Flavel, Fountain of Life, File 4.
( ...continued from File 3)
Sermon 4. Opens the admirable love of God in giving his own Son for
us.
John 3:16.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life.
You have heard of the gracious purpose and design of God, to
recover poor sinners to himself by Jesus Christ, and how this design
of love was laid and contrived in the covenant of redemption,
whereof we last spake.
Now, according to the terms of that covenant, you shall hear
from this scripture, how that design was by one degree advanced
towards its accomplishment, in God's actual giving or parting with
his own Son far us: "God so loved the world, that he gave," &c.
The whole precedent context is spent in discovering the nature
and necessity of regeneration, and the necessity thereof is in this
text urged and inferred from the peculiar respect and eye God had
upon believers, in giving Christ for them; they only reaping all the
special and saving benefits and advantages of that gift: "God so
loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish."
In the words are to be considered,
1. The original spring or fountain of our best mercies, the
love of God. The love of God is, either benevolent, beneficent, or
complacential. His benevolent love, is nothing else but his desire
and purpose of saving, and doing us good; so his purpose and grace
to Jacob is called love, Rom. 9: 13. "Jacob have I loved;" but this
being before Jacob was, could consist in nothing else but the
gracious purpose of God towards him. His beneficent love, is his
actual doing, good to the persons beloved, or his bestowing the
effects of his love upon us, according to that purpose. His
complacential love, is nothing else but that delight and
satisfaction he finds in beholding the fruits and workings of that
grace in us, which he first intended for us, and then actually
collated or bestowed on us. This love of benevolence, is that which
I have opened to you, under the former head, God's compact with
Christ about us, or his design to save us on the articles and terms
therein specified.
The love of beneficence, is that which this scripture speaks
of; out of this fountain Christ flowed to us, and both ran into that
of complacency, for therefore he both purposed and actually bestowed
Christ on us, that he might everlastingly delight in beholding the
glory and praise of all this reflected on himself, by his redeemed
ones. This then is the fountain of our mercies.
2. The mercy flowing out of this fountain, and that is Christ;
The mercy, as he is emphatically called, Luke 1: 72. The marrow,
kernel, and substance of all other mercies. He gave his only
begotten Son: This was the birth of that love, the like whereunto it
never brought forth before, therefore it is expressed with a double
emphasis in the text, the one is the particle "houtos", so; "he so
loved the world;" here is a sic without a sicut: How did he love it?
Why, he so loved it; but how much, the tongues of angels cannot
declare. And moreover, to enhance the mercy, he is stiled his only
begotten Son: to have given a Son had been wonderful; but to give
his only begotten Son, that is love inexpressible, unintelligible.
3. The objects of this love, or the persons to whom the eternal
Lord delivered Christ, and that is the [world.] This must respect
the elect of God in the world, such as do, or shall actually
believe, as it is exegetically expressed in the next words, "That
whosoever believes in him should not perish:" Those whom he calls
the world in that, he stiles believers in this expression; and the
word [world] is put to signify the elect, because they are scattered
through all parts, and are among all ranks of men in the world;
these are the objects of this love; it is not angels, but men, that
were so loved; he is called "filantropos", a Lover, a Friend of Men,
but never "filangelos" or "filokisos", the Lover or Friend of
Angels, or creatures of another species.
4. The manner in which this never-enough celebrated mercy flows
to us, from the fountain of divine love, and that is most freely and
spontaneously. He gave, not he sold, or barely parted from, but
gave. Nor yet does the Father's giving imply Christ to be merely
passive; for as the Father is here said to give him, so the apostle
tells us, Gal. 2: 20. That he gave himself; "who loved me, and gave
himself for me:" The Father gave him out of good will to men, and he
as willingly bestowed himself on that service. Hence the note is,
Doct. That the gift of Christ is the highest and fullest
manifestation of the love of God to sinners, that ever was made
from eternity to them.
How is this gift of God to sinners signalised in that place of
the apostle, 1 Joh. 4: 10, "Herein is love; not that we loved God,
but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for
our sins?" Why does the apostle so magnify this gift in saying,
"Herein is love," as if there were love in nothing else! May we not
say, that to have a being, a being among the rational creatures,
therein is love? To have our life carried so many years like a taper
in the hand of Providence, through so many dangers, and not yet put
out in obscurity, therein is love? To have food and raiment,
convenient for us, beds to lie on, relations to comfort us, in all
these is love? Yea, but if you speak comparatively, in all these
there is no love, to the love expressed in sending or giving Christ
for us: These are great mercies in themselves, but compared to this
mercy, they are all swallowed up, as the light of candles when
brought into the sun-shine. No, no, herein is love, that God gave
Christ for us. And it is remarkable, that when the apostle would
show us, in Rom. 5: 8, what is the noblest fruit that most commends
to men the root of divine love that bears it, he shows us this very
fruit of it that I am now opening; "But God, saith he, commendeth
his love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us:" this is the very flower of that love.
The method into which I will cast this precious point, shall be
this: (1.) To show how Jesus Christ was given by the Father. (2.)
How that gift is the fullest and richest manifestation of the love
of God that was ever made to the world. (3.) And then draw forth the
uses of it.
1. How was Jesus Christ given by the Father, and what is
implied therein.
You are not so to understand it, as though God parted with his
interest and property in his Son, when he is said to give him; he
was as much his own as ever. When men give, they transfer property
to another; but when God had given him, he was, I say, still as much
his own as ever: but this giving of Christ implies,
(1.) His designation and appointment unto death for us; for so
you read, that it was done "according to the determinate counsel of
God," Acts 2: 23. Look, as the Lamb under the Law was separated from
the flock, and set apart for a sacrifice; though it were still
living, yet it was intentionally, and preparatively given, and
consecrated to the Lord: so Jesus Christ was, by the counsel and
purpose of God, thus chosen, and set apart for his service: and
therefore in Isa. 42: 1. God calls him his Elect, or chosen One.
(2.) His giving Christ, implies a parting with him, or setting
him (as the French has it) at some distance from himself for a time.
There was a kind of parting betwixt the Father and the Son, when he
came to tabernacle in our flesh: so he expresseth it, John 16: 28.
"I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world; again, I
leave the world and go to the Father". This distance that this
incarnation and humiliation set him at, was properly as to his
humanity, which was really distant from the glory into which it is
now taken up, and in respect of manifestation of delight and love,
the Lord seemed to carry it as one at a distance from him. Oh! this
was it that so deeply pierced, and wounded his soul, as is evident
from that complaint, Ps. 32: 1, 2. "My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Why art thou so far from the words of my roaring? O my
God, I cry in the day time, but thou hearest not," &c.
(3.) God's giving of Christ, implies his delivering him into
the hands of justice to be punished; even as condemned persons are,
lay sentence of law, given or delivered into the hands of
executioners. So Acts 2: 23. "Him, being delivered by the
determinate counsel at God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have
slain:" and so he is said, Rom. 8: 32 "To deliver him up to death
for us all." The Lord, when the time was come that Christ must
suffer, did, as it were, say, O all ye roaring waves of my incensed
justice, now swell as high as heaven, and go over his soul and body;
sink him to the bottom; let him go, like Jonah, his type, into the
belly of hell, unto the roots of the mountains. Come all ye raging
storms, that I have reserved for this day of wrath, beat upon him,
beat him down, that he may not be able to look up, Psal. 60: 12. Go
justice, put him upon the rack, torment him in every part, till all
his "bones be out of joint, arid his heart within him be melted as
wax; in the midst of his bowels," Psal. 22: 14. And ye assembly of
the wicked Jews and Gentiles, that have so long gaped for his blood,
now he is delivered into your hands; you are permitted to execute
your malice to the full: I now loose your chain, and into your hand
and power is he delivered.
(4.) God's giving of Christ, implies his application of him,
with all the purchase of his blood, and settling, all this upon us,
as an inheritance and portion, John 6: 32,33, "My Father giveth you
the true bread from heaven; for the bread of God is he which cometh
down from heaven, and giveth light to the world." God has giveth him
as bread to poor starving creatures, that by faith they might eat
and live. And so he told the Samaritaness, John 4: 10. "If thou
knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith unto thee, Give me
to drink, thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given
thee living water." Bread and water are the two necessaries for the
support of natural life; God has given Christ, you see, to be all
that, and more, to the spiritual life.
2. How this gift of Christ was the highest, and fullest
manifestation of the love of God, that ever the world saw: and this
will be evidenced by the following particulars:
(1.) If you consider how near and dear Jesus Christ was to the
Father; he was his Son, "his only Son," saith the text; the Son of
his love, the darling of his Soul: His other Self, yea, one with
himself; the express image of his person; the brightness of his
Father's Glory: In parting with him, he parted with his own heart,
with his very bowels, as I may say. "Yet to us a Son is given," Isa.
9: 6, and such a Son as he calls "his dear Son," Col. 1: 13. A late
writer tells us, that he has been informed, that in the famine in
Germany, a poor family being ready to perish with famine, the
husband made a motion to the wife, to sell one of the children for
bread, to relieve themselves and the rest: The wife at last consents
it should be so; but then they began to think which of the four
should be sold; and when the eldest was named, they both refused to
part with that, being their first born, and the beginning of their
strength. Well, then they came to the second, but could not yield
that he should be sold, being the very picture and lively image of
his father. The third was named, but that also was a child that best
resembled the mother. And when the youngest was thought on, that was
the Benjamin, the child of their old age; and so were content rather
to perish altogether in the famine, than to part with a child for
relief. And you know how tenderly Jacob took it, when his Joseph and
Benjamin were rent from him. What is a child, but a piece of the
parent wrapt up in another skin? And yet our dearest children are
but as strangers to us, in comparison of the unspeakable dearness
that was betwixt the Father and Christ. Now, that he should ever be
content to part with a Son, and such an only One, is such a
manifestation of love, as will be admired to all eternity. And then,
(2.) Let it be considered, To what he gave him, even to death,
and that of the cross; to be made a curse for us; to be the scorn
and contempt of men; to the most unparalleled sufferings that ever
were inflicted or borne by any. It melts our bowels, it breaks our
heart, to behold our children striving in the pangs of death: but
the Lord beheld his Son struggling under agonies that never any felt
before him. He saw him falling to the ground, grovelling in the
dust, sweating blood, and amidst those agonies turning himself to
his Father, and, with a heart rending cry, beseeching him, "Father,
if it be possible, let this cup pass," Luke 22: 42. To wrath, to the
wrath, of an infinite God without mixture; to the very torments of
hell was Christ delivered, and that by the hand of his own Father.
Sure then that love must needs want a name, which made the Father of
mercies deliver his only Son to such miseries for us.
(3.) It is a special consideration to enhance the love of God
in giving Christ, that in giving him he gave the richest jewel in
his cabinet; a mercy of the greatest worth, and most inestimable
value, Heaven itself is not so valuable and precious as Christ is:
He is the better half of heaven; and so the saints account him,
Psal. 73: 25, "Whom have I in heaven but thee?" Ten thousand
thousand worlds, saith one, as many worlds as angels can number, and
then as a new world of angels can multiply, would not all be the
bulk of a balance, to weigh Christ's excellency, love, and
sweetness. O what a fair One! what an only One! what an excellent,
lovely, ravishing One, is Christ! Put the beauty of ten thousand
paradises, like the garden of Eden, into one; put all trees, all
flowers, all smells, all colours, all tastes, all joys, all
sweetness, all loveliness in one; O what a fair and excellent thing
would that be? And yet it should be less to that fair and dearest
well-beloved Christ, than one drop of rain to the whole seas,
rivers, lakes, and fountains of ten thousand earths. Christ is
heaven's wonder, and earths wonder.
Now, for God to bestow the mercy of mercies, the most precious
thing in heaven or earth, upon poor sinners; and, as great, as
lovely, as excellent as his Son was, yet not to account him too good
to bestow upon us, what manner of love is this!
(4.) Once more, let it be considered on whom the Lord bestowed
his Son: upon angels? No, but upon men. Upon man his friend? No, but
upon his enemies. This is love; and on this consideration the
apostle lays a mighty weight, in Rom. 5: 8, 9, 10. "But God (saith
he) commendeth his love towards us, in that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us, - When we were enemies, we were
reconciled to God by the death of his Son." Who would part with a
son for the sake of his dearest friends? but God gave him to, and
delivered him for enemies: O love unspeakable!
(5.) Lastly, Let us consider how freely this gift came from
him: It was not wrested out of his hand by our importunity; for we
as little desired as deserved it: It was surprising, preventing,
eternal love, that delivered him to us: "Not that we loved him, but
he first loved us," 1 John 4: 19. Thus as when you weigh a thing,
you cast in weight after weight, till the scales break; so does God,
one consideration upon another, to overcome our hearts, and make us
admiringly to cry, what manner of love is this! And thus I have
shewed you what God's giving of Christ is, and what matchless love
is manifested in that incomparable gift.
Next we shall apply this, in some practical corollaries.
Corollary 1. Learn hence, The exceeding preciousness of souls,
and at what a high rate God values them that he will give his Son,
his only Son out of his bosom, as a ransom for them. Surely this
speaks their preciousness: God would not have parted with such a Son
for small matters: all the world could not redeem them; gold and
silver could not be their ransom; so speaks the apostle, 1 Peter 1:
18. "You were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and
gold, but with the precious blood of Christ." Such an esteem God had
for them, that rather than they should perish, Jesus Christ shall be
made a man, yea, a curse for them. Oh then, learn to put a due value
upon your own souls: do not sell that cheap, which God has paid so
dear for: Remember what a treasure you carry about you; the glory
that you see in this world is not equivalent in worth to it. Matth.
16: 26. "What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"
Corollary 2. If God has given his own Son for the world, then
it follows, that those for whom God gave his own Son, may
warrantably expect any other temporal mercies from him. This is the
apostle's inference, Rom. 8: 32. "He that spared not his own Son,
but delivered him up for us all; how shall he not, with him, freely
give us all things?" And so 1 Cor. 3: 21, 22. "All is yours, for ye
are Christ's" i. e. They hold all other things in Christ, who is the
capital, and most comprehensive mercy.
To make out the grounds of this comfortable deduction, let
these four things be pondered, and duly weighed in your thoughts.
(1.) No other mercy you need or desire, is, or can be so dear to
God, as Jesus Christ is: he never laid any other thing in his bosom
as he did his Son. As for the world, and the comforts of it, it is
the dust of his feet, he values it not; as you see by his
providential disposals of it; having given it to the worst of men.
"All the Turkish empire," saith Luther, "as great and glorious as it
is, is but a crumb which the master of the family throws to the
dogs." Think upon any other outward enjoyment that is valuable in
your eyes, and there is not so much comparison betwixt it and
Christ, in the esteem of God, as is betwixt your dear children and
the lumber of your houses, in your esteem. If then God has parted so
freely from that which was infinitely dearer to him than these; how
shall he deny these, when they may promote his glory, and your good?
(2.) As Jesus Christ was nearer the heart of God than all these; so
Christ is, in himself, much greater and more excellent than all of
them: Ten thousand worlds, and the glory of them all, is but the
dust of the balance, if weighed with Christ. These things are but
poor creatures, but he is over all, God blessed for ever, Rom. 9: 5.
They are common gifts, but he is the Gift of God, John 4: 10. They
are ordinary mercies, but he is The mercy, Luke 1: 72. As one pearl,
or precious stone is greater in value than ten thousand common
pebbles. Now, if God has so freely given the greater, how can you
suppose he should deny the lesser, mercies? Will a man give to
another a large inheritance, and stand with him for a trifle? how
can it be? (3.) There is no other mercy you want, but you are
entitled to it by the gift of Christ; it is, as to right, conveyed
to you with Christ. So, in the fore cited 1 Cor. 3: 21, 22, 23. "the
world is yours, yea, all is yours; for ye are Christ's." So 2 Cor.
1: 20. "For all the promises of God in Christ, in him they are yea,
and in him, amen." With him he has given you all things, "eis
apolausin", 1 Tim. 6: 17. richly to enjoy: the word signifies rem
aliquam cum laetitia percipere, to have the sweet relish and comfort
of an enjoyment. So have we in all our mercies, upon the account of
our title to them in Christ. (4.) Lastly, If God has given you this
nearer, greater, and all comprehending mercy, when you were enemies
to him, and alienated from him; it is not imaginable he should deny
you any inferior mercy, when you are come into a state of
reconciliation and amity with him. So the apostle reasons, Rom. 5:
8, 9, 10. "For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God,
by the death of his Son; much more being reconciled, we shall be
saved by his life". And thus you have the second inference with its
grounds.
Corollary 3. If the greatest love has been manifested in giving
Christ to the world, then it follows, that the greatest evil and
wickedness is manifested in despising, slighting, and rejecting
Christ. It is sad to abuse the love of God manifested in the lowest
gift of providence; but, to slight the richest discoveries of it,
even in that peerless gift, wherein God commends his love in the
most taking and astonishing manner; this is sin with a witness.
Blush, O heavens, and be astonished, O earth; yea, be ye horribly
afraid! No guilt like this. The most flagitious wretches among the
barbarous nations are innocent, in comparison of these. But, are
there any such in the world? Dare any slight this gift of God?
Indeed, if men's words might be taken, there are few or none that
dare do so; but if their lives and practices may be believed, this,
this is the sin of the far greater part of the christianised world.
Witness the lamentable stupidity and supineness; witness the
contempt of the gospel; witness the hatred and persecution of his
image, laws and people. What is the language of all this, but a vile
esteem of Jesus Christ?
And now, let me a little expostulate with those ungrateful
souls, that trample under foot the Son of God, that value not this
love that gave him forth. What is that mercy which you so condemn
and undervalue? is it so vile and cheap a thing as your
entertainment speaks it to be? Is it indeed worth no more than this
in your eyes? Surely you will not be long of that opinion! Will you
be of that mind, think on, when death and judgement shall have
thoroughly awakened you! Oh, no: Then a thousand worlds for a
Christ! as it is storied of our crooked-backed Richard, when he lost
the field, and was in great danger by his enemies that pressed upon
him; Oh now, (said he) a kingdom for a horse! Or think we, that any
beside you in the world are of your mind? you are deceived, if you
think so, "To them that believe he is precious," through all the
world, 1 Pet. 2: 7. and in the other world they are of a quite
contrary mind. Could you but hear what is said of him in heaven, in
what a dialect the saved of the Lord do extol their Saviour; or
could you but imagine the self-revenges, the self torments, which
the damned suffer for their folly, and what a value they would set
upon one tender of Christ, if it might but again be hoped for; you
would see that such as you are the only despisers of Christ. Beside,
methinks it is astonishing, that you should despise a mercy in which
your own souls are so dearly, so deeply, so everlastingly concerned,
as they are in this gift of God. If it were but the soul of another,
nay, less, if but the body of another, and yet less than that, if
but another's beast, whose life you could preserve, you are obliged
to do it; but when it is thyself, yea, the best part of thyself,
thine own invaluable soul, that thou ruinest and destroyest thereby,
Oh, what a monster art thou, to cast it away thus! What! will you
slight your own souls? care you not whether they be saved, or
whether they be damned? is it indeed an indifferent thing with you
which way they fall at death? have you imagined a tolerable hell? is
it easy to perish? are you not only turned God's enemies, but your
own too? Oh see what monsters sin can turn men and women into! Oh
the stupefying, besetting, intoxicating power of sin! But perhaps
you think that all these are but uncertain sounds, with which we
alarm you; it may be thine own heart will preach such doctrine as
this to thee: Who can assure thee of the reality of these things?
why shouldest thou trouble thyself with an invisible world, or be so
much concerned for what thine eyes never saw, nor midst ever receive
the report from any that have seen them? Well, though we cannot now
show you these things, yet shortly they shall be shown you; and your
own eyes shall behold them. You are convinced and satisfied that
many other things are real which you never saw: but be assured, That
"if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression
and disobedience received a just recompence of reward, how shall we
escape, if we neglect so great a salvation, which at first began to
be spoken to us by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by them that
heard him, God also bearing them witness?" Heb. 2: 2, 3, 4. But if
they be certain, yet they are not near; it will be a long time
before they come. Poor soul! how dost thou cheat thyself? It maybe
not by twenty parts so long a time as thy own fancy draws it forth
for thee; thou art not certain of the next moment.
And suppose what thou imagines: What are twenty or forty years
when they are past? yea, what are a thousand years to vast eternity?
Go trifle away a few days more, sleep out a few nights more, and
then lie down in the dust; it will not be long ere the trump of God
shall awaken thee, and thine eyes shall behold Jesus coming in the
clouds of heaven, and then you will know the price of this sin. Oh,
therefore, if there be any sense of eternity upon you, any pity or
love for yourselves in you; if you have any concernments more than
the beasts that perish, despise not your own offered mercies, slight
not the richest gift that ever was yet opened to the world; and a
sweeter cannot be opened to all eternity.
(continued in file 5...)
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