things to your Children how much more shall your heavenly Father to those that ask him The Inference is strong not only from the Divine Authority of the Speaker but from the native Perspicuity of the Things for the Love of an earthly Father is but an Infusion into his Breast from the heavenly Father and but a faint resemblance of his Love The Love of a Mother is more tender and endearing than of a Father Even a fearful Hen will fly upon Death to preserve its tender Brood from the Devourer Yet the Love of God to his Children far excels it Can a Woman forget her sucking Child What Heart what Marble is in her Breast so incompassionate and unrelenting as to neglect her helpless Infant She may but saith God I will never forget thee The Seraphims those bright and unperishing Flames are but faint and cold in comparison of God's Love to his Children 'T is observable how the Love of God to them expresses it self in all the Notions of Propriety and Preciousness to make it more sensible to us They are stiled his Treasure his Jewels the most precious part of his Treasure the Jewels of his Crown that are the richest Jewels Now will he throw away his Treasure or suffer the cruel Enemy to rob him of his Jewels Will he not take them into his safe Custody 'T is to be observed that the Esteem and Affection of God principally respects the Souls of his Children Their Souls have an original Affinity with him in their Substance as Spirits and being born again of the Spirit they are Spirit in their Divine Qualities Endowments and more endear'd to him than by their first Alliance His tender Care to preserve them will be correspondent to his Valuation and Love Moreover the Condition of departing Souls affords another Argument of reliance upon his Love for they leave this visible World with all their Supports and Comforts they are stripp'd of all sensible Securities And will he leave them fatherless in such a forlorn and desolate State His Love is express'd by Mercy Compassion Pity melting Affections that are most tenderly moved when the beloved Object is in Distress Our Saviour propounds an Argument for dependance upon the delivering Love of God from the Exigence of his People Shall not God deliver his own Elect the Designation of Love who cry day and night to him He will do it speedily Love is never more ardent and active than in times of Distress Therefore when his dying Children are deprived of all their Hopes and dependance upon Creatures and fly to him for Protection and Relief will he not hear their mournful Requests and grant their fainting Desires When their earthly Tabernacles are so ruinous that they are forc'd to dislodg will the Love of a Heavenly Father suffer their naked Souls to wander in the vast Regions of the other World seeking Rest and finding none Certainly he will bring them into his reviving Presence If Divine Love be so condescending that the high and lofty One that inhabits Eternity dwells with the humble and contrite Spirit to revive the Spirit of the Humble when they are confin'd to our lowly Earth we may be assur'd when that Spirit shall be devested of Flesh he will bring it to Heaven the Temple of his Glory to be with him for ever 'T is greater Love for a King to lay aside his State and dwell in a mean Cottage with his Favourite than to receive him into his Palace and communicate to him of his rich Abundance 'T is another most comfortable Consideration that the Love of God is unvariable towards his Children His Love is the sole moving Cause of our filial Relation to him Of his own Will he begat us by the Word of Truth His Soveraign free Love was the Principle of his electing any to the Dignity of being his Children This Love is as unchangeable as free and Election that proceeds from it is as unchangeable as his Love What can induce him to alter his Affection towards them For such is the perfection of his Knowledg that he can never be surprized by a sudden new Event that may cause a change in his Mind and Will He foresaw all the Sins of his People with their provoking Aggravations Now if the foresight of them did not hinder his electing Love in its rise can they frustrate its end the bringing of them to Glory Besides we may argue from what his Love has done for his Children to what he will do He has given his Son and Spirit to them the surest Signs of his Love if we consider the unvaluable Excellence of the Gifts and the Design of the Giver The Son of God is the most excellent Gift of his Love as undeserved as he was undesired And from hence the Apostle argues He that gave his Son for us all how much more will he with him give us all things Blessed God! What richer Evidence and more convincing Demonstration can there be of thy Love Will he not with him give us all things The Inference is direct and conclusive with respect to temporal and eternal Things He will give to his Children in the present World whatever his Wisdom in conjunction with his Love sees good for them To illustrate this by a low and familiar Instance If a Mother bestows upon her Daughter rich Jewels for her Marriage-Ornaments will she deny her Pins to dress her And we may as strongly argue that with his Son he will give us eternal Blessings Will he give us the Tree of Life and not permit us to eat of the Fruit of it What was the design of his Counsel and Compassion in giving his Son to be a Sacrifice for us but to restore us to his Favour The Apostle reasons strongly If when we were Enemies we were reconciled to God by the Death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his Life He has paid our Ransom and revers'd the Sentence of Condemnation against us and it invincibly follows he can more easily accomplish our Happiness in Heaven If Love justify a Sinner it will glorify a Saint And as the Gift of the Son so the most precious Gift of the Spirit to God's Children to make them holy and heavenly is the most certain sign of his Love to them The Apostle in the fullest expression speaks of it God who is rich in Mercy for his great Love wherewith he has loved us even when we were dead in Sins quickned us together with Christ By Grace ye are saved Sanctification is the effect of rich Mercy great Love and saving Grace The Children of God are seal'd by the Holy Spirit to the Day of Redemption that Seal distinguishes them from the obstinate and polluted World and ratifies the conveyance of eternal Life to them The Spirit is stiled the Earnest of the Inheritance His dwelling in the Saints by his sanctifying and comforting Operations is an Earnest of their dwelling with
incapacity to perform them he cannot obey nor enjoy God Now the renewing of Man is called a Regeneration Our Saviour tells Nicodemus Verily I say unto you Vnless a Man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven The reason of the Expression is because there is a new Nature spiritual holy and heavenly communicated different from the carnal polluted and earthly Nature derived from the first Adam And as the Relation of a Father results from the communicating a vital active Principle to another in that kind of Life like his own so God by making us Partakers of a Divine Nature of his Life and Image is stiled our Father Of his own Will beg at he us with the Word of Truth And we are said to be born again not of corruptible Seed but incorruptible by the Word of God which liveth and abideth for ever By the Divine Influence the Word of God implants in them such Qualities and Dispositions whereby they resemble God are holy as he is holy in all manner of Conversation They are called godly as they are like him in their Minds Affections and Actions And to such God has the Heart and Eye of a Father to regard and relieve them in all their Exigencies Like as a Father pities his Children so the Lord pities them that serve him We are also the Children of God by Adoption This heavenly Privilege is obtained for us by the meritorious Sufferings of Christ and is founded in our Union with him God sent his Son that he might redeem them that were under the Law that they might receive the Adoption of Sons For his sake we are not only pardoned but preferr'd to this Heavenly Dignity 'T is worthy of Observation that the Degrees of our Redemption mentioned in Scripture have annex'd to them parallel degrees of our Adoption Thus when 't is said We are redeemed from the Curse of the Law 't is added That we might receive the Adoption of Sons When 't is said We are freed from the servile Spirit of the Law it follows We have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father And the Apostle tells us That the redemption of our Bodies from the bondage of Corruption into the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God is our Adoption that is the manifestation of it before all the World Our Adoption is founded in our Union with Christ. A Member of Christ and a Son of God are the same 'T is therefore said As many as received him to them gave he Power or Privilege to become the Sons of God even to them that believe on his Name And ye are all the Sons of God by Faith in Jesus Christ. This is the vital Band of our Union with Christ and invests us with his Relation to God When he was to leave the World he sends this comfortable Message to his Disciples Go tell my Brethren I ascend to my Father and your Father to my God and your God His Relation has the precedence in Order Dignity and Causality He is God's own Son in a sense infinitely high and proper to himself To which of the Angels said he at any time Thou art my Son to day have I begotten thee The sublimest Prophet breaks forth with Wonder Who shall declare his Generation 'T is above our Capacity and Conception It becomes us to acquiesce in what the Scripture reveals He is the eternal Word and Wisdom of God the Brightness of his Father's Glory This is the most fit Comparison for as Light is productive of Light without any diminution so the Eternal Father communicated his Essence to the Son In short God is Christ's Father by Nature and God by Dispensation he is our God as the Author of Nature and our Father by Adoption Before I proceed it is fit to observe the Excellence of the Evangelical Adoption above the Civil Adoption among Men. 1. Adoption is a legal Act in imitation of Nature for the Comfort of those who are without Children But God had a Son the Heir of his Love and Glory His adopting Love is heightned by considering our Meanness and Vileness we are but a little breathing Dust worthless Rebels The Apostle cries out in a rapture of Admiration and Joy Behold what manner of Love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God! If we consider the natural Distance between God and us as he is the Creator and we are the Works of his Hands 't is truly infinite but the moral Distance between the holy righteous God and the guilty polluted Creature is if it were possible more than infinite Love inconceivable That releases us from Bondage and adopts us into the Line of Heaven If we admire any thing of this World in comparison of it 't is a sign we have no share in this Privilege 2. Civil Adoption conveys no Praise-worthy Qualities into the Person that is adopted A King may adopt one to be his Son and the Heir of his Kingdom but cannot endow him with a Royalty of Spirit with ruling Wisdom with Justice and Equity Clemency and Bounty with Magnanimity and Fortitude that may qualify him to manage the Scepter The adopted Prince may be of a low sordid Disposition a Slave to his vile Lusts and designing to enslave others But all the adopted Sons of God are divinely renewed they are purified from defiling debasing Lusts and are adorn'd with all the Graces of the Spirit that God is not ashamed to be called their God and Father nor Christ ashamed to call them Brethren Now from this special Relation and Interest of God in the Saints there is a sure Foundation of their Trust in his saving Mercy David addresses himself to God for his preservation from imminent Danger I am thine save me As if his miscarrying would be a Loss to God who had so dear a Propriety in him I come now to the second thing that encourages the praying Faith of the Saints when they leave the World to commend their Souls to him His Perfections joined with his Relation His Love inclines his Truth engages and his Power enables him to bring them safely to Heaven 1. His Love This is the brightest Ray of the Deity the first and clearest Notion we have of God St. John tells us God is Love His Love cannot be fully express'd by the dearest Relations and Affections in Nature The Relation of Parents as 't is most deeply implanted in Nature so it implies the most cordial strong and tender Affection But as God is infinitely greater and better than earthly Parents so he equally excels them as in his Abilities so in his good Will to his Children Our Saviour directs us Call no Man Father upon Earth for one is your Father which is in Heaven The Title and Love of a Father is peculiar to him Our Saviour argues If you that are evil know how to give good
God in his Sanctuary above From hence the Apostle propounds a strong Argument to assure the Saints upon their leaving this World of their reception into Heaven Now he that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God and the Almighty always obtains his End who hath also given us the earnest of his Spirit Holiness is the Morning-Star of the great Day Grace is the Preparative and Assurance of Glory For altho the Saints are in themselves mutable and while there remains Corruption within and a tempting World without are liable to falling away yet the free and powerful Love of God that revived them when dead will preserve them living that which raised them from the Grave will prevent their relapsing into it The Gifts of God are without Repentance How triumphantly does the Apostle express his Confidence Who shall separate us from the Love of God Shall Tribulation or Distress or Persecution or Famine or Nakedness or Peril or Sword These are the most powerful Terrors that the perverse World in combination with the Devil can make use of to constrain us to desert the Service of God but they are vain Nay in all these things we are more than Conquerors through him that loved us For I am perswaded that neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor Things present nor Things to come nor Height nor Depth nor any other Creature shall be able to separate us from the Love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. This blessed Assurance of the Apostle is not rais'd from his extraordinary Privileges not from the apparition of Angels to him nor his rapture to Paradise nor special Revelations but from the Love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord that everlastingly embraces all his Children Briefly in that God has given his Son to die for us and his Spirit to live in us his Son to purchase and prepare Heaven for us his Spirit to prepare us for Heaven a dying Saint may with blessed Tranquillity commend his Soul into God's Hands I have more particularly considered the Fatherly Love of God what a strong Security it affords to his Children that he will never leave them in that no Point requires and deserves more Confirmation and weight of Argument to press it down into our distrustful Hearts 2. The Divine Truth affords a strong Security to the Children of God to commend their Souls to him at last Truth is an Attribute as essential and dear to God as any of his Perfections And in the Accomplishment of our Salvation he ordered all things becoming to his Wisdom that is for the illustration of all his principal Attributes and accordingly design'd the Glory of his Truth equally with the Honour of his Mercy Thus he declares to his chosen People Know therefore that the Lord thy God he is God the faithful God which keepeth Covenant and Mercy with them that love him and keep his Commandments The Attribute that is set next to the Deity as most sacred is the Faithful God and that further express'd keeping Covenant and Mercy for he delights in fulfilling his Promises as in the freest Acts of Mercy The Psalmist breaks forth with the affectionate Praises of these Attributes I will worship towards thy holy Temple and praise thy Name for thy loving Kindness and thy Truth for thou hast magnified thy Word above all thy Name His Word here immediately signifies his Promise that has its rise from his loving Kindness and its performance from his Truth This he magnifies both with respect to the matter of his Promises that are exceeding great and precious and the fulfilling them above all that we can ask or think God cannot repent or lie his Counsels are unretractable from the Immutability of his Nature his Promises are infallible from his Fidelity they are as unchangeable as the Sun and Stars in their appointed Courses nay more stable than the Centre for Heaven and Earth shall pass away but not a tittle of his Promises and our Hopes be unfulfilled If the Frame of Nature were dissolved it would be no loss to God who is glorious and blessed in his own Perfections but if his Promises fail the Honour of his Truth would be impair'd and blemish'd The Psalmist saith Those that know thy Name will trust in thee Those who know the Creature its Levity Mutability and Mortality will be discourag'd from trusting in it but those who know the eternal Constancy of God in his Nature and Promises will securely rely upon him Now the Promises the Declarations of God's Love without which we cannot have any solid and sustaining Hope in our Death assure us of God's receiving the separate Spirits of his Children There was a constant clearness tho not in that degree of Light as since the appearance of Christ of the Happiness of the departed Saints Dying Jacob breaks forth with a lively Hope O Lord I have waited for thy Salvation Job says Tho he kill me yet will I trust in him that is for his Almighty Mercy in the next State The Psalmist expresses his Confidence Thou wilt guide me by thy Counsel and receive me into thy Glory After the safe conducting him through a World of Troubles and Temptations he would bring him to Heaven a Place of equal Purity and Glory David when he was in pressing Peril addresses to God Into thy Hands I commend my Spirit to be preserved as a precious Depositum thou hast redeemed me O Lord God of Truth His Assurance is built on God's Right and Title to him Thou hast redeemed me and his everlasting Fidelity The Apostle speaks with full assurance We know that if our earthly House of this Tabernacle be dissolved we have a Building of God eternal in the Heavens And we are confident I say rather to be absent from the Body and present with the Lord. St. Peter encourages Christians when surrounded with Death to commit their Souls to him Wherefore let them that suffer according to the Will of God commit the keeping of their Souls to him in wel-doing as unto a faithful Creator He encourageth them to encounter Death in its most formidable Pomp by considering their Souls shall be safe for ever upon the account of God's Right and Interest in them and his Fidelity he has an original Right in them by the first Creation as they are intellectual immortal Spirits in their Nature but a nearer and more especial Right by a new and nobler Creation as they are renewed Spirits made like to him in his Holiness the most Divine Perfection The Relation of Creator implies his omnipotent Love and the Attribute of Faithful his eternal Love declar'd in his Promises There can never be the least cause to charge him with Insincerity or Inconstancy The Favour of God is round about the Righteous as a Shield And his Faithfulness is round about him that he is always ready to perform his Promise to them They may
necessarily included in saving Faith This Scripture-Account distinguishes between that substantial Faith that is proper to the elect Children of God and the Shadow of it in the Unregenerate the one is the intimate and active Principle of Obedience the other is a dead Assent without Efficacy a mere Carcass and Counterfeit of Faith A sincere Believer as fervently desires to be saved from the Dominion and Pollution of his Sins as from the Guilt and deadly Malignity a carnal Man desires an Interest in Christ as a Saviour that he may securely enjoy his Lusts. The crafty and cursed Serpent deceives Men to their ruine by citing Scripture and misapplying it The Promise is sure Whoever believes shall be saved and he easily perswades them they are Believers 'T is strange to astonishment that Men who have Reason and Understanding should presume in a high degree of the present Favour of God and their future Happiness as if they were his dear Children when their Enmity against his holy Name and Will is evident in their Actions We can never have too firm a dependance on God's Promise when we are qualified for that Dependance Come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you and will be a Father to you saith the Lord Almighty Faith that purifies the Heart and Conversation invests us with this blessed Privilege and all the saving Mercies annex'd to it 2. From the spiritual Relation between God and Believers there naturally and necessarily results a sincere dutiful child-like Love to him correspondent to his beneficent and fatherly Love to them This God indispensably requires and specially delights in Thou lovest Truth in the inward Parts Filial Obedience is inseparable from filial Love in its Reality For this is the Love of God that we keep his Commandments Our Saviour distinguishes between sincere Lovers of him and pretended that they who love him keep his Commandments but they who love him not keep not his Commandments The Obedience that springs from Love to God is uniform respects all his Commands for the two filial Affections an ardent Desire to please God in all things and an ingenuous Fear of displeasing him in any thing are inseparably joined with our Love to him The Obedience that proceeds from Love is free and voluntary from Inclination as well as Duty How passionately does the holy Psalmist express his Affection O how I love thy Law In the Covenant of Grace God promises to write his Law in the Hearts of his Children not only in their Minds and Memories but to endear it to their Affections There is much difference between servile and constrain'd Obedience and filial chosen Obedience as between the Motion of a living Man from the Soul the inward Spring of Life and the Motion of an Image or Statue from forcible Weights and Wheels From filial Love proceeds godly Sorrow if at any time by Carelesness and Surprize or an over powering Temptation on his Children do what is offensive and odious in his sight When they consider their unkind and unthankful Returns for his Mercies they look to their Heavenly Father with Grief and Shame and down upon themselves with Abhorrence and Indignation They are wounded with the sting of that Expostulation Do ye thus requite the Lord O foolish People and unwise Is he not thy Father who bought thee From filial Love proceeds a Zeal for his Glory If I be a Father where is my Honour A Child of God is dearly concerned that his Name be reverenced and magnified his Laws be observed his Worship maintained that his Interest be advanced in the World He has a burning Zeal against Sin and presumptuous Sinners The Prophet Elijah says I have been jealous for the Lord of Hosts for the Children of Israel have forsaken thy Covenant and thrown down thine Altars Those who with an indifferent Eye see the Cause the Truth the Interest of God depress'd in the World do renounce the Title of his Children From the Relation to God as his Sons proceeds a sincere fervent Love to all the Saints St. John infers Every one that loveth him that begat loves him that is begotten Grace is not less powerful in producing cordial mutual Affections between the Children of the same Heavenly Father than the subordinate Endearments of Nature Notwithstanding the civil Distinction between them some high and rich others mean and poor yet there is a spiritual Equality the lowest Saints are Princes of the Blood-Royal of Heaven To him that has washed us from our Sins in his Blood and made us Kings and Priests to God be Glory for ever The filial Relation to God inclines and encourages all sincere Christians to resign themselves even in their most afflicted Condition to the Wisdom and Will of God Our Saviour meekly yielded up himself to his cruel Enemies upon this Consideration The Cup which my Father has given me shall I not drink it The Saints in imitation of Christ and upon the same Ground entirely resign themselves to the Divine Disposal for their Heavenly Father loves them better than they can love themselves Finally The filial Relation to God is productive as of lively Hopes so of ardent Desires to be with him Love makes them to esteem Communion with him here in his holy Ordinances as the Joy of their Lives The Psalmist when banish'd from the Tabernacle breaks forth in his impatient Desires When shall I come and appear before God that is in the Place where he communicates his Grace to those that worship him But our Father is in Heaven as his Throne and most gloriously exhibits himself to his Saints there The Earth is the Element and Residence of carnal Men of their Souls as well as their Bodies They desire their Inheritance may be on this side Jordan and are content to leave the Heavenly Canaan to those who like it But those who are born from above desire to be dissolved that they may be in their Father's House and his reviving Presence for ever 3. Let us be perswaded to prepare for the reception of our Souls in the next World The present Life is a Passage to Eternity and 't is so short and fading so uncertain and hazardous that 't is our principal Wisdom without delay to secure our Souls in the future State Our Saviour says I must work the Work of him that sent me while it is Day the Night cometh when no Man can work Now is the accepted Time now is the Day of Salvation 'T is our indispensable Duty and main Interest now to work out our own Salvation with fear and trembling In the state of Death there is an Incapacity to do any thing in order to Salvation There is no Work nor Wisdom in the Grave and all the Offers of Salvation cease for ever The Sufferings of the Son of God are not a Ransom for Sinners in that