nal relation of God unto the fons of men is founded on a restitution or temporal redemption.

Befides, if to be born causeth a relation to a Father, then to be born again maketh an addition of another and if to generate foundeth, then to regenerate addeth a Paternity. Now though we cannot enter the fecond time into our mother's womb, nor pass through the fame door into the fcene of life John iii. 3. again; yet we believe and are perfuaded, that except a man be born again, he cannot fee the kingdom of God. A double birth there is, and the (b) world confifts of two, the first and the fecond Man. And though the incorruptible feed be the Word of God, and the dispensers of it in some sense may say, as St. Paul fpake unto the Corinthians, I have begotten you through the Gofpel: yet he is the true Father, whofe Jam. i. 17, Word it is, and that is God, even the Father of lights, who of his own will begat us with the word of truth. John v. 1. Thus whofoever believeth that Jefus is the Chrift, is

1 Cor. iv.

35.1

18.

IO.

3,2.

born of God; which Regeneration is as it were a Ephef. ii. fecond Creation: for we are God's workmanship, created in Chrift Jefus unto good works. And he alone who did create us out of nothing, can beget us again, and make us of the new Creation. When Rachel Gen. xxx. called to Jacob, Give me children, or elfe I die; he anfwered her fufficiently with this question, Am I in God's fead? And if he only openeth the womb, who elfe can make the (c) Soul to bear? Hence hath he the name of Father, and they of Sons who are born of him; and fo from that internal act of fpiritual Regeneration another title of Paternity redoundeth unto the Divinity.

Nor is this the only fecond birth or fole Regeneration in a Chriftian fenfe; the foul, which after its natural being requires a birth into the life of Grace, is also after that born again into a life of Glory. Our Saviour puts us in mind of the RegeMatt. xix. neration, When the Son of Man fhall fit in the throne

Col iii. 24

of his glory. The Refurrection of our Bodies is a kind of coming out of the womb of the earth, and entering upon immortality, a nativity into another life. For they which shall be accounted worthy to ob- Luke xx. tain that world, and the refurrection from the dead, are 35, 36. the fons of God, being the fons of the Refurrection; and then as fons, they become heirs, co-heirs with Chrift, Rom, viii. receiving the promise and reward of eternal inheritance. 17. (d) Beloved, now we are the fons of God, faith St. Heb. ix. 15 John, even in this life by Regeneration, and it doth 1 John iii. 2 not yet appear, or, it hath not been yet made manifeft, what we shall be; but we know, that if he appear, we fhall be like him; the manifeftation of the Father being a fufficient declaration of the condition of the Sons, when the fonship itself confifteth in a fimilitude of the Father. And, blessed be the God and 1Pet.i Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift, which according to bis abundant mercy bath begotten us again unto a lively hope, by the refurrection of Jefus Chrift from the dead; to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, referved in heaven for us. Why may not then a fecond kind of Regeneration be thought a fit addition of this paternal relation?

3, 4.

Neither is there only a natural, but also a voluntary and civil foundation of Paternity; for the Laws have found a way by which a man may become a Father without procreation: and this imitation of (e) Nature is called Adoption, taken in the general (f) fignification. Although therefore many ways God be a Father, yet left any way might feem to exclude us from being his Sons, he hath made us fo alfo by Adoption. Others are wont to fly to this, as to a comfort of their folitary condition, when either (g) Nature hath denied them, or death bereft them of their offspring. Whereas God doth it not for his own, but for our fakes; nor is the advantage his, but ours. Behold 1 Joh. it. what manner of love the Father hath beftowed upon us, that we should be called the fons of God; that we, the VOL. I.

E

fons

fons of difobedient and condemned Adam by natural generation, fhould be tranflated into the glorious liberty of the fons of God by Adoption; that we, who were aliens, strangers and enemies, should Eph. iii. 15. be affumed unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom all the (b) family of heaven and earth is Eph. i. 18. named, and be made partakers of the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints. For as in the legal Adoption, the Father hath. as (i) full and abfolute power over his adopted Son as over his own iffue; fo in the fpiritual, the adopted fons have a clear and undoubted right of inheritance. He then who hath predeftinated us unto the adoption of Children by Jefus Chrift to himself, hath thereby another kind of paternal relation, and fo we receive Rom. viii. the Spirit of Adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

Eph. i. 5.

15.

2.

The neceffity of this Faith in God as in our Father appeareth, firft, in that it is the ground of all our filial fear, honour and obedience due unto him Eph. vi. 1, upon this relation. Honour thy Father is the first commandment with promife, written in tables of stone with the finger of God; and, Children obey your parents in the Lord, is an evangelical precept, but founded upon principles of reafon and juftice; for this is right, faith St. Paul. And if there be fuch a rational and legal obligation of honour and obedience to the fathers of our flesh, how much more must we think ourselves obliged to him whom we believe to be our heavenly and everlasting Father? Malac. i. 6. A Son honoureth his Father, and a Servant his Mafter.

If then I be a Father, where is my honour? and if I be a Mafter, where is my fear? faith the Lord of Hofts. If we be heirs, we must be co-heirs with Chrift; if fons, we must be brethren to the only-begotten : but being he came not to do his own will, but the will of him that fent him, he acknowledgeth no fraternity but with fuch as do the fame; as he hath Matth. xii. faid, Whofoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the fame is my brother. If it be required.

500

of

I

of a Bishop in the Church of God, to be one that 1 Tim. iii. ruleth well his own house, having his Children in fub- 4° jection with all gravity; what obedience must be due, what fubjection must be paid, unto the Father of the family?

The fame relation in the object of our Faith is the life of our devotions, the expectation of all our petitions. Chrift who taught his Disciples, and us in them, how to pray, propounded not the knowledge of God, though without that he could not hear us; neither reprefented he his power, though without that he cannot help us; but comprehended all in this relation, When ye pray, fay, Our Father. Luke xi. z. This prevents all vain repetitions of our most earnest defires, and gives us full fecurity to cut off all tau-. tology, for our Father knoweth what things we have Matt. vi. 8. need of before we ask him. This creates a clear affurance of a grant without mistake of our petition : (k) What man is there of us, who if his fon afk bread, Matt. vii. 9, will give him a ftone? or if he ask a fish, will give him a ferpent? If we then who are evil know how to give good gifts unto our children; how much more fhall our Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

Again, this Paternity is the proper foundation of our Chriftian patience, fweetening all afflictions with the name and nature of fatherly corrections.

10, 11.

We have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, Heb. xii, and we gave them reverence, fhall we not much rather 9, 10. be in fubjection to the Father of Spirits, and live? efpecially confidering, that they chaftened us after their own pleafure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his bolinefs: they, as an argument of their authority; he, as an affurance of his love: they, that we might acknowledge them to be our Parents; he, that he may perfuade us that we are his Sons: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and fcourgeth every fon whom he receiveth. And what greater incitement unto the exercise of patience is

E 2

imaginable

5.

imaginable unto a fuffering foul, than to fee in every stroke the hand of a Father, in every afflic tion a demonftration of his love? Or how canft thou repine, or be guilty of the leaft degree of imDeut. vii, patiency, even in the sharpeft corrections, if thou Jhalt know with thine heart, that as a man chafteneth his fon, fo the Lord thy God chasteneth thee? How canft thou not be comforted, and even rejoice in the midft of thy greateft fufferings, when thou knoweft that he which ftriketh pitieth, he which Pfal. cii. afflicteth is as it were afflicted with it? For like as a Father pitieth his Children, fo the Lord pitieth them that fear him.

13.

Laftly, the fame relation ftrongly inferreth an abfolute neceffity of our imitation; it being clearly vain to affume the title of Son without any fimilitude of the Father. What is the (m) general notion of generation but the production of the like; Nature, ambitious of perpetuity, ftriving to preferve the fpecies in the multiplication and fucceffion of individuals? And this fimilitude confifteth partly in effentials, or the likeness of nature; partly in accidentals, or the likeness in (2) figure, or (0) affecGen. v. 3. tions. Adam begat a fon in his own likeness, after his image and can we imagine thofe the fons of God which are no way like him? a fimilitude of nature we muft not, of figure we cannot pretend unto: it remains then only that we bear fome likenefs in our Eph. v. 1. actions and affections. (p) Be ye therefore followers, faith the Apoftle, or rather imitators of God, as dear Children. What he hath fevealed of himfelf, that we muft exprefs within ourselves. Thus God fpake unto the Children of Ifrael, whom he ftyled his Levi. 44 Son, Ye shall be holy, for I am holy. And the Apostle upon the fame ground fpeaketh unto us, as to obedient children, As he that bath called you is holy, fo be ye holy in all manner of converfation. It is of the general beneficence and univerfal goodness of our God, that he maketh his fun to rife on the evil and

& xix. 2.

& XX. 7.

a Pet.i. 15.

Matth. v.

44, 45

part