A heavenly conference between Christ and Mary after His resurrection. Wherein the intimate familiarity,…

1. But we must know, that every one cannot say, my Father; for there are a company of men in the world, that may say in some respects, our Father; but in other respects they cannot. As ⟨p. 125⟩our Saviour Christ saith peremptorily, John 8. 44. You be of your Father the Devil. They bragged of God their Father, and they were of their Father the Devil. Therefore consider who is fit to take this name into their mouths. My Father, mark the disposition of the Scribes and Pharisees, and then you shall see who be fit to brag of God as their Father. They be very formal men, look to their outward devotion, who so devout as they? They studied it; but what were they ¹for the inside? they were malicious men, they were satanical men, men opposite to the power of Religion, arrant Hypocrites, painted Sepulchres. It is no matter for Complement, or formality, an Hypocrite may have much of that in the eyes of the world, yet may be a Child of the Devil for all that, and a Pharisee for all that. Thou mayest be malicious against the truth, as the Pharisees sought Christs blood. A man may be like Herod, seeking the blood of Christ in his Members, persecuting Christ, as all cruel men do. They seek to devour Christ in his professors, what they ⟨p. 126⟩can, they disparage and dishearten them, they are enemies to the power of Religion, and to the Ordinances of God; they be the Children of the Devil, and therefore have no reason at all to brag, that God is their Father. Indeed an inward bitter disposition against the power of Religion, though under any formality, is a Character of a satanical spirit, & such cannot say, Our Father; If they do, it is an usurpation; for their true Father is the Devil •. Who then can say our Father? those that by the spirit of the Father, ²and the Son, by the Holy Ghost, are engrafted into Christ, by a spirit of adoption, and have the stamp of the Father upon them. The likeness of the Father, and of Christ, whom God begets to his own likeness, that are (in a word) like Christ. Christ is the first Son, and in him, and for his sake, we are Sons. He is the natural Son, and they may say our Father, that labour to express the disposition of Christ, who is the first Son. See this disposition of Christ in the Gospel,