The child's portion, or, The unseen glory of the children of God asserted and…

And it doth not yet appear what we shall be.

Our Apostle having thus encouraged those unto whom he writes, to constancy in their Faith, and to stand it out in opposition unto Antichrist, and all the seductions of such as would pervert them, and that by the consideration of their sonship, and the Glorious dignity of it, and laboured to persuade them in the belief of the verity of it, by a bold and confident conclusion, asserting it to be so; In these and the remaining words of the Vers. he obviates an• objection, which the Children of God may be […] ⟨p. 56⟩ready, in an hour of Temptation, to raise, viz. If we are Sons, as you say we be, how comes it to pass then that we are so treated in the world, and that God seems to take so little care of us? that our outward condition here is not better, but rather much worse, than the condition of other men? We are persecuted, reviled, trodden upon, and our spiritual condition also is full of trouble and Temptation, as if God did not regard us at all: We are outwardly mean and sorrowful, and inwardly molested; and is this the way in which God is wont to treat his Children? If we are his Sons, he seems to deal better with his enemies than with his Sons: Thus we find Asaph was once tempted, Psal. 73. Thus Rebeckah, when the Children struggled in her womb, was ready to say, If the Lord be with me, why is it thus? That he may either prevent or remove this difficulty, the Apostle lays down two conclusions.

Our Apostle having thus encouraged those unto whom he writes, to constancy in their Faith, and to stand it out in opposition unto Antichrist, and all the seductions of such as would pervert them, and that by the consideration of their sonship, and the Glorious dignity of it, and laboured to perswade them in the belief of the verity of it, by a bold and confident conclusion, asserting it to be so; In these and the remaining words of the Vers. he obviates an• objection, which the Children of God may be