1 John iv. 9, 10. In this was manifested the love of God toward, us, because that God sent his only-begotten Soti into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the ■propitiation for our sins.
OF all the endearing characters that are given us of God, that by which he is designated in the words immediately preceding our text, is the most compre- hensive and most glorious ; " God is love." It might seem indeed that this appellation but ill-accorded with the sterner attribute of justice : but in the execution
of his wrath against impenitent transgressors, his love to the whole creation appears, no less than in his dispensations of grace and mercy to the penitent : even as the love of a judge towards the whole com- munity appears in condemning a murderer, as much as in protecting the weak, or acquitting the innocent. There is however one exercise of his love which infi- nitely exceeds all others ; and that is, the gift of his only-begotten Son to die for us. This is the subject set before us in the text, and which the return of this day8 calls more especially to our remembrance.
Let us consider,
I. The love of God as it is here exhibited —
Instead of entering at large into the subject of our Saviour's incarnation, we shall confine ourselves strictly to the consideration of the Father's love in the different steps of it, as mentioned in the text. How astonishing is it,
1. That he should desire the restoration of our
souls to life !
[Why should he ever entertain such a thought as this? Could we profit him at all ? or would he suffer any loss by leaving us to perish? If he chose to have human beings to behold and participate his glory, could he not in an instant call forth millions into existence, and communicate to them the blessings we had forfeited? Had he determined that we should never fall, and that he would impose on us a necessity to continue in our primeval state, we should have the less wondered at his love : but that he should foresee our fall, and yet determine to restore us ; that he should behold us actually fallen, and yet pity us ; that, when our first parents fled from him, he should follow them with invitations to accept of mercy; and that, when they shifted off all blame from themselves, and cast it eventually even upon God himself, he should still retain his desire to save them ; how amazing was this love ! Had he proposed only to remit their punishment, and to blot out their existence, this had been a wonderful act of love : but to desire the restoration of such creatures to his favour, that they might live with him in glory for evermore, is truly such an exhibition of love, as far surpasses the utmost stretch of our conceptions. How differently did he act towards the angels,
a Christmas-day.