Exposition of the Festival Epistles and Gospels, Explication of epistles and gospels 2 · Part 16
The Gospell,
Iohn 3.16.
So God loued the world, that he gaue his only begotten sonne, that whosoeuer beleeueth in him should not perish but hauehave euerlasting life, &c.
IT is reported of a noble Lantgraue, aManlius loc. com. tit. de calamitat.Fredericke by name, that the very gingling of his spurre was a terrour to his foes. And so the very repeating of this sweet text, is able to make Satan our greatest enemy to quake, for it is (as bMartin. Mollerus in loc.one calleth it) a common armory for the Christian, as it were the tower of cCant. 4.4.Dauid, a thousand shields hang therein, and all the targets of the strong …. Apply this one sentence to thy soule, and thou shalt in thy most grieuous agonie, dEphes. 6.16.quench all the fiery dar…s of the deuill. It brancheth it selfe into 3. considerations especially.
who, God loued.
what, the world.
how, so that hee gaue his only begotten sonne, &c.
Ambitious men in the court, loose their time, their liberty, their estate, yea sometime with Iscariot they sell vnderunder hand their owne soule, their owne Sauiour, to gaine the Princes respect, or else some fauour of his chiefe Fauourite. But behold a greater then Salomon in all his royalty, higher then the highest, immortall, almighty, without beginning or end loued vsus, and eDiez. Cont. 1. in loc.his louelove must of necessity bee greater then others louelove, for that himselfe is the greatest of all.
God loued, and herein he… neither expected any correspondence of louelove, for (saith our text) hee loued the world. That hee should louelove the glorious Angels is not strange, because they be his fHib. 1.7.messengers & ministers, executing his gP…al. 103.2….11.pleasure. That he should louelove good men is not strange, because they louelove him, O thou whō my soule loueth, Cant. 1.6. That he should louelove both his witlesse and his senselesse creatures is not strange, because hPs…. 148.5.fire and haile, snow and vapours, wind and storme fulfill his word. iAretius.But herein appeares the greatnesse of his louelove▪ that he loued the world mundum immundism, the worthlesse world k… in …lying in wickednesse, casting out its malice (saith the lI… 5.19.Prophet) as the fountaine casteth out her waters. A world (as m…Augustine describeth) impuris v… lupratibus illerebosies, nefandis c udelitatibus furiosus, …:bus & terroribus inimieus. A bad world, a mad world, a deceiving world, a blind world that knew him not Ioh 1.10. A bloody world, that n…hated him and all his. Herein God setteth out his louelove toward vsus for that he reconciled vsus to himselfe, euen while we were his enemies, Rom. 5.10. he loued o…vsus first, euen before wee would, yea before we could louelove him. p…He that is most high and most holy, debtor vntounto no man, and wenting no thing, loued vsus which are but q…dust and ashes, r…. 27.conceiued in sinne, and brought forth in iniquity, s…. 51. … …corrupt in ou… conuersation, and abominable, doing no good, and in…ected with eueryevery kind of euill, euen from the sole of the foot vntounto the head, there was in vsus nothing whole, but wounds and swelling, and sores full of put…if…tion, Esay 1.6.
But how did hee louelove? so loued. that is, so fatherly, so freely, so fully, that he gaue. Hee did not sell, or let, or lend: but giuegive. tSee … lact. …pan…Not in Angell, or a Prophet, or any seruant: but a sonne. And that not anothers, but his: and his sonne not adoptiue, but naturall, his begotten sonne: and further, not one among many, but his onelyonly begotten sonne. If a man had 32. sonnes as uKiliuns in loc.Babo, or seuenty sonnes as Gideon, Iudg 8.30. Or 80. sonnes as Scilurus, or if a man had as many sons as a woman in Paris, called xRestitut. of decayedintelligence, pag. 3. and it is written on her tombe in Saint Innocents Church-yard ParisYoland Baillie, from whose body while shee liued (as we read) issued 295. children; yet he would hardly part with any to his friend, much lesse to his foe. When the Patriarke Iacob had conceiued that Ioseph his sonne was deuoured of some wilde beast, yGen. 37.34.he rent his cloathes, and put sakcloath about his loines, and sorrowed for him a long season. And when his other sonnes and his daughters rose vp to comfort him, he would not bee comforted, but said, I will surely go downe into the graue vntounto my son mourning. How bitterly did Dauid lament the death of a rebellious sonne, z2. Sam. 18.33O my sonne Absalon. my sonne, my sonne Absalon: would God I had died for thee, O Absalon, my sonne, my sonne! How did an harlot pitie the fruit of her wombe before King Salomon, 1. King. 3. Oh my Lord, giuegive her the liuing child, and slay him not. Almighty God then manifested the riches of his mercy toward vsus, in giuing his onelyonly sonne, not onelyonly to bee borne, but also to die for vsus, and that vponupon the Crosse most ignominiously. So Christ in the words immediately going before this our present text, as Moses lift vp the Serpent in the wildernesse, so must the sonne of man bee lift vp, probatio dilectionis exhibitio operis, his exceeding great gift is a demonstration of his exceeding great louelove. Thus in briefe you see the fact, let vsus examine now the fruit, for what end God gaue his onelyonly begotten sonne.
That whosoeuer beleeueth in him] In which obserue aAretius. Iansen.two things especially:
The
Felicity gained by this gift,
a deliuerance from damnation, he shall not perish.
a possession of saluation, hee shall hauehave life euerlasting.
Facility how to get it, whosoeuer beleeueth, Almighty God requires not at thy hands.
An exact obseruation of his law, but onelyonly that thou beleeue in his sonne whom he gaue to die for thy sinnes, and to rise againe for thy iustification. Hee did abundantly satisfie the law for thee, making thy sinnes his sinnes; and on the contrary, making his righteousnesse, thy righteousnesse, b1. Iob 2.2couering all thine iniquities, and c…. 103.3.healing all thine infirmities.
This one sentence doth afford many profitable lessons appertaining to doctrine and exhortation. 1. It sheweth our dignity, though a man be dust & dung, fading like grasse, fickle like glass, like a thing of naught, Psal. 1.44. 4. Yet God so much honoured him, as that hee gaue his onelyonly begotten sonne, to be life vp, as Moses life vp the Serpent in the wildernesse; that is, to bee crucified for him. dPsal. 4. & 144 3.O Lord, what is man that thou hast such respect vntounto him; or the sonne of man that thou so regardest him?
2. It doth administer comfort in temptation, if the diuell obiect against thy sinne Gods seuere iustice, thou maist answere that God is also e…. 3.4rich in mercy, f…. 16.27.louing vsus in gEphis. 1.5.his best beloued, and that with an euerlasting louelove, Ierem. 13.3. If thy cunning aduersary make reply, that these sweet texts onelyonly concerne the iust and godly, thou hast here Christ on thy side, saying, God loued the world, reconciling sinners his enemies vntounto himselfe by the death of his sonne, Rom. 5.10.
3. It proues euidently that Christ is very God of very God, against h….Arrius, as being not onelyonly Gods son, but his onelyonly begotten, for a sonne begotten, is a naturall and a true sonne.
4. It confutes the iAmbro…e … iti. lib. 1. cap. 10.Nouatian heresie, denying repentance to such as after Baptisme fall into grieuous sinnes. If we must be so mercifull as our father in heauen is mercifull, how shall we deny repentance to those whom God so loued as that he gaue his only begotten sonne, that whosoeuer beleeueth in him, should not perish, but hauehave euerlasting life.
5. This confoundeth all kMelanct. Cabn…m. Mulorat.merit-mongers ascribing iustification and saluation vntounto their owne good workes. He that beleeues shall not perish, but hauehave euerlasting life. We are saued by grace lEphes. 2.8.thorough faith, apprehending and applying the mercies of God the father and the merits of Christ his sonne. He that beleeueth in him shall not be condemned, but he that beleeueth not is already condemned, as it followeth in our text. mAugust. tract. 12. in Ioan.Quare saluator dictus est mundi, nisivi saluet mundum, non vt iudicet mundum, saluari non vis ab ipso, exte ipso iudicaberis.
As for exhortation, n1. Iohn. 4.11.i… God so loued vsus, let vsus also louelove one another: if he oRom. 8.32.spared not his owne and only sonne but gaue him for vsus: pEut…ym. in loc.it is meet that we should expend our substance for the good of his Church and children in need. It is an olde prouerbe, louelove me, louelove my friend. Let vsus then manifest our louelove to Christ in louing his members, and in cherishing such as mourne in Sion. his first comming (as it followeth in our text) was not to condemne; but saue the world. He came to call qMat. 9.13.sinners vntounto repentance, to seeke the rLuke 15.6.lost sheepe, to bind vp the sEsay 61.1.broken hearted, to tMat. 11.28.refresh the weary, to giuegive rest vntounto the laden soule. His second comming shall be to iudge the world, and then there shall be uIames 2.13.iudgement mercilesse to him that shewed no mercy, but vntounto those which hauehave bin mercifull as his father in heauen is mercifull, he shall say, come ye blessed, inherit ye the kingdome prepared for you from the foundations of the world, for I was hungrie, and ye gaue me meat: I thirsted, and ye gaue me drinke, &c.
If any shall aske why this text is allotted for a Whitsun holy day which is a memoriall of the Gospell, and of Christs sending downe the holy Ghost; xMartin. Mollerus in. ot.answere may be that the spirit of truth teacheth vsus y1. Iohn 2 27.all things according to Christs owne doctrine preached in the world, the summe whereof is this one little line, so God loued the world, &c.