The duty of young people to give their hearts unto God, because they are his offspring. In four sermons preched to religious societies in School Street, on the evenings of the Lords Day. / By Benjamin Colman, Pastor of a church in Boston. ; [Five lines from Matthew]

The duty of young people to give their hearts unto God, because they are his offspring. In four sermons preched to religious societies in School Street, on the evenings of the Lords Day. / By Benjamin Colman, Pastor of a church in Boston. ; [Five lines from Matthew]

Table of contents

Title page

To the Religious Societies in Boston: More especially Those to whom the following Sermons were preached.

The Duty of Young People to give their Hearts unto GOD.

DOCT. IT is the Indispensible Duty of young People to give God their Hearts and Affections, and to be seriously religious in their early days.

Sermon II.

DOCTRINE. THAT it is the duty of young People to give God their Hearts and Affections, and to be seriously religious in their early days.

Sermon III.

DOCT. IT is a great and serious Truth, worthy of our most devour and frequent Consideration, that we are the Off spring of GOD.

Sermon IV.

ERRATA.

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The Duty of Young People to give their Hearts unto GOD, because they are His Offspring

IN Four SERMONS Preached [...] Religious Societies in School Street, on the Evenings of the Lords day.

By Benjamin Colman. Pastor of a Church in Boston.

Mat. xxii, 37, 38

Thou shalt l [...] the LORD thy GOD with all thy [...] and with all thy Soul, and with [...] Mind: This is the first and [...] [...]mmandment.

[...]STON: Printed for D. Hend [...] [...] and T Hancock at the sign [...] and three Crowns near the Town [...]

To the Religious Societies in Boston: More especially Those to whom the following Sermons were preached.

[Page]

NOT only is it a Testimony of the good Esteem and hearty Affection which your Ministers bear You, that they readily come and preach to you at your desire, but also that they have printed several of the Discourses they have made to You, when this has been requested of them.

BY this means you may repeat at large among your selves in your more private Meetings, what is said to you in the Name and from the Word of GOD in your quarterly and more publick Meetings. And if the following Sermons, among Others, may sometimes be of such Use in your Meetings, as [...]ell as of more private Benefit to your [...] & others singly & apart, it may [...] [...]ell worth the while to print [...]em [...] GOD owns and honours your Meet [...] by making them Nurseries for his [Page] Churches, and for the filling of his Table. Many a worthy Communicant has, thro' Grace, came forth from You, and many a Religious Housholde [...]. By praying together you learn to pray, and to love Prayer. The Worship of GOD in many a Family has had its rise in your Meetings. The good Order, Gravity, Prudence, Modesty, Decency, with which you manage your Meetings, renders the Devotion of them unsuspected, and is the (Means under the Blessing of GOD) of the good Fruits you both reap to your selves and impart to others.

MAY you go on in the Fear of GOD, serving the Lord with all Humility, loving one another with a sure heart sorvently, and seeking the eternal. Good of each others Souls. Thus Building up your selves on your most holy Faith, praying in the HOLY GHOST, keep your selves in the Love of GOD, looking for the [...] of our Lord JESUS CHRIS [...] to eternal Life.

Boston March 29. 17 [...]8.

B. Colm [...]

The Duty of Young People to give their Hearts unto GOD.

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PROVERBS XXIII. 26.

My Son give Me thy Heart.

THIS gracious Exhortation speaketh unto us as unto Children. It is the great GOD that so bespeaks as by the mouth and pen of inspired Solomon, the wisest and g [...]t Man in the World in his time.

[...] greater than Solomon is here even [...] GOD who inspired him, the Rock [...] who spake by him. Him we [...] come forth to hear, and his Word [...]od come with Power upon our hearts, [Page]as it doth with divine Authority to our Consciences. Let it command our highest Reverence and best Attention.

GOD is the Father of all men, and as a Father he here speaks to all of us, the greater & the less, the Elder and the Younger. He demands the Heart of every one, and all hearts are his: He values all hearts alike, the poor as well as the rich; the Soul of the Father and that of the Son.

BUT my Text is more especially directed unto Young People; it speaks to Children and Youth. The whole Book of Proverbs is inscribed to such, 1 Chap. 5. v. To give the young man Knowlege and Discretion. And in the Verses just before my Text young People are in a particular manner addressed unto v. 15. My son if thy heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice even mine; yea my reins shall rejoice when thy lip [...] speak right things. And v. 22. He [...] [...] to thy Father that begat the [...], and d [...] not thy Mother when she is old [...] v 24, 25. The Father of the Right [...] shall greatly rejoice, and be that be [...][Page]a wise Child shall have joy of him; thy Father and thy Mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall rejoice. — The next words are those of my Text, My son give me thy heart.

THEY are therefore directed to young Persons, as such; and so I shall chiefly consider them. And le [...] our young People take them as they are meant, & observe diligently in them.

1. WHAT manner of love the Father besto [...]es upon them, to call them his Sons, his Daughters. For in the Male the Female is included, as Eve was in Adam in the day of his Creation; and was afterward taken out of his side. When God says my Son, he means our Dau'ters as well as our Sons; for they are equally his: 2 Cor. 6.17. I will receive you and ye shall be my Sons and Daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. [...] Son. God speaks as a Parent [...] Child. Here is the Affection [...] Concern of a Father, which a [...]ld has no perfect apprehension of [...]ldren feel not the bowels of their [...]reats till they come to be themselves [Page]Parents. God puts on these Bowels, and speaks to the Children of his people, My Son! O how endearing and constraining should this his Grace be unto them!

2. LET our young people observe the gracious Demand of the great God from them: Give me thy heart. How good and acceptable should this Prec [...]t, and Commandment be to them! how kind to thee is this Law! a Fathers will and heart is in it, which should give it way into thine. For what does a Parent expect and desire of a Child but his Heart! the love, reverence & respect of his Soul! and what has a Child to render unto his Parent, more especially in his minority, but the love and duty of an obedient Heart? — Each word here is full of Grace, Endearment and Constraint;

1. GIVE me. How strange a [...] this from the most high God, Posi [...] of Heaven and Earth to us, indi [...] and empty worms of the dust! [...] what have we to give to God! worthy [Page]of Him, meet for him to receive at our hands? And what can God ask? does he need any thing? & least of all from us? Lord how is it? If we be righte us what do we give him! We owe our all, and it is only of his own that we can give to Him. Our sinful hearts are not fit for his Acceptance, not worthy to be offer'd to Him. But if he will prepare himself an Offering in us and from us, he will graciously accept of it. If he prepares our Hearts and Wills they become our own Act, and a free will Offering to him This is all that he requires and expects of us. God asks us when he needs us not at all but we stand in absolute need of Him. We need that He should accept us. Necessity is laid upon us, and wo unto us if we refuse to give ourselves unto God! We have alienated our selves from him, and need to give our selves back unto him. He must give [...] the heart to give back to him. But [...]et us consider the thing ask'd.

[Page] 2. THY heart. i. e. thy Self, thy Soul, thy Person. A part is na [...]d for the whole; but a principal part, the Heart which is the Fountain and chief Instrument of Life to every part of the Body.

THY Heart; i. e. thy whole Spirit, Soul and Body. Thy Heart, i. e. thy Love and Affections, with all thy Mind and Strength. It is the firstand great Commandment of the Law. The summary of all Religion, of all Duty. It is more than all whole Burnt Offering and Sacrifice. What does the Lord thy God require of thee but this? to love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and with all thy Soul?

ALL Devotion and Obedience is of the heart. All the Understanding and all the Soul is in it. And every thing else too that belongs to us. The Heart carries all things with it. It gives all with it self. So in Friendship, as Jonathan strip't himself, and gave all to David. And so in Marriage, the Person and Estate follow the heart. [Page]All a Mans Interest, Influence and Power, goes with his Heart to the Service of God. His Children especially that ly nearest to his heart, and are among the dearest parts of our selves, our other Souls, these a man renders to God with his heart. So Abraham circumcised himself and his Son, and prayed, O that he may live in thy sight.

ANGELS can give to God no more than this, the entire Love and Obedience of their hearts, We may do this, by the help of Divine Grace, as well as they. The difference is, We give back an alienated heart, recovered by Grace; but innocent and perfect Creatures never had their hearts estranged from GOD.

DID ever a King make a Law that his Subjects should love him, and let him reign in their Hearts? Indeed the Laws of Nations ought to be so interpreted, and every wife and good Prince desires more to reign in the Heart and Love of his subjects, than [...]ver their Bodies and Estates. But [Page] Man looketh to the outward appearance, God looks to the Heart. My Kingdom, (says Christ) is not of this world No; the Kingdom of God is within us. Luk. 17.21. He makes and he reigns over a willing People. He is the God of the Spirits of all fl [...]sh. He searches the heart and loveth uprightness. He and be only knoweth the heart of all, &c. 2 Chron. 6.30. It belongs to such a King, the Father of spirits, to give this Precept to his subjects, My son, give me thy heart. This is his Dominion, the Seat of his Empire. I come to the Doctrine.

DOCT. IT is the Indispensible Duty of young People to give God their Hearts and Affections, and to be seriously religious in their early days.

I shall explain and urge this Doctrine under these Three heads of Argument. 1. That they owe this unto the Lord their God and should in Obedience to Him, and for his Glory give [Page]their Hearts unto Him. 2. That they owe this unto Themselves, and for t [...] sake of their own Souls, their own Interests, present and future, they ought to give God their hearts. 3. That they owe this to Others; to the World they live in, to their Relatives and Friends, and to those that come after them; to all that are about them.

THESE are great & weighty Arguments, worthy of the attentive Consideration both of Old & Young; their Obligations to God, to Themselves, and to their Neighbours; For on These hang all the Law & the Prophets. Mat. 22.40.

1. YOUNG people owe this duty to the Lord their God, and should in Obedience to Him, and for the sake of his Honour and Glory, give him their hearts. Our Obligations are first to God. His Will is the Rule his Glory [...]he End of our Actions. Your first Consideration must be, what God is in Himself and what he is to Thee? what his Word requires of thee, and [Page]what his Glory calls for from thee? what Bonds thou art under unto Him? And you will easily see the Reasons from hence resulting, why thou shouldest give thy heart to God while thou art young.

1. In Obedience to him.

2. As his Propriety.

GOD requires thy heart, & thou owest it to Him in Obedience to his Precept and Commandment. The Text is a Law and Commandment of the great God, My son give me, &c. It is the Duty thou owest to God, what the Lord thy God requires of thee He demands, he challenges thy Heart. He does not ask of thee a thing which thou mayest deny or refuse to him. No; it belongs to thee to obey. He speaks as a Father and as a Lord; and on both accounts must be obeyed. I son honours his Father and obeys him. It is the Will and Pleasure of the great God that thou give him th [...] heart in thy youthful days. Eccl. 12. Remember now thy Creator in the day of thy Youth. God is the Sovereign, and you must sear him from thy youth. [Page] Youth is the age of Submission and Obedience, and to be under the government of Parents, Masters and Tutors: And wilt not thou be subject to God now in the days of thy youth? Will thy earthly Father or Mother require and command thee? and shall they be obeyed by thee? and shall not God thy Heavenly Father? Wilt thou shew Reverence to the Father of thy flesh, and not be in subjection to God the Father of thy spirit? Which should be obeyed? surely God more than man; Man in Obedience to God only. Young people are not of Age, save to be obedient, and to do as they are directed and required: and will they not be observant of the Will and Direction of the blessed God? are their Superiors on Earth something in their eyes, and is God most High nothing with them? Say to Him, My Father, and the Guide of my Youth! speak Lord, For thy servant heareth! Fit words to be put into the mouth of young People; as Eli put them into the mouth [Page]of Samuel when the Lord called the Child. So God calls our Children, He speaks to them, he bids them give Him their Hearts; He commands 'en to do this: Do it then and be obedient: If you do it not, you are a young Rebel, bursting the bonds of Natures and breaking that Yoke which it is good to bear from thy youth. God says to thee, Son do this: Will you answer Him, I will not? and turn away from Him, and deny his Right and Authority to command thee? his Dominion and Power over thee? You would not do so by an earthly Parent, Master or Ruler? and how dare you act thus to the blessed God?

THIS is the first Argument; In Obedience to God give Him thy heart, now while thou art young; for He requires it of thee.

2. I come to consider Gods Proprie [...] in thee, and his Right to thy Heart. And here let us consider, first the right and bonds of Nature. Secondly cho [...] of Grace. Under the first head w [...] must consider God as our Creator and [Page] Preserver, under the second as our Redeemer and Covenant God.

1. GOD has an unalienable Right to thy Heart as the Lord thy Maker, Preserver and Benefactor; and as such thou owest Him this Gift, in Justice and Gratitude. God's Propriety in us arises from his Relation to us, and Benefits done us. For as He has made us what we are, and we receive our Being, Endowments, Preservations and Supplies from Him; so by all these ties of Nature, Justice and Gratitude we are wholly and solely His, and ought to render unto Him all that we are and have; and that as soon as we are capable of doing it. To be sure God speaks here, and bespeaks the hearts of young People, as their natural Lord, Ruler, Lawgiver, Judge, and the only Portion of their Souls. He cannot deny Himself, & you must not deny him. He must and will reign; will reign over thee, and would reign in thee; and if thou refuse him the Rule in and [...]ver thy Soul, thou deniest him his sacred [Page]Right in a most unjust and ungrateful manner. Here,

1. GOD is thy Creator, thy Maker, and therefore thy Proprietor; and shall he not have thy heart? Why he made it, and he made it for Himself, and never gave it away, nor can he do it. What thou makest is thine, especially what thou hast made of thy own, for thy self; and hast not parted with thy Right in it to another. And shall God be denied this common Justice and Equity, or Right, between man and man? Who formed thy fleshly Heart? and who made thee a Soul and Spirit? who fashioned thy Body in the womb, and who quickned it there with a living Soul? The Spirit of God hath made thee, and the Inspiration of the Almighty hath given thee life. Job 32.8. Thy hands have made me and fashioned me together round about Job 10.8. He made thee in his own Image, in the likeness of God, with an understanding Heart, to know, and love, and chuse him; and give thy self to him. He gave thee not a beasts [Page]heart, that can't think and say, where is God my maker! but he made thee this Heart which is fitted for Himself, and is able to render it self back to God. What ever thy Heart & Spirit be it is his, for he made it; but if he made it such as it is proper to give to Him, and endowed it with this Power of giving it self to Him; to be sure it ought to be so given; it is the most righteous thing in the world that it be so; and it can't be wi [...]held without great Injustice.—Will a man rob God? yet he robs Him that gives not his heart to him, which God made for Himself and not for another, & which is made for a Man voluntarily to offer and give to God. To whom would a Man give his heart, if not to God? he may not to Himself, not to his dearest Relatives, and much less to worldly things which can't fill and satisfy a Soul; and much less to sin and satan and vile lusts, which are all Enemies to God. And yet if it be not given to God the heart will be given to these, to the utmost wrong and injury of the [Page]blessed God. For the Spirit & Heart, the Mind, the Will and Affections of Men are plainly made for God the infinite Spirit and the Father of Spirits: they are made for Spiritual things, Exercises and Felicities; for Communion with God, for the Serving of God, for the Enjoyment of God. It is therefore the greatest wrong and injury to God that can be, not to give Him this heart, which is form'd exactly for the Knowledge of Himself, for the loving and chusing Him, for the serving and enjoying Him. If then thou givest not thy Heart to God, thou robbest him of one of the richest peices of his [...]w [...] Workmanship, which he has just finished for Himself; and of the Rock that beg [...]t thee thou art unmindful and hast forgotten God that formed thee Deut. 32.18 Yea thou worshippest and servest the Creature rather than the Creator, who is God over all blessed for ever, Rom. 1.25. God is therefore worthy to receive Blessing, and Glory, and Honour, and Power from all his reasonable Creatures, [Page]because he created them all for his pleasure. Rev. 4.11. And this great Maker of thee & of the Universe has therefore required thy Heart of thee because he made thee, and made thee for this very thing. Eccl. 12.1. Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy Youth. Because he made thee therefore he must never be forgotten by thee; therefore he must have thy first and early remembrance. For should not a man look to his Maker? and should not the first respect of his Eyes and Heart be to Him? Yea, thus saith the Lord that created thee O Jacob, and he that formed thee O Israel! bring my Sons from far, and my Daughters from the ends of the Earth; even every one that is called by my Name; for I have created him for my Glory, I have formed him yea I have made him. Isa. 43.4, 6, 7. Thus God has the first and sole Right to thy Heart for he made thee.

2. GOD is the Preserver and daily Benefactor, therefore thou oughtest now to give him thy Heart, in the days of thy Youth. The Benefits of [Page]God to thee demand from thee thy Heart. The law of Gratitude and common Ingenuity teaches thee this. He is an unnatural Creature, and to be abhorred among Men, whose Heart is not wro't upon by Benefits, and that has no Consideration of Kindnesses shown unto him. It is inhumane, irreligious and unchristian to be insensible of Benefits done us. We are obliged to render the love and respect of our Hearts to our Benefactors. This is one reason why Children should & do love their Parents; their Obligations are so many and great to them for the Benefits they have received from them. It is a kind of Instinct in Nature to love them that love us and take care of us. Infants therefore do so naturally and strongly love them that nurse and tend and feed them. And the very brute Creatures do after their way the same thing: the ox knows his Owner, and the ass his Masters crib. The lion they say, and the dog we know, will long retain a sense of Benefits done them.

[Page] AND shall not the Sons & Daughters of Men give their Hearts to God, their first and supreme Benefactor? the Lord that daily loads them with his Benefits! what shall they not render to Him? to whom they owe all they are and have, for they have received it all of Him. Therefore the first and great Commandment is this, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul.

GOD is thy Benefactor in giving thee thy Being, and such a Being that thou art capable of knowing & loving Him, and being blessed for ever in him. God is thy Benefactor in all his Care of thee through thy Infancy & Childhood: Thou owest much to thy Parents, but more to thy God, infinitely more; yea They and all that they have ever done for thy Soul or Body are God's gift to thee; among his first and greatest Benefits to thee. Thou art ready to give thy heart to Them, and you should do so first among Men; i. e. more to Them in thy youth than to any others. But how much [Page]more owest thou thy Heart unto the Lord thy God? the God (Creator and Preserver) of thy Father and of thy Mother, as well as thine.—Read thy Obligations to God on all these Accounts, and think how wicked thou art if He have not thy Heart now while thou art young. Job 10, 11, 12. Thou hast pour'd me out as milk, thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and senced me with bones and sinews, thou hast granted me life and favour and thy, &c. Psal. 22.9, 10. Thou art He that took me out of the womb, thou didst make me hope upon my Mothers breasts. I was cast upon thee from the Womb. Gen. 32.10. O God of my Fathers, I am not worthy of the least of all the Mercy which thou hast shewed me to this day. Psal. 139.7. How precious are thy Thoughts towards me O God, how great is the Sun of them, when I Awake I am still with thee.

Now what wilt thou render, my Child, for all these Benefits of a gracious God unto thee? wilt thou den [...] him thy Heart, when that is al [...] that he asks of thee? Ah wicked [Page]and ungrateful! if thou dost not give it with Thankfulness and with the greatest Pleasure. Deut. 32.6. Dost thou thus requite the Lord? Is be not thy Father that has made thee and establish'd thee? Isa. 1.2. Hear, O Heaven, and give ear O Earth, for the Lord hath spoken: I have nourished and brought up Children, and they have rebelled against me.

My Son, thy Parents and all the Benefits of God to Them, and whatsoever God has made Them to thee, or thee to Them; the Blessings of his Providence and of his Grace to them for thy Comfort, thy good Education, thy Instruction, and Nurture, and Admonition in the Fear of God; these are so many strong Obligations on thee now to give thy self thankfully to the Lord.

AND consider, how great and glorious a Being God is! and what a wonderful thing it is that he should do so much for such a Worm of the dust as thou art, and one altogether born in sin. If a Friend and Nei'bour [Page]do thee a common kindness your Heart will go out to him; but if your Governour or King should look upon you and enrich or dignify you, you would hold your self yet more obliged, because of his high Estate and Rank: But look up then to Heaven and see there the King of glory, the King of kings, regarding thee in thy low estate, and every day feeding thee & holding thee in life, & requiring of thee the love of thy heart; and say — with what Humility and Gratitude and Affection thou shouldest give it all unto Him? As when David sent for poor Mephibosheth to his Court, and when he came into his Presence and did Obeysance, the King looked on him with a heart full of Love and said, Mephibosheth! I will surely sh [...]w thee Kindness, and thou shall eat at my Table every day, and I will restore thee all the Land of Soul thy Father: The obliged grateful Youth answered, as one overwhelmed with the gracious Favour and Goodness o [...] the King, and said, What is thy Servant[Page]that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am! 2 Sam. 9, 8. O how much more cause have We to say these Words before God our great Benefactor, who has done for us more than David did for Mephibosheth, and it is infinitely more Grace and Condescention in him to do it. For we are indeed dead dogs before Him the Blessed and only Potentate; but Mephibosheth was the Son of David's Friend, the son of a Prince his Equal, and who had been his Benefactor and Patron; the generous Saviour of his life; and to whom he had sworn to shew the Kindness of God to his Seed after him. But as for our Children, they are born of sinful Parents, and they are born Sinners, and in the day of their Nativity they are guilty and polluted before God, and as soon as they can speak and go they go astray from God speaking lies; and yet the great King of Glory speaks kindly of them and to them, and takes a tender Care of them, and feeds them every [...]ay from his Table with a munificent [Page]hand: And if Mephibosheth though he was so much obliged to David what should our Children think they owe to the Lord their God? But a David look'd for nothing from lam [...] Mephibosheth, but a loving and grateful Heart, in return for his princely Kindness to him; so the great Go [...] requires nothing from us for all th [...] Benefits of our lives, of a tempora [...] and spiritual nature, but to give hi [...] our Hearts; which it is free and sovereign Grace in him to accept o [...] from us! For what is the heart o [...] such dead dogs as we are before Him that he should accept of them? B [...] if you refuse, My Son, to give th [...] heart of thine to the high and grac [...] ous God, how justly will he be offended at thee and very angry? [...] David was when Ziba falsly told hi [...] that Mephibosheth was ungrateful the King in a passion (rashly and unjustly) took all away from him th [...] he had given him: So will the ho [...] God most righteously be displeased with thee my Child, and justly incense [Page]against thee, if thou wilt not give him thy Heart after all the Benefits that he has done thee. Ezra 9 14. Will he not be angry with thee, & consume thee? Josh. 24.20. Then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after he has done you good — Thus I have enlarged on the natural and unalienable Right which God has to thy heart as the Lord thy Maker, Preserver and Benefactor. Surely our hearts were made for One in these Relations to us; and that is God alone.

2. LET us pass now from the bonds of Nature unto those of Grace; God is thy Saviour and Redeemer, and thy Covenant God; therefore (my Son) give him thy heart. This is a further and higher Reason. He is the Maker and Preserver of all Men, and they all partake richly of the Bounties and Benefits of his common Providence; and therefore the very Heathen and their Children owe their hearts to God; and they are left without Excuse, even by the light of Nature, if they know him not, and glorify him not as [Page]God, and are not thankful: Rom. 1.21. But how much more guilty will the Children of Christians be, to whom God has made known his Name in his Word, and to whom he has therein shewn the Covenant of his Grace thro [...] Jesus Christ; if they under the light of the Gospel, and under their covenant and baptismal Bonds, do not give their hearts to God from their early days.

FOR thou, my Son, hast from thy Infancy been told of the great God thy Creator, and Redeemer and Sanctifier, and of a Child hast known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto Salvation; hast been born within the walls of God's House, and hast been educated within the Houshold of Faith, and hast grown up in the Courts of the Lord, under the droppings of the Word upon thee from the mouth of thy Parents, and from the lips of Gods Ministers; who have taught thee and charged thee, innumerable times over, Know thou the God of thy Fathers, and serve him with [Page]a perfect heart: Thou therefore art under the bonds of Grace, superadded unto those of Nature, to give God thy Heart betimes: For 1. He has bought thy heart with the Blood of his own Son. And 2. He has bound thee by thy Baptism to do it.

1. GOD has bought thy alienated Heart with the Blood of his own Son; And therefore you ought readily and thankfully to give it. What a moving Reason, what a marvellous Argument is this! Herein is Love on the part of God; not that thou hast loved Him but He thee; and has parted with his own Heart to bleed for thee; for the recovery of thy estranged heart back to Him. Herein God commendeth his love to us, that while we were enemies Christ died for us. Rom. 5.10. Thou art an Enemy to God by Nature, thy [...]rnal Heart is Enmity unto him; but to slay this Enmity and gain thine inimical Heart, the blessed God has given the Son of his love, in whom his soul delighted, to suffer and die. O what has God done to gain back our [Page]Hearts unto Himself! and what has the Son of God undergone for this thing! and wilt thou nevertheless refuse him thy Heart! O hard hearted and ungrateful! O heart of stone, insensible & impenitrable as the Rock! How good and tender has the Heart of God and of Christ been to thee? and how base and evil is thy heart to thy Father that has bought thee? Deut. 32.6.

MY Son! thou art not thy own; but thou art bought with a price, both Soul and Body, that thou shouldest glorify God with thy body and spirit which are his; 1 Cor. 6.20. And wilt thou not yield thy self then to God, who has thus purchased thee? Consider the Price that God has given for thy heart: Thou art not redeemed with corruptible things as Silver & Gold but with the precious Blood of Christ, as a lamb without blemish, and without spot. 1 Pet 1.19. Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world! He has shed his precious Blood to purchase thy Heart for God! He ha [...] [Page]given Himself for thee, an Offering & Sacrifice to God of a sweet smelling savour. Eph. 5.2. Will not this prevail on thee to give thy self to Him? If another would but give thee a little Silver and Gold, a corruptible Price, you would give your Heart to him; and think your self highly obliged to do so; But God has given his Son and with Him the Treasures of Heaven for thy heart, and this affects thee not; constrains thee not! O if thou knewest the Gift of God, and who it is that speaks to thee, (my Son, give me thy heart) thou wouldest give it, instantly, wholly and for ever; thankfully and joyfully.

SUPPOSE you were taken by Turks, and carried into slavery by those that hated the name of Christ; or suppose you were taken captive by Indians (as many of the Children of our People have been) and carried into a howling hideous Wilderness, by bloody Salvages; and some kind Person should send and offer them some great Price for thy Redemption; Yea, suppose this [Page] Person was one whom thou and thy Fathers had highly disobliged and offended; whom you had hated in your hearts afore time and often injur'd and when he had ransom'd you from this miserable Servitude into which you were fallen; suppose He should in the most obliging manner imaginable tell you, that he desired nothing now of you but an Interest in your Heart and Love; and that he would greatly reward you for this likewise, if you did not deny it to Him; Tell me how you would think and speak of such a Person how you would honour Him and study to oblige him all the days of your life! Why, this is the Case, my son, between God and and thee. He has paid a great Ransome for thee, and bought thee out of the hands of Satan, to deliver thee from the pit of eternal Destruction and now only asks of thee thy Heart in return for this redeeming Pity to thy poor Soul! He only asks and requires the Love and D [...]votion of this Soul which he has redeemed. Truly it [Page]is his, as what a Man buys and pays for is his own. Mat. 10.45. The Son of Man came to give his life a Ransome for many. 1 Tim. 2.6. Who gave himself [...] Ransome for all. O will you not be the ransomed of the Lord, and as such give him thy Heart. Christ died to buy Us and our Children for God; to he his purchased Possession, his peculiar Treasure: thy given Heart shall be this to God.

O that we could see the Heart of God in this Gift of his love, his Son, [...] Ransome for our Souls; that we might thankfully give our Hearts an Offering acceptable and well pleasing to Him.

2. As God has bought thee, so He his bound thee by Covenant Engagements to give him thy heart. The Covenant [...]s the fruit and purchase of Christ's Blood: And what is the Tenour of the Covenant but this, what the Term [...]nd Condition of it on our part, but [...]e giving our hearts to God! O Covenant of Grace indeed! God promises [...]hee his Heart when he takes thine: [Page]We love him because he first loved [...] Read the grace of the Covenant, a [...] it is given to our young People to tak [...] hold of; Prov 8.17. I love them th [...] love me, and they that seek me early sha [...] find me.

CONSIDER my Son, what the great God has done to oblige thee to giv [...] him the first of thy Heart, to give [...] first to Him. He took thy Parents i [...] to Covenant with him, to be a God [...] Them and to their seed. He oblige [...] them to make the early Dedication [...] thee to Him in Baptism; for the Pr [...] mise is to Us and to our Children; to [...] who were afar off and the Lord ha [...] called us; Act. 2.30. The Blessing [...] Abraham is come upon us Gentiles th [...] Faith. Gal. 3.14. God required th [...] Parents to bring thee up for Him, [...] a devoted seed to serve & glorify him and to this end that they should di [...] gently teach thee his laws, Deut. 6. [...] and inform thee of the meaning [...] his Sacramental Institutions, the se [...] of his Covenant; Deut. 6.20. A [...] so bring thee on by a pious Nurtu [...] [Page]and Education in the fear of God to make the Gift and Offering of thy Self to God; first in secret, and then in a more publick and solemn manner; openly giving thy self to the Lord and his People. Thy Parents have accordingly given thee to the Lord in Baptism, and I hope they have told thee of the Bonds of the Lord which are upon thee to give thy self to Him: Your Ministers have often admonished you hereof in the Name of the Lord, and required your hearts for Him. Thy Parents, my Son, have a Right to bind thee to the Lord: In thy Minority they have power to bind thee out for thy temporal Interest and Usefulness among Men; And the God of Nature and Grace has certainly given them power to bind thee to God, to be for Him and not for another; to be his dutiful Children and his obedient Servants; that you may be blessed in Him for ever. And now, my Son, what does God and Man expect and require of thee, but to begin betimes to be religious and to love the Lord thy [Page]God, and to fear him, and serve him and to cleave unto him all the days of thy life? Is not your Heart his by all possible Engagements, & by every Right and Claim? Can you give away your heart from God to any Creature, and much less to sin and satan, the Enemy of God, without the greatest Guilt and Impiety? Ought you not with Jacob, while you are in the house of your Parents, and when you leave it, to remember the God and Fear of your Parents? and to implore Him to be with you in all your way through this World, from the beginning to the end of i [...]? and to say — the Lord shall [...]e my God! He is my Fathers God and [...] will exist Him; my God and I will prepare Him an Habitation; a Palace and Throne in my Heart; a Temple, Altar and Sacrifices there for ever! — Dost thou not hear thy Parents saying to thee, What my Son, and the son of my Vows, Wilt thou not now give thy heart to God? to whom I have given thee wilt thou give it away from Him [...] thy infinite Guilt and eternal Ruine [...] [Page]Wilt thou not reverently answer before God and thy Parents; and say, My Father, hast thou opened thy Mouth to God on my behalf? be it according is thy word! And to God say, My Father, be Thou the Guide of my Youth. Lord, take my unworthy heart and make it thy own! prepare and fix it for thy Self for ever! I cannot rightfully or lawfully, nor for my own Advantage. dispose of it any where else! it would be impious Sacrilege and to my eternal ruine if I should! Therefore set up thy Throne in my Heart and reign there for ever! write thy Law there, and put thy Fear there and be obeyed there for ever! build thee an Altar there, and prepare thy Sacrifices, and kindle a Fire there for thy holy Worship for ever and ever! Accept me through Christ, as a living Sacrifice, which is my reasonable Duty and Service!

THUS in point of Duty to God, you most give Him thy Heart: in Obedience, to his Precept, for the Glory of his Name, and because of his Right [Page]to thee and Propriety in thee, as thy Creator, Preserver, Redeemer and Covenant-God.

Sermon II.

PROV. XXIII. 26.

MY Son give Me thy Heart.

THE great and gracious God speaks to us all in these Words, but more especially to young People.

DOCTRINE. THAT it is the duty of young People to give God their Hearts and Affections, and to be seriously religious in their early days.

THE Method I went into was, [...] consider the Obligations upon young [Page]People to give God their Hearts,

1. In point of duty of God.

2. To Themselves.

3. To Others.

I have gone through the first of these Heads, and have shewn it to be the Duty of young People to give God their hearts,

1. In Obedience to his Precept to them.

2. Because of his Propriety in them and Right to them;

1. As their Creater, Preserver and Benefactor;

2. As their Redeemer and Covenant God. — I come now to the second Head.

II. YOUNG people ought to give God their Hearts in point of duty to Themselves. For their own sake they ought to do this thing, It is their Interest, and their Happiness depends on it. Man is a selfish Creature. In a good sense he is so, and ought to be To. Angels are so and it is their W [...] dom & Duty. Our first respect must [...]e to the Glory of God from us, and [...]o his Will respecting us; and then [...]e may and should respect Our selves, [...]ur Happiness in God, and his Fa [...]r and Blessing to us. God is firstly [Page]and ultimately regarded in all this and we our selves only in the second place, and in subordination to his Will and Glory. He has commanded us to [...]ve this Respect to our selves, and [...] us with that Principle of self love which is invincible. It is his great Glory that he has made us to be happy, and made it out duty to seek after Happiness. But then our Happiness is found only in the way of Holiness, which is the way of Obedience to the Will of God, and Devoted ness to the Glory of God, and of ou [...] coming to the everlasting Enjoyment of God. Wherefore we do most and best seek our Selves, by giving ou [...] hearts to God.

GOD made us holy at first because i [...] was our Blessedness to be holy. And God has redeemed us from our Sin because they are our Misery. Because he would have us again holy and happy he gave Christ for us. And no [...] as a redeemed People he requires [...] to give him our Hearts, and to do early, as the Means of our true Hapiness. [Page]For the [...]lier it is done we so much the more consult our Happiness. For though he that gives his heart late to God shall be happy, yet he that does it in his Youth is happier, both as to Body and Soul, Time and Eternity. He shall escape many G [...]ilts, and enjoy much more of God in this Life; and he lays up the more in store against the World to come; greater degrees of Happiness for ever.

THE Word of God calls thee, O young Man, to this far exceeding Weight of eternal Glory: in requiring thee now to give him thy heart. This is the Way to it, the Means of it; and therefore thou owest it to thy self. God is very good to thee in this Precept. If thou be wise thou shalt be wise for thy self. Prov. 9.12. Is it profitable to God if thou givest him thy Heart? No: If thou be righteous what dost thou give Him, &c? Job 35.7. The Benefit is only to thy Self and Others here on earth. Indeed God is pleased and thou art saved. He is pleas'd and gratified to see thee saved. He has [Page]commanded thee, this for thy Good, as well as for his own Glory. Hear it and know it for thy good. And let it move thee to give thy Heart to God that his Soul may bless thee. It is Gods Favour and Blessing that makes Man happy. Gods Heart toward us makes us blessed: his heart turned against us makes us miserable. Now what can be the way to have God's heart turned toward us, to bless us and make us happy? but this — to give our Hearts to Him.

WHEREFORE come ye Children, hearken unto me, I will teach you the Fear of the Lord, and the proper Motive to it: Psal. 34.12. What Man is he that desireth li [...]e, and loveth many days that he may see good? let him give his Heart be [...]mes to God and to the ways of Religion, for the Eyes of the Lord are upon the Righteous, and his Ears are open to their Cry. And they are happy indeed on whom the Eyes of the Lord are, and to whose Cries his Ears are open [...] Chron. 22.11. My S [...]n, the Lord be with thee and prosper thou

[Page] WELL then, It is thine own Interest to give God thy heart while thou are young. Thou owest it to thy Self. The law of self love teaches it to thee. You sin against Self and are your own Enemy if you do not give God your heart betimes. You wrong your own Souls, and injure your own Bodies. You are guilty not only of self-neglect, but of self destruction. You are ignorant of, or wretchedly careless about your present temporal & worldly Interest; as well as your spiritual, future and eternal Interests.

To be particular therefore in this Argument.

1. IT is thy temporal and worldly Interest to give God thy Heart betimes. God condescends to move us by these low and inferior things. And why not? when he has made us to live and sojourn a while in this World, to tabernacle in Bodies of flesh and blood. For while we are here we have a temporal and worldly Interest to se [...]k, together with (but in subordination to) our spiritual & eternal Interest God [Page]has therefore joined these things in his Word, as well as in their own Nature; the one to subserve unto and promote the other; and that He might omit no kind of Motive proper to use with [...]s. Deut. 4.1. Now therefore hearken O Israel unto the Satute [...] and the Judgments which I teach you, [...] do them; that ye may live, and go in & possess the Land which the Lord giveth you. To prosecute a little this lower Argument.

1. IT shall be thy Credit and Reputation, my Son, among good Men and in the Church of God, if thou give God thy heart. What is there more to be esteemed than a Child that fe [...]ts and loves God? Like CHRIST he increases in Wisdom as in Stature; and grows up in favour with God and Man Even those that have not given thei [...] own hearts to God, will be likely t [...] admire and praise the Child that does it. But to be sure, all that have done it themselves will love & este [...] the Child that does it O such [...] be sure thou shalt be had in honour, an [...] [Page]that should content thee altho' others should contemn and scoff at thee. — Let your Parents see that you have given your heart to God, & they will doubly love and esteem thee. You should value their good opinion of thee very much; to be tender and only beloved in their Eyes. My son, if thine Heart be wise my Heart shall rejoice, even mine. If thy heart be wise thou wilt give it to God, and this shall rejoice the heart of thy godly Father and Mother; and make thee doubly dear to them. And so if you value the esteem and love of your Ministers and of the People of God, and the honour that cometh from God; this is the way to have it; Give thy heart to God. As Eli loved Samuel when he saw that be Lord had called the Child, and all [...]srael saw with pleasure that he was [...]stablished a Prophet of the Lord. 1 Sam. [...]. 20 As Solomon says of the Woman [...]hat feareth the Lord, so may we of [...]he Son and Daughter that does so, — He or She shall be praised. As David [...]ad this Praise in his Fathers house; [Page]1 Sam. 16.18. Behold I have seen a So [...] of Jesse the Beth [...]mite, a comely Person prudent in matters and the Lord is with him. What Son of ours is there, that should not be very ambitious of this Character? It shall be thy Honour among wise and good Men, my Son, if thou givest thy heart to God. Prov 3.4. So shalt thou find Favour an [...] good Understanding in the sight of Go [...] and Man.

2. IT shall be Health to thy Body, to give thy Heart to God. You will believe the God of thy health who says so; Prov. 3.8. Fear the Lord and depart from evil, it shall be Health to thy navel and morrow to thy bones. 4.22. My son attend to my Words, keep them in the midst of thy Heart, for they a [...] Life unto these that find them & Heal [...] unto all their flesh. The good Habit of the Body depends very much o [...] the good habit of the Soul. A good Disp [...]sition of Soul in young people would often preserve a good Constitution of Body; which is very often broken by youthful Lusts, and the giving [Page]the Heart to Wine & Women instead of God. My Son, by giving thy Heart now to God thou shalt preserve thy self from many hurtful Lusts which are destructive to bodily Health; as Intemperances, Uncleanesses, Sloth, Passions, &c. As Solomon warns the simple One of going after the Harlot till a Dart strike through his liver, and he die of a Consumption the Effect of his Intemperance. Our Health and long life depends on the Blessing of God; but to give Him our Heart is certainly to put our selves in the way of his Blessing. This has the Promise of life and health here, so far as God shall see it best for thee: Prov. 3.2. Long life shall they add to thee. To be sure the Commandments of God tend only to Life; They are a Tree of Life to them that keep them. Obedience to' them never burt any ones Health, in an ordinary course of things. But God has sometimes smitten young Sinners, and for being wicked they have died before their time.—It is true that young People may give God their [Page]Hearts, and yet remain sickly & weekly; or grow sickly after they ha [...] done it: But then it shall be best fo [...] them to be so, and God will turn it to the Health of their Soul. Yet it may certainly help a weakly Body, an [...] will never hurt it, to give the Hea [...] to God. But to give it to Sin is the way to hurt and consume it apace for a weakly Constitution will wash away the sooner under wasting Lust [...] It will follow also upon this,

3. IT may serve thy bodily Beauty [...] thou givest thy heart to God. Thi [...] may seem a mean and small thing [...] bring into the Argument I am upon and comparatively it is so, and so [...] bodily Health too. But the Lord is so the Body, even for the Beauty of it [...] the Health of it. For by Beauty I [...] not mean so much Features, as th [...] Complexion & Vigour of Health whi [...] makes the Face to shine, and give [...] Life and Sprightliness wherein [...] Comliness of the Person is most c [...] spicuous. So God took care of Dan and his Companions, and blessed th [...][Page]bread and their water, because they [...]d given him their hearts, & would not defile themselves with the Kings meat and wine: Their Countenances were the fairer and they fatter in flesh Dan. 1.15. The Hearts of young People are too much given to their Beauty; and alas! they give it away from God from a vain and wrong conceit of making themselves appear beau [...]ous. But after all, some of the Ornaments they pl [...]se and deceive themselves with do [...]on [...]dd to their Beauty, but take from it: And the Extremity of their Adornings is their Blemish in the Church of Christ. It shews an Heart given to Vanity rather than to God. And tho' these Daughters of men may be fair in the Eyes of some of the Sons of God, yet a Heart more given to God and set less upon these things would make 'em look fairer in the Eyes of all that regard the inward Adorning. Favour is deceitful and Beauty is vain, but the young Persons that give their hearts to God they shall be praised. The one is skin deep, the other deep as [Page]the Heart, whose Praise is of God Which is fairest? a fair Face or a fa [...] Soul? Besides that the fair Soul shines through the fair Eye and Face, and makes them fairer. — Give God thy heart, and as it will not alter thy Features, so to be sure it will not hurt them. It will add the inward to the outward Beauty; the hidden and incorruptible to that which is visible and fading. The heart that is given to God should be the more serene and Joyous, and shine thro' the Face and irradiate it. So Moses skin shone, and Stephens face was beheld as if it had been the Face of an Angel. But to be sure the way to have the Body rais'd in Glory, like Christs transfigured Body which shone as the Light, is to give our hearts to God. This Resurrection Body can never be look'd for, i [...] the Heart be not now given to God. And as one Body will then differ fr [...] another in Glory, so where the Heart has been given young to God there may the greatest Degree of Glory b [...] look'd for.— But to return from thi [...] Excursion.

[Page] 4. IN respect of thy Worldly Estate [...] shall be thy Interest to give thy Heart to God while thou art young. It will give thee P [...]udence and Consideration, and make thee sober, moderate, diligent in thy worldly Business. It will preserve thee from Idleness and Intemperance which are the way to Poverty. It will give thee Credit and Trust among Men, when th [...] see thee religious, virtuous and temperate, prudent & diligent, righteou [...] and conscientious, just and upright, and true to thy Word. Men will love to deal with thee; and good Men to assist thee and put thee forward. The Blessing of God also, which maketh rich, will attend thy honest Industry, and give thee Food convenient for thee. While you seek first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness, God will add other things needful and convenient for thee. So Christ has promised and you may take his Word Mat. 6.33. Both Riches and Honour come of Him, & of those ways of Wisdom which He has laid [Page]out for us to walk in. You may ever indent with God when you are going forth into the World, as Jacob did, Gen. 28.21. If God will be with me in the way wherein I go, and will give me Bread to eat and Raiment to put on. But this must be done with a Moderation of Desire to the things of this World, and with Submission to the Will of God respecting them, & with a Resolution through his Grace to adhere unto his Covenant, Worship and Service, in the Acquisition and Enjoyment of them: all which must needs be supposed in Him that has given his heart to God. Such a one is fittest to be rich in this world, that will be rich in good works. But God who knows Men, only knows what is fittest for them. We may think that there's many a good Man that does good with his Competency, would fall into Temtation and a Snare and into foolish and hurtful lusts if he had much more. God chuses for his Children, and they pray to him daily, lead me not into Temptation. So Agur prayed, Give [Page] [...] neither Poverty nor Riches, Feed me with food convenient for me.

5. To give God thy Heart in thy Youth will interest thee in the special providential Care of God from thy Youth up. Gods Heart is toward thee, if thou hast given thy heart to Him. Yea because his Heart was to thee for good, thou hast given thy heart to Him. You may trust in the Lord therefore and do good, so shall thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Psal. 37.3. God will not fail him that casts himself upon Him in his early days. He shall take thee up in the hands of his fatherly Providence, and of his Covenant Mercy. He shall give his Angels charge concerning thee to hold thee in their hands, to incamp about thee; to minister to thee in all thy way, through this world, as an Heir of Salvation. So Jacob gave his Heart to God as he set out, and at his Return the Angels of God met him, and he said, These are the Lords hosts. They were an heavenly Guard order'd to attend and defend that Heir of [Page]Promise, who as a Prince had power with God and had prevailed. Many a [...] the Afflictions of the righteous, but yet no Evil happens to the Just. All is meant for good, and made to work together for their best good. So take that Promise along with thee when thou hast given thy Heart to God, Psal. 91.10. There shall no evil befal thee. This Secret of the Lord is with the righteous, and he shews them his Covenant when others see things with them just as with other men, or it may seem worse. But th [...]y and their works are in the Hand of God; and they should consider themselves so, and say All is well. Is it not so, if God is thy Hope and Trust from thy Youth? thy Guardian & Guide from it? and even unto Death? and thy Portion after it. Yet surely it is and shall be thus with thee, if thou givest Him thy Heart from thy Youth.

6. To give thy Heart to God in thy Youth is the way to be made a Blessing to all about thee as long as thou [...]v [...]st. That Blessing of Abraham shall here by [Page]come upon thee, as one of his spiritual [...]eed, Gen. 12.2. And thou shalt be a Blessing. What a blessed thing is this! What a Blessedness to a Person to be a Blessing to the World he lives in, all his life! from the early to the latest days of it: So shall the Man be blessed that gives his Heart early to God. A Child thus becomes a Blessing to his Parents, and the Joy of their hearts. Thy Father and thy Mother shall be glad. Such a Child becomes a blessing in the Family, to his Brethren and Sisters, and to the Servants in the house. A little spiritual Leaven may leaven the whole lump. A little spark of Fire presently catches the Tinder that lies in its way, and spreads over it.

WHAT a Blessing was Joseph rendered by his Piety to his Fathers house, both on temporal & spiritual accounts? and so Samuel to all Israel, as well as to his Parents? How did Hannah's heart rejoice in the Lord on his account? her Horn was exalted in the Lord: i. e. her honour, happiness and joy. — But the great Instance of a [Page]heart always with God, from the first exercise of Understanding and from the first use of Reason, was our Lord Jesus Christ; who came to bless us and to give us an Example; to love us, teach us and die for us; in whom all the Families of the Earth are blessed. Would our Children be in their places Blessings to the World, as Christ was; let them now give their Hearts to God and be before Twelve Year old, and after it about their Heavenly Fathers business. It became Him, in whose Heart Gods Law was from his Conception and Birth, and in whom was no sin, that in Him all the Families of the Earth should be blessed▪ The Child that sconest gives his heart to God is most like to [...]rist, and most like to be a Blessing [...] the Church of Christ.

GODLY [...] like to serve their own [...] Samuel and David did [...] to the Will of God; [...] a Foundation for many [...]. That Blessing is greatly to be desired, Psal. 144.1 [...] [Page] That our Sons may be as Plants grown up in their youth, that our Daughters may be as Corner st [...]nes polished, &c. The way for our Children to attain this Honour and become this Blessing, is for them to give their Hearts now to God. Happy is the People that is in such a Ca [...].

7. And lastly, GIVE thy Heart young to God and it will prevent thy giving it to other things, destructive of Soul and Body, and injurious to all about thee. God has his Rivals which stand Candidate for thy heart, and vehemently sollicite for it. And alas! thy foolish corrupt and vile Heart naturally & strongly inclines to them, and is averss to God till he change and constrain it. Sin, Satan and worldly Lusts would insnare, captivate and possess thy Heart for ever. Thy heart is gone to them, but God requires thee to give it back to him; and he will help thee to do it, if you will seek his help. Wilt thou give thy Heart to the greatest Evil, and to thy greatest Enemy? Is this thy Interest? [Page]No; it is to r [...]ne and destroy thy self. Nothing can save thee from this Destruction, but the giving thy heart to God. Give it not to destructive Vices rather than to God. He would save it and these damn it forever. Destroy not that for which Christ died. Hear the words of King Lemuel, the Prophecy that his Mother taught him; Prov. 31.1, 2. What my Son, & what the Son of my Womb, and what the Son of my Vows! Give not thy strength to Women, nor thy ways to that which destroyeth Kings: It is not for Kings to drink wine, nor for Princes strong drink. That meaning is, that if young People do not give their hearts to God betimes they will be in great danger of giving them to one destructive Vice or other to their after undoing on temporal and on spiritual Accounts. To prevent this, give thy Heart betimes to God: It w [...] save thee on all accounts: It is thy temporal and th [...] worldly Interest, — This was the first thing proposed. I [...] to say,

[Page] 2. IT is thy spiritual and eternal interest to give thy Heart unto God [...] thy Childhood and Youth. If thou lovest thy precious Soul, do this; place it on God and portion it in Him. This is of more price than all earthly and temporal Things. What shall it profit a Man, if by giving his Heart to this. World he could gain the whole of it, and should l [...]se his own Soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his Soul? O that those Words of Christ were graven on our Hearts! What are all the poor Interests of Time, when compared with those of Eternity?

OUR Hearts are made for spiritual and invisible Things, things heavenly and eternal. The eternal God is their Portion. They are made for spiritual Exercises & for spiritual Enjoyments; and those out of the Body and beyond the Grave; and in the Body for ever after the Resurrection, in Glory and Incorruption.

OUR Hearts are made to know and love and desire God, to thirst after the living God, to chuse Him & seek after [Page]Him; to walk before Him and enjoy Him; and attain Glory, Honour and Immortality in his Presence, where is the fulness of Joy and at his right Hand Pleasures for evermore.

OUR Heart were never made for this World and the temporary passing things of this life. Our immortal Souls can never find a Happiness in a dying Body, and in things which they are going from; but only in Him that only hath Immortality to Whom they are going; and in whose Favour is their Life, and in his Anger is their eternal Death.

THE young Person may die to day or to morrow, and if he have not given his Heart to God, what will then become of Him to all Eternity? Or suppose that he may have many Years to abide in the Flesh, yet it is his spiritual everlasting Interest to give his Heart now to God, as much as if this night his Soul were to be required of him. For why is Life given us, but to be preparing therein for a blessed Eternity?

[Page] BESIDES that it makes the whole Life easie and pleasant, if the Heart is given young to God. Then go, eat thy Bread with a merry heart. Then lay thee down in peace and sleep. Then take the Comfort and taste the sweetness of all the good things of this Life that God giveth thee. The Work of Righteousness is Peace, and the Effect thereof Quietness & Assurance for ever.

AGAIN, Thy Advan [...]s and Proficiency in Grace from thy Youth are the true Riches, the enduring Substance. The Heart and Treasure are in Heaven. This is the good Foundation against the Time to come, that thou may est lay hold of eternal Life. This is to chuse that good Part which shall never be taken away from thee.

WHEN Old Age comes (the evil Days to him that has never given his Heart to God) O the Consolation to him that gave his in Youth to God. When the Grinders cease you shall Feast on this and sing, Psal. 71.14. I will hope continually and will yet praise Thee more & more.

[Page] OR let Death come, sooner or later, it is disarm'd of its Terrors, its Sting is taken away, by having given our Hearts young to God. The aged Believer may then be waiting for his Departure in peace, like Simeon. Of if the Believer die in the Prime of Life, he may take up Hezekiah's Prayer, Lord remember how I have walked before thee in Truth and with a perfect heart. The Angels of God will be near to that failing Heart, to take it and carry it to the bosome of Abraham. Like Daniel it shall stand in its Let, and that a very glorious one, at the End of Time.

THUS blessed is He like to be that gives his Heart young to God. He is the Candidate for that Blessing. Rom. 5.17. Abundance of Grace and of the Gift by Jesus Christ. These are the Sons, and these the Daughters, that are like to sit on Christs right Hand and on his left in his Kingdom. For the [...] furely it is prepared of the Father.

[Page] AND thus in point of Duty to Themselves shou'd young People give their Hearts to God. It has the Prospect and the Promise of the Life that now is and of that which is to come.

WE wish you Happy as to both Worlds, and therefore require you now to give your hearts to God. We urge you as Rebecca did her Jacob, to seek and get the Blessing of Abraham. Obey our Voice. God give thee of the dew of Heaven and of the fulness of the Earth! But what is infinitely more, God crown thee with the Riches of Grace here and of Glory hereafter. So Isaac kissed Jacob and said, See the smell of my Son is as the smell of a Field which the Lord hath blessed †.

I come now to the third and last Head, which is,

III. YOUNG people owe this to Others, to the World they live in, to all that are about them, and more especially [Page]unto all Those that are related so them and concerned in them: For the sake and benefit of Others they ought to give their Hearts to God.

THIS is an Argument of great weight also, though it ought to come after the other two which have been already named and urged. God is first, our own Souls are next, and then the Souls of Others. The whole moral Duty of man lies in these three Branches, our more immediate Duty to God, to our Selves and to our Neighbours. So our Saviour and his Apostle have taught us; He in his Gospel, the Other in his Epistle. Mat. 22.37. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul: This is the first and great Command. And the second, is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self. On these two Commandments hang all the Law & the Prophets. Tit. 2.16. For the Grace of God that bringeth Salvation hath appeared to all Men, teaching us to live soberly, righteously and godly in this present World. Young People are not [Page] righteous toward Men, no more than godly before God, unless they give themselves unto God. If they give their Hearts unto the ways of God they are dutiful to Him, they are wise for themselves, and will be but just & righteous to others. God has set us all in mutual Relations one toward another, and there are the Duties of those Relations to be discharged; and pure Religion before God and Piety toward Men lies in the discharge of those Duties. And young People stand in various Relations to one and another as much as their Elders; and are as much bound by the Law of God to render unto all the Duties of these Relations, as Others are: All Souls are Gods to obey him, and the Law of God binds all Souls alike to their particular Duties; even the soul of the Son and Daughter as much as the soul of the Parent. Therefore young People cannot be Religious before God, if they be not Righteous and dutiful toward all that they stand related unto; whether in a nearer or [Page]more remote Relation. And the Glory of God from them, and their own Happiness and Comfort in their Obedience to God, depends upon their doing their Duty to Others, in their several places and Relations.—God has sent us into the World to do good in it, to do good to all about us, to be Blessings to them among whom we live, to whom we are related, with whom we have Conversation and Acquaintance. Our very Children know that they sustain these and those Relations, to their Parents, to their Brethren and Sisters, to their Masters and Teachers, to their Ministers, to their Rulers, and to the Church and People of God whereof they are a part; Now if they give their Hearts betimes to God then and then only they will answer all the Duty of all the Rela [...] ons which they stand in to Others For the Word of God and the Lo [...] & Fear of God teaches them all thes [...] Duties; and if they refuse their Heart [...] to God, to his Word & Ways, then the [...] will never do their Duty to other [...] [Page]according to his Will and Commandment: And therefore young People owe this unto Others that they give their Hearts now to God because then and not till then will they be just and righteous to all about them, whether Superiors, Inseriours or Equals.

My Text points me to this Argument with young People, that for the sake of Others and particularly of their Parents they should give their hearts to God. For thus runs the Context, My son if thy heart be wise my heart shall rejoice even MINE; thy Father and thy Mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall rejoice. Solomon speaks here as a Father, and says to his Son, My Son! for my sake give thy heart to God, do it for thy Mothers sake as well as mine; We command thee to do this; do it in obedience both to God and us; and do it for our good, for our Comfort and Benefit, for the Joy that it will give to us; to see thee wise and good and happy. — You see then that I must forget my Text and depart from that, if [Page]I do not pursue this Argument a little, and move young People to give their hearts to God, for the sake of Others, that so they may have Comfort in them, and Good from them.

I say therefore again, Young People owe this to Others, to the World they live in, to those they are more nearly related to, and unto all about them that they give their Hearts unto God. — And to be particular, and to begin where Nature and my Text teaches me to begin,

1. YOUNG people owe this unto their Parents, to give their Hearts betimes to God. They owe it to their godly Parents as an Act of Obedience to their Commands; and as an early Requital of all their Love to them, and Pains and Cares and Prayers for them. They owe them this Joy; for the Father of the Righteous shall greatly rejoice, and he that heget [...]eth a wise son shall have joy of him. Prov. 10.1. A wise Son maketh a glad Father, but a foolish Son is the heaviness of his Mother. Here is an Argument with Children [Page]that love their Parents, why they should give their Hearts to God, because hereby they will glad the hearts of their Parents, and if they do it not they will be a Grief of heart unto them. What do not Children owe to their Parents? and what should they not be glad to do for their Comfort? And what can they do to comfort them and make their Hearts glad like this, to let them see the Fear and Love of God in them while they are young? How will they, like Mary, lay up all they see of this in their Hearts; and give God Praise for it? For what is a Parents hope, or joy, or Crown of Rejoicing? or what should it be, but this! even the Grace of God in their Children? the Earnest of their seeing them hereafter in the Presence of the Lord Jesus at his Coming! Every pious Parent is ready to say to his or her pious Offspring, as the Apostle to the Thessalonians, Ye are our Glory and our Joy. If Children did but know and consider how it would please, gratify and even edify [Page]their gracious Parents; it would [...] of some force with them to cause them to be religious in their early days. Prov. 29.17. Yea he shall give Delight to thy Soul. So Jacob did [...] the Soul of Rebecca, and Joseph to the Soul of Jacob, and Samuel to the Sou [...] of Hannah, and JESUS to the Soul o [...] Mary: And so should you to the heart of your pious Parents.

2. YOUNG people should give God their hearts for the sake of their Brethren and Sisters, and for the good [...] the Family whereof they are a part They owe this Duty to all that are in the House with them; to let them see that God has their hearts. Hereby they will be Examples to the Children and Servants of the Family, and e [...] cite them to give their Hearts to God and will reprove and admonish them if they are wicked and do it not They will become a living Lesso [...] and daily Monitor to all that li [...] with them. So thy Fathers Childre [...] shall learn of thee; and thou may [...] save the Souls of them that live w [...] [Page]thee. Besides, that if You give your Heart to God, you will daily pray to Him for others, when you do for yourself. For thy Brethren and Companions sake therefore, now give thy heart to God. Who knows but you may save some of the Houshold? yea and others in the nei'bourhood where you dwell?

3. YOUNG people owe this to their Masters according to the flesh, to give their Hearts early to God; that they may the better do their Duty to them in obedience to the Word of God, and become Blessings in the Families where the Providence of God disposes of them. So Jacob, having given his heart to God, carried a Blessing with him to the house of Laban. He serv'd him faithfully by day and by night, and the blessing of the Lord accompanied him in all that he set his hand unto. Laban found by Experience that the Lord had blessed him for Jacob's sake, Gen. 30.27. So Joseph went down a sold servant to Egypt, [...] he had given his heart to God, [Page]and was prudent and diligent in hi [...] Masters business, for he feared God; and God blessed the Egyptians house for Josephs sake. Gen. 39.5. — And so it will be always good for a Family to have such young People come into Service in it; who have given their hearts to God and his Ways; they will set themselves to do their Duty, in their place, to their Master and Mistress, to the Children of the house, and to their Fellow servants, in singleness of heart, fearing God. And such Servants are an unknown Blessing in a Family. And for this reason, among others, young People should give their hearts to God, that they may be Blessings to the Families where they may go to serve. Read what a Blessing religious Servants are to a Family, and what an Argument it should be with young People in their Services to be religious that they may be such Blessings; Eph. 6.5, 6, 7. Col. 3.22, 23, 24.

4. And lastly, YOUNG people should give their hearts to God, for the s [...][Page]of the Generation which they are to serve by the Will of God, if they live. Young people should not build upon living long; but they ought to prepare and lay in for a godly Life of Service to God and Good to Men, if it should please God to prolong their lives. And in order to this the short Rule before them is this in my Text, My Son, give God thy heart, Thou wilt then give thy self to his People according to his will, to do good in the place wherein his Providence sets thee; that thou mayest be a Blessing both in Church and State. If a young Person has given God his heart, he is like to make a grave, prudent, judicious, faithful Man in his civil Capacity and Relations, and into whatever public Offices he may be called. And in like manner he that gives his Heart young to God is like to be a [...]hining exemplary useful Christian [...]n the Church of Christ. Both in [...]tate and Church, he will be seen and [...]bserved with a raye of Moses shining [...]e upon him. So Joseph having [Page]given his heart early to God, what a Blessing was he made to the World, and unto Israel? And so we may say of Moses & of Joshua; and of Samuel and David; and of Daniel. The Luminaries, and Glories, and great Benefactors to the World, have been such as have given their hearts young to God. In These, in their measure after Christ, (from the Spirit of Christ dwelling and ruling in them) has been exemplified that Blessing of blessings, the Glory of the Son Himself in our Nature; In thee the Families of the Earth are blessed. And what [...] Motive and Reason should this be to young People? that they may be great Blessings in their places as long as they live, even unto old Age if God should spare them to it.

AND thus for the sake of Others you should give your hearts to God while you are young.

HAVING now gone thro' the several Arguments I proposed, and show [...] that young people owe this Duty [...] [Page] God, to Themselves, and to the World they live in;

I come now to make some Improvement and Application of the Doctrine. and it may be in three or four Uses, of Examination, of Reprehension, of Consolation, and of Exhortation.

1. OF Examination, and serious Self-Enquiry. Have we yet given our hearts to God? Child, hast thou done it? and you that are Parents did you do it in your younger days? or is it done even to this day? And should you not do it now? Should it not have been done many a Day, or Month, or Year past? and when shall it be done? when shall it once be?

2. THE Use is of Reprehension to all such as have not given their hearts to God, whether Elder or Younger Persons. The youngest among us are very wicked and miserable if they have not yet given their hearts to God. Our Children may not excuse themselves or think God will excuse [Page]it in them. They may and should see their own vile Nature, the Plague of their hearts, how vitiated and depraved their Minds are, alienated from God, and Enmity against him. It is a desperately wicked heart of thine, or it would give it self to the blessed God. It is a cursed heart that departeth from the Lord its God. —But then how criminal and guilty are Elder People, under the power of this evil Heart; and in the same gall of bitterness and bond of Iniquity! Our Children are to be bewailed under it, but much more our Adult people. As Moses lamented over the Children of Israel, Deut. 29.4. Yet the Lord hath not given you a Heart to perceive, nor Eyes to see, nor an Ear to hear unto this day. How wretched is their case that have lived long in the world, but all their days without God in it! that are just going out of the world and have never given their hearts to God! It is a hard word to the youngest sinner, but should sound terribly to the Older; Of the Rock that bega [...][Page]thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee.

3. THE next Use is of Consolation, to all them that have given their hearts to God, but especially them that have done it in their younger days. If it is done at all, tho' done late, blessed be God for it, and blessed be thou of the Lord thy God. Happy is he that can say with the Apostle, 1 Cor. 15.8. Last of all He was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time. But happier is he that can say with Him, My manner of life from my Youth up, has shown a heart given to God. Happy was Obadiah, who could say of himself, 1 King. 18.12. I thy servant fear the Lord from my Youth. Let the Mouths of such be filled with God's Praise and Honour all the day. — Happy is the young person that has given his heart to God; whether he lives to serve God in this World, or whether he dies and goes to enjoy him in a better. Of such is the Kingdom of Heaven; [Page]the Kingdom of Grace here, and o [...] Glory hereafter. Where ever Jesu [...] sees any such young People he loves them; and such Children be takes [...] in the Arms of his Grace and Covenant, and blesses 'em.

4. THE last Use is of Exhortation; and let it be directed to all, both elder & younger Persons, as the Voice of God to them; Give God your hearts. What a gracious Exhortation is this, which speaketh to us as unto Children? for surely it is a Father that asks of us our hearts. Who can refuse this to God? For let us consider,

1. GOD only has Right to our hearts. To whom shall we give them, if not Him? What has sin or satan, the world or flesh, to do with these hearts of ours? God that made us this Soul, made it for Himself He fill'd the heart of Man at first with Himself, and fix'd it on Himself, and He has redeemed it for Himself. He claims but his Own, and of his Own we give Him, when we give him our Hearts.

[Page] 2. THY Heart is too great and good I thing for any thing below God. It is I Spirit, and made for spiritual Blessedness: It is a living and immortal spirit and made for a blessed Immortality. This World therefore, with all the Objects of sense which it is filled with, is not suted to nor sufficient for thy Heart. These are not great, good or durable eno' to fill and satisfy that. Wherefore reverence thy self; know ye not their own selves? that you are spirits and not flesh; like the horses and cattle about your doors, to feed & live upon the husks of this World; and that you are immortal Spirits, made for a future and eternal World. You must not therefore bow down to this stock, nor sacrifice your Hearts to these empty and transitory things, nor prostitute your noble Souls to trifles and childish Vanities? to Riches and Honours which neither improve nor satisfy the Souls of Men while they live, nor can descend after them when they die? Or wilt thou give thy Heart to [Page]those ways of Sin and Wickedness, which render this Life miserable, and which end in Hell and eternal Damnation? Surely thy Heart is too good to give it to the devil; and yet in effect thou givest it to him if it be not given to God.

3. CONSIDER that you owe your heart to CHRIST, who has died to purchase it for God; to redeem it from Sin, to recover it from the devil, to purify it for God: Thou art bought with a Price, therefore glorify God with thy Body and Spirit. 1 Cor. 6.20. Thy whole Spirit Soul and Body is due to Him, who gave Himself a Ransom for thee; who made his Soul an Offering, who thro' the Eternal Spirit offered up himself without spot to God! He claims thy Heart, for he has dearly bought it with his Blood, to sanctify and cleanse it, for an Habitation of God, a living Temple and a living Sacrifice. Rom. 12.1. I beseech you therefore Brethren, by the Mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable[Page]unto God, which is your reasonable service. 14.7. For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself; for whether we live, we live unto the Lord: and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore or die, we are the Lords. For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.

4. LET young people consider that they have been given to God in Baptism, by which they are bound and obliged to give their hearts to God. And now it lies upon them to make this Act and Deed, the Dedication of themselves to God; secretly and publickly. Your Parents and Ministers who have done their part in giving you up to God according to his Appointment, and all the Lord's People that saw you bro't under the holy Bonds of God in your Baptism; do all join in calling upon you to give your hearts to God And God calls upon you as the Seed of his Covenant People, as a devoted Seed to him, and [Page]as your Covenant God—My Children, give me your hearts. To refuse him is in effect to deny & renounce your Baptism.

5. And lastly, GOD will give Himself, his Son and Spirit, his Heaven and Glory, to all them that give their hearts to Him. He requires our hearts, that he may bestow Himself on us. The Heart of the Blessed Trinity is toward thee in this Demand of thy Heart for God; it is that thou mayest be blessed in God, in his Love and Favour, in his Presence and Glory for ever and ever. Give thy heart to God & God will come down into it and possess it for Himself, and dwell and reign in it, and prepare it for his heavenly Glory. Give thy Heart to God, and the Grace of Christ, the Love of God and the Communion of the Holy Ghost shall be with thy Spirit. Give thy heart to God and when flesh and heart faileth God will be the Strength of thy heart and thy portion for even. Give thy Heart to God, and when thou diest God will take thy Spirit [Page]to Himself; to his Presence where is the fulness of Joy for ever and ever. All that God has to give, and that thou canst receive, God will give to thee another Day if thou givest thy Heart to him now.

BY way of Direction,

1. GIVE thy heart to God, and do it instantly. What you do, let it be done quickly, forthwith, presently. Do it now: To day if you will hear his Voice. Delay not in a matter of this Importance. To morrow may be too late; you may be dead before it [...]omes; This night may thy Soul be required.

2. GIVE thy heart to God and give [...] wholly to him. He requires of thee all thy Heart and all thy Soul. He [...] a right to It all, He will not accept of a part, a divided heart. His Glory forbids it. It is wholly His, [...]d must be all devoted to him, all [...]ployed for him. Thy Soul and all [Page]that is within thee, thy whole Spirit, Soul and Body; This is God's claim.

3. GIVE thy heart to God & give it for ever to him. It is a living immortal Spirit, that thou rendrest to the living God, the everlasting King. Thy heart must be given absolutely and irrevocably. This is my God, and my Heart shall be his for ever and ever. Come and let us joyn out selves to the Lord in an everlasting Covenant, never to be forgotten. You are acting for Time & Eternity.

4. GIVE thy heart to God and do it joyfully and thankfully. It is thy greatest Honour and Happiness that he will accept of thy poor heart, and that thou hast a heart inclined to give it self to him. Who am I, O Lord God! and what is my People, that we should be allowed to effer so willingly after this sort! Thy heart! it is a wonder of Grace that God should allow thee to make a Tender of it to Him. If he has prepar'd it for Himself it will be a most willing Offering a Thank offering.

[Page]5. GIVE thy Heart to God and give it to his People, in all his appointed Ways. Give your own selves first to the Lord, and then to Us by the Will of God; As the Apostle speaks; 2 Cor. 8.5. Give thy self to God and come into his Church, and be walking in all the Commandments and Ordinances of the Lord blameless. As Ruth clave to Naomi and her People, having given her self to the God of Israel: Ruth 1.16. Entreat me nor to leave thee, nor to turn from following after thee; for thy People shall be my People, and thy God my God. Let our young People show that they have given their Hearts to God by coming into full Communion; and by continuing sted fastly (all their Life) in the Fellowship of the Saints. Give your Hearts to God and it will bring you on to the Table of Christ, and make you welcome there. Yea when you have given your Heart to God, you may give Thanks unto the Father who hath made you meet for the Inheritance of the Saints in Light.

[Page] 6. And lastly, GO to God in the name of Christ that he would give the [...] a Heart to give to Him The Prep [...] ration of this heart in Man is of the Lord, and we must ask it of H [...]m. It is a singular Gift of his Grace. Let us ask of Him a new Heart, a purified and clean Heart; a holy and heavenly Heart; that He would put his [...]ar in our hearts & shed abroad of his l [...]ve in them Let thy Heart answer to God's; O that there were such on Heart in me. David has r [...]ght us to pray, Unite my Heart to fear thy name; Incline my heart unto thy Testimonies. And David has assured as that God will hear the [...] of the Humble, w [...]en that is their Petition; he will prepare their Heart, & cause his Ear to hear.

Notes

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Here this Sermon may be divided.

↵

Sermon III.

[Page]

ACTS XVII. 28.

— For we are His Offspring.

THESE gracious Words speaks of God and us; they speak to us concerning God & our Selves; they speak to us as unto Children, and concerning God as a Father.

You, to whom I now bring them, are our Children; some of the Offspring of the People of God: And I now invite and lead you into this Consideration of your Selves, That You are the Offspring of God. May you be a Seed which the Lord shall bless.

THE Words are quoted from an Heathen Poet, Aratus, by the Apostle Paul in an excellent Discourse which he made to the Men of Athens, to convince them of their Folly and Impiety [Page] [...] in the Idolatry which he saw among [...]em. It is a very rare thing in the holy Writings to find a Quotation from a heathen Author; It is (as On says) like the bringing a Greek into the Temple. Yet certainly in the Case before us the Propriety and Wisdom of the thing is evident; it being adapted to the Persons spoken unto, and an Argument ad Hominem, to convince and shame 'em out of their Idolatry, from what one of their own Poets had written.

THE Apostle being now at Athens, one of the famous Cities of Greece, was exceedingly moved to see the City given wholly to Idolatry. Among other wild and absurd Instances of their Superstitious Devotion, he found one Altar erected and inscribed to the unknown God. They had collected and gathered (it may be) the Images and Pictures of all the Gods of the Nations that had come to their know Iedge; but well imagining with themselves that they had not light upon them all, they would have One [Page]it seems in compliment to Him, who ever he were, that was still unknown. But some think that by the unknown God they indeed meant the God of the Jews, the Invisible God, who would not allow of any Image, or likeness of any thing in the Heavens above or on the Earth below, whereby to represent Him: For what Image can be made of a Spirit infinite and immense, Him therefore the Apos [...] preaches to them: Whom you ignorantly worship (says he) Him declare I unto you: God that made the World and all things therein, who is Lord of Heaven and Earth, and dwelleth not in Temples made with Hands; neither is worshiped by Mens hands as though be needeth any thing; seeing He giveth unto all Life and Breath and all things; and bath made of one Blood all Nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the Earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the Bounds of every ones Habitation: that they should seek the Lord if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him [...] though[Page]he be not far from every one of us; For in Him we live, and move and have our Being, As certain also of your own P [...]e [...]s have said, For we are his Offspring: For as much then as we are the Offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto Gold, or Silver, or Stone, graven by Art & by Mans device.

— THUS runs the Apostles Discourse wherein we find my Text, with an inimitable Vein of Eloquence and Reasoning. They that heard him might have seen that he was Inspired by the Unseen God whom he preached to 'em; if they had not been blinded and infatuated by their Idolatries. And He was inspired in the quotation he made from the Poet Aratus, which are the words of my Text, and very meet to be the Subject of a Sermon in a Christian Assembly; being adopted by an Apostle and consecrated by the HOLY GHOST

WE are his Offspring▪ We, i. e. all Mankind; all the Sons & Daughters of men. His, i. e. Gods. Aratus meant Jupitor, the High God among [Page]the Heathen; the Father of Gods and Men; as they us'd to call him. But the Apostle speaks of the LORD JEHOVAH, the God of Israel, the Possessor of Heaven and of Earth: the Father of Angels and of Men. — His Offspring. As Children proceeding from Him & hoaring his Image. The Offspring among Men are Children proceeding from their Parents. Job 5.25. Thy Seed shall be great, and thine Offspring as the grass of the Harth. 21▪8. Their Seed is established in then sight, and their Offspring before their eyes.

Let the Doctrine be.

DOCT. IT is a great and serious Truth, worthy of our most devour and frequent Consideration, that we are the Off spring of GOD.

I shall endeavour

1. To explain and wave the Thing asserted.

2. To lead you into a proper Improvement of it.

I. And first, To explain and prove his Truth, that We are the Offspring [Page]of God. A high & noble Truth, which should be awful as well as pleasant to confider of. We must limit & state it aright, least we debate God and elate our selves. We should do both in a very hainous manner, if we should call our selves the Offspring of God in the highest sense, or should we call our selves so as to our Bodies, out earthly part; or should we count out selves less his Creature and his Work in our Souls, though they are Spirits that bear his Image and likeness.

HERE then let me premise, and say,

1. WE are not the Offspring of God in the highest fe [...]se, which is singular & peculiar to the Only begotten and eternal Son. There is an Only-begotten of the Father; a S [...]n by an eternal Generation; His only Son our Lord. He is a Divine Person, his Nature and Glory is Divine. Joh. 1.1. In the beginning was the WORD, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ver. 14. And the Word w [...] made Hesh, and dwelt among us, and[Page]we beheld his Glory, the Glory as of the Only begotten of the Father. O this eternal Existence of Christ, the Wisdom and Power of God, we read Prov. 8.22. The Lord possessed Me in the beginning of his ways, before his Works of old: I was set up from Everlasting, from the Beginning, or ever the Earth was: Then I was by Him, as one bro t up with Him, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing a ways before Him: rejoicing in the habitable parts of the Earth, and my Delights were with the Sons of Men. This Divine Offspring of God is so by an Ineffable everlasting Communication of Essence, having Life in Himself, even as the Father bath life in Himself. He and the Father are One, in Essence, in Glory and Power. Joh. 10.30. I and my Father are One. His glory is incomprehensible and incommunicable. Phil. 2.6. Who being in the Form of God tho't it not robbery to be Equal with God. Heb. 1.3. The Brightness of the Fathers Glory, and the express Image of his Person. Col. 2.9. [Page] In Him dwelleth all the Fulness of the Godhead bodily.

THIS is the Mystery of God; of the Father & of Christ; which we receive and adore, as it is revealed and because it is revealed, without pretending to comprehend it. Prov. 30 4. What is his Name, and what is his Sons Name, if thou canst tell? No, we must answer, I neither learned Wisdom, nor have the Knowledge of the Holy. Far be it from us. (and as far is it above all Angels) to call our selves the Offspring of God in such a sense; Far b [...] the Tho't from us, and detested by us. The Only begotten Son it Christ, whose Name is above every Name, and Angels in Heaven as well as we on Earth how down before it.

2. WE are the Offspring of God eminently or only in our Souls, not call'd so with respect to our Bodies or outward Form. When the Creation of Man came on, the Crown and finishing peice of God's Creation here below, the Lord God said — Let us [...]ks Man in our Image, ofter our likeness: [Page]and he formed the Body of Man out of the dust of the Ground, and breathed into his Nostrils the Breath of Life, and Man became a Living Soul. Mans Body is a wondrous peice of Divine Workmanship, and great is the glory of the Wisdom and Power and Bounty of the CREATOR shining in it. But the living Soul or Spirit which God breathed into this Body, bears the Image of the wise, eternal ever living SPIRIT, whose breath it is. God is the Father of Spirits. Angels and Souls, intelligent and immortal Beings, are his Offspring; and not Bodies. There is a Spirit in Man, and the Inspiration of the Almighty giveth him Understanding. Souls are His, all Souls are so; his Offspring in his Image.

AND this is the manner of Reasoning in our Context; that it is absurd to worship the invisible and immense. SPIRIT, that gives to all Life and Breath and all things, under any dead and bodily Form, whether of Man or Beast; for in HIM we live & move, [Page]being made living Souls by Him and active Spirits, and so his Offspring.

3. IT must moreover be premised & considered, That Angels and humane Souls, though vastly in their Nature excelling Bodies and bearing the Image of the Invisible God; yet they are as much at last the Creatures of God and infinitely below Him, as any and every part of the inferior World. At last the distance is infinite between God and the highest created Intelligence. There is no proportion between Finite and Infinite: there is no measuring that which is Eternal and which is Immense. An eternal Existence is just the same to a million Years before the World, as to a million after it: And so is an immense Presence just the same to the Heaven of heavens and to this House which we are in. That is to say, There is neither greater not less if compared to Infinity: the Heaven of heavens do no more contain God than this Room can. In like manner the highest created Beings are but [Page]Creatures, and the least Worm or Mire is one of Gods Creatures. If therefore some of God's Creatures are call'd his Offspring, what then? they are never the less as much below the eternal and immense Creator, as the least and lowest thing that he has made. Wherefore He putteth no Trust in his Angels, he charge them with Folly, they cover their Faces before Him; the Heavens are not clean in his sight. And as for the Spirits in Flesh, what are they but Dust and Ashes before Him? as Abraham beheld himself, when God spake to him, and gave him leave to speak before him. — As our Context has it, — God that made the World and all things in it, seeing he is Lord of Heaven and Earth, is as much above the highest as the least of his Creatures. So then, although our Souls are the Offspring of God, yet pride must be hid from Man, and he is before his Maker but a Worm of the dust. Lucifer, the Son of the Morning, in his high state [Page]grew proud, not considering that his distance from the Throne of the Majesty on High, was as great as if he had been the least of Angels or only a Spirit here below in flesh; and so he fell —. But having said this to keep us low under the Priviledges of our Nature and the Favours of God to us; I come now to say,

4. YET it pleases the High God to call some of his Creatures his Offspring, and to require them so to account of & esteem Themselves. For we are his Offspring.

ANGELS and Men may say this. They both are so. God calls them so, owns them so, puts them among his Children.

1. ANGELS are the Sons of God. Job 38.7. When the Morning Stars sang together and all the Sons of God shouted for Joy. i. e. The Angels did so when God made this Earth of ours. The blessed Angels are among Creatures, the First born of the Father of lights; and they shone bright in the Morning of time; before that God [Page]commanded the Light to shine out of Darkness here below. They saw God rear the Earth for Men their younger Brethren, immortal Spirits like themselves; and they rejoiced at it; (in the habitable parts whereof the Son of God was before rejoicing.) The holy Angels shine bright in the Image of God; love him as their Father, he delights in them as his Sons, their delight is to do his Will, they dwell in his House above, and they inherit everlasting Life and Light.

2. MAN was created a Son of God as well as the Angels. So we read, Luk. 3. ult. Adam, which was the Son of God. He was immediately the Offspring of God in his Creation; We are mediately, Deut. 32.6. Is he not thy Father? hath he not made thee? Mal. 2.10. Have we not all our Father? hath not one God created us?

Now there are two Reasons why Angels and men should be called the Offspring of God, more than the other [Page]inferior Creatures which God has made.

1. They are made more in the Image and Likeness of God than the inferior Creatures. And

2. They are in an eminent & exalted sense made for God, his Service and Praise more than the other Creatures.

3. They are treated by God in a peculiar manner as his Offspring.

I. ANGELS and Men are the Offspring of God because they are made more in the Image and Likeness of God than the inferior Creatures are. This is the Distinction that God put, and the Difference he made, in the Creation of other Creatures and of Man: Let us make Man (said He) in our Image and likeness. Which means not that the inferior Creatures do not bear the manifest stamp of God's Wisdom, Power and Goodness upon them; They evidently do so, and His eternal Power and Godhead are clearly seen in the things which are made. But in Man there is the Image of God's Spirituality, Dominion and Government, Knowledge, Rectitude, [Page]Immortality, as is not to be found in the Inferior Creatures.

IMAGE and likeness; i. e. says One, the likest Image, the nearest Resemblance of any of the visible Creatures: It is this Image of God on Man, this Likeness to God in him, that makes us the Offspring of God: As Children bear the Image, and are in the Likeness, of their Parents.

So,

1. WE bear the Image and are the Offspring of God because we are living Souls and Spirits. God is a Spirit, Joh. 4.24. The Lord is that Spirit. 2 Cor. 3.17. The eternal and infinite Mind; invisible, incorporeal, immaterial, incorruptible; that is GOD. Material and visible things cannot give us any Image of God, like things Spiritual which only fall under the discerning of our Minds, which are Spirits, and capable of Spiritual Operations. In his we are like God, that our Souls are Spiritual Substances; that there is a Spirit in Man; invisible, incorruptible, immortal; a [Page]Power & Principle intelligent, active, free, self-conscious: God made us this Soul, and herein we resemble God, whose Spirituality and Simplicity of Essence is infinitely above the Nature of created Spirits, as these are above stupid and gross Matter.

2. We bear the Image and are the Offspring of God because intelligent and rational Creatures. We are Minds; God has given us Knowledge and Understanding. Man is a Spiritual Intellect, as the Angels of Heaven also are Intelligences. The Inspiration of the Almighty has given Us an Understanding. An Understanding to know HIM, and to form Ideas of things spiritual, invisible, immaterial & eternal. In this we must needs see & consider the Image of God upon us. Job. 35.10. Where is God my Maker, who teacheth us more than the Beasts of the field, and hath made us wiser than the Fowls of Heaven? The LORD is a God of Knowledge; Angels bear his Image in their Knowledge and Wisdom, and so doth Man on [Page]Earth, Col. 3.10. Created after God in Knowledge. Christ the express Image of the Father has his Name, [...] the Word and Wisdom. So Man is a thinking reasoning Creature. And this Spirit of Man is the Candle of the Lord, Prov. 20.27. As a Candle is light from some Fire, and then shines and gives light it self.

3 WE bear the Image and are the Offspring of God, in our Will, Freedom, Election and Choice, in our Actions. We are Agents by Counsel. We judge, deliberate, advise, chuse o [...] refuse; upon reasoning and considering of things. This is the property of a spiritual & intellectual Nature, and shows very much of God's Image on us. Hence we are capable of moral Perfection; Virtue, Grace, Goodness: A Mind rightly disposed and inclined to chuse the Good & refuse the Evil. This was the Image of God at first on man: God made him spright. Eccl. 7.29 God made him holy, beheld him very good, and forbad him to Sin. And this is the Image [Page]of God in Man restored by Grace [...] Eph. 4.24. Created after God in Righteousness and true Holiness. We are made to be good, and do good, and love the things that are holy and good: As to know God and his Will so to please and obey Him; to place our Affection on him, and to chuse the things that please him. This the inferior Creatures are not capable of; They have neither knowledge not will for moral Government; the Government of themselves; to be rul'd by a Law proposed to them. They are not capable of chufing for themselves, or of yeilding Obedience to Another; from a sense of Duty; and because what he commands is wise and right, just and good.

4. MAN is made for Dominion and Rule, and therein bears the Image and appears to be the Offspring of God, The Words of the Great CREATOR are very remarkable about the formation of Man; Let us make Man i [...] Our Image, after our likeness, and [...] him have Dominion over the inferio [...] [Page]Creatures. God is the Lord, Proprietor and Possessor, Ruler and Governour of all things. Man as the Offspring of God bears this part of God's Image, that he was made Lord, Proprietor and Governour of the Earth, and the Creatures on it. The Begotten Son is the Heir and Lord of all things, visible and invisible. Of the Angels we read that they are Thrones and Dominions, Principalities and Powers: And their Agency, Influence and Rule in the Kingdom of Nature and Grace, and over the Kingdoms and in the Hearts of Men, may be much more than we conceive of: But Man the Offspring of God on Earth has that for his Possession and Dominion. He should be Lord of Himself, and have the dominion of his own Soul; and then act as God's Representative and Vice-toy in the use of the Creation. He is made and accomplish'd for his Place and Dominion by the supreme Power; and then limited in it, as it is meet [...] should be. He must rule for God, [...]le Himself & reign over the Creatures [Page]of God. They are not endowed to fear and serve God, but are made to serve Man, whose Fear is put by God upon them. Gen. 9.2. By the Government of himself Man shines in the moral Image of God, and by his Possession and Use of the Creature he bears the Image of Gods visible and universal Government.

5. MAN bears the Image and is the Offspring of God in his Immortality. GOD is the King Immortal; He only hath Immortality. He is to Everlasting. In like manner Angels are immortal Spirits; they liue for ever, can never die. Man was indeed from his Original Make and Constitution capable of Death. He is a living Soul in a Body of Flesh, or Earth. The Union is wonderful, of things very distant in their own Nature. The Separation of them is therefore the less wonderful. Never the less without the Sin of man it had never been God by his power would have kep [...] Soul & Body together if he had no [...] [...]ed. Dissoluble they wore, an [...] [Page]God let him know it, and told him in the day he eat he should surely find it. Never the less the Soul of Man is an immortal Spirit. That lives when it leaves the body. That is liable thenceforth to no other Death than the sinning Angels themselves are under, scil. Guilt & Misery eternal. We read therefore of the Souls returning to God that gave it. Eccl. 12.7. and of the Spirits of good Men immediately in Abraham's bosome; and of the Souls of the wicked in the place of Torment, Luk. 16.23. The Soul is the Man, and that is as much immortal in its own Nature as any Angel in heaven. Herein then it bears the Image of the E [...]ernal God as much as they, and as much as a Creature [...]an do; for it is eternal in its duration, it lives and lasts to all Eternity. Mat. 25. ult. These shall go away into verlasting Punishment, but the righteous into Life eternal. The Offspring [...]f the eternal God must be an immor [...]l Creature. What Image of the [...]ing Being were a short liv'd, perishing [Page]Nature? as the spirit of a Beast that goes entirely out into Air, and downward to Earth. He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. The living only are meet to be call'd the Offspring of God. But then too — Immortal, living Spirits must needs be in their original State the high Offspring of God. These are each of them as the Children of the King Eternal: they bear a high Image and Resemblance of his Immortality. This is a high Honour and Glory, wherein Man is at last not a whit below the Angels, those Sons of God. They both inherit Glory. Honour & Immortality: [...]e eternal Life.

AND so much for the fi [...]st Reason why we are called the Offspring of God; namely, Because made in the Image and Likeness of God.

II. WE are the Offspring of God, because eminently and in an [...]a [...]ed sense made for God, for his Serv [...]c [...] and Praise, more tha [...] any other Creatures here on Earth. The Offspring belongs to the Parents; so we among [Page]the Creatures do more immediately to God. We are his more than other Creatures; his Propriety & Peculiar.

Here, 1. IT is true that all things are Created for the Glory and Praise of God. Of Him, and to Him, are all things, Rom. 11.36. For his Glory they are & were. Created, Rev. 4.11. Every Creature of God bears more o [...] less the Stamp & Impress of his Image; of his Wisdom, Power & Goodness; which declare it to belong to God and to be made for his Praise. Job. 12.7. Ask now the Beasts and they shall teach thee, and the Fowls of the Air and they shall tell thee; or speak to the Earth and it shall teach thee, and the Fishes of the Sea shall declare unto thee: Who knoweth not in all these that the Hand of the Lord hath wro't this? in whose Hand is the Soul of every living thing, and the Breath of all Mankind. Go to any Creature of God on Earth and you will see the Perfections of God shining forth in it. These declare it to belong to God and made for his Glory. The Creature does [Page]herein in eff [...] [...]peak to us and say Whose and for what it is [...] and in this sense God is the Father of all things.

2. BUT in a more special Manner and in a higher sense Mankind are made for G [...]d, his Glory, Praise and Service. Of the inferiour Creatures God has said, the Beasts of the Earth shall honour Me; But of Man he adds, Isa. 43.21. This People have I formed for my Self, that they should shew forth my Praise. Man is more peculiarly formed and endowed for God than other Creatures are; as in bearing more of his Image, so to design and act more peculiarly to his Honour, And this I shall show of Man both as to his Soul and Body.

1 THE Soul of Man is gloriously form'd for God; in the following Respects:

1. To know Him; as the Offspring in due time knows the Parent tha [...] nourishes and brings it up. The inferior Creatures can't know or acknowledge their Maker; but we may and must, Job 35.10. Where is G [...]d [...][Page]Maker that teacheth me more than the Beasts of the earth? All the People see his Glory; says the Psalmist. If they will but use their Eyes and look about 'em, and look up, they may do so: they can't help doing it, [...] they will but use the Reason & Understanding that God has given them. The [...]tute Creatures are not made to know God, they are not capable of it, it is too high for them to attain unto: But we are made to know God, that he is, what he is, who he is, and how he will be worshipped, and what his will is; to know him from his Works, and from his Word, and from within our se [...]ves; to know him in part here, and more hereafter. In this we are made meet to be called the Offspring of God.

2. THE Soul of Man is form'd to love God, and design his Glory; propose it and act for it, and herein is meet to be called the Offspring of God. The dumb Creature honours God, but it does not love him. As it does know that he is, so it cannot [Page]design his Honour. But Man that is an Agent by Counsel can and should propose to himself this supream and governing End, to which all things are to be subordinated by him 1 Cor. 10 31. Whether therefore ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do, do al [...] to the Glory of God. How absurd a Precept would this be to the brute Creatures, that eat and drink, but know not who gives them their Grass and Water? But Man the Offspring of God knows and should consider the God that makes the Grass to grow for the Cattle and Herb for the service of Man; that the Rain has a Father who by it brings forth Food out of the Earth. They are the Offspring, that live on the Table of their Father in Heaven, and can acknowledge Him in their daily Bread. The first & great Commandment of God to Man is that, Mat. 22.37. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God. This becomes the Offspring; but the Creatures that can't love, can't be put among the Children. Now to love God is to design his Praise and [Page]Glory, with a supream Regard to his W [...]ll. Knowledge and Love are essentially requisite (i. e. a Capacity for them is so) to denominate an Offspring.

3. THE Soul of Man is made to obey G [...]d, which is the duty of the Offspring, and the Expression of love due from us to God. This is the Love of God that we do his Commandments; do his Will, as Angels (the Offspring above) do. This it is that God says to us and requires of us, — Only obey my Voice. This must be done with all the Understanding, and with all the Soul-Obedience is of the Soul. It must be a reasonable and free service. This is what Man only is capable of on Earth, and therefore he only is the Offspring of God here below.

4. THE Soul of Man is made for Communion with God; as to know him and love him, and design his Glory and act for it; so to be known of God and beloved by Him; and taken [...]nto Fellowship with Him. The Soul [...]an draw nigh to God, and God comes [Page]down into it. The Soul by Faith and Love converses with God in mental Acts of Prayer and Praise, or in oral ones. It can delight it self in the Almighty, and in holy Affections and Desires go forth to God. It can wing away and ascend to Him. And God takes pleasure in the Soul so disposed and exercising it self, and manifests himself unto it as to his own. This is the Priviledge of the Offspring; to stand in the Parents presence, to sit at his feet, to hear his Words and learn of Him; to ask and receive; to be beloved & delighted in; to be takes into the Arms & Bosome, upon their drawing near with Reverence & Confidence. This is the Offsprings Priviledge,— As Children to a Father.

5. THE Soul of Man is made to live with and enjoy God for ever and ever. The Fathers House & Presence is proper to the Offspring and them only. The immediate Servants in the presence of God are all Children. Angels are therefore Sons because they live and serve in the House eternal [Page]in the Heavens, and as Children do the Will and enjoy the Love of God. And so we are the Offspring because made for the same Felicity and Bliss, the same high Dignity and Joy. He that is the Son by an eternal Generation, the Blessed and only Beloved of the Father, has said to redeemed Souls I ascend to my Father and your Father: in my Fathers house are many Mansions. In Heaven the Saints do perfectly know God, perfectly love him, perfectly obey him, and their Communion with God, their Enjoyment of him is perfect; Then & there therefore will it be seen that they are the Offspring of God, and what it is to be so; when they shall shine forth in the Kingd [...]m of their Father, and be with Christ in his Glory.

I need not add as a distinct Head here, That the Soul of man is the Offspring of God because in it God will be glorified for ever. Service and Enjoyment go together, both now and hereafter. So does our Happiness in God and God's Glory from us. [Page]The Offspring of God are growing eternally in the Knowledge of God, in the Love of him, in Obedience to him, in his Praises; to the everlasting Glory of God from them. He has Glory from them, & they Blessedness in him to eternal Ages. He the King of Glory makes his Offspring Kings and Priests to Himself; a Crown, a Kingdom, an everlasting Reign is their high Portion. This, this is the Manifestation of the Sons of God at last: This Man was form'd, endow'd, design'd for in his first Formation; and this the Elect of God are redeemed unto by Jesus Christ and called to by the Gospel.

2. To descend lower, Man in his Body is design'd & form [...]d apparently for God and for his Glory more than all the other Creatures here on earth. As the Body of Man is apparently form'd for Superiority and Dominion over the Creatures here below, so is it also for the Knowledge of God and the Service of God. The heathen Poet could observe this long since, O [...][Page]Homini sublime dedit, Caelumque tueri [...]ssit. The Face & Eyes of Man were [...]or made to look down on the Earth [...]s the Brute Creatures that know no [...]hing more than how to find their [...]ood there; but the erect Form of man's Body bids him survey the Heavens and all the Works of God, and [...]ee his Perfections shining in them, [...]nd observe what they demand from [...]s. Man's Eye was made to read the [...]ook of Nature & of Scripture, what the one and the other speaks of God [...]nd our Duty to Him. Mans Tongue, which is his Glory among the Crea [...]ures, was made to speak of God [...]d to discourse of Him and of [...]is Will, in more familiar and pri [...]ate manner, or in more publick and [...]lemn form. Our Speech is given [...] to speak to God in Prayer and [...]ise & Thanksgiving; to bless and [...]d his Name, alone by our Selves [...]d also in Company; to sing his [...]ises too; to utter the Admiration, [...]e and Devotion of our Souls; yea [...] to call upon our Soul and all that [Page]is within us to admire and love and laud Him. Mans Ear is manifestly made to try Words, receive Knowledge, and Faith which comes by Hearing; to hear from God and of him and of all his Wonders in the Works of Nature & of Grace. Once more, the curious Hand and Fingers of Man are made to write and work for the Honour and Praise of God; as much as the Mind & Tongue to think and speak to his Glory. And again, this Social Nature in Man, which joyns us in Families, in Towns, in Churches, and which brings us together this day to worship is intended firstly and ultimately for the Glory of God; that we may joyn together in Worship, and by Love serve one another; that we may edify one another, excite and animate each other to every thing that is holy and just and good. And finally, As our Souls and Bodies are wonderfully united by the Power of the God of Nature, so he has given us a Power of Self-consecration, that we should present our Selves Soul and [Page]Body a living Sacrifice, holy and acceptable through Christ; that He may be glorified both in our Bodies and Spirits which are his.

MAN only is capable of all this, which I have but hinted at; & therefore he only among the Creatures here below is meet to be called the Offspring of God. He has a he [...]ven b [...]rn Soul to know and admire and love and [...]huse and obey God and enj [...]y Him for ever. He is an immortal Soul that can be happy in nothing below God A [...]d he only has a Body formed for religious Purposes; to see the Glo [...]y of God in the Universe, to see it by [...]elliscopes & by Microscopes in things [...]o minute or distant for the naked [...]ye to re [...]ch. He only has a Tongue [...] speak, an Eye to lift up an Far to [...]eat, as well as a Heart to understand. [...] o [...]ly has a Hand to wri [...]e, or Hands [...] lift up i [...] God's Name, & K [...]ees to [...] bef [...]re Him. He only is form'd [...] W [...]sh [...]p in Mind and in B [...]dy; [...] this is [...]is Honour and P [...]e [...]oga [...]e among the Creatures that He is [Page]the Offspring and they God's Works; God is his Father and their Maker.

Sermon IV.

ACTS XVII. 28.

For We are also His Offspring.

III. MANKIND are peculiarly treated by the great God as his Offspring. The special Providence and Grace of God to Man shows that he is His Offspring.

AND this is indeed the Argument in my Context: For in Him we live and move and have our Being: He is not far from every one of us: He determines our T [...]mes and the B [...]unds o [...] every ones Habitation: He giveth to [...] Life and Breath and all things: — Upon and from all which the Con [...] sion [Page]is — We are his Offspring. Which is to say, God in his all-disposing, all-governing Providence, carries it toward us and orders what concerns us as a Father to his Offspring. And herein he acknowledges us to be so. — My Context will not allow me to [...]mit this Argument; The most High God treats us as his Offspring; and therein owns and declares us to be so. But I will make this Advantage too of the Apostles Reasoning, which he also leads me to do in the Verses following my Text; to step from the Kingdom of Providence into the Kingdom of Grace. I say then,

1. GOD peculiarly treats us as his Offspring here below in the daily Sustentation granted us and Provision made for us in the Course of his Providence.

2. IN his Redeeming Love and Mer [...] shewn to us through Iesus Christ. [...]. WE are peculiarly treated by [...]od as his Offspring in the daily Sustentation granted us, and Provision made [...]r us in his fatherly Providence. In [Page]this God acknowledges us yet to be his Offspring, because he cares and does for us as such.

And 1. IN his daily sustentation of us. As P [...]rents would if they could sustain and preserve their Offspring. They do all that they can for that end; they watch and rend and minister to them: But He in whom we live and move and have our Being, He that gives to us & ours life & breath and all things, (as our Context has it) his Offspring we are. He is our great and high Parent in Heaven.

WE have a necessary and constant Dependance on God, more than the Offspring has on the Parent; for our Life and Breath and Being is from the continued Concourse of his Providence.

BY him We and all things consist. Every moment we are upheld by the Word of his Power. He pr [...]eth Man and Beast. In his Hand is the Soul of every living thing, & the Breath of all Mankind; and his are all our Ways.

[Page] THIS rises vastly beyond the Kindness & Offices of [...] Father to his Offspring Psal 22.10. I was cast upon Thee from the Womb, thou art my God from my Mothers bowels, Isa. 38.16. By this Man lives, and herein is th [...] life our Spirits.

2. GOD treats us as his Offspring in the daily Provisions of his Providence. He feeds and supplies us, as well as upholds us. The Parents Arms take up and embrace the Offspring, and their Hands feed them. So we live on the Table of the Divine Providence, and have and are bid to ask of God our daily bread, as Children live upon the Care and Provision of their Parents. God has s [...]d us all our Life time unto this day. He [...]loathes us also and gives us all Things [...]ichly to enjoy. He has forbid us to [...]ake Tho't for our selves, what we shall [...], &c. He adds, — Because Your [...]venly Father knoweth that ye have [...]d of th [...]se things God as a Father to [...] takes knowledge of our Wams from [...]y to day and provides for us. We [Page]are a f [...]eble Offspring that can't supply our selves without Him. Gen. 28.20 If God will be with me in the way wherein I go and give me bread &c. What Iob says of himself toward the poor and destitute, we must every one of us confess to the Glory of God; from our Youth & from our Mothers womb, He has brought us up as a Father. — Thus we are peculiarly treated by God as his Offspring, in the daily Sustentation granted & Provision made for us.

BUT you will say, In this respect every Creature of God shares al [...]ke in his fatherly Care: for he upholdeth all thin [...]s by the Word of his Power, and preserve [...]h not Man only but the Beasts also, and giveth to them their Food: All Eyes wait on Him and he give [...]h them their Meat in du [...]season.

I answer, True; Behold the F [...]wls of th [...] Air, your heavenly F [...]th [...]r seed [...]h them, Mat. 6 26. What the [...]? as i [...] follow, — Are ye not much better than th [...] in his sight? And is not his tende [...] [Page]care much more for you? His care of them is for your sake. He feeds them to feed you of them. He gives them to you for Food In like manner, He makes the Grass to grow for the Cattle; but the Herbs and Flocks themselves are his Provision for your Tables; O Children of Men! that bear his Image, and to whom he has given the Earth and all things in it. Do you not see the rich Farmer look carefully to the state of his Flocks, and provide Food for them with like care as he does Bread for his Family? but the Care is at last for the Family who who live on the Fat of the Flock, and are cloth'd with the Wool of it. So God upholds the inferior Creatures in their life, and feeds them daily; not because they are his Offspring; no, but that his Offspring should feed and live upon them. So in the day of Noah, when the Flo [...]d came God preserv'd in the Ark some of every Beast [...]nd of all Fowls as well as the Family of Noah. But was his Care theirfore for the one like that which he [Page]express'd for the Other? No, not at all: For as soon as the Flood was over, and Noah was out of the A [...]k, God delivered all those Creatures again into the hand of Noah, and put the Fear of Man upon them, and give him every moving T [...]ing that liveth to be Meat for him, even as the green Herb. So then, Noah and his Sons were declared to be the Offspring, and not the preserved inferior Creatures, who are only the rich Variety of Provision for the Childrens table.

II. WE are more especially cared for and treated as the Offspring of God, in what God has done for our Redemption and Salvation by Jesus Christ. We were in our Original State the Children of God even as the Angels: Like them Man was created in the Image of God and in his Love, holy and obedient as they are. But by our Sin and Fall we cast our selves out of this blessed State and Relation: We lost the Image of God, and are Alienated from God, turn [...]d Enemies and Rebels to him. We lost the Disposition [Page]of Children, became Children of Disobedience, and so Children of Wrath: We are d [...]sinherited by our heavenly Father whom we rejected, and by fin we are of our Father the devil to whom we revolred and sold our selves. Yet God, the Father of Merc [...]es, did in an Eternal Council decree the Recovery of a Remnant of the apostare Children of Men into the glorious State, Liberty & Privibedges of Children to God. To which End the Only begotten and Beloved of the Father took our Nature, from the everlasting and infinite delight he had in his Fathers Glory and our eternal Salvation. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be again the Sons of God! The Son of the Highest, God blessed for [...]e [...]more, took not the Nature of Angels, [...] restore those once Sons of the Morning into the Dignity and Seats of Children from which they had fallen; [...]t the Elect Children are taken from [...]nong the si [...]ful Sons and Dau'ters [...] Men. And because the Children are [Page]partakers of Flesh and Blond, He also himself took part of the same, that he might call us Brethren: Heb. 2.14. He became the Seed of the Woman whom the devil had beguiled, and was made under the Law, was made Sin, suffered the Curse for us, yet we might become the Sons of God and Heirs of Heaven. Gal. 4.4. But when the fulness of Time was come, God sent forth his Son made of a Woman, made under the law. In short, the whole Design and glorious Effect of the Incarnation and Death of the Son of God is this, his bringing many Sons to Glory; a numerous Election of Grace given him by the Father. As it is written, 2 Cor. 6.18. I will be a Father to you, and ye shall be my Sons and Daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

THUS all the Elect in Christ, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, are from the days of Eternity chosen and fredestinated unto this Dignity & [...]dery, to become the Children of God. And in time they receive Power to be so, by an effectual [Page]Vocation: As we read Joh. 1.12. As many as received him (i. e. Christ, by beleiving on his Name, & submitting to Him in the Offices of a Saviour, on the terms of the Gospel) to them gave be power to become the Sons of God.

THERE is a glorious Adoption in Jesus Christ, for some of the Children of fallen Man, whereby they are again made the Children of God. This Name is put upon the visible Seed, the Children of the Covenant: The Name of the Father and of the Son is put upon us in Baptism; and to the Visible Church belongs the Adoption and the Covenant: (I am a Father to Israel, and out of Egypt have I called my Son.) But the Thing really helongs to all the Children of the Promise, who are counted for the Seed; being made the Children of God by a new Birth by a blessed Regeneration; born again, born from Above, born of God; receiving of [...]im a new Heart and Nature, the ho [...]y Dispositions of Children to God: [...]m. 1.18 Of his own Will begat beaus [...] the Word of Truth. Of such & [...] [Page]such it is that the Apostle John says, 1 Joh. 3.2. Behold, now we are the Sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be.

FVERY Believer in Christ has Acces unto God as his Father. Because ye are Sons God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into year Hearts, crying, Abba Father. i. e enabling you to go to God in Prayer with the Freedom and Confidence of Children to a Father. They have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blo [...]d of Jesus, with a true heart in the full assurance of Faith They have an Assurance of a Fathers Heart and Ear and Care for them in God; and they have the sense and feeling of the hearts of Children in themselves toward Him. Mat 7 9 What Man is there whom if his Son ask Bread will give him a Stone? if ye then b [...]ng evil know how to give good Gists to your Children, shall not your heavenly Father give his holy Spirit to them that ask Him?

AND truly the Care of God for Believers in Christ, is the special Care [Page]of a Father for his Children, both on temporal Accounts and also on spiritual. As a Father pitieth his Children so the Lord pities them that sear him. And as a Father cares for his Offspring, so these are assured that God cares for them, and are required to cast all their Care upon him. As a Father chastens his Son whom he loves, so the Lord their God chastens them; [...]nd the Exhortation speaketh to them as unto Children; My Son despise not thou, nor saint. Who ever do, don't You: You will find the fatherly Kindness and Love of God constant to you [...]o their dying day, and thro' Death: As Parents change not in their love to their Children, but their Te [...]derness for 'em increases if they see 'em ready [...] die. The Believer may breathe [...]ut his Spirit into the hands of Grace [...]s Christ did his, — Father, into thy [...]nd. And after Death the Saint [...]es to the Inheritance of Children, in [...]bt above. He goes to the Presence [...] God, to his House eternal in the [...]avens, to his Table, to the Company [Page]of Angels, the Elder Brethren: He goes to be with Christ, to inherit Everlasting Glory in his Right; who as He was going to his Cross said — In my Fathers House are many Mansions, I go to prepare a Place for you; and when he was to be taken up said —, I ascend to my Father and your Father. Upon all then we must conclude and say of all Believers in Christ, in the Words of the beloved Apostle, — Behold, now ye are the Sons of God and it doth not appear what we shall be But this we know, that He that fitteth upon the Throne on high will ever treat them as his high Children; he will array them in Robes of Glory he will possess them of the eternal Kingdom; he will for Christ's sake say of them as he did of Him, that in them his Soul is ever well pleased: they shall be ever dear to him, and blessed in him; and shall rejoice in his Love, and love him with the Ardor of Children and Seraphims, and do his Will as the Angels do for ever.

[Page] AND this is the last and utmost Proof, that We among the Creatures below are the Offspring of God; because fallen as we are from God there is an Elect Number that are adopted in Christ, and made the Children of God by Regeneration, who are treated by him already as becomes the Name and Relation, and shall be so for ever hereafter in the most glorious manner.

USE. I come now to the Im [...] ment and Use of the Doctrine, An [...] in the first place,

1. ARE we the Offspring of God? We learn then what God is. There is no like Looking glass in Nature wherein we may see the Image and Face of God, like our own Souls. The Image of God is within us. Look in then and see what thy own Soul is; Consider its Spiritual Nature, its Understanding and Knowledge & Power of thinking; its Freedom and Will and Affections; its Self consciousness, and immortal Nature: And then from [Page]the Effect argue to the Cause, what God is: He that made Me this Soul must be a glorious, immense & eternal Spirit: He that teacheth Man Knowledge shall not be know? Yes, He must be perfect in Knowledge, his Understanding is infinite, He is the Only wise! And he must be most Good and Holy; For it is very plain to us that he made us with these Affections and with this Conscience under a holy Rule, a Law of Rectitude: From which we must [...] [...]arily again infer, that He is our Sovereign, Lawgiver and Judge. — Well therefore has One said on my Text, ‘That the Soul of Man considered in its three noble Faculties of Understanding Will and active Power, is the clearest Glass we have wherein to see God; and whereby to form our Conceptions of his Spirituality Knowledge, Rectitude; that he is a Mind & Spirit m [...]st holy, wise and good.’

2. ARE we the Offspring of God [...] we see the Folly and Absurdity of the Idolatries which have been common [Page]in the World, in the Worship of Images, The Apostle means my Text as a plain and direct Argument against this Impiety. He saw the City of Athens given wholly to Idolatry, & his Spirit was moved within him at the Stupidity of the learned and polite City; as they valued themselves and were esteemed of by others; and in a holy Fervour and zeal of Spirit, he tries to convince them of their barbarous Superstition and ignorant Worship. He asks them whether the Mak [...] [...] Lord of the Universe could be [...]pr [...] sented by a lifeless Idol, set up in temple, there to stand a stock, without Sense or Motion? He asks 'em, If they could think that an Image made with Mens hands could be any Representative of the living One, that giveth unto all Life and Breath and all things? Their own Life & Breath [...]ight convince them that an Idol was [...]hing, for it had not so much as any [...]fe or breath in it. He bids them [...]ok over all the Nations of Men welling on all the face of the Earth, [Page]whom the Creator has made of one Blood; and then put it to themselves whether the Father of so many immortal Spirits can be fitly represented by an Image of wood or stone, of sil-and gold? He tells them that the Soul of Man was made to seek God and find Him of it self and in it self; and that indeed God is not far from every one of us, but is always present with and to a devout Mind that de [...]i [...]es to know and worship Him. He [...]er the nearer for an Image set before us; That does not at all represent Him who is always and every where present. Yea says the Apostle, We live and move & have our Being in him, & are an Immortal Offspring of this Eternal Spirit; and can we be so absurd at last as to think that the God head is like unto Silver and Gold, or Stone graven by art and mans device? Unworthy to be called Men are they that can think so. Why has God made us Souls, if we represent him by things Corporeal? we forfeit ou [...] Souls and Reason, we forget & deba [...] [Page]our selves in acting thus. A Son honoureth his Father, and shall the immortal Offspring so dishonour the Father of their Spirits? He made them living Souls, and shall they make Him a dead, dumb and deaf Idol? that can neither see, nor speak, nor move? Shall Man change the Glory of his Maker into that which is so much beneath himself? Yet how often have Mankind done so? and how many Nations upon Earth still do it? Rom. 1.25. Who changed the Truth of God into a lye, and worshipped and served the Creature, more than the Creator. ver. 23. Who professing themselves to be wise become fools; (so did the Men of Athens) and changed the Glory of the Incorruptible God, into an Image made like to corruptible Men; and to Birds and fourfooted Beasts and creeping things.

3. ARE we the Offspring of God? Learn the original and the last Dignity of our Nature. It is the highest Honour that the highest Creatures are [...]apable of, to be called by God his [...]ons, his Children, his Offspring. The [Page] Angels of God have no greater honour, nor can have. They are the First-born, and the Elder Brethren. They were made before us, and but a little above us. We are made a litter lower than they; yet are crowned with the like Honour & Glory that they are; in that we are the Offspring of God as well as they. They have not Bodies as we have; But we are immortal Spirits, and are made for an intellectual Happiness and moral Perfection as well as they. We bear the Image of God and are formed for Him; to know him, and love him, and do his Will, and to enjoy him as well as they: They and we have one Father, one House and Heaven for our everlasting Abode; and one Work and Blessedness for ever: They are Principalities and Thrones in the Heavens, and to Man was given the Dominion here below.

IN a word; We ought ever to keep in mind our Original and high Descent; our Alliance to Heaven; tha [...] we are made for it, are near akin [...] [Page]Angels, and are the Offspring of the same Father. We are not of the Earth earthly, nor to resolve finally into dust, but to return unto God, and be [...]he Heirs of heavenly Glories and Honours, in a blessed Immortality. For nothing less we were first designed, [...]nd unto this we are redeemed by the Blood of Christ and called by the Gospel. We need every day we live [...]o bear this in mind; Who and what we are; not to elate our Selves, yet that we may know and reverence our Selves; and remember our chief End; our Relation and Duty to God.

4. ARE we the Offspring of God [...] let us lay to heart and be deeply affected with our Sin and Misery in our [...]all from Him. We are fallen from God: That the Scripture teaches us, [...]nd how it came to pass; how suddenly & easily it was effected by the [...]vils Malice and Subtlety. We feel [...]ithin ourselves that we are no more [...]orthy to he called the Offspring of we see how little others about worthy of this Honour. The [Page]poor Heathen perceiv'd this but could give no account of it, knew not what to think or say of it, or how to act. But God has revealed to us how it came about, and what we now are, through the Fall of our first Parents.

LET us consider,

1. The Sin, and

2. The Effects of it.

1. THE Sin. By one (the first) Mans Disobedience we all are made sinners. "We sinned in him and fell with him in his first Transgression". But O the horrid Nature of that first Sin! the unnatural Rebellion in it against God, and Revolt from him! Hear C Heavens and give ear O Earth! the Offspring of God, just formed in his Image and inclined for his Glory and provided for as a Son; plac'd in a Paradise, visited & bless'd & taught and commanded by his Maker; immediately rebelled against Him, flew in the Face of his high Parent, renounced Him and denied him Faith, Love, Fear, Honour, Worship and Obedience! What Impudence! Ingratitude! — the Aggravatio [Page]that the Offspring could treat the Parent with such Indignity!

2. THE miserable Effects of this first Sin were a very dreadful but righteous Punishment of it. And here we might consider how the holy Image of God upon the Soul of Man, the Crown where with his Maker had crowned him in the day wherein he had created him, was vilely thrown away, as if the Holy One had never so anointed him: — The Relation [...]o God as Son and an Offspring was utterly forfeited; the Disposition of Children was entirely lost: Of a Son the Creature Man was become an Enemy, an impotent Rebel; and his Posterity in his loins, to be hereafter begotten in his Likeness (for who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?) were of necessity and in the course of Nature Children of wrath, shapen in Iniquity, conceived & born in sin; odious to the Holiness and obnoxious to the Justice of God, and condemned already. ‘Thus all Mankind by the fall lost Communion with God, are under [Page]his Wrath and Curse, and so mad [...] liable to all Miseries in this life to Death it self and to the pains o [...] Hell for ever.’

INTO this state of Sin and Misery is Man fallen, who was at first a So [...] of God, and among whom God ye [...] has many Children, whom he wi [...] bring to Glory. The Dishonour an [...] Offence, Injury and Grief has been great to God; and so is the Guilt an [...] Misery to [...]. O let us lay both [...] heart, and mourn before the Lord an [...] weep for our selves! Our Bodies ar [...] sunk among the beasts, and become vile, sensual and mortal: Our Soul are sunk down into the number of u [...] clean Spirits; we are naturally [...] our father the devil in respect of spiritual Lusts and Impurities; we be [...] his Image & do his Works; are pro [...] to what is evil and averss to what [...] good and holy! Alas! whither are [...] fallen! what are we become! to who [...] are we like! and what is like to b [...] come of us for ever? — We have destroyed our selves and we all peri [...] [Page]Well did the Lord God say to the [...]man, What is this that thou hast done? [...]d well might they hide themselves [...] Shame & Fear from God; for they [...] themselves naked and miserable, [...]d their hearts smore 'em for their [...]ilt.— In short, We were made the [...]spring of God—, think then what [...] have done, and what we are be [...]e, by our Fall from Him!

— But

[...]. ARE we the Offspring of God? [...]re is a worthy Reason why Christ has [...]e so much for our Redemption. In [...]d it was the Misery of the Crea [...]e made it the Object of redeeming [...]rcy; but if the Creature had not [...]n of such a Dignity it had not been [...]eemed. Nor yet was it for the [...]gnity of the Creature meerly that [...]eeming Mercy was shown to Man; [...] by the Dignity of Nature the fal [...] Angels would have claim'd before

[...]. The free Grace of God, with [...]ite Wisdom, pitch'd upon the Ob [...] of misery; and chose one fallen [Page]Nature and not the other, and some of one only and not all. God saw Man his Offspring perishing, and sent his Son into the World, in the Nature of Man, to save him. If Man had not been a Son by nature, the Son of God would not have left the Fathers Bosome, come down and died to save him. Though the Dignity of Mans nature could not deserve this, yet it recommended him unto so great a Favour. Each Soul of Men is unspeakably precious, and therefore was this inestimable Price given for Our Redemption. 1 Pet. 1.18. For ye are not redeemed with corruptible things as Silver and Gold, but with the precious Blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish, and without spot. Had Man been a corruptible thing, he might have been redeemed with some corruptible Price: But being a Soul, made in the likeness of the Incorruptible God, and for his Everlasting Glo [...] and Love, therefore this incorruptibl [...] Price was given for his Ransom, eve [...] [Page]the Life of the dear and Only-begotten Son.

BESIDES, the Offspring elected unto Salvation, are a vast number of these precious Souls; and the Salvation to be procured for them was from spiritual & eternal Miseries, unto infinite and eternal Glories. They were to be redeemed to God from the Earth (from Sin and Hell, to heavenly Holiness & Glory) out of every Kindred and People and Tongue, through every Age of the World. These are an exceeding great number. If the Redeem [...]d had not been Such and so Many, [...]uch a Redeemer had not been raised up.

THE Harmony of our Redemption by Christ very much lies in this, that He is the Son and we belong to the Offspring. The lost Children were Par [...]akers of Flesh and Blood, and the Word [...]as made Flesh (God was manifested in [...]e Flesh) to save 'em.

THE Son of God bears a special Re [...]at [...]on to all the Offspring of God; for [Page]by Him God formed them. Why then did he pass by the Angels that sinned, and take the Humane Nature? We know not why; Unless we might say —that the sinning Angels were the Original of Sin, and sinned even in Heaven, and the whole Nature of Angels were not lost, and they ruin'd the whole Offspring of God on Earth; and therefore the Mercies of God are denied them and offer'd to us.

THE Redemption being of a fallen Offspring, to make them again Children; to restore them again into the Liberty of the Sons of God; the eternal Son himself became the Redeemer. The Only begotten Son bears and brings these [...]ons to God: Behold I (says He to the Father) and my Children, which are all thine: And to Us he says, My Father is your Father; in my Right you are Children. Our Adoption is in Christ the Son: He gives the Power to us to become the Sons of God.

HERE then is a worthy Reason wh [...] Christ has done so much for our Redemption; He is the eternal Son [...]nd [Page]we among the created Offspring; and He by the Travel of his Soul sees a glorious Number of a lost Offspring restored into the Relation, Dispositions, Priviledge & Inheritance of the Children of God.

6. ARE we the Offspring of God? see how the Grace of God by Jesus Christ, as revealed in the Gospel; agrees both to the Original and lapsed State of Man as it is given us by Moses. There is an admirable Harmony between the Two Testaments, the Old and New; And they give in a marvellous Light, and bear a strong Testimony, the one to the other. As in the Instance before us:

1. THE redeeming Mercy of God by Christ admirably agrees to the Doctrine of mans Original State; that he was made in the Likeness of God, and in his Love, and perfectly good & happy, and in short a Son of God. For what is it that Christ by the Gospel proposes, but to recover us into the Favour and Grace of God; and into the Relation, D [...]gnity and Priviledges [Page]of Children to God. For the whole Design and Scope of the Gospel is to make us again the Children of God. This it proposes to us, the Way to this it reveals to us, and in its saving Efficacy this it produces in us and for us. It reveals to us a gracious Adoption in Christ, a blessed Way for our Reconciliation to God, by a blessed Regeneration and Renovation passing on us. It tells us of our being born again, renewed after the Image of God in Knowledge and Holiness; it shews and teaches the Spirit and Disposition of Children which God is ready to restore in us. It would beget in us the Love of Children to God, & bring us into the ready Obedience of Children; and it would bring us into the Communion of Children with God; to be known of God, and lov'd by him; to converse with him, hear his voice, speak to him, walk before him, & live with him for ever and ever. — Thus on the one hand the Doctrines of Gospel Grace agree unto the Account given [Page]us of the Original State of Man; that he was made a Son in the Image and Love of God.

2. IT agrees also to the Account given us of Mans Fall and of his lapsed State; in being a Doctrine & Precept of Repentance.

FOR if Man be the Offspring of God, and be fallen from God, it must needs be that the way of his Recovery and Return to God be by an ingenuous and deep Repentance: And if God be a Father to Man by Nature, as his Creator, and he will please to become his Father again by Grace after his Sin and Fall, we may be assured then of the Sinning Creatures Reception and Pardon upon his Repentance. And accordingly the Gospel addresses unto lapsed Man.

1. IT invites and calls him to Repentance. And 2. It assures him of Gods Pardoning Mercy upon his Repentance. A Penitential Return to God is the least that can be enjoyned on the Sinning Offspring; and the Repentance [Page]which the Gospel requires is a filial Repentance, such as becomes Children to an offended Father: A filial Fear and Shame and Sorrow. So our Lord Jesus has represented it in the Parable of the Prodigal; Luk. 15 The Sinner is a Son that has left the House of a tender and loving Father, and acted shamefully to his great Offence and Dishonour; yet at last pinch'd with his Needs and with the Sense of his miserable and lost Condition, he bethinks himself of his Sin and Folly, and resolves to arise and go to his Father, confess his Fault and beg Forgiveness and cast himself upon his Pity: — I will say unto Him, Father I have sinned against Heaven and Thee. You see then that Evangelical Repentance is the Holy Sorrow of a fallen Offspring in a penitential Return to an offended God and Father. — And it must be added, The Gospel assures the Penitent of such a Reception from God as an offending Child may look for from a Father upon his Repentance. God pardons like a Father, freely, [Page]fully and for ever; and most tenderly and affectionately. So the Parable represents the Prodigals Reception; While he was yet a great way off the Father saw him, and ran, and sell on his [...]eck and kissed him. And all the Answer to his hun [...]le Confession and Petition is the Fathers saying to the Servants, Bring forth the best Robe and put it on him, and put a Ring on his hand; And bring hither the fatted C [...], and kill it, and let us eat and be merry. So the tender fatherly Compassions of God are also represented upon the Repentance of sinning Ephraim: Jer. 31.20. Is he a dear Son? is he a pleasant Child?

UPON all then we see the Harmony of the Doctrines and Laws of Christ, with the Original and lapsed State of Man. Man was at first a holy Offspring, now he is a sinning one; and our Holy Saviour brings him by Repentance back to his Father, into his Heart and Arms again. The Sin of Man is the Sin of a Son against his Father; the Repentance which the [Page]Gospel requires is a-filial Mourning and Return to God Renewing Grace restores us to our Original Dignity and makes us again meet to be called the Offspring of God. — But I come to a seventh Inference.

7. ARE we the Offspring of God? Let us act and behave as becomes this high and worthy Name: Live as the Offspring of God should do. And to be sure that is to say,

1. Negatively, Not as the Beasts here, nor as the Devils below.

2. Positively, live as the Angels do in Heaven & as CHRIST did here on Earth.

1. Negatively. NOT as the Beasts on Earth, nor as the Devils in Hell. The most of Mankind do both. It is sad to say; By Fleshly Lusts, Men live like the Beasts that perish: and by Spiritual Lusts they become like the Devils below But

1. THE Offspring of God may not live like the Beasts of the Earth in fleshly Lusts, and to the Gratification of their Senses. The brute Creatures are not the Offspring of God, wherefore [Page]tho' we have a Body of Flesh like them, yet we must not live to the flesh as they do that know no higher Good. We debase our Selves if we do so; and it might be justly said and done to us as it was to Ne [...]uchadnezzar, Let a Beasts heart be given him, and let him be driven from among Men. Alas! This spiritualiz'd is the Case of all sensual Men, that live in Drunkenness and Lasciviousness and the like fleshly Lusts: And it is verified also in the earthly and worldly Heart that seeks its Portion in Riches, Honours or Pleasures here on Earth: The Person forgets that he is a Soul made in the Image of God, and for superior and eternal things. Psal. 49.20. Man that is in Honour and understandeth not, is like the beast that perishes.

2. THE Offspring of God must not live like Devils. This were worse [...]et; and yet it is too possible for the Children of Men to act like Incarnate devils. Many of the once glorious Angels of God are by Sin turn'd into [Page]foul & deformed devils. Of the noblest Order of Beings in the Creation of God they are become the basest and most ignoble Creatures. Of the most beauteous and lovely Creatures they are now most odious and ugly, filthy and loathsome. They are unclean Spirits, & spiritual Wickednesses. Our Souls are capable of like spiritual Lusts, Wickedness and Uncleanness. There is in Man on Earth Filthiness both of the Flesh & of the Spirit. 2 Cor. 7.1. As some Sins render him like a Beast, so other Sins render him like the Devil. So does enmity to God, hatred of Holiness, tempting to Sin; Pride, Hatred, Cruelty, Malice, Revenge, &c. These are Sins of our Spirits, and are the complexion of Hell upon a Soul; They show the Seed of the Serpent and The Children of the wicked one. Joh. 8.44. Ye are of your Father the Devil. Spiteful they were against Christ, Truth and Holiness. Act. 13.10. O full of all Subtlety and Mischief, thou Enemy of all Righteousness, thou child of the devil. [Page]Misecheivous Subtlety and spiteful Enmity shows the Old Serpent all over.

THUS by Sin the once Offspring of God become viler than crawling toods and hissing snakes. — But this Negatively; We are the Offspring of God and must not live like Beasts or Devils.

2. Positively. We must be like the Angels of God in Heaven, and live as the Son of God did here below, and as his Gospel teaches.

1. THE Offspring of God should be and do as the Angels of God are and do in Heaven. We should be knowing and wise as they are: We should be full of Devotion and Worship as they are; We should be meek and lowly like them: We should be kind and benificent as they are; we should be holy Ones as they in Heaven are holy: We must endeavour to obey and do the Will of God here on Earth [...]ey do it above; universally, con [...]ly, delightfully. We should love [...] as they do fervently; we should [...] with holy Zeal for his Glory [Page]and Honour as those Seraphims and Charubims, do; who are Flames of Fire. We should worship and serve God with that profound A we & Reverence which they do; who cover their Faces and cry Holy, Holy, Holy. We should love Them for the Image of God on them, and for their high Place in his Favour, and rejoice in their Felicity and Glory, as they love us and minister most affectionately to the Heirs of Salvation. We should love One Another as they love each other, and love us, desiring our eternal Felicity with them. We should love Them because they are the Offspring of God, and love one another for the same reason; as they do us: Rev. 19. [...]0. I am thy fellow servant, and of thy Brethren that keep the Commandments of God and the Faith of Jesus.

2. THE Offspring of God on earth should be and live as CHRIST the Son of God was and co [...]verss'd here [...] Earth. Angels may learn of Him of Son, who is higher & holier than the They cried before HIM, Holy, holy! [Page]holy! when they saw his Glory. On Earth Men behold his Glory, the Glory as of the Only begotten of the Father. He is the Holy one of God. He was separate from Sin and higher than the Heavens. Higher than Angels in Holiness, more perfect than they in his Obedience. He took our Nature for this End among others, to give a Pattern as well as a Law; how we must walk and please God; live and act as the Children of God. We must receive Him and become the Sons of God; have Him formed in us and shine in the Kingdom of our Father. This makes and declares us Children; Rom. 8.29. Conformed to the Image of his Son, that He may be the First born among many Brethren. How then did CHRIST walk? So let us that we may act up to the Dignity of this Style, the Offspring of God. Let the same Mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus. Let there be that Spirit of Devotion toward God which was in Him; so let is love and honour our Father in Heaven; so let us worship Him; pray to [Page]and praise Him; so let us keep his Sabbaths and observe his Ordinances; so let us trust in Him and resign to him; and so let us obey Him & work the Works of God with diligence and industry; so let us delight to do his Will, and let the Law of God be within us; so let it be our Meat and Drink to do his Will; so let us do no Sin, nor Guile be found in us; so let us be perperfect even as our Father in Heaven is perfect. And so let us carry to One Another, in all Love and Goodness. Meekness and Humility. Beneficence and Mercifulness: so good let us be unto the Evil and unto our personal Enemies; let us pray for and forgive them, and overcome Evil with Good: that we may be the Children of our Father in Heaven.

3. THE Offspring of God must from a Principle of holy Love live in an entire Obedience [...]o the Gospel. Only let your Conversation be as it becometh the Gospel of Christ, & you shall live as becometh Children. Obedience is the Duty, and distinguishing Character of [Page]the Offspring; a filial Obedience, with all the Heart and with all the Soul. The Law is, Children obey your Parents in all things: This is what belongs to the Offspring, to know and do the will of God. Disobelience to or Transgression of the Law of God cuts us off from his fatherly Love, & from the Relation of Children. The Father & Mother were to bring forth the rebel Son in Israel to be stoned. God has doom'd the rebel Offspring to an eternal Death an Everlasting Destruction.

THE Gospel is a Fathers Law, a Law for Children. The Exhortation speaketh to us as unto Children: My Son, attend unto my Wisdom and bo [...]o thine Ear unto my Undeastanding; Hear ye Children the Instruction of a Father, for I give you good Doctrine. It is the royal Law of Love; the perfect Law of Liberty; a Law meet for the King of Heaven to give unto Them whom he has chosen and called to his Kingdom and Glory. Therefore do but observe [...]d keep this Law and you will act [Page]up to the Dignity of [...] Nature; Worthy of God unto all pleasing. John 15.10. Keep my Commandments and abide in my Love as I have kept my Fathers Commandment and abide in his Love.

THUS let us act and behave as becomes the Offspring of God. I might enlarge here on many filial Duties, proper to such.

THE Offspring should love their FATHER with all their Heart & with all their Soul. The Offspring should love One another with a pure heart servently. The Name, and Honour of God should be exceeding dear to his Offspring, and all the Interests of his Glory. We should Pray always and every day give Thanks to God with the Dependance, Reverence, Gratitude and Confidence of Children to a Father; and be always in a Childlike Submission and Subjection to his Will, how ever made known to us, whether by his Precept or by his Providence.

[Page] ALL this, and whatsoever more the Relation of an Offspring infers of Duty from us, is contained in those Words of the Apostle immediately preceeding my Text, That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him and find Him, tho' He be not far [...]rom every one of us.

SURELY it is the Offsprings part to seek and enquire after God, to find the Knowledge of Him and of his Will; how we may please & honour H [...]m, worship and serve him aright, be for Him, and live to him, & come to the everlasting Enjoyment of.

This is the Whole of Man, the End on his Being; his Perfection and Blessedness. As the Offspring are to know and acknowledge their Parent, so are we to seek the Knowledge of God, and render Him all Love, Fear, Reverence and dutiful Observance. — But O wretched and miserable We! if we live in ignorance of God, or alienated from Him, or in Enmity to Him! O what an Off cast and Outvast is that Offspring, that has not the [Page]saving Knowledge of God! A Child that has no part in his Parent, by reason of his undutiful behaviour! What a Cain and Vagabond in the Earth, i [...] this Son of Adam? a Fugitive from God, and driven from his Face! Ah who can bear this Exile and Banishment! whither wilt thou stray from thy Fathers House and Presence Whom wilt thou find to love & serv [...] besides Him? or whose Love & Blessing shall suffice thee instead of His? or what shall make up unto thee the loss thereof? Can any earthly thing [...] for thy Heaven born and immortal Soul? can you live on these busks & feed with these Swine, which you hi [...] out your self to keep? When will you [...]ome to your Self, and say, "Am I not the Offspring of God? am I not a living Soul? made in his Image and formed for his Praise? to know and love & serve Him here and for evermore? How many Myriads o [...] [...]hol [...] Spirits do see his Face in Glo [...]y? [...]ng Whom I should be, a [...] [...] be, [...]o' Grace, for ever [Page] I will arise therefore, and go to my Father; for I also am his Offspring.

THIS becomes the Offspring of God: Bewail thy Fall from Him; seek a Recovery; seek it instantly and earnestly: Thank God for the Gospel of Iesus Christ which calls thee into that blessed State and Relation, from which Sin cast thee. See that you be the Children of God in an Evangelic Sense, by Faith in Christ and by the Spirit of Holiness; adopted in Christ & begotten of God: To which End may He send forth [...] Spirit of his Son into your Hearts: Your Heavenly Father will give his Holy Spirit unto them that ask Him.

I will close all with a Word to the Afflicted Children of God. The fallen Offspring have brought the Rod upon themselves, but God corrects & chastens as a Father. This we are commanded to consider in our Hearts, and it is a most gracious Precept, That as a Man chastens his Son, so the Lord thy God chastens thee. Deut. 8.5. Behold, [Page]Happy then is the Man whom God correctet [...]. A Fathers Heart & Hand is in all the Afflictions of the Children of God. As a Father pitieth his Children, so the Lord pitieth them that [...]o [...]r Him. And in all their Affliction he as affl [...]cted. If n [...]ed be they are in Hea [...]ess; but it is for their Pr [...]fit. It [...] parental Discipline. Though He [...]se Grief yet will he have Comp [...]ssion; & the humbled Sinner is yet a pleasant Child. — If the Offspring is Sick, will not the careful Parent visit him? if he is in Pun, how tenderly does the Parent feel it? if he is naked and needy, will not the Parent send in Supplies and Clothing? O [...] if the Rod is used to subdu [...] [...]quer and reduce [...]he rebel Off [...]ing, how [...] therly and good & [...] is his? Or if the gracious [...] pl [...]se to try, prove, exe [...] and [...]e [...]se the Love, Faith, Trust, Pen [...]ce, Submission and Dev [...] of the beloved Offspring; let th [...]m show Reverence, Silence, Obedience, and be thankful. Surely it is meet to be said unto God, I [Page]have born Chastisement, I will not offend any more; that which I know not teach thou me, and if I have done Iniquity I will do so no more.

LET pious Parents, bereaved of their dearest Offspring, learn to resign them unto God, as His more than theirs: And let pious Children, bereaved of their dearest Parents, go to God as His Offspring, when Father and Mother forsake them: And let the desolate Widow, trusting in God, leave her Fatherless [...] God as the hest of Fathers.

NOW unto GOD an [...]. [...]lory, for ever and ever

ERRATA.

[Page]

Pag. 1. l. ult. r. should. p. 12. l. 19. r. God. [...] l. 10. r. God. p. 55. l. 14. 85. l. 3. r. are also. l. 4. r. speak. [...] p. 97. l. 24. r. three. p. 12 [...]. 126. l. 7. for yet read that p.

Information about this book

Title statement

The duty of young people to give their hearts unto God, because they are his offspring. In four sermons preched to religious societies in School Street, on the evenings of the Lords Day. / By Benjamin Colman, Pastor of a church in Boston. ; [Five lines from Matthew]

Colman, Benjamin, 1673-1747.

Publication

Publisher

Text Creation Partnership,

Place of publication

Ann Arbor, MI :

Date

2011-05.

ID [DLPS]

N02538

ID [TCP]

N02538

ID [STC]

Evans 3010

ID [NOTIS]

APZ0660

ID [IMAGE-SET]

3010

ID [EVANS-CITATION]

99038279

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This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal. The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.

Series

Early American Imprints, 1639-1800 ; no. 3010.

Notes

(Evans-TCP ; no. N02538)

Transcribed from: (Readex Archive of Americana ; Early American Imprints, series I ; image set 3010)

Images scanned from Readex microprint and microform: (Early American imprints. First series ; no. 3010)

Source

— The duty of young people to give their hearts unto God, because they are his offspring. In four sermons preched to religious societies in School Street, on the evenings of the Lords Day. / By Benjamin Colman, Pastor of a church in Boston. ; [Five lines from Matthew], Colman, Benjamin, 1673-1747..

Extent

[2], 2, 163, [1] p. ; 14 cm. (12mo)

Printed for D. Henchman, in Cornhill, and T. Hancock at the Sign of the Bible and Three Crowns near the town-dock.,. Boston: :: [1728]. (Dated on p. 2: Boston March 29, 1728.) (Errata note on p. [164].)

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