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name.

He loved enemies; that is my name.

He loved

rebels, and received gifts for the rebellious; that is my name. I fee, the Mafter calls me; he invites me by my name; and therefore, in fpite of unbelief, in fpite of the devil, in fpite of my fin and guilt, I will venture to fay, upon the credit of his word, He loved me; even guilty me, filthy me." Here is the language of faith, He loved me, and that when I was in the worst circumftances. The cafe ftands with us, as with Ezekiel's wretched infant, Ezek. xvi. 2, We have an Amorite for our father, and a Hittite for our mother. We are born and conceived in fin, all foul, and full of corruptions and there is nothing in us to allure him to love us, but rather to provoke him to loath us. What moved him to love us? Thoufands of angels ftand about him; and ten thousand times ten thousand minifter unto him." Tho' we had been good and upright, he needed us not; but, being bad and vile, whence arifes this love? Our wages is death, his gift is life. We had mifery from our parents, and have been parents for our own great misery: a fit object for fo great a God to look upon, He loved me; I was miferable in thraldom to fin and Satan: but he hath ranfomed me. I was a captive to the power of hell, and justice was inraged against me: but he hath fatisfied his own juftice for me. And this brings to the proof of this love, which is contained in the fecond part

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The life which I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

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[The fecond Sermon on this Text.]

HE fecond thing in the text is, He gave himself for me. And indeed, what comfort is it to hear, that he loved us, and not to understand, wherein? Why, here it is, He gave himself for me: where again every

word

word amplifies his exceeding love: here is a marvellous act, it is a giving, intimating, the freeness of the undertaking; a marvellous Giver, the Son of God; a marvellous gift, He gave HIMSELF; he could give no greater, no better thing: a marvellous object! for whom? for me.

1. We may obferve the Giver, or the glorious perfon giving. As, I faid, the quality of the Lover magnifies the love, fo the quality of the giver magnifies the gift. And the worthinefs and excellency of the perfon will appear, if you confider him, as a man; "He took on our nature," and here even in its loweft degree. It is a wonder, that man fhould give himself for man; for, fcarcely for a righteous man will one die, Rom. v. 7. But, this man gave himfelf for the unrighteous.-Confider him again as a good man, an innocent man. Pilate was obliged to own, what his wife faid, that he was a juft man; and God the Father owns him to be his righteous Servant. It was this righteous One, that gave himfelf. Confider him again, as a great man, royally defcended from the ancient patriarchs, and kings of Judah, the true born King of the Jews, as Pilate ftiles him, and could not, would not alter it. The least part of his difgrace had been too much for one of meaner defcent yet this man, this good man, this great man gave himself to the greatest calumnies and cruelties for us.-Yea but further, confider him as more than a man; not only the greatest of men, but greater than the greatest, fairer than the faireft; Fairer than the children of men;" for he was the Son of God, as the centurion acknowleges him, even when hanging upon the cross; Truly this was the Son of God;" this man was the great God, our Saviour, Tit. ii. 13.; the great God, who gave himself for us, &c. It is true, it is faid, the Father gave him, John iii. 16. "God fo loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, &c.: and he fpared him not, but delivered him up for us all," Rom. viii. 32. But, we fee, what Chrift fays, John v. 18. " Whatfoever the Father doth, the fame things doth the Son." The love then, of the Father, in giving his Son, doth not extenuate, but amplify the riches of Chrift's mercy, who alfo gave him

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felf

felf for us, Gal. i. 4. and, according to the Father's will, "Became obedient unto death, even the death of the crofs." Here then is a depth beyond founding, that fuch a great one gave himfelf. Here, all tongues may be dumb, and admiration may feal up our lips!

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2. Obferve the action of giving; He gave: he was not compelled to die; but, "He gave himself; I lay down my life for my fheep," John x. 18. He that alone gives life. to us, gave up his life for us. This giving imports the voluntarinefs and freenefs of the action: He gave himfelf freely; for, what is freer than a gift? He did not fell himfelf, nor fet himfelf, nor let himfelf, nor lend himfelf, but he gave himfelf: it fhews his kind difpofition. He gave himself willingly; not conftrainedly, but voluntarily. No hand could cut that ftone from the quarry of heaven: no violence could pull him from the bofsom of the Father; nay, But he came leaping upon the mountains,' Song ii. 8. He came finging and faying, "Lo, I come! I delight to do thy will, O my God," Pfal. xl. 8. Heb. x. 5,6,7. There was no neceffity lying upon him, but the neceffity of love; and of a loving paction with his Father: and when it came to the pufh, "Peter, fays he, put up thy fword; I will let none fight for me, otherwife I could command legions of angels to appear this moment on my fide: but I came to give my life a ranfom for many, and I am refolved to go on with my work; therefore, I will not fuffer an angel from heaven to move from his poft on my behalf; nor fhall any man on earth hinder me from this work." O! what a free giver was here? But a fingle word from him foundered the forces that were fent against him; when he but faid, I am be, they retired and fell backward: and, by a fingle word, he could have fhot them dead, as with an arrow of omnipotency; but, O! he was a free agent.

2. What gave he? or, whom gave he? even himself. -What did he give? not corruptible things, fuch as filver and gold: no; all the treasures of the world cannot deliver one foul; Not the blood of bulls and of goats, Heb. ix. 12. All thefe legal facrifices were but dumb figns of this tragedy; the mere figure of this donation.-Not the merit or mediation of men, or faints: no; faints on

earth

earth are finners, and have no more oil than will ferve their own lamps; but none to fpare. Saints in heaven receive a palm in their hand for themselves, but they have none to give again.-What gave he? Not any glorious angel: behrold he puts no truft in thefe fervants of his; he charges them with comparative and poffible folly "The heavens are not clean in his fight." The blessed angels are not fit to mediate between finite offenders, and an infinite Judge; nor can they be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, as he that affumed our nature, and was in all points tempted, as we are, yet without fin, Heb. iv. 15. Well, when no gift in earth or heaven could be available, He gave himself; and that in refpect of his perfon and his paflion.

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(1.) He gave himself, in refpect of his perfon. He gave himself wholly, his whole perfon, while, as God, he fatisfied; and, as man, he fuffered; and, as Godman, he faved: and hence, God is faid to redeem his church with his own blood, Acts xx. 28. And men aré faid to have crucified the Lord of glory, 1 Cor. ii. 8.

He gave himself alone, without a partner or co-adJatant; for, "Of the people there was none with him,” Ifa. Ixiii. 3. "He trode the wine-prefs alone." None bore any part of the burden with him.

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(2.) He gave himself in respect of his paffion and suffering. "He gave himself a facrifice to fatisfy divine. juftice, Eph. v. 2. He gave himself a ranfom, 1 Tim. ii. 6. And a ranfom for many, Mat. xx. 28. He gave himself an offering; his foul an offering for fin, Ifa. liii. 10. 1 Pet. iii. 10. Heb. ix. 15. He gave himself a propitiation," Rom. iii. 25. not only, that justice might be fatisfied in punishment, but glorified in pardoning fin. He gave himself an atonement, that he might joy in God thro' Chrift, by whom we receive the atonement, Rom. v. II. All these are different expreffions of his fufferings, pointing out the main end and defign of his death, to be fin, to be a curfe for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God thro' him. And he that thus gives himself for us, he in due time, gives himself to us, with all his purchase, all his riches, all his fulness of grace and glory; and for this end, he gave himself:

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Owonderful gift! He gave himfelf! Greater is the work of redemption, than that of creation: there he was a Giver; but here he is the Gift.

4. For whom did he give himself? For me, fays Paul, in his own name; and for us, fays Paul, in our name, Gal. i. 4.; and for us, Tit. ii. 14. "Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity. He gave himfelf to the death;" for whom? not for himfelf, Dan. ix. 36. "The Meffiah was cut off, but not for himself." And as it was not for himself, fo not for angels, Heb. ii. 16. "Verily he took not on him the nature of angels:" For whom then? Even for me, fays faith; and for us mankind finners, fays the gofpel; Ifa. ix. 6. "To us a child is born, to us a Son is given, &c. He was made He was made a curfe for us,"

fin for us, 2 Cor. v. 21.

Gal. iii. 13.

Now, this being a matter of great concern to us, there is a three-fold view we are to take of this part of the text; For me; or, as it is in other texts, For us.

(1.) We may view it with reference to the divine ordination from eternity: and thus for me, and for us, refpects all the elect, of whom Chrift fays, "I lay down my life for my fheep, John x. 15. Thefe are chofen in him before the foudation of the world," Eph. i. 4.

(2.) You may view it with reference to the faving application of this redemption in time. Where this application is already made, then the perfons that are the fubjects thereof are believers, and their faith is the fruit of that electing and redeeming love; for, fays Christ, "All that the Father hath given, fhall come to me," John vi. 37. And, as many as were ordained to eternal life fhall believe," Acts xiii. 48. In this fenfe, for me, refpects all actual believers.

(3.) Another view of it is with reference to the general indefinite difpenfation of the gofpel, wherein it is faid, He gave himself for us; and fo it refpects finners of all forts, to whom the gofpel comes. This is the medium between the two former, and the mean whereby God brings about his eternal purpose of love toward his elect, and makes them believe in him, namely, by this general difpenfation of his grace unto all by which means

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