which is in Heaven. Which admonition, SER M. that All among us may conftantly attend III.

to, both who Teach and Hear the Simplicity of the Gofpel; God of his infinite mercy grant, &c.

[73]

SERMON IV.

Of being the CHILDREN of GOD.

ROм. viii. 16, 17.

The Spirit itfelf beareth witness with our Spirit, that we are the Children of God: And if Children then Heirs; Heirs of God, and Joint-Heirs with Chrift.

I

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difcourfing upon thefe SER M. words of the Apostle, I fhall IV. indeavour to explain briefly, ift, What is here meant by our being Children of God.

2dly. What is to be understood, by our

SER M. being filed Heirs of God, and joint-heirs IV. with Chrift. And 3dly, How the Spirit of God, the Spirit itself beareth witness with Our Spirit, if we be good Chriftians, that these Characters do truly belong

to us.

ift, I AM to confider what is here meant by our being children of God. God is in Scripture ftiled, The Father of All; Eph. iv. 6. One God and Father of All, who is above all, and through all, and in us all. Here, the title Father is applied to him, in refpect of his giving Being to all things, as they are his Creatures and the Work of his hands. For though inanimate or irrational creatures can in no Senfe be ftiled the Children of God; yet God, confidered as the Author of All Being, may properly enough be ftiled The Father of the Univerfe. In a Senfe fomewhat more restrained, and with regard to fuch Beings, to whom he has given Life and Reafon and Moral Faculties, God is ftiled the Father, of whom the Whole Family in Heaven and Earth is named, Eph. iii. 15. The Whole Family of rational creatures, Angels and Men. And These in like manner, upon account of the living

and

IV.

and rational nature he has given them, SER M. are frequently in Scripture ftiled The Sons of God. By Sin, Men forfeit the Benefit of this natural relation to God their Father, and become Strangers and Aliens and without God in the World; being rejected by him, and no longer looked upon as his Sons, but caft off as Objects of his Wrath and Displeasure. By Repentance and renewed Obedience, they who are effectually convinced of the Folly and Unreasonableness of Sin, return, as far as in them lies, to their Father's house, and defire to have Access again to his Favour and Mercy. And God, by accepting their Repentance, and pardoning their past Sins, according to the gracious Terms and Declarations of the Gofpel; and giving them the affiftance of his Holy Spirit, to fanctify them for the future; ceives them again, as a gracious Father, and adopts them for his Sons; (in St Paul's language, gives them the Spirit of Adop tion, whereby they cry, Abba Father ;) and they become again Fellow-citizens with the Saints, and of the Houshold of God. This is what the Scripture elsewhere calls Regeneration, or the New Birth; and fome

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