from irreconcilable contradiction with each other, the first must involve here the supposition again of the second. When God is represented by the apostle as having loved men while they were yet sinners, it does not mean that he loved them as sinners, which would be to have loved sin itself in them, whereas this is always his abomination; but he loved them as creatures, who were capable of redemption, and in this view worthy of being loved. He loved the divine nature which was in them potentially,