them, as a man sparcth liis own son tliat BCivetli liim." God's sparing liis cliildron, imports this, liis ck'inency towards tlieiii ; he doth not punish them as lie mitjlit, Ps ciii. 10., " lie liatli not dealt with ns according to our sins." We oft do that which merits wrath, grieve God's Spirit, relapse into sin ; God passeth by much, and spares ns ; God did not spare his natural Son, Rom. viii. 22. Yet he will spare his adoj)ted sons ; God threatened E])hraim, to make him as the chaff driven with the whirlwind, but he soon repented, Hos. xiii. 4., " Yet I am the Lord thy God ;"' v. 10., " I will be thy king." Here God spared him as a father spares his son. Israel oft provoked God witii their complaints, but God used cle- mency toward them, he oft answered their murmurings with mercies; here he spared them as a father spares his son.
17. If God be our Father, he will put honour and renown npon us at the last day. — 1. He will clear the innocency of his children. God's children in this life are strangely misrepresented to the world. They are loaded with invectives, they are called factious, seditious ; Elijah, the troubler of Israel ; liUther was called the trumpet of rebellion ; Athanasius was accused to the emjH-ror Constantine, to be the raiser of tu- mults ; the primitive Christians were accus- ed to be hifaytiicidii, incestus rei, ' killers of their children,"' 'guilty of incest;' as Ter- tullus re])orted St. Paul to be a pestilent person, Acts xxiv. 4. Famous Wicklitf was called the idol of the heretics, and said to have died drunk. If Satan cannot defile God's children, he will disgrace them ; if he cannot strike his fiery darts into their conscience, he will put a dead fly into their name ; but God will one day clear his chil- dren's innocency, he will roll away their reproach. As God will make a resurroc- lion of bodies, so of names, Isa. xxv. 8., " The Lord God shall wipe away tears from off all faces, and the rebuke of his people shall he take away." God will be the saints' comjiurgator, Ps. xxxvii. 6., •♦ He shall bring forth thy righteousness as tlu! light" The night casts its dark man- tle upon the most beautiful flowers; but the light comes in the morning and dispels the darkness, and every flower appears in its o- [
rient brightness : so the wicVed may by misreports darken the honour and repiUe of the saints ; but God will dispel this dark- ness, and cause their names to shine forth : *' He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light." As (Jod did stand up for the honour of Moses, Avhcn Aaron and Miriam went about to ccli|)se his fame, Numb. xii. 8 , " Wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses r"' So will God say one day to the \A"irked, wherefore were ye n(tt afraid to defame and traduce my children ? They having my image up- on them, how durst ye abuse my |)icture? At last God's children shall come forth out of all their calumnies, as a "dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold," Ps. Ixviii. 13. — 2. God will make an open and honourable recital of all their good deeds : as the sins of the wicked shall be o])enly mentioned, to their eternal iiifa- my and confusion ; so all the good deeds of the saints shall be openly mentioned, "and then shall every man have praise of God," 1 Cor. iv. 5. Every prayer made with melting eyes, every good service, every work of charity, shall be openly declared before men and angels : Mat. xxv. 35, 36., " I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat ; thirsty, and ye gave me drink ; naked, and ye clothed me." Thus (lod will set a tro- phy of honour upon all his children at the last day ; " then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father, Mat. xiii. 43.
18. If God be our Father, he will settle a good land of inheritance upon us, 1 Pet. i. 3, 4., " Blessed be the (lod and Father of our Lord Jesus, who hath begotten us a- gain to a lively hope, to an inheritance in- corruj)tible and undefiled." A father may be fallen to decay, and have nothing to leave his son but his blessing; but (iod will settle Jin inheritance on his children, an:l an inheritance no less than a kingdom, Luke xii. 32., " It is your Father's good j)leasure to give you the kingdom." TJiis kingdom is n ore glorious and magnifieent than any earthly kingdom ; it is set out by pearls and precious stones, the ri^rhest jew- els, Rev. xii. 19. Wluit are all the rarities of the worhl to this kingdom, — the coasts of pearl, the islands of spices, the rocks o
OF THE PREFACE TO THE LORDS PRAYER.
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