DISCOURSE XVII.

UPON

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.

THE three first topics from whence I undertook to prove the goodness of God, I have already handled on another text, and shewed,

1. From his nature,

2. From his creation, and

3. From his providence, that he is infinitely good. I proceed now to the fourth and last, viz. from principles of revelation; the main of which is comprehended in the text, God so loved the world, &c.

It is indeed a most glorious instance of the goodness of God, that when he had imprinted his laws upon our nature in such legible characters, and given them such apparent sanctions in the nature of things; having made such a sensible distinction between moral good and evil, by those natural good and evil consequents which he hath inseparably entailed on them; and when mankind, by their wilful wickedness and inadvertency, had almost obliterated the law of their nature, and extinguished their natural sense of good and evil, and immersed themselves in the most barbarous impieties and immoralities : notwithstanding all this that he had done for us, and we against ourselves, he should still be so kind

and compassionate as to put forth a new edition of his laws, and reveal his will anew to us in such an extraordinary manner; that when he had implanted a light in our natures, that was sufficient to have directed us into the several paths of our duty, and we, by our own neglect and abuse of it, had almost extinguished this candle of the Lord in us, and consequently involved ourselves in midnight darkness and ignorance, he should then be so compassionate as to hang out a light from heaven to us, to rectify our wanderings, and guide our feet in the paths we should walk in, was such a glorious expression of his goodness, as for ever deserves our most thankful acknowledgments. But then, that he should not only reveal to us what he had before imprinted on our nature, and we had most unworthily rased out and obliterated, but also discover so much more to us, than ever we did, or could have known by the light of our nature; that he should not only repeat his former kindness to us, which we had so shamefully abused, but make such stupendous additions to it, as he hath done in the revelation of his gospel; that, maugre all those impieties and provocations, by which for so many ages we had excited his patience, he should not only so love us, as to restore to us the light which we had almost extinguished, but to give his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, &c. is such an amazing instance of goodness, as can hardly be reflected on without an ecstacy of admiration.

In which words you have God's revealed love and goodness to the world measured by a twofold standard.

I. By the greatness of the gift which he hath bestowed upon the world, God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.

II. The blessed end for which he did bestow him, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

I. I begin with the first of these, viz. the greatness of the gift, by which the greatness of his love to us is measured; God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son: "Edwкey, he gave him, that is, he delivered him up from out of his own bosom and everlasting embraces: for so, Eph. v. 2. it is taρédwkev éautov, he gave himself for us, or delivered up himself for us: for so we render the words ὃς παρεδόθη διὰ τὰ παραπτώματα ἡμῶν, who was delivered for our offences, Rom. iv. 25. Now what a stupendous expression of God's love this was, will appear by considering these six things, which are all of them expressed or implied in the text:

1. That he gave him up, who was not only the greatest, but the dearest person to him in the whole world.

2. That he gave him up for sinners.

3. That he gave him up for a whole world of sinners.

4. That he gave him up to become a man for sinners.

5. That he gave him up to be a miserable man for sinners.

6. That he gave him to be a sacrifice for the sins of sinners, that so he might not only with more effect, but with more security to us, intercede for our pardon.

1. The greatness of God's love and goodness to

wards us appears in this, that he gave up for our sakes, not only the greatest, but the dearest person to him in the whole world: for, as the text tells you, it was his only begotten Son. Which phrase, doubtless, imports a much higher signification than his being begotten in the Virgin's womb by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost. For though it cannot be denied, but in scripture he is called the Son of God, sometimes upon the account of this his divine generation in the Virgin's womb, and sometimes upon the score of his being ordained by God to the messiahship; sometimes because he was raised by God from the dead, and sometimes because he was installed by him into his mediatorial kingdom: yet upon neither of these accounts can he be properly called the only begotten Son: for upon the three last accounts sundry others have been as properly begotten by God as our Saviour; some having been installed by him into great and eminent offices, others raised from the dead, others truly ordained by him his messiahs, or anointed ones: so that upon neither of these accounts can he be styled the only begotten Son, others having been thus begotten as well as himself. And as for the first, his being conceived by the Holy Ghost in the Virgin's womb, this was not sufficient neither to entitle him the only begotten, because, though it was indeed a miraculous production, yet was it not so much above the production of the first man, as to place him in that singular eminence. For the forming of Adam out of the substance of the earth was altogether as miraculous a production as the forming of Christ out of the substance of the woman: and therefore since Adam is called the son of God, Luke

iii. 38. because God immediately formed him of the substance of the earth, he had thereby as good a right to the title of God's only begotten Son as Christ himself had, because God immediately formed him of the substance of a woman. Wherefore his peculiar right above all others, to this glorious title of God's only begotten Son, must necessarily be founded upon some higher reason than this; that is, upon some such reason as is wholly peculiar to himself. For if he be really and truly God's only begotten Son, all other persons whatsoever must necessarily be excluded from that claim; and consequently, he must be so begotten of God, as no other person is, or ever was: and to be so begotten of God is to be begotten by him, by a proper and natural generation; which is nothing else but a vital production of another in the same nature with him from whom it is produced; even as a man begets a man, and every animal begets another of the same kind and nature with itself: and thus to be begotten of God is to be begotten into the same divine nature with himself; to derive or communicate from him the infinitely perfect nature and essence of a God. And in this sense only our blessed Saviour is the only begotten Son of the Father, as being generated by him from all eternity into the same nature, and communicating from him his own infinite essence and perfections; in which sense he is truly the only begotten Son; because in this sense, and in this only, none is, or was, or ever shall be begotten of the Father, but himself.

When therefore it is said, that he gave his only begotten Son, the meaning is this; he gave up that infinitely great and dear Son of his, that is, his na