to the EPHESIANS. .SE R M 0 N XI. E p H E s. 2. 4, 5) 6. 4· 'But God tvho u rich in .;;Mercy, for /,i; great Low wl>erewitl> he lolled 1#, ~. Ewntvhen tve tvere dead in Sinr, hath quick1zed tu together wit!) Chriff; . ( by Grace ye are Jawd) 6. .And hat!> raifed m np together, and made tu fit together i11 ! 1 eawnly places ill [!>rift, Jefiu. · T. HE Apo!lle in the former Verfes having given a full and cxatl: defcriptiorl of Man's Mifery by Nature, and in the fiate of Nature, both by reafon of Sin, and the Wrath of God that is due thereunto ; he begins · . here to fet out the grcatnefs of that Love, and that Mercy in God, which is the caufe and the fountain of our Salvation. And he fets it out (as I fhewed you the lafi Difcourfe,when I ran over the Series ofall thefe three Verfes,) in the mofi taking, and 111ofi advantagious way, and in the greatefi truth. I fhall not reveat what I then delivered. . I came to the expoGtion of the words, and what I fhall now fay will be fome little addition, as I go along, to what then was faid. 'But God, J BeGdes what I faid of this particle, [hut J in the lafi Difcourte, Jonlv add this, indeed as the main thing, That it ferveth to ufher iti, not only a gre;t Turn, the greatefi Turn that e~er was; it cloth not only ufher in the no– tice ofa Remedy to Mtfery, that there" BalmmG1/ead that may be had, becaufe that God is merciful, and thatis his Nature, and that therefore he may be merci· ful to us, and fo that there is hope concerning this thing: But it ulhers in, and gives the intimation of a fore-laid intention in God, of a contrivement and defign before-hand taken up, and fet upon, whereby God had before-hand prevented all the Mifchief, and all the Danger, that was like to arife from the Mifery and Sin which the Elcil: were fallen into. He had bid fuch a de!ign, as all this Mifery and Sinfulncfs, that the eleCt ones had f.1llen into, fhould be fo f.1r from undoing them, that it ll1all but fcrve to fet out that Love the more; and fo the words that follow do evidently !hew: 'But God, for the Love wherewitb he loved tu, and loved us, and chofen us out of love, from everlafiing, and bath fhewed it in ·this,by triumphing over all that Mifer~, that even while we were dead in Sins a11d Treffa.ffis, he bath q11ic~ed 11s, &c. And tt ts a Love, not only whioo Mercy and Pity fl:irs up, after he had feen us thus miferable; but•it is a Love, that having been fo great, and fo long; born tous, and firfi pitch'd on us, that it 1\irrcd up Mercy and Bowels to us m th1s Mtfery; (for fo, tf l'ou mark tt, the words run: God (faith he) who ir rich;, Mere;•, there is his Nature, for hir great Love wherewith he lovedw.) And not only fo, but this Love being feated in a Nature infinitely rich in Grace, and Mercy had confpirccl with Mercy, and contrived the depth of Mifery, to extend that Riches. On them fo great a Love had let it fdf, even to this end, as in the 7tb Verfe, That in Ages to come, be might fbew forth the exceeding Riches of bir Grace, in kjndnefl and love to '"· And thus alfo in Tit. 3· that r bllt J even now mentioned, ullJcrs in upon the like occafion, the like Re– !erve, or Defign before hand laid, to glorify Love and Goodnefs. But when the kindnefs of God, and love to Man appeared, namely, when that Love, taken upby him long before thisSinfulnefs he fpake of in the Verfes before, bath lain :" s hid IJ7
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=