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dinances. On this account the subject may be viewed as not unsuitable to our present work, and as highly encouraging in our present prospects. It will be so, if we are the true Israel in spirit, who worship God, who rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.

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3. THE peculiar privilege granted to the church, the divine presence. It is twice asserted in the context, that Jehovah, the mighty God, the King of Israel, is in the midst of her. He had formerly left Israel on account of their sin, and delivered them into the hand of their enemies to be chastised; now he returns to them in mercy, makes his habitation with them, and manages the great work of their salvation. His church is his rest, his delightful habitation, and in her his divine perfections are gloriously displayed, in carrying on her salvation. He has promised his gracious presence to his people in all his ordinances. "In all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee." He announces an extensive work to be done for his people, and he must be pre sent to have it executed.

Love is the grand originat

4. THE ground on which God proceeds in dealing thus with his church and people; His love to them. He will rest in his love." ing source of all that goodness, and of all these favours which Jehovah confers upon his people. They are objects most unworthy of his regard, possessing no amiable or attractive quality, but in every point of view, loathsome and forbidding. The manifestations of this love are principally intended in the text. These are sometimes suspended, while the principle in the heart of God is the same. The words yield us this comfort

able doctrine,

IT is the distinguishing privilege of believers to have Jehovah their God in the midst of them, resting in his love, and displaying it in their salvation. In the farther prosecution of this subject I shall observe the following arrangement.

I. ENQUIRE a little into the nature of the love of God to his people.

II. SHOW what may be implied in God's "resting in his love."

III. MAKE some practical improvement of the subject. OUR first work then is to enquire a little into the nature of the love of God to his people.

THE oracles of truth do not afford a subject more instructive and consolatory, or better calculated to excite wonder and to influence gratitude, than the love of God to perishing sinners. It sheds a beautiful lustre on every divine perfection as displayed in the work of their salvation; draws a veil over all their sin and deformity, and is the inexhaustible source of every blessing. It is, however, one of the deep things of God, into which it becomes us to look with reverence. It should be our great aim, in contemplating this sublime theme, to be transformed into love, that we may dwell in God, and God in us, in the happiest fellowship.

1. It is the love of three divine persons. In its primary consideration, it is a divine perfection, equally essential to God as wisdom, power, justice. Were it not so, he would be incapable of loving any object, even himself. "God is love." 1 John iv. 16. In this sense it is to be considered as uniformly ONE, as the divine nature to which it belongs is ONE, and as common to all the three persons. But of this love, as a perfection of the divine nature, we may justly say, we know nothing.

At present, we are considering this love in its operation towards sinners, by these divine persons, in the economy of salvation. Its existence in the divine mind is essential, but its operation and manifestation to sinners are personal, and as distinct as these divine persons, by whom it is acted, are distinct. The Father, Son, and Spirit, exercise love, towards sinners, by distinct personal acts; that is, this love is displayed in one way by the Father, in another, by the Son, and so also by the Spirit. At the head of the economical scheme, and as sustaining the rights of Deity, the Father is represented as chusing from among sinners an election of grace, in free and sovereign love, to be redeemed from sin, and eternally saved by a Mediator. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him might not perish, but have everlasting life." John iii. 16. The Son manifested his love to the same objects by engaging in the work of their redemption, as a Surety-Mediator, to atone for their sin, and bring them to glory. "As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you." John xv. 9. "He loved the church, and gave himself for it." Eph. V. 25. Little is expressly said about the love of the Spirit; yet from the peculiar part which he acts, his love is displayed in a very singular manner. He sustains the characters of Sanctifier and Comforter, and in executing the work belonging to these characters, he conveys all the fruits of divine love. As a powerful inducement to the Christians at Rome to unite their sup.. plications to God, in behalf of the Apostle, he connects the love of the Spirit with the Lord Jesus Christ. Rom. xv. 30. By him the love of God is shed abroad in the hearts of believers, in virtue of which they love him.

THE emphatical phraseology of the beloved disciple, on this head, merits our attention. "And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." 1 John iv. 16. The very nature of God is love and goodness. This love in the heart of God embraces the sinner; it fixes upon him, and adheres to him. It is not stronger and weaker, as among men, nor is it a succession of different acts in the heart of God, as in us, but it is one uniform continued act. In the manifestations of it, in its fruits, and in the sense which believers have of it at different times, and in different circumstances, there is a considerable variation. That fellowship which they have with God, in which he dwelleth in them, and they in him, in love, is sometimes more intimate, and at other times less so; while in him love to them is the same. Though these divine persons are distinct in their personal operations, yet they are one in the principle from which they act, which leads them to co-operate in every part of the work of salvation; in consequence of which it will be be infallibly carried on and completed. Eternal life to the elect is the end of this love, and it will influence all divine operations leading to that end, until it is fully accomplished.

2. THE love of God is self-moving. In all the divine operations God acts upon grounds and reasons taken from himself, but in no case taken from the creatures. To display his perfections is the sole considera. tion from which he acts, though certain circumstances, in the situation of his creatures, may afford an occasion for such displays. This must appear strikingly evident to every attentive mind, in the manifestation of divine love to sinners. When God had made man at first he

approved of him, and esteemed him, as the excellent work of his own hand; and had he continued in this state he would have remained the same object of approbation and love. But his beauty is now defaced, his glory has faded, and the crown has fallen from his head, because he has sinned. He has dishonoured and offended his Maker, and hath forfeited all claim to his favour. In such a state there is nothing in him that can attach the heart of God to him. Every view of him that can be taken is displeasing and disgusting. He is a loathsome polluted sinner, an obdurate disobedient rebel; dead in sin, and an enemy to God in his mind and by wicked works. Beauty and excellence procure attachment and esteem among men. In the sinner God can discern no such qualities. His nature wholly depraved by sin, and his conduct influenced by it, are abhorred by God. Unless, then, sin and moral deformity attract the love of God, there is nothing else in the sinner to do it. But these his soul hateth. God loves himself, as possessing infinite excellence, and he loves his law, which is a transcript of that excellence; he must therefore hate the deformed sinner, because his carnal mind is enmity against him, and cannot be subject to his law. The wretched condition of the sinner cannot be considered as moving the divine love and compassion: on such a supposition every sinner among men and devils, would have an equal claim, and would finally be saved. Every sinner is under condemnation, and God may justly execute the sentence; but if he reverse it, it can only be by an act of grace.

THE Scriptures uniformly resolve this love into the sovereign pleasure of God, and deny it to have any cause in the sinful object. In discussing the subject of election and reprobation, Paul resolves it into the will

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