Thirdly^ How incomprehensible and ravishing is the love of God to men, that would rather be so severe lo Jesus Christ, the darling of his soul, than make us the objects of his wrath for ever ? Which of you (though there be infinitely less tenderness in your hearts than God's) would lay your hands upon a child, the worst child you have, and put him to death for the sake of the best friend you have in the world ? but God with his own hand delivered his Son, his only Son, that from everlasting was the delight of his soul, who never offended Jiim, to death, the most cursed and cruel death, and all this for ene- mies: how unspeakable is this love, and past finding out !
Fourthly, Did not God spare his own Son ? then let none of us spare our own sins. Sin was that sword which pierced Christ : O let sorrow for sin pierce your hearts ! If you spare sin, God will not spare vou, Deut. xxix. 20. We spare sin when we faintly oppose it, v.hen we excuse, cover and defend it, when we are impatient under just rebukes and reproofs for it; but all kindness to sin is cruelty to our own souls.
Fifthly, and lastly. If God did not spare Christ, certainly he in- tends to spare believers for his sake.
The surety could not be spared, that the principal might be spared for ever. If God had spared him, he could not have spared us ; if
SACRAMENTAL MEDlTATIOlsTS.
lie afflicts his people, it is not for satisfaction to himself, but profit to us, Heb. xii. 10. Should God spare the rod of affliction, it would not be for our advantage ; so many sanctified afflictions as are spared or abated, so many mercies and spiritual advantages are withheld from us. But as for those strokes of justice that are the effects of God's vindictive wrath, they shall never be felt by believers for ever. All the wrath, all the curse, all the gall and wormwood was sc^ueezed into Christ's cup, and not one drop left to imbitter ours. Use 2. Of Exhortation. Did not God spare his own Son, but give him up to the death for us all ! Then possess your hearts fully in the assurance of this great truth. That the greatest and best of mercies shall not he denied or withheld from you, f you he in Christ ; lay it down as a sure con- clusion of faith, and build up your hope and comfort upon it. This takes in the second observation ; and surely never was any truth better fortified, never any inference more strongly inferred. Hence- forth ye may infer temporal, spiritual, and eternal mercies; all must be yours, if you be Christ's, 1 Cor. iii. 21, 22, 23. O, make sure that Christ is yours, and never hesitate at any other mercy ! For,
First, God hath certainly a value and esteem for his own Son in- finitely above all other things : he is his own Son, his dear Son, Col. i. 13. the Beloved, Eph. i. 6. the delight of his soul, Isa. xlii. 1. Nothing is valued by God at that rate that Christ is valued. If there- fore he spare not tlie most excellent mercy, but parts with the very darling of his soul for us, how shall he deny, or withhold, any lesser inferior mercy ? It is not to be imagined, for he is the mercij, emphatically so called, Luke i. 72.
Secondlij, Jesus Christ is a comprehensive mercy, including all other mercies in himself; he is the tree of life, all other mercies are but the fruits growing on him ; he is the sun of righteousness ; and whatever comfort, spiritual or natural, refreshes your souls or bodies, is but abeam from that sun, a stream from that fountain. If then God part with Christ to you, and for you, he will not withhold other mercies ; he will not give the whole tree, and deny an apple ; be- stow the fountain itself, and deny you the streams. All spiritual mercies are in him, and given with him ; Eph. i. 3. " Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings, in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." All temporals are in him, and given with him, Matth. vi. S3, they are additionals to that great mercy.
Thirdly, If God spared not Christ, the best mercy ,^but dehvered him up for us all when we were liis enemies, then certainly he will not deny lesser mercies when we are reconciled and made friends to him. And this is the forcible reason of the apostle, w hich even com- pels assent; Rom. v. 9. " Much more, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him/' In a word,
426 SACRAMENTAL MEDITA'lhoXS.
Fourtlihj^ and lastly^ If it were the very design and intention oi God in not sparing his own Son, to open thereby a door for all mer- cies to be let in upon us, then it is not imaginable he should with- hold them : he will not lose his design, nor lay so many stripes upon Christ in vain : some shall surely have the benefit of it, and none so capable as believers.
When God spared not his own Son, this was the design of it ; and could you know the thoughts of his heart, they would appear to be such as these :
I will now manifest the fierceness of my heart to Christ, and the fulness of my love to believers. The pain shall be his, that the ease and rest may be theirs ; the stripes his, and the healing balm issuing from them, theirs; the condemnation his, and the justification theirs ; the reproach and shame his, and the honour and glory theirs; the curse his, and the blessing theirs ; the death his, and the life theirs ; the vinegar and gall his, the sweet of it theirs. He shall groan, and they shall triumph ; he shall mourn, that they may re- joice ; his heart shall be heavy for a time, that theirs may be light and glad for ever ; he shall be forsaken, tliat they may never be for- saken ; out of the worst of miseries to him, shall spring the sweetest of mercies to them. O grace ! grace beyond conception of the lar- gest mind, the expression of the tongues of angels !
And straightway the father of the cliild cried out, and said wiift tearsy Lord, I believe, help thou 7iiine unbelief.
JL HE occasion of these words is to be gathered from the context : and briefly it was this : A tender father brings a possessed child to Christ to be cured ; with Si jmtes f a. doubting question, " If thou canst do any thing? have compassion upon us, and help us :"" Words importing much natural affection and tender love to his child; " Have compassion [upon us,] and [help us.''] If the child be sick, the parent is not well ; what touches the child, is felt by his father. And as they import his natural affection to his child, so also his own spiritual disease, or the weakness of his faith. His child was
SACRAMENTAL MEDITATONS. 427
possessed with a dumb devil, and himself with unbelieving doubts and suspicions of Christ's ability to cure his child. The child had a sick body, and the father an infirm soul : Satan afflicted one by a possession, and the other by temptation, ver. 22.