not thy fancy and nature so well, is yet thy child; and it may be God's child too. God, peradventure, loves him for thy sake, and wilt not thou love him for God's sake? Such as come not of godly parents and yet are godly themselves, and are parents, may be the foundation of a noble family. The first of their house, the first stone of a building to God. DUTY OF THE CHURCH. The churches of God ought to receive with special love and rejoicing, such of their members' children as prove godly. They are not strangers, but born in the house; the families of church members are our nurseries, and what a comfort is it to have the church replenished with scions fetched from thence; to build our houses with stones out of our own quarries! I may speak to every church in the words of God to the church of the Jews, "Thou shalt clothe thee with them, as with an ornament, and bind them on thee as a bride doth her attire," Isaiah xlix. 18, of her own weaving. THEOLOGIA; OR, DISCOURSES OF GOD. THE NECESSITY AND ADVANTAGE OF A KNOWLEDGE OF GOD'S ATTRIBUTES. BEING but poor finite creatures, our capacity is so weak and shallow, that we are not able to conceive of an infinite God as he is in himself. In this respect, "clouds and darkness are round about him ; " and "he dwelleth in the light which no man can approach unto." Therefore he is pleased, in condescension to our weakness, to come, as it were, out of his inaccessible light, and to manifest himself to us by certain attributes, such as infinite power, wisdom, goodness, holiness, justice, &c. which are as so many rays of the divine perfections let down to us : and we have right conceptions of God, when we conceive of him according to these representations he hath made of himself to us. The admirable goodness and condescension of God in giving such clear and full discoveries of himself in his word and gospel, ought to engage all that live under the gospel, to make a diligent improvement of them, for informing their minds, and influencing their life and practice. That God should reveal himself, so clearly and fully, in and by his own Son, unto such as had brought themselves into woful darkness by their own sin and folly, what admirable grace and condescension is here! Especially, considering that it is of the greatest concernment to us, with respect to our eternal condition, to be brought by such discoveries to have right conceptions of God; and that he was no way obliged to make any revelation of himself unto us. He might for ever have locked up the treasures of his wisdom and prudence in his own eternal breast, and have left all the sons of men in that woful darkness into which they had cast themselves, and kept them under the chains and power of it, unto eternal judgment. Such therefore by whom these high discoveries of God in the gospel are neglected, as they will be left without excuse, so they are chargeable with the highest ingratitude to God, and a horrible contempt of his admirable grace and goodness, which cannot but expose them to his heavy wrath and indignation for evermore. It is therefore our duty and interest to improve these discoveries with all diligence, for furnishing our minds with such notions and conceptions of God, as are in some measure worthy of him, and suitable to the revelation he hath made of himself. But bare notions of God in the mind being but vain speculations, therefore it doth also highly concern us to improve the revelation God hath made of himself for bettering our notions and apprehensions of him, that they may not only fill the head, but also affect the heart, and make the life fruitful. This is that knowledge of God that gives the mind its perfection, and the soul its blessedness, and dispels our natural darkness, the removal whereof is the dawning of glory and |