Clerk Mayor.  
Martis primo die Decembr. 1696. Annoque R. R. Will. Tertii Angliae, etc. 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 Preached before the Lord Mayor AND Court of ALDERMEN, ON Nou. the 29th 1696. Being the First Sunday in Advent.  
By L. BLACKBURNE, Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty.  
LONDON, Printed by Tho. Warren for Thomas Bennet, at the Half-Moon in St. Paul's Churchyard, 1697.   

Published by the same Author.  
THE unreasonableness 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 Us, for Difference r. different, p. 16. l. 20. for and r. an,   

A SERMON Preached, etc.  John III. 16. 
For God so loved the World, that He gave His Only Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have Everlasting Life.  
THat a Being infinitely Perfect should delight in the work of its own hands; that Goodness itself should 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, fallen wilfully from that Uprightness, given over to Sin, and polluted with Wickedness, should with all those spots and stains about it be the Object of God's Love, to such a degree, as that he should 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 hopelessly devoted Sacrifice to his Everlasting Vengeance. 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 deceived, 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 shattered, 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 offered to our acceptance. For God so loved the World, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should 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 should 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 should 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 Dependence, 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 , 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 glorified not himself to be made an Highpriest: 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 induced by the voluntary acceptance of Offices Ministerial to the great work of Our Redemption, which is not founded in the Divine Nature, considered simply and absolutely in itself; but in the Relation only which their Personal Properties bear to each other, and not with respect to the different and unequal Charges they have graciously been pleased to take upon 'em, for the compass that End.  
Considered 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 Unequal 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 Governor 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 designed that inestimable Victim for us, which alone could 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, should 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, entirely 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 entered 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 vain do we search for any thing in God's Nature, or our own, for any Laws or Principles of Nature or Reason, that might oblige him to it on his part, or incline him on ours.  
There was not any tye upon him to this Gift, in respect of his own Nature; from any Natural, from any Moral, or Political Necessity. For of all the Operations of the Blessed Trinity, the Eternal Generation of the Son, and the Eternal Procession of the Holy Ghost alone, have in 'em any proper and natural necessity: All other extraneous things are the Works of God's Free Pleasure, which he order according to the Counsel of his Will; that is, so as it was free for him from all Eternity not so to order 'em as he does. There can be no natural necessity in God to produce or order any thing without him; for then that Production, and that Order, must necessarily have been from all Eternity, must have been as Eternal as himself.  
There is a Moral Necessity indeed in God, according to which his External Actions, though free in themselves, are determined, as to their Qualities, by the standing and unchangeable Rule of his Infinite Perfections. But he was not a Debtor to Man on account of any of these, to find a ransom for his Sins, who had made himself a contradiction to all those Perfections, and the natural Object of God's hatred and wrath. His Power and Goodness he had shown in Creating him; it was now time to vindicate his Justice and Truth in awarding his Punishment, and verifying his Sentence. He had possessed him with Integrity, and left him free in his Choice, had set Life or Death before him, Happiness or Misery equally proportionable; and when the fatal Transgression had determined our Lot, God had been Eternally and Infinitely Good as well as Just, though he had passed us by in our Sins unregarded and unassisted, and left us to the deserved Issues of his Everlasting Indignation. For his Justice can no more destroy his Goodness, than his Goodness can defeat or disarm his Justice. What the Case may be as to a Political Necessity, seems at first sight indeed of a something different consideration; and vain presumptuous Man naturally affecting independency in all things, will be apt to flatter himself with Arguments drawn from the Nature of Government, that this Gift of God is not so free as we pretend; and that he being the supreme Magistrate and Governor of the World, was bound for that reason, not to give up the whole body of his Subjects to the severity of His Laws, which demanded their final and universal Destruction: But that by the very Nature of his Office he was obliged to find some way of preserving them with whom that Relation of Government might still subsist and continue.  
For the End of all Laws and Government being the Preservation of the Society to be governed by 'em, though the safety of that may well be provided for in the Destruction of such Private Men, as by their crimes entrench upon it: Yet in the Case of an univeral Defection of all his subjects, when the Lives of the Whole are forfeited to the Laws; it would be contrary to the End of those Laws, for a Prince to take the forfeiture; and the reason and interest of Government, as well as his own Good Nature would force him to a Pardon.  
But the vanity of this imagination in Relation to God's Government, will manifestly appear if we consider the very great difference there is between Divine and Humane Laws; and the vast disproportion between the Nature of the Sovereignty of God, and that of the Mightiest Princes upon Earth.  
The Laws of Men 'tis true are made for the benefit of Society; and 'tis but just therefore that they should give way to the good of it whenever they happen to come in competition. But the Laws of God were not made for the sake of Men; on the contrary the whole Society of Men was made for those Laws. The Glory of God was the End for which Man was made, and that Glory consists in the observation of his Laws, which are founded on the essential and immutable Perfections of his Nature, and which justly and necessarily call for the Ruin of a Society that has broke 'em, when it was made on purpose for their observation.  
Besides, there is a vast disproportion between the Sovereignty of God and that of Earthly Princes and Magistrates.  
A King cannot destroy the whole Body of his Subjects however Criminal, but at the same time he must extinguish his own Sovereignty and Dominion, and be himself, by that means, reduced to a private Capacity.  
But the Sovereignty of God depends not upon Men, that it should be extinguished, even with the whole race of 'em, Thousands of Angels would still stand before him, and ten thousand times ten thousand minister unto him. The Heavens would still declare the Glory of God, and the Firmament show his handiwork. Or if he should destroy the whole Creation, it were still in his Power to make a new one, and re-establish that External Glory and Sovereignty which is neither any way necessary to his Being, nor does add in the least to the internal and essential splendour and Majesty of a God that is infinitely happy, and self-sufficient.  
It is plain therefore, that a God of infinite Holiness and Justice (though it was free for him to make, or not make, such a Creature as Man, capable of choosing Good or Evil, yet as he was pleased to make him such) could not in consequence of those Attributes but establish an inviolable Relation between that Good or Evil, and rewards or punishments, and that not any Natural Powers, not any Moral Perfections, or Political Capacity of his own, could lay any necessity upon him not to accomplish that establishment in the Destruction of the Miserable Offenders.  
But it was his good pleasure to provide a Ransom for us; and if it appear farther, That there was nothing in Man which could deserve it from him, there will every circumstance be found to concur, which is necessary to make a Gift entirely and absolutely Free.  
And what was there in Man that could deserve any thing from his Maker? If we were righteous, what give we to him, or what receiveth he at our hands? Can a Man be profitable unto God, as his righteousness may profit the Son of Man? There is too great a distance between God and his Creatures, too great a dependence and debt on the one side, to allow of any capacity of deserving from the other. The very best use Man makes of the Gifts of God, cannot discharge the Debts with which those very Gifts have loaded him: How then can he possibly bring any thing to the account of Merit, who is at best so far short of a just Payment? But alas! This Argument turns upon a supposition by much too favourable! For he was so far from deserving any Good from God, that his Merit was Hell, and his Desert Damnation: He had sold himself to Sin, and given himself up to Vanity; his ways were perverse before the Lord; Paradise itself could not tempt him to be honest a little while, but he would needs serve the Devil as soon as God had made him. This was the condition of lost Man, when yet God so loved 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 cancelled 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 rescued from perishing Everlastingly, but Eternal Glory and Happiness was purchased for him. For the End God proposed 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 considered in two respects; either as a punishment inflicted by divine Justice on that Victim which was offered in our stead; or as a Voluntary Oblation which Christ made of himself to purchase for us an inheritance in the highest Heavens, by Virtue of that Covenant which he made with the Father as Mediator between God and Man, it is his satisfaction which respects the Gild 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 performed already; but the acquisition of Heaven for us, which is an End above and beyond what that satisfaction was determined to. Not that the Merit or Satisfaction in the Sacrifice of Christ can any way be separated or divided from it (it could not satisfy if it were not Meritorious; it could 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 should of itself reinstate him in that Happiness, and supersede by that means all manner of necessity of any farther purchase 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 could lay no claim to from any natural right, and therefore such as could 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. 'Tis 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, unconstrained by any Power, unobliged by any Law, unengaged by any Merit of ours that could deserve it.  
3. Which leads us to the consideration of the Principle, upon which God was pleased to bestow this Gift, his Infinite and unbounded Love and Compassion.  
Infinite and Unbounded indeed had that Goodness need to be, which could extend itself 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 renounced 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 could 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 erased; all the Faculties of our Souls disordered and reversed; and the whole Body of Sin reigned in triumph over us.  
But though his Almighty Love reached us in this State of Sin and Wickedness, it was not under this consideration that it did so. Such an imagination would be abusive and unworthy of God; inconsistent with his Infinite Holiness and Purity, and irreconcilable to his Justice, which demanded their Vindication. It was the Misery of Man alone which moved 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 hopelessly 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 should have inclinations of rendering himself placable to Mankind; that he should be moved with compassion to such a degree as to procure us the means of Reconciliation; since even those means, by the satisfaction given, served but yet more to raise the Glory and Honour of his Government, as well as to purchase for us Everlasting Happiness and Communion with him, by the most exalted flight of inestimable Love. A Love worthy our warmest attention to all the endearing circumstances of it! worthy our utmost acknowledgements and gratitude for so infinite an Obligation!  
To make us out of nothing was an Act of kindness, to which God had on him no antecedent Obligation; but to redeem us from what was worse than nothing, out of Eternal Slavery to Sin and Death; how wonderfully does it increase and endear the Benefaction!  
Life itself was a favour which we had no title to; it could not be our due, when we had not a being to claim it in, we could not expect it when we were not so much as even in expectation. How enlarged then and unexhausted is that bounty which gives us Life Eternal in Happiness Everlasting!  
The Infinite Majesty of God, and our own unworthiness, had set him at a distance from us wholly insurmountable; his brightness forbade all approach, and his anger all hopes of access: yet he gave his Son, his only begotten, to take upon him our Nature, that he might draw it into an intimate, an endless and inseparable Union with his own.  
He gave the Son of his Love for Rebels and Enemies; from the Throne of his Glory, above the Heavens, to be born among Beasts, and to die among Thiefs: He gave him for Us, when he passed by the fallen Angels: Those once Blessed Spirits that filled his Presence, and left 'em banished for ever from the Joys of it, bound up in Chains of Everlasting Darkness. For verily he took not on him the Nature of Angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham, Heb. 2.16. That in him all the Nations of the earth might be blessed.  
So universal and unconfined was the goodness of God, as unlimited in the reach of it, as intense in degree! It was not restrained to one Family or People; within the private Enclosure of the House of Judah, or the narrow bounds of the Land of Canaan: It spread itself wide among the Nations, The Inhabitants of the Isles may be glad thereof. It took in all Kindred, Tongues and People; it extended to the uttermost parts of the Earth. For God is no narrow selfish Being, with partial regards and contracted Bounty; no Arbitrary Dispenser of a groundless Choice, but an absolutely Free and general Benefactor. The World which God so loved comprehends all Mankind, and the value of the ransom he gave for it is sufficient to satisfy for as many Worlds as the wantonest Philosopher can imagine, or the gayest Conqueror can wish for. He would that all Men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth: 'Tis Infidelity alone which frustrates and makes useless to us all the gracious offers of Infinite Compassion. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have Everlasting Life.  
4. Which brings me to the condition appointed for making this Gift of any use or advantage to us, even Our faith in Christ; without which it is impossible for us to attain to that Salvation which he came to purchase.  
For we must not dream of a Covenant without a condition, or expect the benefit of the one without performing the other. God did not so love the world as to send his Son to carry Men to Heaven against their wills: But he sent him to make Men capable of going thither, and to enable 'em to perform what he requires of 'em in order to it. And he requires nothing but what was fit for him to propose, nothing but what is necessary for us to perform. Should God have proposed severe and arbitrary Terms to us, in order to our Deliverance from the Misery we were fallen into, we must have had very shallow apprehensions of that Misery, to have been capable of thinking any possible means of escaping it insupportable; but when the condition he enjoins is suitable to his Nature and to ours; agreeable to his Divine Perfections, and in its own Nature necessary to our Happiness, we have reason, with Joy, to accept the gracious offer, and with a grateful alacrity to perform the Condition.  
Now it is very suitable to God's Nature, that he should make our Faith in his Son this Condition; for it is an acknowledgement of many of his Divine Perfections, and a homage naturally due to 'em, when they are once discovered to our Minds. Men may attempt to persuade our Belief, but God alone has a right to command it. He has an absolute Authority over our Souls and all their Faculties, over our Thoughts and Understandings, to pull down strong holds, and cast down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and to bring into captivity every thought into the obedience of Christ. So that we are to believe what he teaches us of himself, and what he promises to us, without demanding other proofs or farther reasons: our judgements are no longer at our own command, we have no right to examine and canvas the natural grounds or modes of those Mysteries he requires us to believe; but our Minds are led Captive, and given absolutely up to the Power and Force of his Authority alone.  
It is an acknowledgement of his Goodness which assures us he will withhold nothing from us that he in his Wisdom sees necessary, or even fit for our knowledge; and an acknowledgement of his Infallibility, as well as of his Truth; that he is as uncapable of deceiving us, as of designing to do so.  
Thus our Faith gives to our Blessed Saviour the due Honour of these Perfections in the Godhead; and whatever action of ours contributes most to the setting out the Glory of the Divine Attributes, it is most suitable to the Divine Nature to require it of us.  
But it is not only agreeable to the Nature of God; it is farther in its own Nature, that is, by the natural tendency of the act itself, absolutely necessary to our Happiness.  
For it is a mistake to think this an Arbitrary condition, or means of applying to us the Fruit of this Gift, which God might indifferently have chosen, or left for any other; and that it is only necessary, because God was pleased to make it so. It was necessary to the very nature of the transaction, by which our Saviour was to become our Pledge and our Ransom, and to represent our Persons in satisfying for our Sins. For our Saviour taking upon him the Office of a Mediator, between God and Man, to make up the great difference between our Maker and his Creatures, by bearing the punishment of our Sins, in his own Person. It was not only necessary, that he should be authorised on God's part, whose consent was required to the Translation of the Punishment from our Persons to his; but that we also, on our part, by our Faith, should accept him as our Mediator; that by that consent of ours to his acting for us we might have some Title to the Divine Mercy and Favour from the satisfaction and Merit of that Mediation with the Father. It is a vain Mediation between Two, where the consent of one Party is wanting, and there is no possible way of expressing ours, but by resigning our Faith, our Trust and Confidence, by giving ourselves up entirely to the Direction and Obedience of the Son of God, who had the goodness for our sakes, to submit himself to that Office and Employment.  
And what has he not done to establish that Faith? And what has he left unattempted to engage our affections? If Objects of sense alone can gain our attention, he made himself so to the World in the Veil of his Flesh. If signs from Heaven and astonishing Miracles can assert the Divinity of his Person and of his Doctrine, his Life was full of such arguments and assurances; and his resurrection from the Dead was an evidence as undeniable in the Fact, as convincing in the Proof.  
If dark and obscure Mysteries seem to shock this Faith, the Evidence of their Truth is founded upon Facts as contestable as the commands for receiving 'em are positive and express.  
If Reason or Interest can incline our Belief, it is by its own proper tendency and by the Law of the New Covenant, a necessary Condition of our Happiness.  
And when our Faith in Christ is thus enlivened and actuated; when it is enforced with such Ties, and supported with such Evidence; we must be utterly lost to all that is tender or sensible, to all that is honest or grateful in human Nature, if we are able to resist such amazing instances of the Love of God and of our Blessed Saviour, as have flame enough in 'em to raise and to transport the most degenerate and obdurate Natures.  
At the returns of a generous Deliverer from our Temporal Enemies, an universal Joy and acknowledgement justly spreads itself through his People: it breaks through the wise Man's firmest compos'dness, for a Joy that is sensible will be seen; it transports the full Crowds into loud Acclamations, for acknowledgements that are real will be heard; even the rumours of fresh Enemies disturb not their cheerfulness; so full are they of his Presence, and secure in his Conduct.  
What bounds then can confine the excess of our transports at the coming of this Conqueror of our spiritual Adversaries! At the coming of a Conqueror assured of his Victory over Principalities, over Powers, over the Rulers of the darkness of this World, over spiritual Wickednesses in high Places. The very Angels themselves will join in the tuneful consort, and break out into Heavenly Songs and Hallelujahs. Glory be to God on High, on Earth Peace, Good will towards Men! For God so loved the World that he gave his Only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have Everlasting Life. To Him, with the Father, and the Holy Spirit, Three Persons and one God, be all Glory, Honour, Power, Might, Majesty and Dominion, from this time forth for evermore! Amen.  
FINIS.