2. That this is a blessed and glorious privilege.
3. That believers ought to be excited to the earnest consideration of it.
I. That there is such a relation as that of father and children be- tween God and his people. There is a relation between God and all his creatures ; for as God gave being to all, so he hath an interest and propriety in them. But the inanimate and brute creatures are his in- struments by which he serveth his providence: Ps. cxix. 91, 'They continue this day according to thine ordinance, for they are all thy servants.' All creatures are subjected to the law and overruling government of his providence. Man is under his proper government. Adam in the covenant of works was rather God's subject and hired servant than his son. The children of Israel were his children, but as children in their nonage, as an heir while he is a child : Gal. iv. 1, ' An heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all.' A servile spirit was uppermost in that dispensation. But with respect to the gospel covenant of grace, so we are most strictly said to be the children of God : Hosea i. 10, ' In the place where it is said to them, Ye are not my people, there shall it be said that ye are the sons of the living God ; ' 2 Cor. vi. 18, ' I will be a father unto you, and you shall be my sons and daughters.' He will own us as a father, and we must be to him in the relation of children. God hath a seed among men whom he hath begotten by his Spirit, and hath adopted and taken into his family ; he hath a paternal affection towards them, and they filial dispositions towards him; he hath a paternal care and providence over them, and they filial confidence and dependence upon him ; he expects the honour of a father, and we may expect the privileges of children, for he hath begotten us to a lively hope. This special relation is distinct from his common relation to other men.
1. It proceedeth from a distinct cause, his special and peculiar love, not from that common goodness and bounty which he expresseth to all his creatures : Ps. cxlv. 9, ' The Lord is good to all, his tender mercy is over all his works.' But this is the special act of his grace, or of his great love : Eph. ii. 4, 5, ' But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ.'
2. The foundation of this relation is not our being which we have from him as a creator, but our new being which we have from him as a father in Christ : ' We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus.' As we are men, God is a governor to us, and we are his sub- jects ; but as we are new men, born again, God is a father to us and
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we are his children: the former relation ceaseth not, but ariseth in it.
3. The whole commerce and communion that is between us and him is on God's part fatherly, on our part childlike. On God's part fatherly, in a way of grace and love, pardoning our sins and frailties, and giving us the helps of his grace : Mai. iii. 17, ' I will spare them, as a man spareth his only son that serveth him ; ' Ps. ciii. 13, ' Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth those that fear him.' A faulty child is a child, and therefore not so easily turned out of the family as a servant. We often forget the duty of children, but God doth not forget the mercy of a father. So on our part childlike ; that is, for the main we are loving and obedient to God, make it our work to love and please him, and count it our happiness to be beloved of him. Love is at the bottom of God's dispensations to us, and at the bottom of our duties to him ; he giveth us his choicest benefits, as becomes his special love to us, and we perform him the best service we can : ' For the love of Christ constraineth us.' He hath given us a heart to know him and love him as a father, and he loveth us as his dear children. In short, fatherly benefits are fullest, sweetest, and surest ; for he giveth us himself, his Spirit, grace, glory, every good thing. So filial duty is the choicest : 1 Peter i. 14, ' As dear children, not fashioning yourselves to the former lusts of your ignorance ; ' Eph. v. 1, 'Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children.' No motive so engaging as that, nor none goes so much to the heart of a christian.
II. That this is a blessed and glorious privilege will appear if we consider —
First, The person adopting, the great and glorious God, who is so far above us, so happy within himself, and needeth not us nor our choicest love and service ; who had a son of his own, Jesus Christ, the eternally- begotten of the Father, ' the Son of his love/ in whom his soul found such full complacency and delight. If men adopt, it is in orbitatis gratiam, as a remedy found out for the comfort of them who have no children. Never was it heard of that a father who had a son should adopt a son. Therefore it heightens the privilege that God who had a son that ' thought it no robbery to be equal with him ' in power ; a son that ' was the express image of his person,' the object of his full delight, 1 being daily his delight, and rejoicing before him ; ' I say, that God should vouchsafe to such unworthy creatures as we are so dear and honourable a relation to himself is wonderful.