N00303:26
The child's portion
The child's portion: or The unseen glory of the children of God, asserted, and proved: together with several other sermons occasionally preached, and now published. / By Samuel Willard teacher of a church in Boston, New-England. ; [Five lines from Psalms]
printed by Samuel Green, 1684
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
1. What is meant by being the Sons of God?
A. The Title of a Son is a title of Relation, and hath a Father for its correlate: God is pleased to assume this Relation to himself, and to acknowledge it between him and his Creatures, that so he may express his love and goodness to them, by such things as may carry, to their conception, the greatest evidence or demonstration; Father and Son among Men are relates standing very near one to another, and have such considerations and respects in them, as very nearly resemble that Covenant relation which there is between God and his People: Hence it is Analogically expressed: the same affections and engagements that Fathers bear to their Sons, the same doth God to his People; the same interest that Children have in their Fathers love and care, the same have Believers in God.
A. The Title of a Son is a title of Relation, and hath a Father for its correlate: God is pleased to assume this Relation to himself, and to acknowledge it between him and his Creatures, that so he may express his love and goodness to them, by such things as may carry, to their conception, the greatest evidence or demonstration; Father and Son among Men are relates standing very near one to another, and have such considerations and respects in them, as very nearly resemble that Covenant relation which there is between God and his People: Hence it is Anologically expressed: the same affections and engagements that Fathers bear to their Sons, the same doth God to his People; the same interest that Children have in their Fathers love and care, the same have Believers in God.
Now among Men persons come to bear the denomination of Sons in two ways; viz. either by natural Generation, or voluntary Adoption. After the former of these ways God hath but one Son, begotten by an eternal and undeclarable Generation: after the latter he hath many Sons, even as many as believe in the Name of Christ,