this subject, to consider what is meant by God's giving his only-begotten Son; to enquire in what sense, in what way, to what end did He give Him? By comparing the language of the text with the passage I have quoted from St. John, we shall see that God's giving his only-begotten Son was the same thing with his sending him into the world. When the Son of God became incarnate; when the Word was made flesh; when He who lay in the bosom of the Father, and was in the form of God, laid aside his glory, and took on Him the form of a Man; when He thus became Emmanuel, God with us, God in our nature-then God gave his onlybegotten Son. He gave him as a ransom, a sacrifice, a propitiation for the world. For in thus giving Him to become incarnate, He gave Him up to all the consequences, which that incarnation entailed. Consider what

these were. He gave Him up to all the infirmities, trials, and temptations, to which our fallen nature is exposed-gave Him up to a life of trouble, affliction, and persecution to be opposed and contradicted by sinners; to be reviled and insulted; to be beaten and spit upon-gave Him into the hands of his enemies; left Him, as it were for a season, in the power of Men and Devils, to endure all the sufferings which their utmost fury and malice could inflict

upon Him-gave Him up to death, even the death of the Cross; that most painful and ignominious of all deaths-gave His soul an offering for sin, to be wounded for our transgressions, to be bruised for our iniquities, to experience inward agony, darkness, dismay, and all those unspeakable horrors, which, as the Surety and Substitute of Sinners, He was required to undergo. This is what is meant by God's giving his Son. And when, for the sake of the world, this wicked and rebellious world of sinners, He thus gave His Son, his only-begotten Son, his dearly-beloved Son, surely we may form some faint conceptions at least, how exquisitely, how tenderly, he loved the world!

Let us now proceed to the Third Truth suggested in the text. This may be considered as the application of the preceding Two. "God loved the world, and gave His Son" and why? "That whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life."-The end for which God thus gave His Son was that we through Him might be saved. In considering this Truth there are two things to be noticed.

I. The Way in which Salvation is here described.

II. The Persons to whom it is limited.
I. The Way in which Salvation is here

described is two-fold, negatively, and positively; showing what shall not happen to those that are saved, and what shall happen to them. In other words, we are here reminded of the misery from which Salvation will deliver us; and of the blessedness to which it will exalt us: and in the review of these points we shall obtain still further discoveries of the Love of God to Man.

Salvation delivers us from the wrath to come. They who are saved" shall not perish." To perish is to die; but not simply to die, not to die a natural death: not to die once for all and to be reduced to nothing, to have no more sense or life, or feeling for ever. No: to perish or die, in the meaning of the text, signifies to die eternally; to endure the bitter pains of eternal death; in other words, to be "driven with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power;" for ever to be deprived of his favour; to be shut up under his wrath; to be cast into hell-fire, where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. This is the second Death; that death which is the wages of Sin; that death, to which all men have subjected themselves; for all have sinned.

This is to perish: and thus to perish is the natural, the necessary consequence of rebellion against God.-But to deliver us

from this death is one part of the Salvation provided for us. They who are saved, shall not thus perish. This was one part of that merciful design with which God gave his only-begotten Son, namely, to rescue and redeem us from eternal misery. The sufferings and death of Him who was God as well as Man, were a sacrifice for sin, which God was pleased to accept in the stead of those sufferings and of that death, which sinners had deserved, and were condemned themselves to undergo. Thus by his stripes we are healed. By his death we live.- How great was the Love of God to the world, in that He was disposed at such a price to redeem mankind from the pains of hell!

But this was only a part of His gracious

purpose.

He had a further object in view. He designed, in giving his only-begotten Son, not only to deliver men from wrath, but to restore them to favour: not only to redeem them from hell, but to exalt them to heaven. They who are saved, not only "shall not perish, but shall have everlasting life." And who can comprehend what this expression means? When indeed we read that "God hath given to us eternal life,' and that this life is in His Son," we can understand, that in giving His only-begotten Son, God in virtue of his mediation, in consideration of his perfect obedience unto

death has restored to us a title to eternal life, and has opened to us again the door of the kingdom of heaven. But who can understand, who can conceive, what that life implies, what that kingdom contains? To live for ever in peace, and happiness, and glory; to know God, to see Him, to serve Him, to dwell in His presence, to taste of His pleasures; to be for ever freed from every thing which is painful and evil, from trouble, sickness, and sin; to have all tears wiped away from our eyes; to put on a glorious immortality; to enter on an unfading inheritance; to be crowned with an eternal weight of glory-these are some few of the expressions used in Scripture to convey an idea of what Heaven is, of what those joys are, concerning which it is after all declared, that "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard them, neither have they entered into the heart of man." * Yet to bring us to this heaven, to put us into possession of of those joys, was the other part of that rich, that merciful design, for which God gave His only-begotten Son. How great, how deep, how exquisite must be His Love to man, which led Him to plan, to provide, and to complete by such means such a Salvation for them! But we notice,

Secondly, The Persons to whom this sal* 1 Cor. ii. 9.