The Child's Portion

Or the Unseen Glory of the Children of God

In this work, Samuel Willard (1640-1707) expounds 1 John 3:2, pointing to the unseen glory of the children of God and explains in detail our present state of adoption. “The words of the text are a fixed conclusion against all the misgiving objections of flesh and blood, establishing the truth of our present state of adoption, without any doubting or questioning of it.” Mr. Willard describes what it means to be the sons of God, what is the glorious privilege of this relation, and how we may have assurance of our own state. Included with this is three other sermons by the author: The Righteous Man’s Death, The Only Sure Way to Prevent Threatened Calamity, and All Plots Against God and His People Detected and Defeated. Samuel Willard was born in 1640 at Concord, Massachusetts and was one of the most important preachers among the second generation of New England Puritans. He graduated from Harvard College in 1659 and went on to pastor two different churches, the church in Groton and then Boston’s South Church. He played a leading role in the Reforming Synod of 1679 and later became the president of Harvard at the end of his life. “Willard summed up the moral judgments that were meaningful for his time and anticipated the work of Jonathan Edwards.” -Ernest Benson Lowrie