Child, and he will do better; I will look upon him, thro' Chrift, with a merciful Eye. 6. If God be our Father, then he will correct us in Measure, Fer. 30. 11. I will correct thee in Measure; and that two Ways; ft. It fall be in Meafure, for the Kind; God will not lay upon us more then we are able to bear, 1 Cor. 10. 13. He knows our Frame, Ffelm 103. 14. He knows we are not Steel or Marble, therefore will deal gently, he will not overafflict: As the Phyfician that knows the Temper of the Body, will not give Phyfick too ftrong for the Body; nor will he give one Drahm or Scruple too much. God hath not only the Tithe of a Father, but the Bowels of a Father; he will not lay too heavy Burdens on his Children. left their Spirits fail before him. 2dly. He will correct in Meafure, for the Duration; he will not let the Affliction ly on too long, Pfalm 115. 3. The Rod of the Wicked, fail not reft upon the Lot of the Righteous. It may be there, and not reft, Ifa. 57. 16. I will not contend for ever. Our heavenly Father will Love for ever, bat he will not contend, for ever. The Torments of the Damned are for ever, Rev. 14. 11. The Smoke of their Torment, afcendeth up for ever and ever. The Wicked fhall drink a Sea of wrath, but God's Children only tafle of the Cup of Affliction, and their heavenly Father will fay, Tranfeat calix, Let this Cup pass away from them, Ifa. 35. 10. A Sting a Wing. 7. If God be our Father, he will intermix Mercy with all our Afflictions: If he gives us Wormwood to drink, he will mix it with Honey. In the Ark, the Rod was laid up, and Manna; with our Father's Rod there is always fome Manna. Alber's Shoes were Iron and Brass, but his Foot was dipt in Oil, Gen. 33. 24. Affliction is the Shoe of Brafs that pincheth; but there is Mercy in the Afliction, there is the Foot dipt in Oil. When God afflicts the Body, he gives Peace of Confcience; there is Mercy in the Affliction: An Affliction comes to prevent falling into fin; there is Mercy in the Affliction. Facob had his Thigh hurt in wrestling; there was the Affliction: But then he faw God's Face, and received a Bleffing from the Angel, Gen. 32. 30. There was Mercy in the Affliction, In every Cloud a Child of God may fee a Rainbow of Mercy fhining. As the Limner mixeth dark Sha dows and bright Colours together; fo our heavenly Father mingles the dark and bright together, Croffes and Bleffings; and, is not this a great Happinefs, for God thus to chequer his Providences, and mingle goodnets with Severity? 8. If God be our Father, the evil one shall not prevail against us. Satan is called the evil One, emphatically: He is the grand Enemy of the Saints; and that both in a military Sente, as he fights against them with his Temptations; and in a forenfical or Law-fenfe, as he is an Ac cufer, and pleads against them; yet neither way fhall he prevail against God's Children As for his fhooting his fiery Darts, Ged will bruife Satan fhortly under the Saints Feet, Rom: 16: 20: As for his Accufing, Chritt is Advocate for the Shints, and anfwers all Bills of Indictment brought in against them. God will make all Satan's Temptations promote the good of his Children, 1. As they let them more a-praying, 2 Cor: 12: 8: Temptation is a Medicine for fecurity. 2dly, As they are a Means to humble them, 2 Cer: 12: 7: Let I Should be exalted alove Measure, there was given me a Thorn in the Fle. The Thorn in the Flesh was a Temptation; this Thorn was to prick the Bladder of Pride. 3ly, As they eftablifh them more in grace: A Tree fhaken by the Wind is more fettled and rooted: The Blowing of a Temptation doth but fettle a Child of God more in grace. Thus the vil one, Satan, fhall not prevail against the Children of God. 9. If God be our Father, no real Evil fhall befal us, Pfalm 91: 10: There fhall no evil befall thee. "Tis not faid, no Trouble; but, no Evil, God's Children are privileged Perfons; they are privileged Perfons; they are privileg ed from the Hurt of every Thing, Luke 10: 19: Nothing shall by any means hurt you. The Hurt and Malignity of the Affliction is taken away: Affliction to a wicked Man hath Evil in it; it makes him worfe, Rev: 16: 9: Men were forthed with great Heat, and blafphemed the Name of Gol: But no Evil befals a Child of God; he is bettered by Amiction, Heb: 12: 10: That ye may be made Partakers of his Holiness. What Hurt doth the Furnace to the Gold? it only makes it purer: What Hurt doth Affliction to grace? Only refine and purify it. What a great Privilege : is this, to be freed, tho' not from the ftroke of Affliction, yet the fting! No Evil fhall touch a Saint: When the Dragon hath poifoned the Water, they fay, the Unicorn, with his Horn, doth draw out the Poifon Chrift hath drawn out the Poifon of every Affliction, that it cannot prejudice a Child of God. Again, no Evil befals a Child of God, because no Condemnation, Rom: 8: 1: No condemnation to them in Chrift Fefus. God doth not condemn them, nor Confcience doth not condemn them. Both Jury and Judge acquit them; then then no Evil befals them, for nothing is really an Evil but that which damns. 10. If God be our Father, this may make us go with Cheerfulness to the Throne of grace: Were a Man to Petition his Enemy, there were little Hope: but when a Child petitions his 'Father, he may come with confidence to fpeed. The Word Father works upon God, it toucheth his very Bowels. What can a Father deny "his Child? If a Son ask Bread, will be give bim a Stone? Matth. 7. 9. This may embolden us to go to God for Pardon of Sin, and further Degrees of Sanctity. We pray to a Father of Mercy, fitting upon a Throne of Grace, Luke 11. 13. If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts to your Children, how much more all your heavenly Father give his Spirit to them that ask him? This did quicken the Church, and add Wings to Prayer, Ifa. 63. 15. Look down from Heaven. Ver. 16. Doubtlefs thou art our Father. Who doth God keep his Mercies for, but his Children? Three Things may caufe Boldness in Prayer: We have a Father to pray to, and the Spirit to help us to pray, and an Advocate to prefent our Prayers. God's Children fhould in all their Troubles run to their heavenly Father, as that fick Child, 2 Kings 4, 19. He faid unto his Father, My Head, my Head. So pour out thy complaint to God in Prayer, Father, my Heart, my Heart: My dead Heart, quicken it my hard Heart, Jeften it in Chrift's Blood. Tatker, my Heart, my Heart. Sure God, that hears the cry of the Ravens, will hear the cry of his Children. 11. If God be our Father, he will ftand between us and Danger; a Father will keep off Danger from his Child. God calls himself Scutum, a Shield: A Shield defends the Head, guards the Vitals; God fhields off Danger from his Children, Acts 18. 10. I am with thee, and none fhall fet on thee to hurt thee. God is an Hiding-place, Pfalm 27. 5. God preferved Athanafius ftrangely; he put it into his Mind, to depart out of the House he was in, the Night before the Enemies came to fearch for him. As God hath a Breast to feed, fo he hath Wings to cover his Children, Pfalm 91. 4. He shall cover thee with his Feathers, and under his Wings shalt thou trust, God appoints his holy Angels to be a Lifeguard about his Children, Heb. 1. 14. Never was any Prince fo well guarded as a Believer. The Angels, ft. Are a numerous guard, 2 Kings 6. 17. The Mountain was full of Horfes of Fire round about Elisha. The Horfes and Chariots of Fire were the Angels of God, to defend the Prophet Elifba. 2dly, A ftrong guard; One Angel, in a Night, flew an hundred and fourfcore and five thoufand, 2 Kings 19. 32. If one Angel flew fo many, what would an Army of Angels have done ? 3dly, The Angels are a fwift guard; they are ready in an Inftant to help God's Children: Therefore they are defcribed with Wings, to fhow their swiftnefs; they fly to our Help, Dan: 9. 21, 23. At the beginning of thy fupplication the Commandment came forth, and I am come to thee? Here was a fwift Motion, for the Angel to come from Heaven to Earth between the beginning and ending of Daniel's Prayer. 4tly. The Angels are a watchful guard; not like Saul's guard, afleep when their Lord was in Danger, 1 Sam: 26: 12: The Angels are a vigilant guard, they watch over God's Children to defend them, Pfalm 34: 7: The Angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him. There is an invifible guardianship of Angels about God's Children. 12. If God be our Father, we fhall not want any Thing that he fees is good for us, Pfalm 34, 10. They that feek the Lord fhall not want any good Thing. God is pleafed fometimes to keep his Children to hard commons, but it is good for them: Sheep thrive beft on fhort Pafture; God fees too much may not be good: Plenty breeds Surfeit. Luxuriant animi rebus fecundis. God fees it good fometimes to diet his Children, and keep them fhort, that they may run the heavenly Race the better: It was good for Jacob there was a Famine in the land; it was a means to bring him to his Son Jofeph: So it is that God's Chil Children fometimes fee the World's Emptinefs, that they may acquaint themfelves more with Chrift's Fulnefs. If God fee it be good for them to have more of the World, they fhall have it: God will not let them want any good Thing. 13. If God be our Father, all the Promifes of the Bible belong to us: God's Children are called Heirs of the Promife, Heb: 6: 17: A wicked Man can lay claim to nothing in the Bible but the Curfes; he hath no more to do abfolutely with the Promifes, than a Plowman hath to do with the City-charter: The Promifes are Childrens Bread'; The Promifes are mul&tralia Evangelii, the Breafts of the gofpel milking out Confolations; and who are to fuck of thefe Breafts but God's Children? The Promife of Pardon is for them, Fer. 33. 8. I will pardon all their Iniquity whereby they have finned against me. The Promife of Healing is for them, Ifaiah 57. 18. The Promife of Salvation, Fer. 23. 6. The Promifes are Supports of Faith; they are God's fealed Deed; they are a Chriftian's cordial. O the heavenly Comforts which are distilled from the Lembick of the Promifes! Saint Chryfoftom compares the Scripture to a Garden, the Promifes are the Fruit Trees that grow in this garden: A Child of God may go to any Promife in the Bible, and pluck comfort from it: He is an Heir of the Promife. 14. God makes all his Children Conquerors: They are born of God, and are Conquerors. 1. They conquer themfelves; Fortior eft qui fe quam qui fortissima vincit menia. The Saints conquer their own Lufts; they bind thefe Prin ces in Fetters of Iron, Pfalm 149. 8: Tho' the Children of God may fometimes be foiled, and lofe a fingle Battle, yet not the Victory, 2. They conquer the World: The World holds forth her two Breafts of Profit and Pleafure, and many are overcome by it; but the Children of God have a World-conquering Faith, 1 John 5. 4. This is the Victory over the World, even your Faith. 3. They conquer their Enemies: How can that be, when they oft take away their Lives: 1. They conquer, by not complying with them: The three Children would not fall down to the golden Image, Lan 3. 18. They would rather Burn than bow; here they were Conquerors. He who complies with another's Luft, is a Cap[VOL. IL]. tive; he who refufeth to comply, is a Con queror. (2) God's Children conquer their Enemies by heroick Patience. A patient Chriftian, like the Anvil, bears all ftrokes invincibly: Thus the Martyrs overcame their Enemies by Patience. Nay, God's Children are more than Conquerors, Rom. 8. 37. We are more than conquerors. How are God's Children more than Conquerors. Becaufe they Conquer without Lofs, and because they are crowned after Death, which other Conquerors are not. 15. If God be our Father, he will now and then fend us fome Tokens of his Love. God's Children live far from Home, and meet fometimes with coarfe Ufage from the unkind World; therefore God, to encourage his Children, fends them fometimes Tokens and Pledges of his Love: What are thefe? He gives them a Return of Prayer, there is a Token of Love; he quickens and enlargeth their Hearts in Duty, there is a Token of Love; he gives them the Firft-fruits of his Spirit, which are LoveTokens, Rom. 8. 23. As God gives the wicked the First-fruits of Hell, Horror of Confcience and Defpair: fo he gives his Chil dren the firft-fruits of his Spirit, Joy and Peace, which are Foretaftes of glory, Some of God's Children having received thefe Tokens of Love, from their heavenly Father, have been fo tranfported, that they have died for Joy, as the glafs oft breaks with the ftrength of the Wine put into it. 16. If God be our Father, he will indulge and fpare us, Mal. 3, 17. I will spare them, as a Man fpareth kis oren Son that ferveth him. God's fparing his Children, imports this, his clemency towards them; he doth not punish them as he might, Pfalm. 103. 10. He bath not dealt with us according to our fins. We oft do that which merits Wrath, grieve God's Spirit, relapfe into fin; God palleth by much, and fpares us: God did not ipare his natural Son, Rom: 8: 32. Yet he will ipare his adop ted Sons; God threatned Ephraim, to make him as the chaff driven with the Whirlwind, but he foon repented, Hof. 13.4. Yet I am the Lord thy God. ver. 10. I will be thy King Here God fpared him, as a Father fpares his Son. Ifrael oft provoked God with their Complaints, but God ufed clemency towards them, he of anfwered their Murmurings with Ddd Mercies Mercies, here he fpared them, as a Father fpares his fon. 17. If God be our Father, he will put Honour and Renown upon us at the laft Day. 1. He will clear the Innocency of his Children. God's Children in this Life are ftrangely mifreprefented to the World; they are loaded with Invectives, they are called factious, feditious: Elijah, the Troubler of Ifrael; Luther was called the Trumpet of Rebellion; Athanafius was accufed to the Emperor Conftantine, to be the raifer of Tumults; the primitive Chriftians were accufed to be infanticidii, inceftus rei Killers of their Children, guilty of Inceft; as Tertullian. St. Paul reported to be a peftilent Perfon, Acts 24. 5. Famous Wickliff called the Idol of the Hereticks, and that he died drunk. If Satan cannot defile God's Children, he will difgrace them; if he cannot ftrike his fiery Darts into their Confcience, he will put a dead Fly into their Name: But God will one Day clear his Childrens Innocency, he will roll away their Reproach. As God will make a Refurrection of Bodies, fo of Names, Ifa 25. 8. The Lord God will wipe away Tears from off all Faces, and the Rebuke of his People fhall be take away. God will be the Saints compurgator, Pfalm 39. 6. He shall bring forth thy Righteoufnefs as the Light. The Night calts its dark Mantle upon the moft beautiful Flowers; but the Light comes in the Morning and difpells the Darkness, and every Flower appears in its orient Brightness. So the Wicked may, by Mifreports, darken the Honour and Repute of the Saints; but God will difpel this Darkness, and caufe their Names to fhine forth: He fall bring forth thy Righteouf nefs as the Light. As God did ftand up for the Honour of Mofes, when Aaron and Miriam went about to eclipfe his Fame, Numb 12. 8. Wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my Servant Mofes? So will God fay one Day to the wicked, Wherefore were not ye afraid to defame and traduce my Children? They having my Image upon them, how durft ye abufe my Picture? At laft God's Children shall come forth out of all their Calumnies, as a Dove covered with Silver, and her Feathers with yellow Gold, Pfalm 68. 13. 2. God will make an open and honourable Recital of all their good Deeds: As the Sins of the wicked thall be openly mentioned, to their eternal In 3 famy and Confufion; fo all the good Deeds of the Saints fhall be openly mentioned, and then all every Man have Praife of God, 1 Cor. 4. 5. Every Prayer made mith melting Eyes, every good Service, every Work of Charity, fhall be openly declared before Men and Angels, Matth. 25. 35. I was an hungred, and ye gave me Meat; thirsty, and ye gave me Drink; naked, and ye clothed me.. Thus God will fet a Trophy of Honour upon all his Children at the laft Day; Then shall the Righteous fhine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father, Matthew 13, 43. 18. If God be our Father, he will settle good Land of Inheritance upon us, 1 Pet. 1. 4. Bleed be the God and Father of our Lord Jefus, who hath begotten us again to a lively Hope, to an Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, A Father my be fallen to Decay, and have nothing to leave his Son but his Bleffing; but God will fettle an Inheritance on his Children, and an Inheritance no lefs then a Kingdom, Luke 12. 32. It is your Father's good Pleaf ure, to give you a Kingdom. This Kingdom is more glorious and magnificent than any earthly Kingdom; it is fet out by Pearls and precious Stones, the richeft Jewels, Rev. 21. 19. What are all the Rarities of the World to this Kingdom? The Coafts of Pearl, the Iflands of Spices, the Rocks of Diamonds? In this heavenly Kingdom is that which is fatisfying, unparallel'd Beauty, Rivers of Pleasure, and this for ever, Pfalm 16. 11. At thy Right-hand are Pleafures for evermore, Heaven's Eminency is its Permanency; and this Kingdom God's Children fhall enter into immediately after Death: There is a fudden Tranfition and Paffage from Death to Glory, 2 Cor. 5.9. Abfent from the Body, prefent with the Lord. God's Children fhall not stay long for their Inheritance; it is but winking, and they fhall fee God. How may this comfort God's Children, who perhaps are low in the World? Your Father in Heaven, will fettle a Kingdom upon you at Death, fuch a Kingdom as Eye hath not feen; he will give you a Crown, not of Gold, but Glory; he will give you white Robes lined with Immortality. It is your Father's good. Pleasure, to give you a Kingdom. 19. If God be our Father, it is Comfort, 1. In cafe of Lofs of Relations: Haft thou loft a Father? Father? Yet, if thou art a Believer, thou art no. Orphan, thou haft an heavenly Father, a Father that never Dies, 1 Tim. 6. 16.. Who only bath Immortality. 2. It is Comfort in cafe of Death: God is thy Father. and at Death thou art going to thy Father: Well might Paul fay Death is yours, 1Cor. 3. 2. It is your Friend, that will carry you home to your Father. How glad are Children when they are going Home? This was Chrift's comfort at Death, he was going to his Father, John 16. 28. I leave the World, and go to the Father. And, John 20. 17. I afcend to my Father. If God be our Father, we may with comfort at the Day of Death, refign our Souls into his Hand: So did Christ, Luke 23. 46. Father, into thy Hands, I commend my Spirit. If a Child hath any Jewel, he will in Time of Danger, put it into his Father's Hands, where he thinks it will be kept moft fafe: Our Soul is our richest Jewel; we may at Death refign our Souls into God's Hands, where they will be fafer then in our own Keeping; Father in to thy Hands I commend my Spirit. What a comfort is this, Death carries a Believer to his Father's Houfe, where are Delights unspeakable and full of Glory! How glad was old facob, when he faw the Wagons and Chariots to carry him to his Son Jofeph? The Text faith, His Spirit revived, Gen. 45. 27. Death is a Triumphant Chariot, to carry every Child of God, to his Father's Manfion-house. 20. If God be our Father, he will not difinherit his Children; God may for a Time defert them, but not difinherit them. The Sons of Kings have been fometimes difinherited by the Cruelty of Ufurpers; as, Alexander the Great his Son was put-by his juft Right, by the Violence and Ambition of his Father's Captains: But what Power on Earth, fhall hinder the Heirs of the Promife from their Inheritance: Men cannot, and will God cut off the Entail? The Arminians hold falling away from Grace, and fo a Child of God may be defeated of his Inheritance: But I fhall fhow that God's Children can never be degraded or difinherited, their heavenly Father will not caft them off from being Children. 1. It is evident God's Children cannot be finally difinherited, by virtue of the Eternal Decree of Heaven. God's Decree is the very Pillar and Bafis on which the Saints Perfeverance depends; God's Decree ties the Knot of Adoption fo faft, that neither Sin, Death or Hell, can break it afunder, Rom. 8, 30. Whom he did predefinate, them he alfo called, &c. Predeftination is nothing elfe but God's decreeing a certain Number to be Heirs of Glory, on whom he will fettle the Crown whom he predeftinates, he glorifies. What fhall hinder God's electing Love, or make his Decree null and void? 2. Befides God's Decree, he hath engaged himself by Promise, that the Heirs of Heaven fhall never be put by their Inheritance. God's Promifes are not like Blanks in a Lottery, but as a fealed Deed which cannot be reverfed : The Promifes are the Saints Royal Charter; and this is one Promife that their heavenly Father will not difinherit them, Fer. 32. 40. I will make an everlasting. Covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them; but I will put my Fear in their Hearts, that they shall not depart from me. God's Fidelity, which is the richeft Pearl of his Crown, is engaged in this Promife for his Childrens Perfeverance; I will not turn away from them. A Child of God cannot fall away, while he is held faft in these two Arms of God, his Love, and his Faithfulness. 3. Jefus Chrift undertakes, that all God's Children by Adoption fhall be preferv'd, in a state of grace till they inherit glory: As the Heathens feigned of Atlas, that he did bear up the Heavens from falling; Jefus Chrift is that bleffed Atlas, that bears up the Saints from falling away, Queft. 1. How doth Chrift preferve the Saints Graces, till they come to Heaven? Refp. 1. Influxu Spiritus. Chrift carries on grace in the Soul of the Elect, by the Influence and Co-operation of his Spirit: Chrift doth, Spiritu, continually excite and quicken grace, in the godly; his Spirit doth blow up the fparks, of grace into an holy Flame; Spiritus eft vicarius Chrifti; the Spirit is Chrift's Vicar on Earth, his Proxy, his Executor, to fee that all that Chrift hath purchafed for the Saints be made good: Chrift hath obtained an Inheri tance incorruptible for them, 1 Pet. 1. 4and the Spirit of Chrift is his Executor, to fee that, his Inheritance be fettled upon them. 2. Chrift carries on Grace perfeveringly in the Souls of the Elect, vi orationis, by the Prevalency of this Interceffion, Heb. 7. 25. He ever lives to make Interceffion for them. Chrift prays that every Saint may hold out in Grace till he comes D dd 2 to |