overthrow of their enemies, their settlement in the promised land, their continued preservation and increase under manifold circumstances of difficulty and distress, these were subjects continually brought to their recollection by their inspired teachers: and upon the ground of such obligations every neglect of the service of God, every infringement of His laws, incurred the just reproach of ingratitude to their heavenly benefactor. But in proportion as spiritual blessings exceed the greatest temporal benefits, so does the Christian dispensation transcend the Jewish. Very extraordinary were the tokens of God's favour manifested towards his people Israel. "He had not dealt so with any na❝tion; neither had the heathen knowledge "of His laws." Yet even these peculiar marks of regard fall infinitely short of the mercies of that universal redemption wrought for both Jew and Gentile, by Him whom the prophet emphatically styled "the Sun of Righteousness," who should "arise with healing in his wings." 66 66 Upon this inexhaustible subject St. John delights to dwell. Throughout his first Epistle, he expatiates upon the Divine goodness manifested in the Christian dispensation. b Psalm cxlvii. 20. c Malachi iv. 2. From this he deduces the duty we owe to one another, as well as the duty we owe to God. "Hereby," says he, " perceive we the love of "God, because he laid down his life for us: " and we ought to lay down our lives for the "brethren "." "He that loveth not, knoweth "not God; for God is love. Herein is love, "not that we loved God, but that He loved 66 us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation "for our sinse." St. Paul urges the same considerations. God," says he, "commendeth his love to"ward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, "Christ died for us."-" Who shall separate 66 us from the love of Christ ?-Neither death, "nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to 66 66 come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other "creature, shall be able to separate us from "the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus "our Lords." "So To the like effect our Lord himself states the gracious purpose of his coming. "God loved the world, that he gave his only 66 66 66 begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life"."" Greater love hath d 1 John iii. 16. g Rom. viii. 35. 38, 39. e 1 John iv. 8. 10. h John iii. 16. no man f Rom. v. 8. "than this, that a man lay down his life for "his friends."—"A new commandment I "give unto you," (new, that is, as to the peculiar obligation on which it is founded,) "That ye love one another; as I have loved you, "that ye also love one another" 66 Hence we learn upon what foundation the great duty of love to God is understood to rest. It is comprehensively stated in the text;-"We love HIM, because He first "loved us ;"-This is a principle which instantly approves itself to our understandings; a principle, not grounded on elaborate deductions of reasoning, but on sentiments obvious to the apprehensions and congenial to the general feelings of mankind. Two main points, then, remain to be considered; first, how the love of GoD has been manifested towards us;-secondly, how we are to manifest our love towards HIM. Upon both points let us take St. John for our interpreter and guide. 1. That greatest proof of God's love to mankind, which Revelation has unfolded to our view, is thus briefly set forth by St. John; "In this was manifested the love of God "towards us, because that God sent his onlybegotten Son into the world, that we might 66 i John xv. 13. k John xiii. 34. "live through Him." This comprises the whole substance of the Christian redemption, and is that which the sacred writers chiefly dwell upon, when they magnify the Divine mercy and goodness. Other instances of that goodness are indeed frequently referred to, both in the Old and New Testament. The wonders of creation and preservation; the manifold blessings bestowed upon us by an all-bounteous Providence; that moral retribution even in the present life, which gives encouragement to the righteous, and warns the wicked of the danger of his ways;—these and numberless other topics occur in almost every book of sacred writ; and a comparison of them with the most admired passages of heathen authors, or the most distinguished works of philosophy ancient or modern, will immediately evince their infinitely superior excellence, even on these more obvious points of consideration. But when the inspired penmen treat of the spiritual blessings conferred upon man, their emotions of wonder and gratitude are raised to the highest pitch. Upon these they build their main arguments, conscious, as it were, that when once presented to the human mind in their full force, 11 John iv. 9. they could hardly fail to convince the understanding, as well as to affect the heart of every reasonable being. Who, indeed, can contemplate the Divine goodness displayed in the redemption of mankind, without acknowledging it to be such as it surpasses our utmost efforts adequately to conceive? Whether we regard this inestimable blessing with reference to the unworthiness of the objects whose disobedience had deprived them of any well-founded hope of favour, or to the means by which they are rescued from destruction;-the gratuitous mercy extended towards them while yet the demands of Divine justice are no less effectually provided for, may well excite our astonishment and admiration. "Herein is love," says the Evangelist, “not "that we loved God, but that He loved us, "and sent His Son to be the propitiation for 66 our sins." It was, "not that we loved GoD, "but that He loved us." Every act of sin, every transgression or omission of duty, is an indication either of our forgetfulness or our disregard of HIM. The mercy therefore that interposes under such circumstances for our good, is not merely gratuitous and unmerited, but it is an exercise of the very highest species of love, that of being "kind unto |