pare spirit, but by the use of matter; and thus by the eye of God we learn his wisdom, by his arm his power, by his heart his love. The other reason is inseparably connected with the designs of his grace in Jesus, Immanuel, God with us; in whom, and by whom, through the mirror and attributes of our nature, which he hath assumed, we behold the most astonishing display of the wisdom, power, truth, and love of God! All the fulness of the Godhead dwelleth in him bodily; and he is, in himself, and to us, the image of the invisible God. It is worthy of your attention that John, by our text, does not assert that God is loving, nor that he is lovely; though these are precious truths, and to be learned from many other parts of Scripture. But he announces the essential, underived nature of God to be LOVE, and to this view only our present meditations are to be confined. LOVE constitutes the essential, underived, and eternal blessedness of God; he is therefore styled the everblessed God. No truth is more evident than that the passion of love in the human breast, in its gratification of desired objects, creates felicity. To which also we may add, that self-love is the dictate of the pure law of God to man; but from the extreme corruption of the passions in the human soul by sin, man knows very little indeed what pure self-love means. If this passion was unalloyed, it would make him as a rational creature, so far happy in himself. But the case is the reverse, so much so, that although love be the most sensible of all the passions, it is at the same time the most difficult to define or to explain. Some poets, therefore, have represented love as blind. In God it is the reverse. Love in God takes not its rise from any of the celestial or human productions of his hand. It is self-existent, increased Q nor diminished by the condition of any creatures in heayen or in earth. His eternal love is in harmony with the inconceivableness of his nature, and with the perfec tion of his holiness; of course it is from this self-existent fountain that all the purposes and counsels of Jehovah proceed, relative to the operations of his hand, to his numberless rational creatures, human and angelic. The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, and the thoughts of his heart to all generations. While, therefore, it is with great imperfection of knowledge we can explore the fountain of love in God, we are certain as that constitutes the blessedness of Jehovah, so, from thence flow those streams of blessedness which constitute the felicity and glory of his intelligent creatures. To guard against a misapplication of this subject, it is of the highest consequence we assert, that although the love of God constitutes his own essential blessedness, it is in perfect unison with the veracity of his word, and with the inflexibility of his justice; so that no mortal may with impunity trespass upon the love and beneficence of God. This, however, is too frequently the case, by many unguarded and sinful human beings, to the hardening of their hearts in sin, and their everlasting confusion. Let us conclude from these observations, that God, who is love, essentially and underived, while he is himself the centre of his own blessedness and felicity, and is the fountain of all goodness and happiness to his people, is a divine object of the highest perfection and grandeur, justly claiming the most ardent praises of all in heaven and of all on earth. With the Bible in our hand, while we believe in the unity of the divine nature, that God is One, we are also instructed that God is revealed in the three characters or relations of FATHER, SON, and SPIRIT, for the august display of the divine attributes in the redemption of sinners. In each, with each, and to each of those persons or characters, there is existing, and is most divinely displayed, that affection, delight and glory, which leads us to take the text as appropriate to each severally, and to the whole personally, in the union of the divine essence, God is love. Thus, there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Spirit; and these three are one; one in nature, in counsel, in grace, and in everlasting love. The Father loveth the Son, who is emphatically styled, the Beloved. The Son testified his love to the Father in obedience to his will, to his law, and to all the sufferings which were allotted him as Mediator and our Redeemer; that, said he, the world may know that I love the Father. And it is equally true that the love of the Spirit was with the Fa ther and the Son, by his holy operations upon the Son, and the communications of grace to his people to bring them to glory. While, therefore, the displays of grace evince the glory of God in the salvation of men, every part of that salvation, in its plan, operation, execution, and completion, declares the unity and preciousness of that eternal love which subsisted between Jehovah the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. "Owondrous love-O love to be ador'd"— It is necessary for us to inquire into some of the proper. ties of the love of God. Certainly we must say, as there can be no cause for this arising from the creature, but existing in God only, it must be everlasting love. And God can love with no other than what consists with his own nature. It is immutable and invariable, whom he loveth, he loveth unto the end; he resteth in his love; and, like himself, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever; I am the Lord, I change not. Although I did not intend in this discourse to take notice of the rich and inexhaustible expressions of God's love in the person, gift, sufferings, death, and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ; yet the meditation of the essential nature of God, as love, should create in us the most sublime reverence and adoration of his eternal Majesty. If a sip at the streams of love should exhilarate our joy; surely an approach to the fountain should afford us greater pleasure. As I feel myself incompetent to offer any thing farther at present, sentimentally, upon the subject of the essential nature of God, as love, I shall conclude by a few addresses. 1. Those of you, my fellow-sinners, who live in a course of rebellion against God, should seriously reflect that you are perpetually sinning against a GOD OF LOVE. This should wound your conscience most sensibly, and produce tears of contrition. Yes, against the goodness, beneficence, and love of God, all your crimes are commit ted. Ah, how cursed that enmity which lodges in your heart, and which you express in numberless ways by your words and sinful actions against the God of love! This, surely, must enhance the magnitude of your crimes, and leave you without excuse, and justly self-condemned. I pray these reflections may be the mean of overcoming your rebellious hearts, and lead you, with deep contrition, for mercy to the God of sovereign love! 2. It is a possible case for conscious sinners to remain long in conflict with the guilt, hardness, and unbelief of their hearts, without obtaining relief. If this is your case, remember my present subject is to you of the greatest importance. He that cometh to God, must believe that he is that he is such a God as he hath revealed himself to be; a God of love. This conviction will soften your heart, and encourage your hope. And, until you attain this persuasion, there is nothing to aid your steps in peace. Look for a moment on Jesus, the gift of the Father's love; visit Gathsemane's garden, and mark the tears, the sweat, the blood, and the agonies of the Son of God! ascend mount Calvary, and there see Jesus on the cross, clothed in a vesture dipt in his own blood, and his soul making an offering for sin under the inconceivable displays of vindictive justice! For whom?-For sinners -for the vilest of the vile. All, all to prove and to illustrate the truth of my text; that God is love. O that some heavenly ray of this eternal love may fall upon your hearts, and lead you with joy to embrace Jesus as your beloved Saviour and your dearest friend!!! 3. Those of you who are placed in the family of grace, should more frequently dwell upon the love of God in your meditations.. The history of your conversion; your introduction to the courts of Zion; the numberless communications of power, truth, peace, joy, and deliverance, under all the changes of your lives; these unite with the testimony of Scripture, and create in your souls a solid and lively assurance, that God is love. From the fountain of his love you derive all the blessedness of your souls; and it is from the same source all your future supplies must be obtained. You are not ignorant of the Scripture maxim, We love him because he first loved Who can but love that feels the presence of a God of love? Go on, then, in the discharge of every duty, to 248. |