Love to Christ, necessary to escape the curse at his coming

IV. Not love Jesus! What is this but fearful sinning against the most gracious Attributes of God?

1. Was it not love in God to give his Son to be a Saviour? And wilt thou sin against this Love, in not loving him that by Love was given for thee? Was it not so infinite, so great, so wonderful, that no mortal man can comprehend it? John 3.16. God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son. — Is it not such manifest love, that all the Devils in Hell cannot deny it to be love? 1 John 4.9. In this was manifested the love of God towards us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Was it not preventing Love in God to give his Son for thee, before thou gavest, or couldst give thy love to him? 1 John 4.10. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins. And is it not a great sin against such great love, and a manifest sin against such manifest love, not to love him with a following love, that so far loved thee with a preventing love?

2. Was it not Infinite Wisdom in God to find out such a way, that Justice might be fully satisfied, and free Mercy might be richly manifested? That sin might be punished to the uttermost, and yet the sinner ⟨p. 105⟩saved to the uttermost? Sin punished, and the sinner pardoned? If all the Angels in Heaven that excel in Wisdom and Knowledge, had been called to Counsel, they could never have thought of this way for fallen man's recovery, which is the product of the Infinite Wisdom of God, and by the Church made known to Angels.