A practical exposition of the Lord's-Prayer

4. You will see it was a very great Privilege, if you consider how we come to be entitled to it. Ephes. 1. 5. Having predestinated us unto the Adoption of Children, by Jesus Christ, to himself: We come to it in and by Jesus Christ. Christ was ⟨p. 86⟩fain to come down, and to take a Mother upon Earth, that we might have a Father in Heaven. He comes down, and was made a Man; he became our Brother, and so layeth the Foundation for the Kindred. Heb. 2. 11. Nay, not only incarnate, but he died, to purchase this Title for us. When the Business was debated in the Council of the Trinity, how lost Man might be restored in Blood, and have a Right and Interest in God; and when Justice put in Exceptions against us, Jesus Christ was content to be made under the Law, that we might receive the Adoption of Sons. Gal. 4. 4, 5. There could be no Reconciliation, no Amity, no Alliance, until Sin was expiated, and Justice satisfied: therefore Christ was not only made of a Woman, but made under the Law; first, our Brother by Incarnation, and then our Redeemer by his Death and Suffering. As under the Law, if a Man had waxen poor, the next of Kin was to be his Redeemer; Levit. 25. 25. Or if he had sold himself, v. 47. one of his Brethren was to redeem him. Christians, there was a kind of Sale and Forfeiture, on our part, of the Inheritance, and Right and Title of Children; therefore Jesus Christ, when he became a Man, jure propinquitatis, by virtue of his Kindred, and Nearness to us, came to redeem his People, and purchase us to God. And this is the Relation which is mainly intended in this place; for mark, Christ taught his Disciples to pray, Our Father; others, they cannot speak of this Relation; and in them all that believe, and all that walk in the Spirit, these alone can come to God as a Father.

4. You will see it was a very great Privilege, if you consider how we come to be entitled to it. Ephes. 1. 5. Having predestinated us unto the Adoption of Children, by Iesus Christ, to himself: We come to it in and by Jesus Christ. Christ was