recovery, it seems absolutely incredible that he should ever condescend to use such means to effect it : yet we are told that he actually did so ; and that he sent, not an angel, not all the hosts of angels, but even " his only-begotten Son, into the world, that we might live through him''^"]
3. That he should send Him to be a propitiation for our sins !
[For the honour of God's moral government, it was ne- cessary that his hatred against sin should be made manifest, and that, if mercy were exercised towards fallen man, it should be only in a way that would consist with the rights of justice, and preserve the honour of God's broken law. This could only be done by a vicarious sacrifice, a sacrifice of equal value with the souls of all mankind. Such a sacrifice could be made by none but our incarnate God ; who therefore assumed our nature, that he might expiate sin by the sacrifice of himself, and make himself " a propitiation for the sins of the whole world." What love then was here ; that God should send his only-begotten Son into the world for such an end as this ! Had he sent him to instruct us by his doctrine and example, it had been a stupendous act of love : but to send him on purpose that he might bear our sins in his own body on " the tree," and die in our stead, " the just for the unjust, to bring us to God ,•" this is a love that is utterly incomprehensible : it has heights and depths that can never be explored.]
To confirm this view of our subject, we need only call your attention to that assertion of St. Paul, that ** in this God commendeth his love to us ; " and to that pious reflection of his, *' He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things'"?" These passages abundantly prove, that, as the gift of Christ to us was the fruit of the Father's love, so it was an instance of his love, that infinitely outweighs all else that he ever has done, or ever can do, for sinful man.
Let us now consider,
II. Our love to God as put in competition with it —
It is evidently supposed in our text that some might be blind and impious enough to ascribe their salvation rather to the love which they bore to God,
than »''' John iii. \Q. «= Rom. v. 8. & viii. 32.