastise a finful world, to vindicate the honour of his defpifed laws, and to revenge the multiplied affronts which had been offered to the highest Majesty of heaven, by his pitiful and ungrateful creatures? Our own guilt would have been very apt to have filled us with fuch imaginations as thefe; that in all likelihood the Son of God was coming to judgment, to call the wicked world to an account, to proceed against his Father's rebels, to pafs fentence upon them, and to execute the vengeance which they had deferved. This we might justly have dreaded; and indeed, confidering our cafe, how ill we have deferved at God's hands, and how highly we have provoked him, what other weighty matter could we hope for?

But the goodness of God hath strangely outdone our hopes, and deceived our expectation. So it follows in the next words, God fent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, (intimating, that this we might juftly have imagined and feared), but upon a quite contrary defign, that through him the world might be faved. What a furprise of kindness is here! that inftead of fending his Son to condemn us, he fhould fend him into the world to fave us; to rescue us from the jaws of death and of hell, from that eternal and intolerable mifery which we had incurred and deferved!

And if he had proceeded no farther, this had been wonderful mercy and kindness: but his love ftopped not here; it was not contented to fpare us, and free us from mifery; but was restless till it had found out a way to bring us to happinefs: for God fo loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, not only that whosoever believeth in him, might not perish, but might have everlafting life. This is the fecond evidence of God's great love to us, the greatness of the bleffing and benefit which he had defigned and provided for us; that we might live through him; not only be delivered from fpiritual and eternal death, but be made partakers of eternal life.

III. The last evidence of God's great love to us which I mentioned was this, that God was pleafed to ufe fuch

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a means for the obtaining and procuring of this great bleffing and benefit: He fent his only begotten Son into the world, that we mi live through him. And this will appear to be gre jove indeed, if we confider these four things. 1. The perfon

m he was pleased to employ upon

this defign: He fen is only begotten Son.

2. How much he abafed him, in order to the effecting and accomplishing of this defign; implied in these words, He fent him into the world.

3. If we confider to whom he was fent; to the world. And,

4. That he did all this voluntarily and freely, out of his mere pity and goodness; not constrained hereto by. any neceffity, not prevailed upon by any r On or importunity of ours, nor obliged by any vetorkindnefs from us.

1. Let us confider the perfon whom God was pleased to employ in this defign: He fent his only begotten Son; no less perfon than his own Son, and no lefs dear to him, than his only begotten Son.

If, No lefs perfon than his own Son. And the dignity of the perfon that was employed in our behalf, doth ftrangely heighten and fet off the kindness. What an endearment is it of the mercy of our redemption, that God was pleased to employ upon this defign no meaner perfon than his own Son, his begotten Son? So he is called in the text, his Son, in fo peculiar a manner as no creature is or can be. The creatures below man are called the works of God, but never his children: the angels are in fcripture called the fons of God; and Adam likewise is called the fon of God, becaufe God made him after his own image and likeness, in holiness and righteousness, and in his dominion and fovereignty over the creatures below him: but this title of begotten Son of God was never given to any of the creatures, man or angel: For unto which of the angels faid he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? as the Apostle reafons, Heb. i. 5. He must be a great perfon indeed to whom this title belongs, of the begotten Son of God; and it must be a mighty love indeed which moved God to employ fo great a perfon on the behalf of fo pitiful and wretched