grace and the Holy Spirit have come to men. Through his care in appointing a ministry and ordaining sacraments, and through his continual oversight of his Church, he causes these to be given individually to

men.

Let us then adore and bless him for his care for us, and ever in the use of all means of grace behold him as the giver. Let us think of His love in having become man for us: for it was an amazing act, and nothing but love unsearchable could have led to it: it is a mystery; but by how much the mystery exceeds our thoughts, by so much more clearly does it proclaim His love. Let us love him then: for "if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema, maranatha." But especially let us contemplate His death. By this, indeed, the mercy of God has been harmonized with his justice, and the problem of man's sinfulness, yet desire after holiness has been solved; yet it was an awful death, and one at which the sun might well be darkened, as if ashamed to behold it; for in it the pure is treated as an evil doer, the innocent dies as a malefactor, life has to endure death, and he who knew no sin to bear all sins; and to us it is more awful, for our sins caused Him to die, and they alone reared His cross and drove the pitiless nails. Shall not his death, then, warn us against grieving him by our perverseness? Shall not his death urge us to mortify our evil members, yea, to die for the Captain of our salvation. Yea, look to that death and cross, if

you would master yourselves. It is His cross that will crucify all sinful affections, teach us meekness, submission, patience, resignation, humility, brotherly love, forgiveness, and kindness to all; will teach us not only to do these new works, so different from the old works. we do by nature; but to labour earnestly to be wholly new men, new creatures; and to preserve our regeneration and renewal; that we may obtain our final salvation, and join in the ever-new song, "Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb."

SERMON II.

GOD'S LOVE A REASON FOR FAITH.

JOHN, III, 16.

God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

"GOD is love," writes St. John, that is, love is one of his attributes or qualities; and, like all his others, is infinite.

If then God have the attribute of love, infinite love, it will make itself known. As David says, " Thou, Lord, art good, and doest good;" so we, taking St. John's expression, may say, Thou, Lord, art love, and wilt show love.

This love was eternally in God; and from the same love, before time began, proceeded the Son and Holy Spirit, as light from fire, co-eternal and co-equal.

In this blessed Trinity love dwelt eternally; and from the same all creatures were made. From love the worlds were made: the worlds of angels, how many

soever they have been, and all worlds. From the same came Adam and all his descendants: the six days of his creation were days when love showed itself; and as love produces no evil, so every thing then made was good. God did not make sin and sorrow, because love could not God made only good; but he made free, that men might yield a reasonable obedience. From this freedom came evil: it was not God's work; it was the undoing of his work: it was the changing of the laws of nature. God's first work was good, must have been good.

Again, when ruin came: ruin brought on by ourselves, not by God, still he loved the world. Love moved him first to create; and now arose an additional reason for love. It was his own world which had been injured; and, therefore, love most strongly urged him to restore it. If God be love, then a resurrection is more likely than a creation, a restoration than a first making. Hence, when the ruin had begun, God, out of love to man, bound himself under a promise, that One, himself to suffer, should bruize Satan's head, and take away his power; With this promise began the sacrifice of animals, foreshowing a suffering Saviour; and through all the midnight darkness of the heathen world this star of hope of some atonement shone, through all the mist of man's misery the sunlight of God's love to a fallen world streamed.

And now let us notice more closely the extent of this love. St. John says in the Text, "God loved the

world." He does not say, many, much less a few, the elect but he uses a wide and general word, and says, "the world." So far was God from only loving the elect, that he loved that which is the opposite to the elect, viz., the world: for so our Lord distinguishes them, when he says to his disciples, "I have chosen, or elected, you out of the world." The very world outside the elect God loved; because he loved all his creatures. It was the world he loved; the same world which St. John describes, when he says, " We," that is, the elect, or Christians," are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness." It was the world, lying in wickedness, and while it lay in wickedness, when darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness the people, when the world was, as it were a chaos, and darkness, moral darkness, was upon the waters, that is, the people, that God loved. The whole he loved, however dark, however sunk in wickedness.

Does the sun shine on all the world? Then God's love is a sun, and it shines on all men. St. Paul says, "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself." St. John says, "He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." St. Paul says, There is one Mediator between God and men," that is, the whole of men. So it was sung at Christmas, “On earth peace, goodwill toward men." So we say in the Nicene Creed, "Who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven." God's love in Christ made no