God In Christ, A God Of Love

My friends, the gospel is called good news, and a joyful sound; and I do not know what better news could be brought into a company of sinners, all of Adam’s family, who are lying under the sentence of death, and condemned from heaven, and under the awful apprehensions of the wrath and vengeance of the great God, than to tell you that God is love. And I am sure, that, if this report of a God in Christ were but received and entertained in a way of believing, it would make every one of this assembly join issue with the angels at the birth of Christ, saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, good-will towards men.” God is love. This is not to be understood of God essentially, but manifestatively, in the manifestation that he has made of himself in Christ: he is love, or love is the swaying attribute of his nature.