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SERMON XXIII.

CHRISTMAS, EPIPHANY, &c.

THE REASON AND THE EXTENT OF GOD's LOVE IN SENDING HIS SON INTO THE WORLD.

O DEUS, fons mifericordiæ, illumina amore tuo oculos meos, ut charitatem tuam erga nos immenfam ego ipfe agnoscam, et gratiæ tuæ delicias adeo deguftem, ut mirabilia tui amoris ex verbis meis reluceant, ut ego, et populus qui me audiunt, hoc amore impleti, omnia ea, quæ tibi difplicent, abnegemus, et in imaginem tuam magis magifque transformemur. Concede hæc propter Jefum

Chriftum amoris tui filium. Amen.

I JOHN iv. 9.

IN THIS WAS MANIFESTED THE LOVE OF GOD TOWARDS US, BECAUSE THAT GOD SENT HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON INTO THE WORLD, THAT WE MIGHT LIVE THROUGH HIM, [THAT IS, THROUGH FAITH IN HIM.]

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VERY thoughtful man has two things much at heart:-How he may appease God, and how he may please him.

ift. How he may appeafe God; for every man for himself knows, that he has done many things to offend him.

See John iii. 16. Rom. xv. IO. 2 Cor. v. 18. i John iv. 19.

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2dly. How he may live fo as to please God: for we know by experience, that if men were left to their own inventions, they would take fuch ways to gain the favour of God, as would rather provoke his displeasure.

Now, God has made these two things known to us by Jefus Chrift, whom he fent into the world for these very purposes, to reconcile us to God, and to make known to us the will of God; that is, how we may live so as to please him: or, as Zacharias expresses both thefe bleffings, That we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, (and which had made us enemies to God) might serve him without fear, (because we ferve him as he has appointed us) in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.

b

In this (faith St. John) was manifefted the love of God (of God who did humble himself to behold fuch a finful generation of creatures) towards us; that is, the whole race of mankind, who had no reason to expect fuch a favour, or that God should send to visit them, except for their iniquities.

And yet fuch was the love of God, that he fent-not an angel, but-his Son, his only begotten Son, his beloved Son, into the world; that we, that is, the world to which he was fent; or, as St. John elsewhere expreffeth it, all that believe in him, might have everlasting life, might be enabled to attain eternal life through faith in him.

b Luke i. 74. John iii. 16.

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Every serious Christian, who fhall be convinced of this, will have reafon to rejoice that God fent his Son into the world; and no reafonable body will blame him for it. But for people to rejoice they know not why, to be extremely pleased with the return of this feafon, [Chriftmas] without knowing, and without valuing, the bleffing of a Redeemer; this is what makes many thoughtful Chriftians fad, when others are full of mirth and jollity.

To prevent this, I will fet before you a fhort and plain account of these following things:First; The reafon of God's sending his Son into the world; namely, that we might live through him.

Secondly; We fhall confider the extent of God's love in fending his Son, that we might live, that as many as believe in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Laftly; We fhall confider, what obligations this love of God lays upon Christians.

I. Let us first seriously confider, The reafon of God's fending his Son into the world. The text fays, in general, that it was, that we might live through him; that is, that we might not only escape thofe punishments of which our confciences were afraid; but also that we might be made happy beyond what we could either defire or deferve.

To give you a fhort, but plain account of this matter:-You are to confider, that God made man upright, that is, holy like himself:

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that while man continued fo, he was happy, both in the favour of God, and in the peace of confcience which he enjoyed; but at last, through the malice of the devil, and the difobedience of Adam, fin entered into the world, which has been the occafion of all the mifchiefs and miferies that we meet with, or hear of. Particularly, there is one most miserable effect of fin, that all mankind are sensible of, and that is, the fear of punishment. It being most natural for every man who knows he has done amifs, to expect to hear of it again. So that when the Pfalmift faith, My forrow is continually before me; mine iniquities are gone over my head, and as an heavy burthen, they are too heavy for me; he speaks not his own fenfe only, but the sense of every man living, whose conscience is awake, and under the guilt of fin.

And this is the very true reason why all mankind, ever fince the Fall, have been feeking out ways of appeafing God, and, if poffible, of making their minds eafy under the fear of his displeasure for the fins they had committed, and were daily liable to.

Now God, who forefaw all this diforder even before the Fall, defigned from the beginning to redeem man from this fad condition of blindness, fear, and uncertainty.

And first, Christ was promised to the Fathers, to whom alfo the law was given, to the end that knowing their fin by the law, and how unable they were to keep that law which

their consciences told them was holy, just, and good, they might with more impatience defire the coming of Chrift. And because he was to be a light to lighten the Gentiles, as well as the glory of Ifrael, God fent him at a time when all iniquity did abound, that men might fee plainly that it was not for any works of theirs that he fent his Son into the world, but for his goodness and for his truth's fake. And after men had fufficiently wearied themselves in feeking for peace and happiness, by ways of their own invention, and all to no manner of purpose; it was then that God fent his only Son into the world, that men might live through him;-that they might know how to live fo as to please God, how to appeafe God when they have offended him, and how to fecure his favour both here and hereafter: In this the love of God was manifefted.

In fhort; God's defign being to recover man to a state of happiness, from which he fell by fin, there was no other way of restoring him to happiness, but by holiness.

The way God has taken to bring this about has been by fending his Son into the world, who being the exprefs image of God, by him we know what God is, and what will please him.

By him, for inftance, we know the exceeding great love of God towards men; for God having from the beginning purposed to fend his Son into the world, all the wickedness, all

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