Selected quad for the lemma: love_n
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A28288
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The love of God manifested in giving our Saviour for the redemption of mankind a sermon preach'd before the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen on Nov. the 29th, 1696, being the first Sunday in Advent / by L. Blackburne ...
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Blackburne, Lancelot, 1658-1743.
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1697
(1697)
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Wing B3067; ESTC R11620
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10,822
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27
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Clarke Mayor Martis primo die Decembr 1696. Annoque R. R. Will. Tertii Angliae c. Octavo THis Court doth desire Mr. Blackburn to Print his Sermon Preached on Sunday last before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor and the Aldermen of this City at the Guild-Hall Chappel Goodfellow The Love of God manifested in giving our Saviour for the Redemption of Mankind A SERMON Preach'd before the Lord Mayor AND Court of ALDERMEN ON Nov. the 29th 1696. Being the First Sunday in Advent By L. BLACKBVRNE Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty LONDON Printed by Tho. Warren for Thomas Bennet at the Half-Moon in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1697. Published by the same Author THE Vnreasonableness of Anger A Sermon Preached before the Late Queen at White-Hall July the 29th 1694. ERRATA PAge 3. line 19. for to read so p. 4. l. 18. for not r. to Vs for Difference r. different p. 16. l. 20. for and r. an A SERMON Preach'd c. John III. 16. For God so lov'd the World that He gave His Only Begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him shou'd not perish but have Everlasting Life THat a Being infinitely Perfect shou'd delight in the work of its own hands that Goodness it self shou'd have Inclinations of Tenderness and Love for a Creature made after its own Image Just and Upright is but what that Creature might reasonably expect from the consideration of God's Nature and of its own But that a reasonable Creature fall'n willfully from that Uprightness given over to Sin and polluted with Wickedness shou'd with all those spots and stains about it be the Object of God's Love to such a degree as that he shou'd give His Only Son a ransom for it the Son of his Love for a Miserable Wretch the greatest contradiction to his Infinite Purity and the hopelesly devoted Sacrifice to his Everlasting Vengence This were enough to startle a forward Faith were it not that he has said it who cannot fail he has spoken it who cannot be deceiv'd who is himself both the Gift and the Assurance of it who to the manifold expressions of his Goodness to us has added That of even this opportunity of reviving the dying Images of our shatter'd and on every side assaulted Faith and inflaming our Hearts with a warm and penetrating sense of his astonishing and unbounded Love with a sense which is not to be had but by the means of Faith the only proper Instrument for exciting it as it is the only condition of attaining that Everlasting Life which is thus offer'd to our acceptance For God so lov'd the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him shou'd not perish but have Everlasting Life There are two things eminently remarkable in these words The Gift God gave to the World His Only Begotten Son and the End for which he gave it that whosoever believeth in Him shou'd not perish but have Everlasting Life And if we duly reflect upon the Principle from which that Gift proceeded and the Means appointed for applying it to the End there will arise from thence some noble and useful considerations towards the right acknowledgement of the One and the full attainment of the Other In the first place it will concern us to inquire how Our Saviour is the Gift of God For The Three Divine Persons in the adorable Trinity being Coeternal and Coequal it may seem inconsistent with that Equality that One of 'em shou'd have Power or Authority over the Other For equal Powers will be in a capacity of making equal Resistance and Powers Eternally to will be for that Reason ever above all Force from each other Yet there is nothing more common in Holy Scripture than the Expressions of this subordination and Dependance this Mission and Gift of the Son by the Father The spirit of the Lord is upon me says he Isaiah 61.1 for he applies that Text to himself in the 4th of St. Luke ver the 18th The spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the Meek he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted to proclaim liberty to the Captives and the opening of the Prison to them that are bound So the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews says Heb. 5.5 That Christ glorify'd not himself to be made an High-Priest but he that said unto Him Thou art My Son this day have I begotten Thee On this account it is necessary for us to distinguish between their Natural and their Oeconomical State for there is a very great difference between the one and the other and a Subordination and Inequality induc'd by the voluntary acceptance of Offices Ministerial to the great work of Our Redemption which is not founded in the Divine Nature consider'd simply and absolutely in it self but in the Relation only which their Personal Properties bear to each other and not with respect to the differenâ— and unequal Charges they have graciously been pleas'd to take upon 'em for the compassing that End Consider'd in their Natural State they are all equally God Infinite in Being Power and Perfections and being equal in Essential Power and Dominion are as such by consequence not subject or subordinate to one another from whence St. Paul says of Our Blessed Saviour that being in the form of God he thought it no robbery to be equal with God But in the Dispensation of our Redemption they have voluntarily taken upon 'em the Adminstration of Vnequal Offices The Father being the Fountain of the Godhead and in Relation to the Eternal Generation of the Son First in Order of Nature took upon him the Office of the supreme Governour of the World The Protector of his Laws and the first Director in the work of our Salvation In his Infinite Wisdom and Mercy he laid the Plan of our Redemption and design'd that inestimable Victim for us which alone cou'd satisfy his offended Justice And the Office of the Father being thus by the very Nature of its Functions more excellent in the Pre-eminence of Power and Dignity it was fit that the Son who was to be the Mediator between God and Man shou'd receive his Commission for that Office from the Father upon whose good pleasure only the receiving satisfaction to infinite Justice from any other hands than those of the offenders themselves intirely did depend So that in respect of that Designation and that Commission from the Father our Saviour may be said to be his Gift though fully equal to him in all the inherent and essential perfections of the Godhead He may truly on that score be said to be sent by him though he voluntarily enter'd into that Covenant and accepted of that Office though He gave Himself a Ransom for all Now a Gift in its own Nature must be free independent on any Law that may oblige to it or any Merit that may deserve it and such in all respects was this of our Mighty Deliverer In
had sold himself to Sin and given himself up to Vanity his ways were perverse before the Lord Paradise it self cou'd not tempt him to be honest a little while but he wou'd needs serve the Devil as soon as God had made him This was the condition of lost Man when yet God so lov'd the World that he gave his only begotten Son to the end that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have Everlasting Life 2. An End truly worthy of God! Worthy his Infinite and Almighty Beneficence Men in Prison are sometimes unexpectedly set free but often free only to starve abroad in the open Air. Men sunk in Debt have their bonds often cancell'd by the Compassion of Government but are many times only by that Means at liberty to contract new ones without any probable condition of support But Man by this Gift was not only rescu'd from perishing Everlastingly but Eternal Glory and Happiness was purchas'd for him For the End God propos'd in giving his Son was not narrow and short according to the weak measures and imperfect Projects of humane Benefactors It was not limited barely to the freeing us from Punishment it extended to the enstating us in Life Everlasting and however these two are commonly mistaken or confounded one for or with another yet they are distinct Effects in different regards depending equally on the same Gift and both together making up the great End of it the Salvation of our Souls The Pardon of our sins and deliverance from Death was due to our Blessed Saviour's Infinite Satisfaction But our claim to Eternal Life depends wholly on his Merit as all those Gifts and Graces do which conduce to our obtaining it For to frame an exact Notion of the Essential Parts of the Causes and Principles of our Salvation the Sacrifice of Christ is to be consider'd in two respects either as a punishment inflicted by divine Justice on that Victim which was offer'd in our stead or as a Voluntary Oblation which Christ made of himself to purchase for us an inheritance in the highest Heavens by Vertue of that Covenant which he made with the Father as Mediator between God and Man it is his satisfaction which respects the Guilt of our sins and the Divine Justice naturally and necessarily demanding their Punishment and the consequence of that can reach no farther than putting us in a state of Impunity But it is the Merit of our Blessed Saviour which respects our Natural want and incapacity of Eternal Happiness and the Formal Effect of that is not the Delivering us from Hell which the satisfaction has perform'd already but the acquisition of Heaven for us which is an End above and beyond what that satisfaction was determin'd to Not that the Merit or Satisfaction in the Sacrifice of Christ can any way be separated or divided from it it cou'd not satisfy if it were not Meritorious it cou'd not Merit if it did not satisfy but still when we speak properly and clearly they are two distinct and different things and produce distinct and different effects For though God having made Man at first Just and Innocent and put him in Possession of that Happiness which he lost by Sin it may seem probable that the Satisfaction made for that Sin shou'd of it self re-instate him in that Happiness and supersede by that means all manner of necessity of any farther purchace to be made for him Yet if we consider well the nature of the Happiness which the Gospel directs us to aim at and expect it will be found to be such as Man cou'd lay no claim to from any natural right and therefore such as cou'd not any way be due to him upon and from his restitution to his natural State For his natural State consisted in the enjoyment of an Earthly Paradise and depended as to its duration on his continuance in Innocence But the Life Eternal of the Gospel is a supernatural Gift not an animal felicity in its own Nature capable of change however conditionally lasting 'T is a happiness which will make us like the Angels of God in a state unchangeable and indefeasible giving Immortality to our Bodies and impeccability to our Souls and requiring therefore a new right beyond the simple pardoning of our Sins on account of the ransom paid for us beyond the restoring us to the State from which we were fallen which might acquire to us an Everlasting Inheritance in the Kingdom of God by the infinite Merits of the voluntary oblation which our Blessed Saviour made of himself unconstrain'd by any Power unoblig'd by any Law unengag'd by any Merit of ours that cou'd deserve it 3. Which leads us to the consideration of the Principle upon which God was pleas'd to bestow this Gift his Infinite and unbounded Love and Compassion Infinite and Vnbounded indeed had that Goodness need to be which cou'd extend it self to the World in that condition which it was sunk into For Sin is a State of Rebellion and Defiance against God and he that has once put off and renounc'd his Allegiance cannot rationally expect or hope for the benefits of that Government which he refuses to submit to how mild and compassionate soever the nature of the Power may be or however good and beneficent the Sovereign Administration of it A Love only without limits cou'd pursue us so far as effectually to overtake us when we were set at a wider distance from him by our Sins than we were by our Nature when all the Characters of his Perfections in us were blotted or eras'd all the Faculties of our Souls disorder'd and revers'd and the whole Body of Sin reign'd in triumph over us But though his Almighty Love reach'd us in this State of Sin and Wickedness it was not under this consideration that it did so Such an imagination wou'd be abusive and unworthy of God inconsistent with his Infinite Holiness and Purity and irreconcileable to his Justice which demanded their Vindication It was the Misery of Man alone which mov'd the Divine Compassion a Misery too great for any Natural Powers to redeem him from too intense for any Creatures Pity to abate or relieve For no Man can by any means redeem his Brother nor give to God a ransom for him for it cost more to redeem their Souls so that they must let that alone for ever And Misery indeed is the proper object of Pity and helpless Misery of a Divine Beneficence a Misery hopelesly such of an Almighty one On this account notwithstanding we were dead in our trespasses and on that score the wretched Objects of Divine Justice it was not inconsistent with the inviolable Majesty of God's Laws and his immutable Decree of punishing Sin that God shou'd have inclinations of rendring himself placable to Mankind that he shou'd be mov'd with compassion to such a degree as to procure us the means of Reconciliation since even those means by the satisfaction given serv'd but yet more to raise the Glory