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said, I exceedingly fear and quake." Now, says he, out of this dispensation ye are passed, ye have not received again the spirit of bondage to fear. Under the Gospel all breathes love, and suitably therewith the Spirit is ministered as a Spirit of adoption, whereby with the confidence of children we call God Father. Confidence in God becomes this last and fullest publication of the Gospel by the Son of God in person. Hereof the believer speaking in the Creed is supposed to be sensible, and to profess his belief that God is his Father with the confidence of a child. Be sensible then of your privilege, ye that believe in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ; cast away your fears, that are dishonourable to a God that "spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all;" strive earnestly for the spirit of children, that, in a manner becoming the Gospel of his Son, ye may serve God without fear. Hear what he says, "Come out from among them and be ye separate:" now this call you have complied with, as many as are joined to the Lord. Then it follows, speaking to you, "I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." We disgrace the free and rich love of God, and the infinite merit of the Redeemer's righteousness and blood, as far as we come short of walking with God in the humble confidence of children. Let the believer therefore remember, that he is "no more a servant, but a son," and pray for that spirit of faith which shall enable him to say "I believe in God the Father" with that joyful confidence which the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ not only warrants but requires, and which the person here confessing his faith in God is supposed to be possessed of.

Thirdly." I believe in the Father" implies a child-like disposition towards God. I own God to be my Father, and I profess myself to be his son, ready to pay him all dutiful and child-like obedience. It is the sure proof of our relation to God as a Father that we have the spirit of children wrought in us; a spirit of love, and of a ready mind to do the will of God. They that are God's children have some measure of the spirit of Jesus, their elder Brother, whose meat and drink it was to do the will of Him that sent him, without murmuring at any of his orders, or thinking his commandments grievous. The grief of a true child

of God is that he should sin against him, and thereby dishonour and displease him; his greatest lamentation is over that body of sin which lurks in his members, and suffers him not to be that dutiful child he would be. I believe God to be my Father,' he says, and I regard myself as his child, cheerfully to subject myself unto his holy will in all things. O how love I thy law! all the day long is my study in it. Take notice, all ye that hear me, while I say these words, I believe in God the Father, I think myself obliged by every tie of duty and gratitude, and I am fully and gladly determined, to keep the commandments of my God.' And if we cannot say this in the sincerity of our hearts; if God's commandments are hated or despised by us, and we will not walk in them; where is there even the spirit of a servant? But should we endeavour to keep them while it is merely through fear of punishment, and are only restrained from sin lest it should bring us to ruin, and forced upon duties because otherwise we cannot be easy, where is the spirit of children? It is plain that the most of those who call themselves Christians are living in a flat contrariety to the temper and conduct of one truly believing in God as a Father; and it is not less manifest, that there are many of those that may well enough be termed serious people, who, through want of deep humbleness of mind, and from a degree of ignorance respecting the freedom of Gospel-salvation, and the privileges that belong to it, are serving God more like slaves than children. It is in an increasing knowledge of God's free love to us in Jesus Christ, and in a growing confidence in him as our Father, that we become. followers of God as dear and obedient children, not fashioning ourselves according to the former lusts in our ignorance, but ready to every good word and work.

Lastly. To believe in God as a Father implies a readiness to submit to all his disposals of and dispensations towards us. This is indisputable. Is God my Father? then he loves me. And is my Father infinitely wise? then he cannot mistake in his management of me. Therefore I say, let him have the whole direction of me; else I should not truly believe in him as my Father. Let him provide for me as he sees best; and whether the provision he allots me be more or less, it is the portion he gives me, and I will be content. If he takes from it, I will not

complain, because I know him to be a loving Father. If he corrects me, shall I murmur against him? This were to suspect his fatherly love. Foolishness, I know, is bound in my heart, and the rod of correction must drive it far from me. When I call God my Father, I declare an implicit and reverent submission to all his disposals. In all our possessions, and in all our afflictions, to sanctify the Lord God in our hearts is an eminent branch of believing in God as our Father. If we are dissatisfied with his allotment of the things of the world unto us, if we murmur under his corrections, how can we believe him to have the bowels of a Father, how do we treat him in correspondence with what we profess? Really, to believe in God as our Father, you see goes into the dispensations and troubles, as well as the duties, of every day. "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass away from me; nevertheless, not my will but thine be done." Behold there the true spirit of a child.

By this time you may see something of the true sense and meaning of this word, “I believe in God the Father," and that whoever says it, according to the full intention thereof as a point of Christian faith, doth thereby declare, I believe that the Father is in a peculiar sense so entitled, as bearing the relation. of a Father to his only-begotten Son, but I believe also that in and for the sake of that only-begotten Son manifest in the flesh, he is a Father to all those among the fallen race of mankind, who believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ. As one of that happy number I glory in him as my Father, and with the whole church do profess my humble but assured confidence in him in the delightful character of their and my Father. As such I desire and determine to honour and reverence him, delighting to do his will, whatever it be, and in all things to submit to his fatherly guidance, without hypocrisy, partiality, disputing, or complaining; in everything willing to approve myself the child of this my heavenly Father, to his glory, and to my peace and happiness.' And now what say we? Do we thus believe in God the Father? No; the most are not thus related to him. Their consciences and their lives proclaim they are not. What! do they believe God to be their Father; and do they rejoice in him as their God? Should they fancy they do these things, yet do they walk with him as dear children, and submit to his

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providential disposals with a child-like quietness and thankfulness? Here at least they see themselves wanting; they are self-willed, disobedient, impatient, and dissatisfied. They live according to their own humour; and will, as far as they can, have everything after their own mind. Their whole pretensions to faith amount only to this, to say they believe in God the Father, to call themselves his servants, to come into his house, and to stand up and repeat the Creed without any design or meaning; if these things will serve the turn, they are believers as good as the best. But if you expect anything else from them, if you will have them humble themselves for their apostate nature and their sinful practices, come to God by Jesus Christ in earnest and importunate prayer for mercy, beseeching him, as for their lives, that he will take them into his favour, and be a Father unto them; if you expect they should esteem it their greatest happiness to have God for their Father, and that they diligently seek to obtain a warrantable persuasion that he is so; you look that they manifest their relation to God by all kinds of good works, and by behaving in such manner as to glorify God; if you are expecting anything of this from them, they will be excused from a faith so troublesome and self-denying. And what can we say to such? If they will not be persuaded to such a faith, what can we do? If they will refuse the glorious liberty of being God's children, what besides can we offer them? If they will neither be influenced by the dignity and honour of such a relation, nor have regard to the noble privileges that attend it in having the eternal God to hear all their prayers, to pity all their infirmities, to supply all their wants, to support and comfort them in life, death, and glory, what more can we do but be sorry and pray for them? Unhappy creatures! They let pass the golden opportunity that can never be recovered; they suffer the day of salvation to set upon them, that never, never shall rise again! O how will they wish in a very little time, when it is too late, that God was their Father! when the day of judgment appears in its awful terrors, how will they then wish that God was their Father!

But a word to others. You do not think I have carried the matter too far, by stating so high as I have done believing in God the Father? The truth is, your duty and happiness go together; and I wish rather to bring you up to your duty, than

to lower that to your standard. Should I have said less than I have, it would have been doing you a sensible injury; for did you thus believe in God, would you not be more happy and more holy? And I leave you to judge whether I have advanced anything which the promises of God will not authorise, and the duty of believing demand.

I take my leave of the whole with one word to those whose eyes are now opening upon spiritual things, and see themselves encompassed for the present with a variety of difficulty. To such I say, how delightful and encouraging is the prospect before you in the adoption of children! How would ye rejoice, my dear friends, could ye say, "God is our Father; he is ours, and we are his! The almighty living God is mine; he that liveth for evermore is mine! Mine to love me, bless me, comfort me, keep me, glorify me! He is my Father, even mine!" Would not this make you happy? And see the Only-Begotten stands in your nature with opened arms to receive and introduce you to his Father and your Father, to his God and your God. O how sure will your title then be to the adoption of a child! See, the Word, even that Word which will not pass away when heaven and earth are gone, is before you to teach and direct you. See, the Spirit is come knocking at the door of your heart, and soliciting an entrance, that he may bring you to Jesus, and to God in him. How forcibly he pleads! how he says in your heart, behold here through thy life all this sin, and before thee all that damnation, why wilt thou die? Behold, Jesus died for the ungodly; hear how he says, "Come to me, and I will give thee rest;" behold the Father looks toward thee, it is a look of love, hearken to his gracious voice; "Come out, and I will be a Father unto thee, and thou shalt be my child." What encouragement! But is this all? Let all the triumphs of the dying hour speak, let all the glories of the judgment-day declare, let all the joys of the everlasting heavens publish, if you be not called to a blessing indeed when God invites you to him to become his child. Take courage. Let not Satan terrify, nor man dismay, nor interest insnare, nor pleasure beguile you of God your reward. Keep your eye fixed on the glorious God. How glorious he is! How does his favour make the angels happy! How happy will you be when you can say, "I believe in God the Father!"

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