reference to the favours conferred on him, " Is this the manner of men, O Lord God" ?" No ; it is not the manner of men ; nor ought it to be : because man has a claim on his fellow-man ; but we have no claim whatever on God. He might have left us to perish, precisely as he did the fallen angels, and never have saved so much as one : and, if he have saved one, that person has reason to exclaim with wonder, ' Why have I been taken, whilst so many others have been left V God, in all this mat- ter, does as it pleaseth him; and " he giveth not account to us of any of his matters :" " His ways are not as our ways, nor his thoughts as our thoughts : but as the heavens are high above the earth, so are his ways higher than our ways, and his thoughts than our thoughts0."]
3. How utterly incomprehensible !
[So the Apostle declares the love of Christ to be : it has " a breadth, and length, and depth, and height, that passeth knowledge p," and defies the search of the brightest intelligence of heaven. To all eternity will the wonders of this grace be unfolding ; and to all eternity will it remain as far from being fully comprehended, as it was at the very first moment it was revealed. Indeed, we must comprehend the infinite distance between the glorious Creator and his rebellious creatures ; and then go on yet further, to comprehend all the wonders of redemption, before we can comprehend the smallest portion of this mystery. We must close our meditations, after all, with that with which we have commenced them : " What manner of love is this which the Father hath bestowed upon us !"]
" Behold" then, brethren, " behold" it : " Behold"
it, I say,
1. With due solicitude to ascertain the fact —
[God has bestowed this favour upon millions : but hath he bestowed it upon us ? In this inquiry we are deeply interested : nor should anyone of us leave it as a matter of doubt for one single hour. But you will ask, ' Can this point be ascertained V By the world around us, I readily acknowledge, it cannot be ascertained : and, if we profess to have been brought into this relation to God, we must not wonder that the world ascribe our pretensions to the workings of pride and presumption. For they know nothing of God, or of his operations upon the souls of men: how, therefore, should they be able to judge of our claims in this matter ? The Apostle, in the words follow- ing my text, justly adds, " Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not." But we may ascertain the point ourselves ; for we have a standard by which to try
n 2 Sam. vii. 19. ° Isai. lv. 8,9. p Eph. iii. 18. 19.
e e2
l JOHN, III. l. [2441.
ourselves; and we may examine ourselves by it without any difficulty. St. John elsewhere says, " To as many as re- ceived aim, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name; who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of Godq." Here are the very illations of which we are speak- ing, and the means by which we are brought into it, and the test whereby we are to try ourselves. Inquire, then, whether you have ever " received the Lord Jesus Christ " into your hearts by faith, and whether you are " living altogether by
faith on him?" If you have never come to Christ as
lost sinners, and cast yourselves wholly upon him, you know infallibly that you are not yet brought into this relation of " sons of God." But if Christ be " all your salvation and all your desire," then you possess this high privilege ; for " we are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus r:" and, if you look up to God for the gift of his Holy Spirit, he will shine upon his own work, and " give you his Spirit, to witness with your spirits, that you are indeed the children of Gods." Again then I say, Leave not this matter in suspense ; but " examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith, and try your own selves : and never rest, till you can adopt the words of our text with a special reference to your own souls.]