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THe more feelingly the soul apprehends, and the more thankfully it digests the favours of God in it's pardon, and deli∣verance, the more freely doth the God of mercy impart him∣self to it; and the more God imparts himself to it, the more it loves him, and the more hea∣venly acquaintance and entire∣nesse grows betwixt God, and it; and now that love which was but a spark at first, grows into a flame, and wholly takes
up the soul. This fire of heaven∣ly love in the devout soul, is, and must be heightned more and more, by the addition of the holy incentives of divine thoughts, concerning the means of our freedome & deliverance. And here, offers it self to us that bottomlesse abysse of mercy in our Redemption, wrought by the eternall Son of God, Jesus Christ the just, by whose stripes we are healed; by whose bloud we are ransomed; where none will befit us but admiring and adoring notions. We shall not disparage you, O ye blessed An∣gels, and Archangels of heaven, if we shall say, ye are not able to look into the bottome of this divine love, wherewith God so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son, that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish, but have e∣verlasting life: None, oh, none can comprehend this mercy, but
he that wrought it. Lord! what a transcendent, what an infinite love is this? what an object was this for thee to love? A world of sinners? Impotent, wretched creatures, that had de∣spighted thee, that had no mo∣tive for thy favour but deformi∣ty, misery, professed enmity? It had been mercy enough in thee, that thou didst not damn the world, but that thou shouldst love it, is more then mercy. It was thy great goodness to for∣bear the acts of just vengeance to the sinfull world of man, but to give unto it tokens of thy love, is a favour beyond all expressi∣on: The least gift from thee had been more then the world could hope for; but that thou shouldst not stick to give thine onely be∣gotten Son, the Son of thy love, the Son of thine essence, thy co∣equall, coeternall Son, who was more then ten thousand worlds, to redeem this one for∣lorn
world of sinners, is love a∣bove all comprehension of men and Angels. What diminution had it been to thee and thine essentiall glory, O thou great God of heaven, that the souls that sinned should have died and perished everlastingly? yet so infinite was thy loving mercy, that thou wouldest rather give thy onely Son out of thy bo∣some, then that there should not be a redemption for beleevers.
Yet, O God, hadst thou sent down thy Son to this lower re∣gion of earth, upon such terms, as that he might have brought down heaven with him, that he might have come in the port and Majesty of a God, cloathed with celestiall glory, to have dazeled our eyes, and to have drawn all hearts unto him; this might have seemed, in some measure, to have sorted with his divine magnifi∣cence; But thou wouldst have him to appear in the wretched
condition of our humanity: Yet, even thus, hadst thou sent him into the world, in the highest estate, and pomp of royalty, that earth could afford, that all the Kings and Monarchs of the world should have been com∣manded to follow his train, and to glitter in his Court; and that the knees of all the Potentates of the earth should have bowed to his Soveraign Majesty, and their lips have kissed his dust, this might have carried some kind of appearance of a state next to divine greatnesse; but thou wouldst have him come in the despised form of a servant: And thou, O blessed Jesu, wast accordingly willing, for our sakes, to submit thy self to na∣kednesse, hunger, thirst, weari∣nesse, temptation, contempt, betraying, agonies, scorn, buffe∣ting, scourgings, distention, cru∣cifixion, death: O love above measure, without example, be∣yond
admiration! Greater love (thou saiest) hath no man, then this, that a man lay down his life for his friends; But, oh, what is it then, that thou, who wert God and man, shouldst lay down thy life, (more precious then many worlds) for thine enemies! Yet, had it been but the laying down of a life, in a fair and gentle way, there might have been some mitigatiō of the sorrow of a dissolution; there is not more difference betwixt life and death, then there may be betwixt some one kind of death, and another; Thine, O dear Sa∣viour, was the painfull, shameful, cursed death of the crosse; wherein yet, all that man could doe unto thee was nothing to that inward torment, which in our stead, thou enduredst from thy Fathers wrath; when in the bitternesse of thine anguished soul, thou cryedst out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? Even thus, wast thou content to be forsaken, that we wretched sinners might be recei∣ved to mercy; O love stronger then death, which thou vanqui∣shedst! more high, then that hell is deep, from which thou hast rescued us!