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us; yea, so was the matter at his heart, that he loved Christ Jesus, the man Christ Jesus, for accomplishing it. Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life that I might take it again:* and because he undertook and completed this work, God has highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.† You are called, then, to love the Best of Beings, Him who hath so loved you! It is a mistake therefore, and a very dangerous one, to imagine that the Father needed the sacrifice of the Son to produce in him love to a fallen race. It was the Father's love which made this sacrifice, and which is always represented in the Scriptures as the origin of the scheme of redemption.

2. But consider, in the next place, the love of the Son. Look at men, what they are, what they are represented to be in the Scriptures, altogether become abominable; none doing good, no not one. It was on such that Christ set his love, out of such that he would make to himself a church, a glorious church to be presented to himself, not having spot or wrinkle; a church that should be, to use the words of our ordination service, "his spouse and his body," ""yea, of his flesh, and of his bones." The Lord Jesus set his love upon us, and would have us for his own. But he must

* John x. 17.

+ Philippians ii. 9-11.

die for us. The objects of his pity and his love are a miserable race, under sentence of death, under wrath. The Father will, indeed, delight to be reconciled to us, but it can only be done by blood; without shedding of blood is no remission.* Justice must be satisfied: man hath sinned, man must die. Here, then, is a trial of love. Well, the love of Jesus can stand that trial. His is love, indeed, strong as death.† Many waters cannot quench his love. He will become man, that as man he may die. The prize in view is sufficient; the reward proposed shall compensate for all the humiliation he must stoop to,-the contradiction and revilings of ungrateful man, the temptation of the devil, the desertion of God. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many. The salvation of our souls, the rescuing of his sheep, the giving to them eternal life,—this was his reward. For this joy set before him he endured the cross, despising the shame. See the willingness and alacrity with which he undertook this great office. Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; burnt-offering and sin-offering hast thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come, is written of me; I delight Did the near prospect

in the volume of the book to do thy will, O my God.

it

of his sufferings weaken his love? See him on his last going up to Jerusalem, pressing before his disciples, insomuch that they wondered at him. They were in the way going up to Jerusalem,

* Heb. ix. 22.

+ Cant. viii. 6.

Psalm xl. 6-8.

and Jesus went before them; and they were amazed and as they followed they were afraid. Mark x. 32. And again in S. Luke, When the time was come that he should be delivered up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem.* Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.† I have, said he, a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened till it be accomplished, till the work is finished, by my sufferings in the garden, and on the cross.

Scripture allows, nay, encourages us to speak of heavenly things under images of earthly. God, in condescension to our weak faculties, continually speaks of himself in language properly applicable only to man. Let me, then, illustrate love. You go into a house, you see a sick child; you are moved; you would do much for its relief out of mere general benevolence. Aye, but what, think you, will the mother do out of tender love to her own child? What weariness, and watching, and privations, will she undergo to save it, if she can! Apply this to Gethsemane and Calvary. Look at the sufferings there. Ah! these were not the fruits of mere benevolence, but of true, of great, of unparalleled love. Approach to that sacred spot: see Him, who was in the glory of the Father before the world was, prostrate on the ground now is his soul troubled. Now, to use the prophetical language of the Psalmist, he sinks in deep mire; now is his pure and holy nature wrapped round with the imputed sins of a

Luke ix. 51.

+ John xiii. 1.

Luke xii. 50.

Now is He,

whole apostate race,-with that abominable thing which he hates. Now is He, the beloved Son, put at a distance from the Father. Our sins had separated between God and Him. whose name is "a blessing, in whom all the families of the earth are blessed," become "a curse for us." Now approach, and hear those prayers and supplications which he offered up, with strong crying and tears: hear those, surely the most astonishing words that ever were uttered in this world, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. If the task which I have undertaken may be accomplished, if my beloved ones may be rescued from sin, and death, and hell, and I be spared this bitter cup, let it be so. But it could not be; the cup must not pass away. And O, the agony of his mind, that forced the sweat of blood from his skin! and O, the humiliation, that he must receive strengthening and support from a created being! And there appeared an angel unto Him from heaven, strengthening Him. O, strange and unwonted office, for one of those ministering spirits to minister consolation and support, not to the heir, but to the Author of salvation. Angels strengthened Him; but men,—the creatures on whom all this love is lavishedmen were the base tools of devils in adding the sufferings of the body to those of his righteous soul, which were the fruits of their sins. O, wonderful transaction! when all shame belongs to us; all glory, and honour, and salvation, and power, to the Lamb that was slain. Is not love here? Greater love hath no man than this, that

a man lay down his life for his friends. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us. Did his love cease with death? Did He finish the work and leave it, as though He were tired of it? O no! his church is his spouse, bought with his blood; shall he cease to love her, when he hath purchased her? No, indeed; his people are engraved on the palms of his hands; and He cannot, as hath been beautifully observed, stretch out his hands to do any thing in heaven or earth, but He sees their memorial there, the marks of the nails that pierced them, the marks of what He suffered for his people. He still, by his providence and by his ministers, goes after the sheep that is lost in the wilderness until He finds it; and still, when He hath found it, He layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing to bring it home to his fold. Each believer can best look back, and trace for himself the way in which he hath been brought nigh,-the love which so ordered different events of his life as to make them eventually work towards his eternal good. All things are put under the feet of Christ; and He is Head over all things to his church, watching over it with his love, and guiding it with his eye, till He shall have brought each individual believer safely home. Even now, in the many mansions of our Father's house, He is himself preparing a place for each one of his people; and as each falls asleep in him, He comes to receive them to himself, that where He is, there they may be also.

3. We have surely brought to light much of the love of God; but one of the most astonishing

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