of the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and born of her, yet without sin." "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt with us"-" God was manifest in the flesh." Christ was truly man, having a true body, spirit, and soul like our own, except that he was free from all sin. The phrase "Son of Man" is a well-known Hebraism for man. We have an instance of this in the fourth verse of Ps. viii.: "What is man, that thou art mindful of him." And the parallel and equivalent line is" and the son of man, that thou visitest him?" The appellation "the Son of Man" marks at once the Messiah as truly a man, and at the same time, as distinguished from all other men. He is so distinguished in a variety of ways-as the Son of Man. He is the perfect, the normal man-the representative man-the second Adam-the Lord from heaven-the God-man mediator-God manifest in the flesh, and the predicted man like unto Mosesthe Messiah of the Old Testament prophecy. And he is sent of the Father. "God sent His Son"-"He gave His only Son." God did not leave all mankind to perish in the estate of sin and misery, whereunto our first parents fell by transgression; but out of His mere good pleasure, by the gift of His Son, He has brought all who truly believe in Him into an estate of salvation. In the great economy of human redemption, the Father sustains the majesty of Divinity. He is the fountain of authority-the source of judgment and of mercy. He is just, and yet the justifier of them that believe in His Son, the great Redeemer. While the Son and the Father are essentially one, in the economy of grace, they sustain two offices, and the Father is greater than the Son. The Father invests the Son with the character of Mediator, and sends him forth on his mission, and promises him his reward. When, therefore, the Father is said to have sent the Son, the meaning is, that Jesus was divinely authorized and commissioned to act as the Saviour of the world; to do and suffer all that was necessary for the attainment of the salvation of man, in accordance with the perfections of the Divine character and the principles of the Divine govern

ment.

II. The origin of the economy of Divine mercy is here declared to be the love of God. It is an error of very serious magnitude to represent God as a being of resentments so fierce that nothing could mitigate them but the tears and prayers, the blood and death of His only Son. This is the view of the Divine character we are frequently charged with holding. But this is not true. It is not the compassion or pity of God that is purchased by the death of Christ, but the souls of men. He laid down his life as a ransom for us. The text says positively that "God so loved the world." The primary source of salvation is the love of God, who is rich in mercy. He was self

moved to show mercy. All His motives to love us were found in His own perfect benignity. Christ did not die that God might love man. He died because God loved man. "God commendeth His love to us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." "In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him." "Herein is love; not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiator of our sins." The atonement, then, is not the cause, but the effect of the love of God. The Supreme Being was under no necessity to provide salvation for us. Our goodness extendeth not to Him. His revenue of glory would have been forever complete without us. Nor was there anything in us to merit such an interposition of mercy. God, as the self-existing, all-sufficient, and Almighty Creator, traveled not out of Himself for a motive. He loved us because He would, and He sent His Son to redeem us, and so to redeem us as to magnify His law, and harmonize justice, truth, and holiness, with the exercise of mercy to the penitent and believing. As man had violated the divine law, he was liable to the dreadful consequences of transgression. He had sinned, and he deserved to die. To all created beings his fate seemed fixed. But God, who is rich in mercy, devised a plan by which the evil of sin might be exhibited to the intelligent universe in a light far stronger than if the whole race of man had perished forever, and yet the violators of His law He saved with an everlasting salvation.

This plan was to send His own Son to take our place, to suffer and die for us. He made His Son, who knew no sin, to be a sinoffering for us, "that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." "God laid on him the iniquities of us all." "God hath set forth His Son to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins, that he might be just, and yet the justifier of him that believes in Jesus;" that he might indeed be a "just God, and a Saviour." It was to rescue us from perdition, to renew our natures, and give us a fitness for heaven, that "God spared not His own Son, but delivered him up" as a victim in our room and for our transgressions. He was wounded for our iniquities, and the chastisement of our peace was on him. If it were a strong proof of Abraham's love to God, that he did not withhold his son, his only son Isaac, how shall we estimate the love of God to our lost world, in giving up His only begotten and well-beloved Son to be a sacrifice and an offering for our salvation.

III. The next topic in the text is the great design of Christ's coming into the world. It was not to condemn the world. He came not to destroy the Gentiles, as the Jews thought the Messiah would do; but to save both Jews and Gentiles, who would

believe in him. Jewish teachers expected that Messiah would punish the heathen nations, when he came for the deliverance of their own people. It was, however, not to condemn, but to save the world that God sent his Son. He came not to destroy men's lives, but to save them from the evils of sin-to deliver them from ignorance and error, and guilt and depravity and wretchedness, in all their various forms. Messiah's great mission is described here both negatively and positively negatively, "not to condemn"-"that the world may not perish"-that as sinners men may not fall under the awful consequences of their transgressions. As the whole world lieth in wickedness; as the wages of sin is death; as men are alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is in them. As they are by nature sunk in ignorance and moral pollution, so they must sink deeper and deeper in guilt and depravity and misery, unless, some remedy is offered. This remedy is the mission of the Son of God into our world. He came to deliver men--not one particular nation, but men of every nation, from the tremendous aggregation of evils consequent upon rebellion against God. And hence, positively God sent his Son that the world might have life-that the world through him might be saved." The object of his death is not merely to deliver us from sin, but to raise us to holiness; not merely to rescue us from perdition, but to place us in heaven; not merely to save us from perdition, but to redeem us to God, and to make us holy and happy forever. The design of Messiah's mission was therefore wholly different in three most important points from what the Jews expected. Punishment was not at all the object of the Messiah's coming. The deliverance which he came to effect was not secular, but spiritual, and it was intended, not for the nation of the Jews exclusively, but for mankind generally. The object of his mission was purely merciful. His salvation had a direct reference to the soul and eternity.

IV. And what, my beloved hearers, were the great means by which the design of Messiah's mission was to be accomplished? Two clauses in the text point out these means: "God gave his Son"-" and as Moses," &c. The first of these is literal, and the second is figurative. "God gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him might not perish, but have everlasting life." This is a literal statement of facts; and here again our Lord corrects the false views generally entertained by the Jews. They expected that the Messiah was to accomplish the deliverance of Israel, and the destruction of the nations, by being exalted or "lifted up" elevated first to the throne of David, his father, and then to the throne of the world. Now, says our Lord, it is true, Messiah shall be lifted up; but he shall be lifted up in a very different way from what

you expect. He shall be lifted up, not as David or Solomon was to the throne of Israel, but as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. As if He had said, "There is a striking analogy be tween the way in which the Messiah shall obtain spiritual and eternal salvation for mankind, and the way in which the serpent stung the Israelites in the wilderness, were cured of the otherwise incurable distemper which they had brought on themselves by their unbelief and disobedience." (See Numb. xxi. 49.) By being "lifted up," we are told in another place, he signified what death he should die. (John xii. 32, 33.) The salvation of mankind is to be obtained by the Messiah's dying an accursed death, as the victim for human transgressions; and by his being held up in the Gospel as the Lamb slain from before the foundations of the world to take away the sin of the world, men are to be converted and made partakers in the blessings of the kingdom of heaven. This was not what Nicodemus expected. He looked for a great temporal prince, who should reign on the throne of David. How great, then, must have been his astonishment to be told that the Messiah was to see the death of a felonious slave. This is indeed a mystery-yet it is a precious truth, that we are saved by the Divine Incarnate Saviour, suffering and dying as a victim for sin-dying on the cross. The two phrases, "God gave his son," and "the Son of Man lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness," convey to us this great truth. They both agree in assuring us that God graciously appointed his Son to be the Saviour of the world. If we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead-who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification, then are we justified by faith, and have peace with God. (Rom. iv. 5.) "He gave himself for our sins," according to the Scriptures, "that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father." He bore our sins in his own body on the tree. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the richness of God's grace.

V. A still more important point presented, my fellow citizens, in the passage of Scripture before us is, How shall we obtain a personal interest in the blessings procured by the gift of God, and the lifting up of the Son of Man? Here, again, we have a two-fold representation. Figuratively, looking at the Son of Man lifted up, and literally, believing on the Son of God, "that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life." The Jews believe that they should secure a share in the blessings of the Messiah's Kingdom by being descendants of Abraham; and that the only way a Gentile could participate with them in these blessings, was by submitting to Messiah's conquering arms, and becoming proselytes to the Jewish religion. In opposition

to these false views, our Lord states that it was only by believing in Him, the Messiah, as "lifted up"--as "given by the Father, that even a Jew could become a partaker of the blessings of his salvation; and that every Gentile who should thus believe in him, should become a partaker, likewise, of the same blessings. The allusion to the lifting up of the serpent in the wilderness illustrates most happily and clearly the means by which the Messiah was to obtain salvation for men, and the manner in which, as individuals, we are to become interested in that salvation. The meaning cannot be misunderstood. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness that whosoever 'of the bitten Hebrews looked at it might not die, but live, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever of the ruined race of man believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. As there was no difficulty in apprehending the meaning of the statement in regard to the brazen serpent, so there ought to be no difficulty in understanding the statement in regard to the lifting up of the Son of Man. Every serpent-stung Israelite who looked on the lifted up serpent of brass, was healed. So every sinner who believes on Christ as the Messiah lifted up, shall be saved. We all know what it is to look; and we may all know equally well what it is to believe. To believe, in a Scriptural sense, is just to receive as true all that God has said to us. To believe in Christ the Son of Man, lifted up, is to receive as true what is stated to us in the Gospel concerning him. The terms of salvation are particularly and specifically set forth in several passages of the New Testament, such as the following: "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life." "He that heareth my Word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation." "It is the will of Him that sent me, that every one that believeth on me may have everlasting life." "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." "By grace are we saved through faith."

But finally, the economy of salvation, like the pillar of cloud and fire between the Hebrews and Egyptians, has two sides to it. One is radiant with glory, the other is dark and threatening, and whosoever looks upon it, has need to be troubled. The guilt and danger of neglecting this method of salvation are unspeakably great. How strikingly are they stated in the verses before us: "He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation," &c.

"He that believeth not" comprehends all who reject Christ as set forth in the Gospel. All who discredit the testimony divine, and all who deny it-and all who refuse to obey Christ's commands come under the condemnation spoken of in the text. No matter what might have been the excuse of the serpent-bitten Hebrew if he looked not to the serpent of brass, lifted up by