Now this relation of a father teacheth us as what we may expect from God, so what we ought to return to God again, and how we ought to carry ourselves one towards another.
I. What u-e may expect from God being a Father.
(1.) We may expect whatsoever a child may expect from a father. God taketh not upon him empty names. He saith he will be a Father, not only called a Father, ' but I will be your Father, and you shall be my sons,' 2 Cor. vi. 18. All the fatherhood, and all the kindred in heaven and earth that is spiritual, the comfort of it cometh from God the Father, reconciled to us in Christ. The word in the original is so strong that we cannot express it in English. Fathers on earth are but poor fathers, and they be but beams of the fatherly aftection that is in God. God will let us see by these beams of compassion that is in a father to a child, what real compassion he beareth to us. The true reality of fatherhood is in God. And therefore, when we hear of father, think of whatsoever lieth in the bowels of a father to a child ; and that we may expect from God our Father, and infinite more. It is a great indulgence ; as a father pitieth his child, so God will pity us, Mai. iii. 17. AVill a father cast off his child.? Indeed, he will cleanse the child. So God will take away our abominations, and purge us when we defile ourselves. It is because of an eternal relation he casteth us not off. We may expect from him indulgence ; and it is an indulgence of indulgence. God needed no son when he made us sons. Yet he had his Son and angels to praise himself withal. Can we pity and pardon a child ? and will not God pardon and pity us ? Why should we conceive worse of him than of ourselves ? Will we give pity to a father, and not pity to the Father of all bowels and compassion ? And therefore think not that God will cast us off. God pardons us, and healeth our infirmities, and pitieth us as a father pitieth his own child, Ps. ciii. 13. It is a name under which no man must despair. ^Miat ! Despair under the name of a father ? Despair of mercy when we have a Father to go to ? The poor prodigal, when he had spent his patrimony, his body, his good name, had lost all, and nothing left, yet he had a father, and ' I will go to him,' Luke xv. 18. And so, when we be at the last cast, and have spent all, we have a Father. There- fore go to him. What saith the church ? Isa. Ixiii. Ixiv., ' Doubtless thou art our Father,' when the church was in a poor condition ; ' Though our righteousness be as a menstruous cloth, and we be defiled, yet thou art our Father ; we are the clay, thou art the potter,' &c. So that it is a name of his indulgence.
You have his disposition set down by the father of the prodigal. The son saith, he will go to the father ; the father runneth to him and meeteth him when he is coming. God runneth to us, and is ready to meet us, w'hen we begin to repent of sin, and are sensible of our faults. He is more ready to pardon, than we to ask pardon.
I touch only some principal things, that you may remember against the evil day and hour of temptation. He taketh not on him the relation of a
452
A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE.
Father for nought, but will fill it up to tho uttermost. It is no empty relation.
(2.) It is a name likeivise of comfort. It is the speech of a natural man, ' A little punishment is enough from a father.' ' He knoweth whereof we are made, he remembers we are but dust,' Ps. ciii. 14, and Ileb. xii. 6 ; he knoweth we are not iron or steel ; he knoweth our making ; and there- fore he will deal gently with us when he doth correct us. It is as neces- sary as our daily bread to have gentle correction, to wean us from tho world ; yet he doth it gently. A little punishment will serve from a gra- cious father.
(3.) It is a name likewise of provision, that we may expect from God ; that he will in all our exigences and necessities provide for us whatsoever shall be needful. What saith our Saviour Christ to the poor disciples doubting of want ? ' It is your Father's good will to give you the king- dom.' What then ? ' Fear not, little fiock,' Luke xii. 32. He that will give you a kingdom, will not he give you daily bread, viaticum, provision for a journey ? He that intendeth us heaven, certainly ho will provide for us here. And therefore in the Lord's prayer, before all petitions, as a ground of all, he putteth in ' our Father' ; and thei'efore, ' Give us our daily bread, our Father.' And therefore he will give us grace to sanctify his name, and do his will, and forgive us our sins. Expect all from our Father, which is the ground of all. Christ had much ado to persuade his disciples that they should not want necessaries ; and therefore he makes whole ser- mons to strengthen their faith in this : ' Your heavenly Father knoweth what you stand in need of,' Mat. vi. 8. The son cannot ask, but the Father can interpret any sigh, any groan, and knoweth what we would have. And therefore being God's children, we may fetch provision from him in all conditions.