draw, to perform the worship of God in his family; after which he would return again. It is not every one that could have done this. In many it would have appeared a part over-than indemnifies its followers: "Godliness is acted; it would have appeared sanctimoniousness. But where it was a sample, and not an exception; where it was an action of a life, the whole of which corresponded with it, it is easy to conclude what effect it would produce. Even those who affected to ridicule would inwardly venerate; some would be led to reflection; some would be stung with reproach; some would be determined; and some encouraged.

from its dungeon, and reasons itself into light | but refused. This was their first-born, and

and comfort from the words which I have read; "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?"

The words contain two things.

I. A WONDERFUL FACT. II. AN UNDENIABLE

INFERENCE.

the beginning of their strength. The second was named-but refused. He was the living image of the father. The third was namedbut refused. In him the features of the mother breathed. The last was named-but refused. He was their youngest, the child of their old age. And so they consented to starve toI. God "spared not his own Son, but de-gether rather than sacrifice one. What was livered him up for us all." This is THE FACT the severest trial of Abraham's regard for -to which we have well prefixed the term God? Now I know that thou fearest me, WONDERFUL. "For ask now of the days that seeing thou hast not withheld-thy sonare past, which were before thee, since the thine-only son from me." How dignified day that God created man upon the earth, and was God's Son! "For to which of the anask from the one side of heaven unto the gels said he at any time, Thou art my son, other, whether there hath been any such thing this day have I begotten thee? And again, as this great thing is, or hath been heard like I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to it?" me a son? And again, when he bringeth in Various wonders distinguish the works of the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, God. There are marvellous displays of his And let all the angels of God worship him." power, of his wisdom, of his truth, of his holi-How dear was God's Son! The Son of his ness; but the miracle we are now led to contemplate is a miracle of love. Every other perfection is indeed apparent in the dispensation; but hear how the Scripture speaks of it: "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 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." To magnify this goodness, observe,

love; who always did the things that pleased him; in him his soul delighted! Yet he withholds him not!-He "spared not his own Son."

Secondly. Observe the state into which he surrendered him. He "delivered him up."-To what? "Be astonished, O Heavens; and wonder, O Earth!"-To a world that disowned him. "He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not." To a people that ab horred him, though prepared by miracles, and ordinances, and prophecies, to receive him. 'He came to his own, and his own received First: the boon he did not withhold. He him not." To obscurity and indigence. He "spared not his own Son." How many was born in a stable, and laid in a manger; things could you resign before you spared and as he passed through life "he had not a child! Nothing is so strong as paternal where to lay his head." To infamy and affection. A man's wife is himself divided; scorn. He was reviled as a glutton and a a man's child is himself multiplied. How wine-bibber; as a friend of publicans and sinunwilling was Jacob to spare Benjamin, ners; as a madman, as a demoniac, and a though he had many children, and it was rebel: "Reproach," said he, "hath broken only for a season, and to save him alive! my heart." To pain and anguish. "He How unwilling was David to give up even a was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with rebellious Absalom! "Deal gently with the grief." To be betrayed by Judas; to be deyoung man for my sake," said he in his or- nied by Peter; to be forsaken of all his dis ders to Joab; and when he heard of his well- ciples. To Caiaphas-who insulted him; to deserved death, the father vanquished the Herod-who set him at nought; to Pilateman, and the king, if not the saint. "He who condemned him; to the Romans-who went up to the chamber over the gate, and crucified him.-To an agony, that before the wept and as he went, thus he said, O my hand of man had touched him, made him son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! "sweat as it were great drops of blood fallwould God I had died for thee, O Absalom, ing to the ground;" and exclaim, "My soul my son, my son!" In the famine of Sama- is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death-If ria, the woman, by promising to make a simi- it be possible, let this cup pass from me!" lar sacrifice, persuaded her neighbour "to"Behold, and see if ever there was sorrow boil her son:" but when her own turn came, like unto his sorrow. Yet it pleased the "lo, she hid her son!" History mentions a poor family in Germany, who were ready to perish in the time of famine. The husband proposed to the wife to sell one of their children for bread. At length she consents. But-here-here is the difficulty-which of them shall it be? The eldest was named

Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. The Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all." Surely here is love for which we want a name! Especially when we remark,

Thirdly, the persons for whose advantage he was given." He delivered him up"-for

whom? For us. And who are we? Not | liberality. He will freely give us "all angels; but men. Not men only; but sin- things." It intends whatever is needful to ners. Not sinners humbled under a sense our salvation and welfare: pardon, to remove of our misery, and applying for mercy; but sinners regardless of their deliverance, and abusing the Divine goodness: "herein God hath commended his love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." To love our parents and our children is natural. To love our friends is just and grateful. To do good to strangers is humane. To relieve the poor and needy is kind and generous. But to love our enemies, to do good to them that hate us and injure us, is divine. It is not only commanded by God, but exemplified in the highest degree-in all its perfection.

And not for a few of these rebels, but for many; not for Jews only, but for Gentiles also; not for persons of one condition and character, but of every condition and character; not for some who seek him, but for all: under whatever discouragements they may labour. Such was the indefinite and unlimited message of the angel to the shepherds: "Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people." And such is the extension of the Apostle: "He' spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all."

II. Let us examine THE INFERENCE to be drawn from the fact we have explained. Shall "he not with him also freely give us all things?" Here it may be necessary to remark,

First: The way in which he communicates his favours. He gives them freely. And were it not for this, we could have no hope for we are not worthy of the least of all his mercies. But if we are not worthy, we are welcome. If we find ourselves without money, we are called to buy without price. If the blessings are great, they are equally gracious: and we are invited to come and "take of the water of life freely."

our guilt; strength, to aid us in the performance of duty; consolation in distress; guidance in perplexity; "a land flowing with milk and honey" beyond Jordan, and supplies for the wilderness on this side of it. It provides for soul and body. For time and eternity. "The Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. The young lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing." The grant has only one limitation-the goodness of the things conferred: of this, God only is the judge; and therefore with him the determination must be left.

Thirdly. The reasonableness of our most enlarged expectation. "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" The conclusion is not only undeniable, but so simple and obvious, that it seems needless to enlarge; otherwise we might observe, that the force of the reasoning lies in this: That he was designed to prepare the way for all the blessings we need; that he is superior to them all; and that they are all really in him.

He was designed to prepare the way for the communication of all the blessings we need. Sin had stopped the effusion of the divine goodness, and forbidden God to hold communion with man. But he "devised means that his banished should not be expelled from him." He furnished the sacrifice he required. "He sent his own Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved." He came to remove every obstruction, and to render the exercise of divine favour consistent with the honour of divine government. And is not this a powerful consideration, that now, if we go to God, there is nothing to hinder his mercy; nothing even in his truth, nothing even in his righteousness, nothing even in his law, to restrain him from reliev ing and blessing the guilty? Yea, that he can relieve and bless us in a way even glorious to all his perfections; that he can be even "faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness?"

Adam could not have merited in Paradise. Angels do not merit in heaven-their obedience is due; and duty can never be meritorious. How well, therefore, does it become sinful creatures like us, to acknowledge, when we have done all, “that we are unprofitable servants;" and have done no more than was our duty to do! And how have we done this? By a power not our own; and He is superior to every other blessing. with numberless imperfections that deserve You are sometimes dismayed at the thought condemnation father than reward. With of your demerit: but if your demerit restrainwhat indignation did Peter speak to Simon ed the Divine goodness, the Saviour would Magus, who supposed the gift of the Holy Ghost was to be purchased with money! Are any of you endeavouring to buy what you ought to beg? Repent of this thy wickedness, and pray to God, if haply the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee."

Secondly. Observe the extent of his

never have appeared. You are sometimes dismayed at the greatness of the blessing you ask: but if the greatness of the blessing restrained the Divine goodness, he would have denied giving his own Son. If a man had sacrificed for you his own and his only son, you could hardly think he would withhold

Are we not constrained to admire the Supreme Being? Can we survey the dispensation we have reviewed, and not acknow-of your feet; he could possess you with an ledge that he well deserves the name of "the abundance of this world's goods; he could Father of mercies, the God of all grace?"free you from bodily pain, and retain your Can we think of it, and not exclaim, "Is this the manner of man, O Lord God!" No. We have heard of benefactors; but they all shrink into nothing from a comparison with him. "God is love."

First. It should inspire you with encouragement. Never entertain any harsh and gloomy notions of God when you go to him but remember, that you are going to address a Being whose heart is set upon your welfare; a Being who, after all that you have done, waits to be gracious; a Being who says, "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abun-convince you, that "in this war there is no

discharge ;" and, lifting up your eyes to heaven, you would sigh, and say, "I know that thou wilt bring me to death; and to the house appointed for all living." But it would be otherwise if he should recommend a preparation for it. This would be wise; this is necessary.

The same may be said with regard to affliction. 66 Although affliction cometh not forth of the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground; yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upwards." No expedient has yet been discovered as a preservative from calamity. Power, wealth, honour, learning, prudence, morality, have all been unable to find a pathway through life free from sorrow. And religion, even the religion of the Bible, does not promise us security; yea, it asserts that "many are the afflictions of the righteous."

wilt." Yea, so far is this very subjection from excluding sensibility, that it necessarily requires it. There is no virtue in the senselessness of a stone. There is no patience, no resignation in bearing what we do not feel. If you do not prize what you give up at the call of God, there can be no value in your obedience.

But it is the repression of every thing rebellious-in our carriage-in our speechand in the temper of our minds.

Every thing rebellious in carriage. It is said of Ahaz, that, in his affliction, "he sinned yet more against God." Jeremiah complains of the Jews; "Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return." There are some who repair to But if there is no exemption from trouble, worldly company and dissipation to banish there is a preparation for it. And since it is all sense of sorrow; like those in Isaiah, impossible for us to escape suffering, it is of who said, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morhigh importance to know how we may en- row we die." Many, under the grasp of Produre it so as never to be injured by it-and vidence, do not ask for release, but strugalways to derive advantage from it. Our gle to get free; and have recourse to any case is truly alarming, when even medicine unhallowed means to deliver themselves.is administered in vain. It is bad, says Bishop This is wrong. Trouble is in Scripture Hopkins, to lose the lives of our friends, but compared to a prison: and you are not to atit is worse to lose their deaths. It is a se-tempt to burn down the house, or to force rious thing, says Henry, to lose a calamity. And we ought, says Owen, as much to pray for a blessing upon our daily rod, as upon our daily bread.

How ought we then to suffer? The Apostle tells us. For, speaking unto us as unto children, he says, "Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness." Let us consider two things.

I. THE DUTY OF AFFLICTION.-II. THE

REASONS BY WHICH IT IS ENFORCED.

I. THE DUTY is subjection. "Shall we not be in subjection?" This is not opposed to insensibility. To be insensible under affliction is not only unnatural, but immoral; and subverts the very purpose of the dispensation. Health and happiness, pleasure and pain, the life or death of our connexions, are not to be absolutely indifferent to us, we are allowed a preference with submission. We see this exemplified in the Son of God himself. "Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour-I would, if it were allowable-But for this cause came I unto this hour." With strong cryings and tears he prayed: and you may say as he did, "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me," if you add as he did, "Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou

open the door, or to escape by the windowbut if you see him passing by who placed you there, you may address him as one did before you: "Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name; the righteous shall compass me about: for thou shalt deal bountifully with me."

99

Every thing rebellious in speech. Aaron, under the loss of his sons, "held his peace.' So did David under sickness of body; "I was dumb, I opened not my mouth, because thou didst it." Job was so fearful of offending, that he determined to be silent: "Behold, I am vile: what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken: but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further." An example which Solomon recommends to our imitation, when he says, "If thou hast thought evil, lay thy hand upon thy mouth;" endeavour to check it: for though it be bad to feel it, it is worse to express it; it dishonours God more, and scandalizes others more. “ In a multitude of words there wanteth not sin;" and there is such peculiar danger when we suffer, that it is necessary to pray continually, "Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips."

Every thing rebellious in the temper of the mind. For the Lord looketh to the heart, and if this be full of impatience and resentment, though we may do nothing and say nothing amiss, we are refractory; and though men may applaud us, God will condemn us. But we should always distinguish between a