turn. We are too indigent to be fuited with fuch a fupply. There was a fulness of grace in the human nature of Chrift: He received not the Spirit by meafure, John iii. 34. a fulness like that of light, in the fun, or of water in the fea; ì speak not in respect of coramunication, but fufficency. A fulnefs incomparably above the measure of angels, yet it was not properly an infinite fulnefs; it was a created, and therefore a limited fulnefs. If it could be conceived as feparated from the Deity, furely fo many thirsty guilty fouls, as every day drink deep and large draughts of grace and mercy from him, would (if I may fo fpeak) fink him to the very bottom; nay, it could afford no fupply at all, but only in a moral way. But when the conduit of his humanity, is infeparably united to the infinite inexhauftible fountain of the Deity, who can look into the depths thereof? If now there be grace enough for finners in an all-fufficient God, it is in Christ. And indeed in any other there cannot be enough. The Lord gives this reafon for the peace and confidence of finners, Ifa. liv. 4, 5. Thou shalt not be afraid, nor confounded, thou shalt not be put to fhame; but how fhall this be? So much fin and not afhamed? So much guilt and not confounded? Thy Maker, faith he, is thine Husband, the Lord of hofts is his name, and thy Redeemer, the holy one of Ifrael, the God of the whole earth fhall he be called; This is the bottom of all peace, confidence and confolation; the grace and mercy of our Maker, of the God of the whole earth. So are kindness and power tempered in him! he makes us and mars us! he is our God, and our Goel, our Redeemer. Look unto me, faith he, and be faved, I am God and

none

none else. Ifa. xlv. 22. Surely one shall fay, in Jehovah have I ftrength and righteousness, ver. 24.

And on this ground it is, that if all the world fhould (if I may fo fay) fet themselves to drink free. grace, mercy and pardon; drawing water continually from the wells of falvation; if they should fet themselves to draw from one fingle promife, an angel ftanding by, and crying drink O my friends, yea drink abundantly, take fo much grace and pardon as fhall be abundantly fufficient for the world of fin which is in every one of you; they would not be able to fink the grace of the promise one hairs breadth. There is enough for millions of worlds if they were, but because it flows into it from an infinite bottomlefs fountain. Fear not, O worm Jacob, I am God and not man, the bottom of finners confolation. This is that head of gold mentioned, Cant. v. 11. that most precious fountain of grace and mercy. This infinitenefs of grace in refpect of its fpring and fountain, will anfwer all objections that might hinder our fouls drawing nigh to communion with him, and from a free embracing of him. Will not this fuit us in all our diftreffes? What is our finite guilt before it? Shew me the finner that can spread his iniquities to the dimenfions (if I may fo fay) of this grace? Here is mercy enough for the greatest, the oldeft, the stubborneft tranfgreffor, Why will ye die O ye boufe of Ifrael? Take heed of them who would rob you of the Deity of Chrift: if there were no more grace for me then what can be treasured up in a meer man, I should rejoice my portion might be under rocks and mountains.

Confider hence his eternal, free, unchangeable love. Were the love of Chrift unto us, but the love of a meer man, though never so excellent, in

nocent

nocent and glorious, it must have a beginning, it must have an ending, and perhaps be fruitlefs. The love of Chrift in his human nature towards his, is exceeding intenfe, tender, precious, compaffionate, abundantly heightned by a fenfe of our miseries, feeling of our wants, experience of our temptations, all flowing from that rich stock of grace, pity and compaffion, which on purpose for our good and fupply, was bestowed on him. But yet this love as fuch, cannot be infinite, nor eternal, nor from itself abfolutely unchangeable. Were it no more, though not to be parallelled, nor fathomed, yet our Saviour could not fay of it, as he doth, as my Father loveth me, fo have I loved you, John xv. 9. His love could not be compared with, and equalled unto the divine love of the Father, in thofe properties of eternity, fruitfulness, and unchangeablenefs, which are the chief anchors of the foul, rolling itfelf on the bofom of Chrift, but now,

1. It is eternal. Come ye near unto me, hear you this, I have not, faith he, Spoken from the beginning in fecret, from the time that it was, there am I, and now the Lord God and his Spirit hath fent me, Ifa. xlviii. 16. He himself is yesterday, to day, and for ever, and fo is his love, being his who is Alpha, and Omega, the firft and the laft, the beginning, and the ending, which is, which was, and which is to come, Rev. i. 11.

2. Unchangeable. Our love is like ourselves; as we are, fo are all our affections: fo is the love of Chrift, like himfelf; we love one, one day, and hate him the next: he changeth, and we change alfo; this day he is our right hand, our right eye, the next day cut him off, pluck him out. Jefus Christ is fill the fame, and fo is his love: In the beginning

beginning he laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of his hands, they hall perish but he remaineth, they fhall all wax old as doth a garment, and as a vesture shall he fold them up, and they shall be changed; but he is the fame, and his years fail not, Heb. i. 10, 11, 12. He is the Lord, and he changeth not, and therefore we are not confumed. Whom he loves he loves unto the end, Mal. iii. 6. John xiii. 1. His love is fuch as never had beginning, and never fhall have ending.

3. It is alfo fruitful. Fruitful in all gracious iffues and effects. A man may love another as his own foul, yet perhaps that love of his cannot help him, he may thereby pity him in prifon, but not relieve him: bemoan him in mifery, but not help him: fufer with him in trouble, but not ease him. We cannot love grace into a child, nor mercy into a friend; we cannot love them into heaven, though it may be the great defire of our foul. It was love that made Abraham cry, Oh that Ishmael might live before thee, but it might not be. But now, the love of Chrift, being the love of God, is effectual and fruitful in producing all the good things which he willeth unto his beloved. He loves life, grace and holiness into us: he loves us alfo into covenant, foves us into heaven. Love in him is properly to will good to any one: whatever good Chrift by his love, wills to any, that willing is operative of that good.

These three qualifications of the love of Christ, make it exceedingly eminent, and him exceeding defirable. How many millions of fins, in every one of the elect, (every one whereof were enough to condemn them all,) hath this love overcome? What I mountains

mountains of unbelief doth it remove? Look upon the converfation of any one faint, confider the frame of his heart, fee the many stains and fpots, the defilements and infirmities, wherewith his life. is contaminated, and tell me whether the love that bears with all this, be not to be admired. And is it not the fame towards thousands every day? what ftreams of grace, purging, pardoning, quickening, affifting, do flow from it every day? This is our Beloved, O ye daughters of Jerufalem.

2. He is defireable and worthy our acceptation, as confidered in his humanity; even therein alfo in reference to us, he is exceedingly defireable. I fhall only in this note unto you two things; 1. Its freedom from fin,

2. Its fulness of grace, in both which regards the fcripture fets him out as exceedingly lovely and amiable.

1. He was free from fin. The Lamb of God, without fpot, and without blemish. The Male of the flock to be offered unto God, the curfe falling on all other oblations, and them that offer them, Mal. i. 14. The purity of the fnow, is not to be compared with the whitenefs of this Lily, of this Rofe of Sharon, even from the womb. For fuch an High Priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled feparate from finners, Heb. vii. 26. Sanctified perfons, whose stains are in any measure washed away, are exceeding fair in the eye of Chrift himfelf. Thou art all fair, faith he, my beloved, thou haft no fpot in thee. How fair then is he, who never had the least spot or stain?

It is true, Adam at his creation had this spotlefs purity, fo had the angels. But they came immediately from the hand of God, without concurrence

of