Hufsey:

Exhort. 1. Stand still, and admire we the love of God to the world, in sending his Son Jesus Christ, and giving him for us. “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.” 1. What an unparalleled act of love it is to part with a Son, tender hearted parents are best able to judge. To part with one son of many, had there been act of great kindness: Christ was and is the Father’s only Son. To part with an adopted son had been undeserved love, Jesus is mongenes the only begotten Son of the Father. If he had been a son who had no form or comeliness nor beauty in him, that he should be desired, to part with had been less, but he is fairer than the sons of men, the chief of ten thousands. Or if he had been as too many sons are, a grief to his Father like Esau, the matter had not been so great; but Jesus Christ is and was daily his Father’s delight, neither displeased with him, lay in his bosom, yet God sen him. “Having yet one Son his beloved, he sent him,” Prov. 8:30. “Behold how he loved us!” Joh. 8:29, 1:18.

2. But to what end did God send his Son Jesus Christ? Possibly for a preferment a tender Father may part with a dear son; but God sent his Son into an ungrateful world, to unthankful husbandmen, Mark 12:7, “Who received him not” with acknowledgments of gratitude, and respect, nay they hated him to death, and crucified him. Those husbandmen said, “this is the heir, come let us kill him,” &c., Acts 4:2 And this God in his eternal foreknowledge saw and knew certainly would so come to pass, yet he sent him.

3. For whom did God give his Son, for whose sake and benefit? Was it for Angels, Cherubim, Seraphim, those morning stars of an higher orb, and the Son of God, as the Angels are styled, Job 38:7. Nay, it was for mortals who inhabit cottages of clay. But sure it was for innocent men, and good men. Nay, God commends his love to us, “that when we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,” Rom. 5:8. Miser, indeed, moves pity, where a man becomes casually miserable, he neither willing it directly, nor in its cause, as Aquinas speaks; but we fell into sin and misery willfully, yet God shows mercy, and sent his Son to receive millions of souls, become obnoxious to condemnation by their own fault or their parents.

2. Exh. What shall we render to the Lord who spared not his own Son from death for us for our redemption? O give to the Lord of the best, the dearest thing tho hast; what is that? thy heart: My son give me thy heart.

1. We had no title to Jesus Christ, yet God sent him, our misery for requiring. God has manifold right, all right to our hearts: he is Lord of the whole man, and we are not our own.

2. We no way merited the sending of Jesus Christ, but contrariwise deserved wrath: God deserves our heart, hand, tongue, all.

3. God sent his Son when he knew he would be ill used by men: if you give God your heart he will purify it, adorn it with grace, fit for glory. Christ returned with wounds, scars to his Father: God will fill your heart with joy, comfort, the graces of his Spirit.

4. If we give not God our hearts, Satan will get possession of them.

J. Hufsey, The Way to Salvation: Or, The Doctrine of Life Eternal Laid down in several Texts of Scripture Opened and Applied (London: Printed for Nathaniel Ranew, and Jonathan Robinson, at the Angel in Jewen Street, 1668), 107-109. [Some reformatting and some spelling modernized.]

Hufsey:

If it is demanded, to what end God sent his Son, the Apostle resolves it; “and sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins,” 1 Joh. 4:10.

“God gave his Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish,” Joh. 3:16-17. In a word, to save the world.

It is a little to curious to inquire further, whether God might not have saved lost man without the Mediation of Jesus Christ, which Aquinas determines to have been possible to him, to whom nothing is impossible; but God’s infinite wisdom this seemed the most convenient, nay, for us incomparably better way, as whereby

1. God commends his infinite love, and philanthropia to us: Herein is love, not that we loved God, “but that he loved us, and sent his Son,” &c. 1 Joh. 4:10.

This may serve to keep sinners from despair.

2. This shows God inconceivable hatred of sin, to keep sinners from presuming, when God spared not his own Son, appearing in the room and place of sinners.

3. It affords us strong motive to obedience: when we are bought with such a price, we have all reason in the world to glorify God, “with our souls and bodies, which are God’s,” 1 Cor. 6:8.

4. No small honor redounds to human nature, by the word becoming flesh, the Son of God assuming our nature, Nolite nos ipsus comtemnere viri, &c. Undervalue not yourselves O men, seeing Christ was made Men; debase not yourselves O Women, because Christ was born of woman, says one.

5. Christ not only suffered for us our sins, but set us an example of humility, obedience, and all Christian graces, “which may be of great advantage to us, to walk in his steps,” 1 Pet. 2:21.

Reason. There can be no other cause in the world assigned, either internal or external, moving God to give his Son, but his mere love, his innate pity, bowels of mercy and compassion, yearning over his poor creature fallen into misery, plunged into the horrible put of destruction through his own wretched carelessness, and Satan’s implacable malice.

In the giving of his Son, God has made known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, according to his name, so is his nature: “The Lord God merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression,” Exod. 34:6-7. This is his name forever, and his memorial to all generations. This is celebrated in Scripture frequently; as if the Lord were delighted in glorifying his mercy above all the rest of his name and glorious attributes: “he is said to be plenteous in mercy,” Psal. 86:5. “He is pitiful and of tender mercy,” Jam. 5:11. And upon no occasion is the glory of his mercy so much spoken of, as in the work of redemption, and the sending of his Son: But God who is rich in mercy, for the great love wherewith he loved us, &c. “That he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us through Jesus Christ,” Eph. 2:4,7. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy,” &c., 1 Pet. 1:3.

“Where sin abounded, there grace did much more abound,” Rom. 5:20.

To the praise of his glorious grace, wherein he has made us accepted in the beloved,” Eph. 1:6.

“But after the kindness and love of God our Savior, towards man appeared,” &c. “Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior,” Tit. 3:4-6.

By all which it is manifest that God gave his Son freely, most freely, out of no necessity, for no profit to himself accruing by man’s salvation, for no works of righteousness, service or obedience foreseen, but moved thereto by his own goodness, grace, mercy, not delighting in the death of sinners, nor willing that poor man should perish by the Devil’s fraud and envy. Grace laid the foundation of redemption, in the sending of Jesus Christ, and grace alone is that which must lay the top-stone with shoutings, crying, “Grace, Grace unto it.”

J. Hufsey, The Way to Salvation: Or, The Doctrine of Life Eternal Laid down in several Texts of Scripture Opened and Applied (London: Printed for Nathaniel Ranew, and Jonathan Robinson, at the Angel in Jewen Street, 1668), 102-104. [Some spelling modernized; some reformatting; and italics original.]