[3.] These weak christians do or should remember that God will not always bear with their weaknesses, and from time to time dispense with their follies, and wink at them. They must grow more solid and prudent, more settled into an heavenly frame and temper : 1 Thes. iv. 1, ' We beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so you would abound more and more ; ' 2 Cor. iv. 16, ' For which cause we faint not ; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed clay by day ;' Ps. lxxxiv. 11, ' They go from strength to strength, till they appear before God in Zion.' They must come out of their childish state in time ; as the grain of mustard-seed when it is once rooted must grow up into a tree. We must go on from one degree of grace to another.
[4.] Their knowledge of God as a father differeth from that knowledge which temporaries have, because it is an active and operative knowledge. God's being a father implieth both duty and privilege, and none, know him aright but those that perform the duties of children, and depend upon him for the privileges of children.
(1.) This knowledge implieth the performance of the duties of children, which are to love, please, and honour their father : Mai. i. 6, { A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master. If I be a father, where is mine honour ? if a master, where is my fear ? ' 1 Peter i. 14, ' As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves accord- ing to the former lusts in your ignorance.' In the 17th verse, 'And
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if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth accord- ing to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear.' There must be a tenderness and a fear to offend their heavenly Father ; for God will not be flattered with empty titles. That is a dishonour and a mockage, as it was for them to call Christ 'King of the Jews,' and to spit upon him, and buffet him. Therefore there is no true owning and knowing of him as a father unless we be thereby strongly moved to a care of obedience.
(2.) There are the privileges of children, and this knowing of the Father implieth trust and dependence : Ps. is. 10, ' They that know thy name will put their trust in thee.' And therefore little children do so know the Father as to depend upon him for protection in all dangers, and provision of all necessaries, and finally for the heavenly in- heritance and their everlasting portion ; for they are begotten to a lively hope, 1 Peter i. 3 ; and therefore, as soon as they are born again, they begin to look for a child's portion, and to apply their minds to heavenly things ; and so, because of their weakness, put themselves under the conduct and government of God as their everlasting father. From this the character of these little children or babes in Christ may be sufficiently understood.
Doct. That even the lowest sort of christians do know God as a father.
I shall illustrate this point by three considerations —
1. That God standeth in the relation of a father to his people.
2. That the lowest sort of christians do know him under this relation.
3. How this is the point which constituteth the difference between them and others.
I. For the first consideration, that God standeth in the relation of a father to his people. God is a father either in a general respect by creation, or in a more special regard by adoption.
1. By creation. He gave being to all things, but to man and angels reason. To establish the relation of a father, there must be com- munication of life and likeness. A painter that maketh a picture like himself is not the father of it, for though there be likeness, yet no life. The sun in propriety of speech is not the father of the frogs and putrid creatures which are quickened by its heat. This relation is applied only to univocal generations and rational creatures. A bull that produceth a calf like himself is not called the father of it ; in ordinary speaking we call it the sire, and the heifer the dam. Now God is the Father of angels, and angels are the sons of God : Job xxxviii. 7, ' When the morning-stars sang together, and the sons of God shouted for joy.' So men. Adam was the son of God, Luke iii. 38. Once more, though we have deformed ourselves, and are not the same that we were when we were first created, yet still in regard of some sorry remains of God's image, and the light of reason yet kept, we are called the sons of God, and God is called ' our Father ; ' yea, more a father than our natural parents are. Our parents concur to our being but instrumentally, but God originally. Now, as the writing is the work of the penman rather than of the pen, so are we the workman- ship of God rather than of our parents. He forms us in the womb ;