1 94 An Expojition of the EpijUe ---- ---- s '""W take that, l do not value Grace not Comfort, nor Creatures, take all fi·eely even ~~ as you had my Son. If he JPared not hi< Son faith he, how fba/1 he 11ot with him · alfo freely give 111 all things? He bath gtven the greatefi Pawn of his Love (in giving us his Son) that ever was. Take another Scripture, in I Job. 3· 16. Hereby perceiv• we th' Love ofGed, becaufe he laid down hit Lift for tu. Do but confider whole Life it was that was laid down. The Apofile greatens this Love, from the Perfon,the owner ofthis Life. Was it the Life of Men? Alas! what is the Lives of Men? they are but as the Lives ofGnats and Flies; fuch as came out of nothing but the other day:" no, but this is the life ofGod. The life which God,dwelling_ m a human Nature bath, and IS due to that human Nature, God dwelling there; the Apofile puts anEmphalis upon that, that it was the life ofGod, and his own life, and fo <J&ar to God in the proportion ofit, as the lives of Creatures are in thetr feveral 'Oegrees of Excellency and Happinefs they enjoy, to each of them. The life of a Man, is more dear to aMan, thanofa Beafi, to a Beafi: of a Fly, roaFly. AndamongMen; ofaKmg, toaKmg, thanofanordinaryMan,to H1mfelf: Becaufe he bath more of an outward Lift and Happineji to lofe. And look bow much reafon, God bath to love his ownLife,more than Men their own· By fo much was it greater love in God, to lay down that life; a life fo dear t~ him, that none knew how to value thislife ofGod, but God himlelf, and Jefus Chrifi, who is God, and dwelt in that human Nature. All this (my Brethren) God did, when he could have faved the World other– wife too, (let me put that in) and this when :ill our Lives, and all the Glory he !hall have from us, is not worth that Life, that Glory ofCbrifi,tbat was debafed. And yet God, he found a fweet fmelling favour in it, he did fo heartily and freely offer him up.. The ttuth is, this love cannot be fet out,unlefs God lhed it abroad in the Heart ofa Man, by the Holy Ghofi, who knows ·the Heart of God, and knows the valuation of this Gift ; and who·by his Report of it, takes the Heart with it: all the Difcourfes in the World, otherwifewill do a Man no good. And fo much now for that Head likewife, the greatne!S of this lo¥e, that we are qHicft: >~ed together with Chrifl, and fo he mufi die, and then be quickned, before we could be quickned ; We are q11icftned together with him, faith he. Now I come to the next Words, the third thing here in this verfe, and that is this, By Graceye are faved. The Apofil~ brings this in, as an Inference from both the other, that 7llhen we were dead in Sins andTreJP•JJet, Goddid then q11ickgnm together with Chrift: and he brings it in, by way of Parenthefis, as fettillg a mark on it, as making it that thing he would have them, as the refult of all, obf~rve and carry in their Eye. Three things are to be conlidered in it. I. The manner ofhis bringingofit in, 2. The occafion. 3· The matter it felf. All thefe are worthy our obfervation, and will afford Obfervations to us. I !hall handle the fecond, viz. the occalion !aft of all. I. For the manner ofhis bringing of it in. He brings it in here abruptly, andin _!he midfi of a Sentence, before he had made an end of ennumerating the Benefits we have in and by Chrifi. And he re– peats it again in the 8thverfe, in fo many Words: Jnfomuch as fomc hav7 thought that it did creep into the Cop~,by the additionoffome Writer,and tha~ It wasnot the Apof1les own. But far be 1t from us to thmk fo; for by faymg this of whole Sentences, aud efpecially of fo rich Sentences as this is, is to open a gap for all He· refy, and to make ofthe Scriptures what they pleafe, ·ond to bave no Foundauon .for our Faith therein; for the like exception maybe made of any. But my Brethren;
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