fun-fhine. No, no, herein is the love, that God gave Chrift for us. And it is remarkable, that when the apoftie would fhew us, in Rom. v. 8. what is the nobleft fruit that most commends to men the root of divine love that bears it, he thews us this very fruit of it that I am now opening; "But God faith "he, commendeth his love towards us, in that while we were yet finners, Christ died for us:" this is the very flower of that love.

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The method into which I will caft this precious point, fhall be this: (1.) To fhew how Jefus Chrift was given by the Father. (2.) How that gift is the fulleft and richest manifeftation of the love of God that was ever made to the world. (3.) And then draw forth the ufes of it.

1. How was Jefus Chrift given by the Father, and what is implied therein.

You are not fo to understand it, as though God parted with his interest and propriety in his Son, when he is faid to give him; he was as much his own as ever. When men give, they transfer propriety to another; but when God had given him, he was, I fay, ftill as much his own as ever: but this giving of Chrift implies,

(1.) His defignation and appointment unto death for us; for fo you read, that it was done "according to the determinate "counfel of God," Acts ii. 23. Look, as the lamb under the Law was feparated from the flock, and fet apart for a facrifice; though it were ftill living, yet it was intentionally, and preparatively given, and confecrated to the Lord: fo Jefus Christ was, by the counfel and purpose of God, thus chofen, and set apart for his fervice: and therefore in Ifa. xlii. 1. God calls him his Elect, or chofen One.

(2.) His giving Chrift, implies a parting with him, or fetting him (as the French hath it) at fome distance from himself for a time. There was a kind of parting betwixt the Father and the Son, when he came to tabernacle in our flefh: fo he expreffeth it, John xvi. 28. "I came forth from the Father, and am come "into the world; again, I leave the world and go to the Fa"ther." This distance, that this incarnation, and humiliation fet him at, was properly as to his humanity, which was really diftant from the glory into which it is now taken up, and in respect of manifeftation of delight and love, the Lord feemed to carry it as one at a distance from him. Oh! this was it that fo deeply pierced, and wounded his foul, as is evident from that complaint, Pfal. xxii. 1, 2. "My God, my God, why haft thou forfaken me ?.

Why art thou fo far from the words of my roaring? O my "God, I cry in the day-time, but thou hearest not,” &c.

(3.) God's giving of Chrift, implies his delivering him into the hands of juftice to be punished; even as condemned perfons are, by fentence of law, given or delivered into the hands of executioners. So Acts ii. 23. "Him, being delivered by the "determinate counfel of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have flain :" and fo he is faid, Rom. viii. 32. "To de"liver him up to death for us all." The Lord, when the time was come that Christ must suffer, did, as it were, fay, O all ye roaring waves, of my incenfed juftice, now fwell as high as heaven, and go over his foul and body; fink him to the bottom; let him go, like Jonah, his type, into the belly of hell, unto the roots of the mountains. Come all ye raging storms, that I have referved for this day of wrath, beat upon him, beat him down, that he may not be able to look up, Pfal. lx. 12. Go justice, put him upon the rack, torment him in every part, till all his "bones be out of joint, and his heart within him be melt"ed as wax in the midst of his bowels," Pfal. xxii. 14. And ye affembly of the wicked Jews and Gentiles, that have fo long gaped for his blood, now he is delivered into your hands; you are permitted to execute your malice to the full: I now loofe your chain, and into your hand and power is he delivered.

(4.) God's giving of Chrift, implies his application of him, with all the purchafes of his blood, and fettling all this upon us, as an inheritance and portion, John vi. 32, 33. "My Father

giveth you the true bread from heaven; for the bread of God "is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life to "the world." God hath given him as bread to poor ftarving creatures, that by faith they might eat and live. And fo he told the Samaritanefs, John iv. 10. "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that faith unto thee, Give me to drink, "thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given "thee living water." Bread and water are the two neceffaries for the fupport of natural life; God hath given Christ, you fee, to be all that, and more, to the fpiritual life.

2. How this gift of Chrift was the highest, and fullest manifestation of the love of God, that ever the world faw*; and this will be evidenced by the following particulars :

* God might have redeemed us in another way, (for I fuppofe 'tis opus liberi confilii) a free dispensation: but God fo loved the word, ¿. e. he took this way, that we might love Chrift as well as

believe

SERM. IV. (1.) If you confider how near and dear Jefus Christ was to the Father; he was his Son, "his only Son," faith the text; the Son of his love, the darling of his Soul; His other Self, yea, one with himself; the exprefs image of his perfon; the brightness of his Father's Glory: In parting with him, he parted with his own Heart, with his very bowels, as I may say. "Yet "to us a Son is given," Ifa. ix. 6. and fuch a Son as he calls "his "dear Son," Col. i. 13. A late writer tells us, that he hath been informed, that in the famine in Germany, a poor family being ready to perifh with famine, the husband made a motion to the wife, to fell one of the children for bread, to relieve themfelves and the reft: The wife at last consents it should be fo; but then they began to think which of the four should be fold; and when the eldest was named, they both refused to part with that, being their first-born, and the beginning of their strength. Well, then they came to the second, but could not yield that he fhould be fold, being the very picture and lively image of his father. The third was named, but that alfo was a child that best resembled the mother. And when the youngest was thought on, that was the Benjamin, the child of their old age; and fo were content rather to perish altogether in the famine, than to part with a child for relief. And you know how tenderly Jacob took it, when his Jofeph and Benjamin were rent from him. What is a child, but a piece of the parent wrapt up in another fkin? And yet our dearest children are but as strangers to us, in comparison of the unspeakable dearness that was betwixt the Father and Chrift.Now, that he fhould ever be content to part with a Son, and fuch an only One, is such a manifeftation of love, as will be admired to all eternity. And then,

(2.) Let it be confidered, To what he gave him, even to death, and that of the cross; to be made a curse for us; to be the fcorn and contempt of men; to the most unparalleled fufferings that ever were inflicted or born by any. It melts our bowels, it breaks our heart, to behold our children ftriving in the pangs of death: but the Lord beheld his Son struggling under agonies that never any felt before him. He faw him falling to the ground, groveling in the duft, fweating blood, and amidst thofe agonies turning himself to his Father, and, with a heartrending cry, befeeching him, "Eather, if it be poffible, let this

believe in him.

He might have redeemed us fo much in another way, but he could not oblige us fo much in another way. Manten on Jude, p. 108. Mr. Wall in his None but Chrift.

+Chrift's pain was forer than all pains put together. Aquinas.

cup pass," Luke xxii. 42. To wrath, to the wrath of an infinite God without mixture; to the very torments of hell was Christ delivered, and that by the hand of his own Father. Sure then that love must needs want a name, which made the Father of mercies deliver his only Son to fuch miferies for us,

(3.) It is a special confideration to enhance the love of God in giving Chrift, that in giving him he gave the richest jewel in his cabinet; a mercy of the greatest worth, and most inestimable value. Heaven itfelf is not fo valuable and precious as Chrift is: He is the better half of heaven; and so the faints account him, Pfal. Ixxiii. 25. “Whom have I in heaven but theé ?” Ten thousand thousand worlds, faith one ‡, as many worlds as angels can number, and then as a new world of angels can multiply, would not all be the bulk of a balance, to weigh Christ's excellency, love, and fweetness. O what a fair One! what an only One! what an excellent, lovely, ravishing One, is Chrift! Put the beauty of ten thousand paradifes, like the garden of Eden, into one; put all trees, all flowers, all fmells, all colours, all taftes, all joys, all fweetnefs, all loveliness in one; O what a fair and excellent thing would that be? And yet it should be lefs to that fair and deareft well-beloved Chrift, than one drop of rain to the whole feas, rivers, lakes, and fountains of ten thousand earths. Chrift is heaven's wonder, and earth's wonder.

Now, for God to bestow the mercy of mercies, the most precious thing in heaven or earth, upon poor finners; and, as great, as lovely, as excellent as his fon was, yet not to account him too good to bestow upon us, what manner of love is this!

(4.) Once more, let it be confidered on whom the Lord beftowed his fon: upon angels? No, but upon men. Upon man his friend? No, but upon his enemies. This is love; and on this confideration the apoftle lays a mighty weight, in Rom. v. 8, 9, 10. "But God (faith he) commendeth his love towards *us, in that while we were yet finners, Chrift died for us."When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the "death of his fon." Who would part with a fon for the fake of his dearest friends? but God gave him to, and delivered him for enemies: O love unspeakable!

(5.) Lastly, Let us confider how freely this gift came from him: It was not wrested out of his hand by our importunity; for we as little defired as deferved it: It was furprifing, pre

Chriftus et cælum non patiuntur hyperbolem,

"Not that we

Thus as

venting, eternal love, that delivered him to us : "loved him, but he first loved us," 1 John iv. 19. when you weigh a thing, you caft in weight after weight, till the scales break; fo doth God, one confideration upon another, to overcome our hearts, and make us admiringly to cry, what manner of love is this! And thus I have fhewed you what God's giving of Chrift is, and what matchlefs love is manifefted in that incomparable gift.

Next we shall apply this, in fome practical corollaries.

Corollary 1. Learn hence, The exceeding precioufnefs of fouls, and at what a high rate God values them, that he will give his Son, his only Sen cut of his bojom, as a ransom for them. Surely this fpeaks their precioufnefs: God would not have parted with fuch a Son for small matters: all the world could not redeem them; gold and filver could not be their ransom; so speaks the apostle, I Peter i. 18. " You were not redeemned with cor"ruptible things, as filver and gold, but with the precious "blood of Chrift." Such an esteem God had for them, that, rather than they should perish, Jefus Chrift fhall be made a man, yea, a curfe for them. Oh then learn to put a due value upon your own fouls do not fell that cheap, which God hath paid fo dear for Remember what a treafure you carry about you; the glory that you fee in this world is not equivalent in worth to it. Matth. xvi. 26. "What shall a man give in exchange for his "foul ?"

:

Corollary 2. If God has given his own Son for the world, then it follows, that thofe for whom God gave his own Son, may warrantably expect any other temporal mercies from him. This is the apostle's inference, Rom. viii. 32. "He that spared not "his own Son, but delivered him up for us all; how shall he "not, with him, freely give us all things?" And fo 1 Cor. iii. 21, 22. "All is yours, for ye are Chrift's." i. e. They hold all other things in Chrift, who is the capital, and most comprehenfive mercy.

To make out the grounds of this comfortable deduction, let thefe four things be pondered, and duly weighed in your thoughts. (1.) No other mercy you need or defire, is, or can be fo dear to God, as Jefus Chrift is: he never laid any other thing in his bofom, as he did his Son. As for the world, and the comforts of it, it is the duft of his feet, he values it not; as you fee by his providential difpofals of it; having given it to the worst of men. "All the Turkish empire," faith Luther, "as great and glorious as it is, is but a crumb which the mafter