It" these provisions have failed in producing the blessedness for which they were designed, that, as we shall see presently, makes no difference in the design of God, or in the real character of all the Divine perfections. They all had one object in view, and all were exercised for one end; and all, if justly viewed, were love — love in the first conceptions ; and love operating for the happiness of all, in whose behalf those con- ceptions had been formed, and those powers had been called forth into activity.]
We will yet further trace the same blessed character,
II. In the dispensations of his grace —
Hitherto we have seen God as shewing kindness to his creatures in a state of innocence : but now We must contemplate him as acting towards them in their fallen state. And, O ! what love will now be opened to our view ! View him in,
1. The gift of his only-begotten Son —
[When all the purposes of his grace towards us had been frustrated by man's transgression, what, O ! what did lore suggest for our recovery? " He sent his only-begotten Son into the world, to stand in our place and stead;" and to " die," he " the just, for us the unjust," that he might restore us to God, in a way consistent with all the perfections of the Deity. This wonderful act is, in the former part of this chapter, traced to the very source of which we speak : " In this was manifested the love of God towards us, because that God sent his only- begotten Son 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." Our blessed Lord also teaches us to regard the love of God as the one source of this unspeakable gifta: and St. Paul speaks of Jehovah himself referring to it, as the most stupendous display of his love that ever was, or ever could be, exhibited to fallen man : " God commendeth his love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for usb."]
2. The gift of his Holy Spirit also —
[In vain would Christ himself have died for us, if the Holy Spirit also had not come down to reveal that Saviour to us, and, by the mighty working of his power, to draw us to him. But shall this be wanting to us? No: the very same love which sent the Lord Jesus Christ into the world to redeem
* John iii. 10. b Rom. v. 8.