Ans. 1. By having a filial disposition : this is seen in four tilings, 1. To melt in tears foi* sin : a cliild weeps for offending his father. When Christ looked on Peter, and he remembered his sin in denying Clnist, he fell a-weeping. Clemens Alcx- andrinns reports of Peter he never heard a cock crow, but he wej)t. This is a sign that God is our Father, when the heart of stone is taken awav, and there is a gracious thaw in the heart; it melts into tears for sin; and he who hath a childlike heart, mourns for sin in a spiritual manner, as it is sin ; he grievis for it, (1.) As it is an act of pollution. Sin deflowers the virgin-soul: it (h'facetli God's image; it turns beauty into def<M*mity ; 'tis called the " plague of the hciirt," 1 Kings viii. 33. It is tlie spi- rits of evil distilled. A child of God mourns for the defilement of sin ; sin hath a black- er as{)ect than hell. (2.) He who hath a childlike heart, grieves for sin, as it is an act of enmity. SIu is diametrically opj)o- sitc to (jod. It is called a walking contra- ry iA God, Lev. xwi. 40., " If they shall confess their inicjuity, and that also they liave walked contrary to me." Sin doth all it c:in to spite (iod ; if God be of one mind, sin will be of another ; sin would not onlv nntbronc God, but it strikes at his very being; if sin could help it, (jod should be no longer God. A childlike heart grieves ft.r this; " O," saith he, "that I should have so much enmity in me, that my will should be no more subdued to the will of my heavenly Father !' This sj)riugs a leak of godly sorrow. (3.) A childlike heart weeps for sin, as it is an act of ingratitude ; sin is an abuse of God's love; it is taking the jewels of God's mercies, and making use of them to sin. God hath done more
for his children than others ; he hath plant- ed his grace and given them some intima- tions of his favour; and to sin against kind- ness, dyes a sin in grain, and makes it crim- son. Like Absalom, who, as soon as his Father kissed him, and took him into fav- our, plotted treason against him : nothing so melts a childlike heart in tears, as sins of unkinduess : " O that I should sin a<rainst the blood of a Saviour, and the bowels of a Father ! I condemn ingratitude in my cliihi, yet I am guilty of ingratitude against my heavenly Father." This opens a vein of godly sorrow, and makes the heart bleed afresh : certainly this evidenceth God to be our Father, when he hath given us thia childlike frame of heart, to weep fi)r sin jis it is sin, an act of pollution, enmity, ir.gra- titude : a wicked man may mourn for the bitter fruit of sin, but only a child of God can grieve for the odious nature of sin.
2. A filial (or childlike) di.-^p )sition is to be full of sympathy ; we lay to heart the dishonours reflected upon our heavenly Fa- ther ; when we sec God's worship adulter- ated, his truth mingled with the poison of error, it is as a sword in our bones, to sea God's glory suffer, Ps. cxix. 158, " I hc- held the transgressors and was grieved."' Homer describing Agamemnon's grief whifii- he was forced to sacritice his daughter Iplii- genia, brings in all hb> friends weeping and' condoling with him ; so, wlieii God is dis- honoured, we sympathize, and are as il were clad in mourning. A child that hath aiiv good nature, is cut to the heart to hear his father reproached : an heir of heaven takc-s a dishonour done to God more heinous than. a disgrace done to himself.
3. A filial disposition, is to love our hea- venly Father ; he is unnatural that doUi not love his father. God who is crowned, with excellency, is the proj)er object of de- light; and every true child of God saitli, as Peter, " Lord, tinm knowest that I lovo thee." But who will not say he loves (iod? If <nu's be a true genuine love to our hea- venly Father, it may be known, ]sf. By the effects: 1. Then we have an holy fear; there is a fear which ariseth from love tc (Jod, that is, Avc fear the loss of the visible tokens of God's presence, 1 Sam. iv. 13.,
* Eli's heart trembled for the ark.' It is
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OF THE PREFACE TO THE LORDS PRAYER.