12. If God be our Father, we shall not want any thing that he sees is good for us, Ps. xxxiv. 10., " They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing." God is pleased sometimes to keep his children to iiard commons, but it is good for them ; sheep thrive best on short ])asture: God sees too much may not be good: plenty breeds surfeit. Luxuriant animi rebus secundis. God sees it good sometimes to diet his chil- dren, and keep them short, 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 Joseph : so it is that God's children sometimes see the world's emptiness, that they may acquaint themselves more with Christ's fulness. If God see it be good for them to have more of the world they shall have it : God will not let them want any good thing.
13. If God be our Father, all the pro- mises of the Bible belong to us; God's chil- dren are called " heirs of promise," Heb. vi. 17. A wicked man can lay claim to nothing in the Bible but the curses ; he hath no more to do absolutely with the ])romises, than a ploughman hath to do with the city charter ; the promises are children's bread ; the pro- mises arc muldralia Evangelii^ the breasts of the gospel milking out consolations ; and who are to suck of these breasts but God's children ? The promise of pardon is for them, Jer. xxxiii. 8., " I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have smned against me." The promise of heal- ing is for them, Isa. Ivii. 18. The promise of salvation, Jer. xxiii. 6. The promises are supports of faith ; they are God's sealed deed ; they are a Christian's cordial. O the heavenly comforts which are distilled from tiie limbeck of the promises ! Saint Chry- sostom compares the scripture to a garden, the promises are tl>e fruit-trees that grow in tliis garden : a child of God may go to any promise in the Bible, and ]>lucU com- fort Ironi it : he is an heir of tlie promise.
II. God makes all his children conquer- ors : \st. They couiiuer themselves; Jortior est qui se, quaiii qui forlissitini vincint mania. The saints conquer tlieir own lusts ; they
bind these princes in fetters of iron, Ps. cxlix. 8. Though the children of God may sometimes be foiled, and lose a single bat- tle, yet not the victory. 2(1. They conquer the world ; the world holds forth her two breasts of profit and pleasure, and many are overcome by it, but the children of God have a world-conquering faitli, 1 John v. 4., " This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." 3^/. They con- quer 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, Dan. iii. 18. They would rather burn than bow ; here they were con- querors. He who complies with another's lust, is a captive; he who refuseth to com- ply, is a conqueror. (2.) God's children conquer their enemies by heroic patience. A patient Christian, like the anvil, bears all strokes invincibly ; thus the martyrs o- vercame their enemies by patience. Nay, God's children "are more than conquerors," Rom. viii. 37., " We arc more than con- querors." How are God's children more than conquerors ? Because they conquer without loss ; and because they are crowned after death, which other conquerors are not.
15. If God be our Father he will now and then send us some tokens of his love, (iods children live far from home, and meet sometimes with C()arse usage from the unkind world ; therefore God, to encourage his children, sends them sometimes tokens and pledges of his love. What are these? He gives them a return of prayer, — there is a token of love ; he quickens and enlarg- eth their hearts in duty, — there is a token of love ; he gives them the first fruits of his Spirit which are love-tokens, R<)m. viii. 23, Aw God gives the wicked the first fruits of hell, horror of conscience and despair : so he gives his children the first fruits of his Spirit, joy and peace, which are foretJistes of glory. Some of God's chiUlren having received those tokens of love from their heavenly Father, liave been so transported, that they have died for joy, as the glass oft breaks with the strength of the wine put into it.
IG. If God be our Father, lie will indidge and spare us, jNlal. iii. 17., " I will spare
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OF THE PREFACE TO THE LORDS PRAYER.