of virtue, doth, after the manner of severe parents, SERM. educate hardly.

22.

X.

5. We may further observe, that God in his proceedings with men, whereby he particularly designeth to contain them within bounds of duty, and thereby to lead them unto happiness, delighteth to represent himself under this obliging and endearing relation: thus he did in regard to his ancient people upon all occasions express himself; Who are Israel- Rom. ix. 4. ites, whose is the adoption, saith St. Paul, reckoning this as the first of those privileges which appertain to the Jews: it was the commission to Moses; Thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the Exod. iv. Lord, Israel is my son, even-my firstborn; and I12. say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me: Moses also, foreseeing how that people would misbehave themselves, doth thus in God's name expostulate with them; Do you thus requite the Deut. Lord, O foolish people and unwise? is not he thy Father that bought thee? hath he not made thee, and established thee? Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee: David also thus addresseth himself to God in their behalf: Blessed be thou, Lord God Chron. of Israel our Father, for ever and ever; thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty and, Doubtless, saith Isaiah, thou art our Father, Is. Ixiii. 16. though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israeli. 3. acknowledge us not; thou, O Lord, art our Father, our Redeemer; thy name is from everlasting: and, I am, saith God in Jeremiah, a Father to Jer. xxxi. Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn; Is Ephraim' my dear son, is he a pleasant child? he is, the

xxxii. 6,18.

I xxix. 10,

xliv. 2, 24.

9, 20.

SERM. LXX. render it, in way of assertion, not of interrogation.

X.

6. But in the Christian dispensation God more signally representeth himself in this quality and notion. God herein treateth us, not so much as our Lord and Master, with imperious rigour and awfulness, as our Father, with most gracious condescenHeb. ii. 11. sion, and allurements of kindness: Our Lord (the only Son of God in a sense infinitely most peculiar and high) was not, saith the apostle, ashamed to call us brethren; Go, said our Lord, for instance of that gracious condescension, to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and to your Father; both my God, and your God: and such are the advantages peculiar to Christians, grounding this relation toward them, that St. Paul,

Johu xx. 17.

comparing our state in regard to God with that of Gal. iv. 7. the Jews, doth thus infer; So that thou (O Chris

ii. 19.

Rom. viii.

15.

tian) art not now a servant, but a son: so it is asserted, and accordingly (which is worth our while distinctly to observe) all the performances of God toward us, and in our behalf, are of such a nature, and are set out in such terms, as do ground and import this relation: for,

1. The reception of a believer into the participation of the privileges and advantages which ChrisGal. iv. 5. tianity tendereth, is termed violería, the making him Eph. i. 5. a son; the adopting him into God's family, the conferring upon him the title and quality of God's child; together with the internal disposition of mind, and the liberty of access and intercourse, John i. 12. Which do suit that relation: Whosoever, saith St. John, did receive him, to them he gave the power (or privilege) to become the sons of God, even to

X.

(Eph. iii.

15.

them who believed in his name: and, Ye are all, SERM. saith St. Paul, the sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus; that is, by sincerely embracing Christianity: Gal. iii. 26. and, Behold, saith St. John again, what manner of 1 John iii. 1. love the Father hath given us, that we should be 15.) called the sons of God: and, Ye have not received Rom. viii. the spirit of servitude unto fear, but ye have re- Gal. iv. 6. ceived the spirit of adoption, by which we cry, Abba, Father; that is, by which in our prayers with humble affection we freely, confidently, and readily, according to our Saviour's institution, do say, Our Father.

24.

2. That renovation of our nature, and qualifying our minds, as the gospel prescribeth and requireth, is called regeneration, a new creation, a new birth, the begetting a new man within us: If a man be John iii. 3. not born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God; that is, he cannot be a good Christian: Who- 1 John iii. ever is begot of God doth not sin; that is, good Eph. ii. 10. Christians do not live in a course of disobedience : We are avтou moinua, God's work, or production, being created in Christ Jesus to good works: Ye Eph. iv. 21. have been taught to put on the new man, that is Col. iii. 10. created according to the image of God in righteousness and true holiness. In such terms is the effect of the Christian dispensation upon our hearts and lives described; and that with the greatest reason; for no act of God toward us can be more fatherly, than working in us by his grace the principles of Christian life, and the practices springing from it; nothing doth nearer advance us to a similitude with God, and a participation of the Divine 2 Pet. i. 4. nature; nothing doth conciliate from God a more tender affection to us, or worketh in us a more du

SERM. tiful affection toward him, answerable to this relaX. tion, than doth a hearty compliance with the grace of the gospel.

49.

18.

35, 36.

Matt. xix.

3. The resurrection of good Christians after death to a better state of life, their entering into immortal bliss and glory, is worthily styled παλιγγενεσία, being generated and born again; whereby they receive from God another more excellent life and state of being, more like and conformable to God: for, 1 John iii. 2. We know, saith St. John, that if he shall appear, (or, that when he shall appear, as some copies read 1 Cor. xv. it,) we shall be like him; and, As, saith St. Paul, we have borne the image of the earthly (Adam,) 2 Cor. iii. we shall also bear the image of the heavenly: We Phil. iii. 21. shall, saith he, be metamorphosed, or transfigured, Luke xx. into the same image: and, They, saith our Saviour, which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection of the dead-are the sons of God, being the sons of the resurrection: that state of bliss is therefore styled a portion or inheritance, allotted to sons, and consequent upon such Gal. iv. 7. a relation: If sons, saith St. Paul, then heirs; heirs of God, and coheirs with Christ, receiving the reColx. 24 ward and promise of an eternal inheritance : 1 Pet. i. 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, saith St. Peter, who according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us.

28.

Rom. viii.

17.

iii.

Heb. ix. 15.

4.

4. I might adjoin, that Christian men do become the sons of God by the intervention of our Saviour, assuming our nature, and conforming himself to the

X.

Rom. viii.

Gal. iv. 4,

5.

Heb. ii. 11,

14.

likeness of men; whereby he becomes the firstborn SERM. of many brethren: God, saith St. Paul, sent forth his son, born of a woman, that we might receive Phil. ii. 7. the privilege of being made sons: and, Children, 3. 29. saith the apostle to the Hebrews, partake of flesh and blood; whence (as he meaneth to infer) our Lord being the Son of God, we upon conjunction of nature with him, and as his brethren, become also such: he further intimateth, that upon this score we do surpass angels themselves; for that he took not Heb. ii, 16. on him the nature of angels, but took on him the seed of Abraham; they were not, as we, dignified

with a fraternal relation to the Son of God.

In so many several respects is God our Father; we are his children, as being his creatures, made, preserved, and maintained by him; as we are intellectual creatures, being placed in degree and quality of nature so near him; as we by virtue and goodness (produced in us by his grace) do anywise approach him, resemble him, and partake of his special favour; as we are Christians, adopted into his heavenly family, renewed by his holy grace, and destinated to a participation of his eternal glory.

Now the consideration of these grounds, (each one of them, and all of them together,) upon which this relation of God unto us is founded, hath manifold good uses; it is apt to inform and admonish us concerning many necessary duties resulting from it; and to enforce upon us the practice of them.

1. It in general may teach, and should mind us, what reverence, honour, and observance is due from us unto God, in equity and justice, according to ingenuity and gratitude: If, saith God in the prophet, Mal. i. 6. I be a Father, where is my honour? Our believing