III. For the third consideration, how this is the constitutive differ- ence. This was spoken to before.
Use 1. To inform us what care ought to be taken for the institution of little children ; for though spiritual growth be mainly intended, yet natural age is not excluded or exempted. Some little ones may have a strange knowledge of God, and a sense of religion : Prov. xxii. 6, ' Train up a child in the way that he shall go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.' The tender twig is soonest bowed. We tame a lion when he is young, and a horse when a colt. What we learn young is most easily received, and firmly retained, before the mind be forestalled. Seneca took notice of it, Omnes prceoccupati sumus — our minds are wedded to evil, before set right toward God ; thence cometh the difficulty. Consider they are children of the covenant, and should be entered betimes, Deut. xxix. from ver. 10 to 14. Christ hath great respect for little children, and he blameth those that kept them from him. God commandeth us to teach our children : Deut. vi. 7, ' And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up ; ' and we are commanded to ' bring up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,' Eph. vi. 4. He that gave the precept will find the bless- ing. He expecteth it, and reckoneth upon it : Gen. xviii. 19, ' For I know that he will command his children, and his household after him ; and they shall know the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment ; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.' Men promise this when they bring their children to baptism. They dedicate their children to the Lord, and educate them for the •world and the flesh. Call upon your children as David doth upon Solomon: 1 Chron. xxviii. 9, 'And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy Father, and serve him with a perfect heart, and with a willing mind.'
Use 2. If the lowest sort of christians do know God as a father, do we know God as a father ? have we a Father in heaven ? are we re- conciled to him by Jesus Christ ? You will know it mainly by this,
VER. 13, 14.] SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN II. 12-14. 437
the state of adoption ; there is a spirit of adoption that doth accompany it. There is a state of adoption, and a spirit of adoption : ' Because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father,' Gal. iv. 6. It discovereth itself in prayer, because it maketh us come in a familiar and childlike manner to God. A spirit of grace breaketh out into a spirit of supplication : Zech. xii. 10, ' I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplications.' But as to your constant frame, have you the spirit of a son, the spirit of an heir ? The spirit of a son, that will discover itself in prayer. And it is a spirit of obedience ; there is a childlike reverence and dread of God ; they dare not offend him ; as the Kechabites, Jer. xxxv. 5, 6.
SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III.
SERMON I.
Behold ivhat manner of love the Father hath bestoived upon us, that we should be called the sons of God ! therefore the world knoiueth us not, because it hneio him not. — 1 John iii. 1.
The apostle had said in the close of the former chapter, ' that every one that doeth righteousness is born of God ; ' now this being so great a privilege to be adopted into God's family, and acknowledged and reckoned among his children, the apostle pauseth on it a while, and doth excite them to wonder and reverence in the contemplation of it, that the argument may have the more force to persuade them to righteousness and holiness, wherein they would resemble God, as children do their father : ' Behold what manner of love/ &c. In the words we have —
1. A great privilege represented.
2. An anticipation of an objection or an exception made to that privilege. This dignity hath no outward appearance to discover itself to the world. Therefore the privilege must not be esteemed by the world's judgment, who are blind in God's matters: 'Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.'
The first I am to deal with at this time, and there observe —
1. The privilege itself, ' That we should be called the sons of God.'
2. The fountain and rise of this ; the love of God is the bottom cause.
3. The wonderful degree of this love as to this instance, effect, or expression of it, ' What manner of love.'
4. The note of attention by which he excites our dull minds to the consideration of it, ' Behold.'
Let me explain these words a little.