the only source of true happiness. To love him more, and to serve him better, is the daily labour of his soul, and the very summit of his ambition.]
They believe in him —
[True Christians do not merely assent to this proposition, That Jesus is the Messiah ; but they most cordially acquiesce in his appointment to that office ; they trust altogether in his mediatorial work ; and they seek to receive out of his fulness the blessings which he was sent to communicate.]
All who are of this description are, for that very reason, objects of the Father's love —
[By the exercise of faith and love, they honour the Lord Jesus Christ in the world ; and in so doing they honour the Father alsoa: on this account the Father loves and honours them. We do not mean to intimate, that their graces merit the Divine favour (for " their best righteousnesses are as filthy ragsb"); or that their graces are the spring and source of the Father's love (for God's love was from everlasting0, and was exercised by him in a perfectly free and sovereign manner) : but we say, that their exercise of faith and love is the occasion of God's manifesting his love to them. Abel's offering of a lamb, in token of his dependence on that Lamb of God which was to be slain in due time, was the occasion of God's testifying his acceptance in a visible manner ; and God justified his appa" rent partiality, by declaring this act to have been the ground of the preference he had shewn to Abeld. When Abraham also had offered up his son, God made his faith and obedience the occasion and the ground of manifesting his love to Abraham e. The Scriptures uniformly speak the same language f; nor are we in danger of erring, provided we discriminate between the meritorious ground on which God's favours are secured, and the particular occasion on which his love may be manifested.']
If we believe that any are so distinguished by the Father we cannot but wish to know,
II. The manner in which he displays his love towards them —
We might easily trace this part of our subject in the experience of those to whom the words of the text were immediately addressed ; but, as it is of general importance, we shall rather treat it in a way that is alike applicable to all :
a John v. 23. »> Isai. lxiv. G. ° Jer. xxxi. 3.
d Gen. iv. 4—7. Heb. xi. 4. e Gen. xxii. 1G, 17.
f Ps. xci. 1 1—16.