Book li. GOD METAPHOR. I. EARTHLY Fathers are Mm fubjeet to Pa.lfions, and may fometimes unjuflly harden their Hearts, and prove cruel to their Children. 11. Earthly Parents, though Kings and Potentates, are Men of little Dignity and Grandeur, in Comparifon of the Greatnefs and Glory of the Almighty. Ill. Earthly Fathers may not know the Condition of their re– mote Children, or may be unable to help them in Straits, &c. or fend feafonable Supplies. IV. Earthly Parents may be in a Moment made poor, and their Children brought t'o Beggary; or by giving may impoverijb them– felves. V. Earthly Parents (though they inftrufl their Children, yet) cannot convert the Heart. A FATHER. 22(} D IS PAR IT Y. I. 0 UR heavenly Father is God, and not Mmt, and therefore doth whatfoever is good and right; never wronging any of his Children: lit Righteoujitefs h41 thou fljjl.ifled nze, Jer. xxxi. 3· Il. But our heavenly Father has no Superior in Qt!ality, nor Equal in Dignity: His Majdl:y is infinite, and his Glory unjpeakable; ten thoufand Times ten thoufand, and thoufands of thoufands of Angels wait upon bis 'I'hrone, Rev. v. rr. the lea!l: of which excels all rhe Kings of the Earth. Ill. God knows all the Wants of his Children, in what Place or Condition foever they are in, and can give them fufficient, fuitable, and feafon" able Relief, though the Powers of Hell and wick– ed Men lhould be fet againft them, Phi!. iv. rg. !fa. xlix. 8. IV. God can never be made poor, nor is his Store the lefs for Dijlribution-his fpiritual Chil– dren are beyond all Po.lfibility of Want, lfa. liv. rCJ. Pfal. xxxiv. 8, 9, ro. V. God fpeaks to the Heart and faftens his Word as a Nail in a Jure Place, Hof. ii. '4· He makes the H<art of Stone to be a Heart of Flejh, Ezek. xxxvi. 26. Heffieaksthe Word ofGrace to them, and gives them the Grace of the Word, Jer. xxiv. 7· VI. An Earthly Parent cannot VI. God makes every one of his Children joiltt fo ·give his Eftate, as that all his Heirs of the eternal hheritance; and yet it is fo, Children (colleCtively confidered) that every one hath the whole Propriety, they !hall may poffefs all, and yer every one all po.ffels a Crown and Kingdom of joy and Glory poffefs the whole, as if no other jointly, 2 'I'im. iv. 8. Rom. viii. 17. and yet fo that had a !hare in it. every' one !hall have it wholly to himfelf; a whole God to himfelf, Pfal. lxxiii. 26. Lam. iii. 23. a whole Chrift to himfelf, a whole Heaven to himfelf, every one has God f01 his Portion particularly, and Chrift for a Hufband, and yet all of them jointly do enjoy them together. VU. Fathers are mortal, they VII. God is immortal, from e·verlafting to everare Children of Yefterday, they pafs lafting; he is called the living Father, the Father away, and leave their Children of Eternity, and fo incapable of any Change: he Fatherlef,, is a Spirit, and the Father of Spirits and Life. VIII. The bell: of Fathers, are VIII. But God is a perfeCt Pattern to all his no perfeCt Examples or Patterns of Children; thole PerfeCtions and Excellencies of Goodnefs, for their Children may the Divine Being that are communicable are fet be– not only equal, but excel them. fore us for our Imitation, and though we lhould do our bell: to be as like him as we can, yet when we have done all, and gone ., high as we are capable to go by the Affiftance of Grace, we !hall notwithftanding infinitely falllhort of that perfeCt Copy. C 0 R 0 L L A R I E S. I. FROM the foregoing Parallels we may infer, that Believen (as fuch) are of the . moft glorious and illuftrious ExtraflioR in the World; for the Almighty God is thetr Father. 2. That this JPiritual Sonjhip is the greateft and chiefeft of Blejjings and Privileges, becaufe It gives a Title to an everlafting Kinadom in Heaven. 3· That Saints jhould be encouraged agafnjt Doubts, Dcjeflion, and Dejponde)zcy in Ajjl.iflion, becaufe their Father has provided fo glorious an.Eitate in Reverfion for them, and whrch they lhalllhortly poffefs. 3 N 4· That
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