THE CHRISTIAN WORK. 25
' Oh the depth of that love !' Earthly fathers adopt sons because they die, but God is eternal ; he never dies ; his Son is everlasting. Consider this as a point of comfort, for this relation is everlasting ; he never Icaveth U3 nor forsakes us. Servants are cast out, but the Son abidcth for ever ; ser- vants know not the counsels of their masters, but sons they know the whole will of God. Consider this as a ground of protection in all dangers, and of provision of all good. ' I have a father,' saith the prodigal ; ' what need I die for hunger? I will go to him,' Luke xv. 17. In a word, the word Father is an epitome of the whole gospel. All the promises therein con- tained are sealed up by and in this one word, God is our Father. Can we go to our Father for pardon of sin and not obtain it ? By Christ's death and satisfaction he is become our Father ; and therefore Christ is Christ after his resurrection. Can we then want any good thing ? How can we think he will deny us his Spirit, or that inheritance in heaven, which as a Father he hath promised 1 How then, or at what shall we be dismayed and discomforted '? What can trouble us ? Mark what is promised in Ps. ciii. 2, seq. All good that may any way concern thy soul or body. Dost thou fear thy corruptions ? The Spirit tells thee that God is thy Father; there can be no condemnation to thee, Rom. viii. 1. Dost thou fear want ? Surely he that hath given thee Christ, his own Son, how shall he not with him give thee all things, Rom. viii. 32. Thou shalt want nothing for thy good. Thou mayest fall into sin, but God is still thy Father. This relation is everlasting. He will not forsake thee. From hence thou mayest have an argument against all suggestions. This brings with it comfort ; but to whom ? It must be to such as are sons, not to the traitorous and rebellious. It hath been treason for any man to term him- self the son of a king, not being indeed so, yea, though the king were dead ; and is it not high treason for a presumptuous traitor to come into the pre- sence chamber of the great God, and with an impudent face to style God his Father ? Verily God's answer will be to such, ' You are of your father the devil : his works ye do,' John viii. 44.
1. Those that are God's sons'"' he renews to do his imll and commandments. 1 Pet. i. 16 : ' Be ye hoh^' saith he, ' for I am holy.' But when men hate goodness and good men, nay, and persecute them, defame them, mur- der them, John viii. 44, they are of the devil. They are murderers and liars ; and that religion that teacheth them is devilish.
2. Again, If God be thy Father, thou wilt have a spirit of jirai/er. We are no sooner born but we begin to cry, as Paul did at his first conversion, Acts ix. 11. Every child of God, in respect of his measure of grace, he will do his endeavour to sigh and sob out his grief to God : and as the grace increases, so will this duty be more perfect, till at length he comes to provoke f God, by his promise to urge and bind him by reasons to hear him. Those, therefore, that pass day after day, never finding time for the performance of this duty, they have not God's Spirit ; for by it we have access to God, Eph. ii. 18; Eph. iii. 12 ; and there is no child but will use this privilege ; and those that use it not may well suspect they are not children.
8. Thirdly, If thou be the child of God, and hast his Holy Spirit in thee, thou shalt have, whensoever thou standest in need, a sweet consolatio)i ; for that ever reveals to thee what thou art, and comforts thee in all distress. For, Rom. v. 1, ' being justified by faith, thou hast peace with God.'
* In margin here, ' Signs of God's sons.' — G.
t That is, etymologically, to ' call forth,' = to appeal to. — G.
20 THE CHRISTIAN WORK.
What cross soever troubles the child of God, this will ever comfort him : Well ! I am the child of God ; I am assured God is reconciled to me ; I have my confidence in him, that when he sees fit I shall be eased ; in the mean time I am assured I shall not be overcome. This is that which no natural man can have ; he cannot rejoice in alUiction.
4. Fourthly, If thou becst the sou of God, thou art not overmuch careful for the th'uKjH that concern this life. Thou usest the means that God hath ordained, and thou trustest God with the issue and event of all. It is the property of orphans to care much for their living, and for the things of this world ; not for those that have such a father as God, that provides for all his children liberally ; and men in thus doing shew themselves orphans, or bastards, and not sons.