fallen from the highest honour, into the greatest disgrace, and the deepest gulf of all sorts of misery; we have given away our liberty and greatest dignity, in exchange for the most shameful and most deplorable bondage; instead of the sons of God, we are become the slaves of Satan; and if we now want to know to what family we belong, the Apostle will tell us, that we are children of wrath, and sons of disobedience*. Eph. ii. 2, 3.

But, as the overflowing Fountain of goodness and bounty, did not choose that so noble a monument of His wisdom should be entirely ruined by this dismal fall, could any one be more proper to raise it up again, or better qualfied to restore men to the dignity of the sons of God, than His own eternal Son who is the most perfect and express image of the Father? Nor does this glorious person decline the severe service. Though he was the son of his Father's love, the heir and lord of the whole universe; though he might be called the delight of his most exalted Father, and of all blessed spirits, and now, with the greatest justice, the darling of the human kind; yet, he left his Father's bosom, and, O wonderful condescension! became the son of man, that men might anew become the sons of God. Whence he is also called The second Adam, because he recovered all that was lost by the first.

That all who sincerely receive him, might be again admitted into the embraces of the Father, and no more be called children of wrath, he himself submitted to the punishment due to our disobedience; and, by bearing it, removed our guilt, and pacified justice. He also went into the flames of Divine wrath, to deliver us from them; and by a plentiful stream of his most precious blood, quite extinguished them. He likewise took effectual care that those who were now no longer to be called children of wrath, should also cease to be children of disobedience, by pouring out upon them a plentiful effusion of his sanctifying Spirit; that their hearts being thereby purged

* Υιοι απείθειας και τεκνα οργής.

from all impure affections and the love of earthly things, they might, under the influence of the same good Spirit, cheerfully lead a life of sincere and universal obedience. Now, it cannot be doubted, that those who are so actuated and conducted by the Divine Spirit, are truly the sons of God. Whence that spirit whereby they call God their Father, and, with confidence apply to Him as such, is called, the Spirit of adoption.

Moreover, this wonderful restoration is often called, adoption, not only to distinguish it from the natural and incomparable dignity which belongs to the only begotten Son, but also, because we by no means derive this privilege from nature, but absolutely from the free donation of the Father, through the mediation of His only Son. We must not, however, conclude from this, that this privilege has nothing more in it than an honourable title, or, as they call it, an external relation. For it is not only inseparably connected with a real and internal change, but with a remarkable renovation, and, as it were, a transformation of all the faculties of the soul, nay, even of the whole man. You will accordingly find these words applied to this purpose, by the apostle Paul, in his epistle to the Romans, ch. xii. v. 2. And, to conclude, it is with a view to convince us, that, together with the title of sons, the Spirit of God is given to believers, and they are inwardly renewed thereby, that we so often in Scripture meet with this regeneration which is the subject of our present discourse.

If we consider the lives of men, we shall be apt to imagine, that the generality of mankind who live in the world under the name of Christians, think it sufficient for them to be called by this name, and dream of nothing further. The common sort of mankind hear with pleasure and delight of remission of sins, imputed righteousness, of the dignity of the sons of God, and the eternal inheritance annexed to that dignity; but when they are told, that repentance, a new heart, and a new life, contempt of the world and the pleasures of the flesh, fasting and prayer, are absolutely necessary for a Christian, these are hard sayings, who can bear them? Though at the same time

it must be said, that they who do not regard these necessary duties, will have no share in the reward annexed to them.

There are many things which distinguish this Divine adoption from that which obtains among men. 1st, The former is not an expedient to supply the want of children, which is commonly the case among men; for God has His only begotten Son, who is incomparably preferable to all the rest taken toge ther; who is immortal as His Father; and though, from a principle of wonderful humility, he condescended to become mortal, and even to die, yet he rose again from the dead, and liveth for ever. From him is derived all that felicity which our heavenly Father is pleased to confer upon us, out of His mere grace and bounty, through the merits and mediation of His dear Son. And is there any one, on whom this felicity is bestowed, who will not freely acknowledge himself to be quite unworthy of so great an honour? Yet, such honour has the eternal and incomprehensible love of God condescended to bestow on us, who are quite unworthy and undeserving. And in this also, the Divine adoption differs from that which is customary among men, who generally choose the most deserving they can meet with; but all those whom God maketh choice of, are unworthy, and some even are remarkably so.

2dly, Men generally adopt but one apiece, or, at most, a few; but Divine adoption admits into the heavenly family, a most numerous host, extending even unto myriads, that Jesus, who is the head of the family, may be the first born among many brethren, Rom. viii. 29.

And, 3dly. They are all heirs. Whence it is said, in another place, That He might bring many sons unto glory, Heb. ii. 10. Nor is the inheritance of any individual in the least diminished in consequence of so vast a multitude of heirs; for it is an inheritance in light, and every one has the whole of it. Nor do the children come into the possession of this inheritance by the death of the Father, but every one when he dies himself; for the Father is immortal, and, according to the Apostle, the only One that has immortality; that is, in an

absolute primary, and independent sense. Nay, He Himself is the eternal inheritance of His sons, and death alone brings them into His presence, and admits them into the full enjoyment of Him.

4thly, (Which I would have particularly observed,) This Divine adoption is not a matter of mere external honour, nor simply the bestowing of riches and an inheritance; but is always attended with a real internal change of the man himself to a being quite different from what he was before; (which is also recorded in Sacred Scripture, concerning Saul, when he was anointed king;) but this, human adoption can by no means perform. This last, in the choice of a proper object, justly pays regard to merit. For though the richest and even the best of men, may clothe richly the person whom he has thought proper to adopt, and get him instructed in the best principles and rules of conduct, yet, he cannot effectually divest him of his innate dispositions, or those manners that have become natural by custom; he cannot form his mind to noble actions, nor plant within him the principles of fortitude and virtue. But He who formed the heart of man, can reform it at His pleasure; and this He actually does: whenever He admits a person into His royal family, He, at the same time, endows him with royal and divine dispositions. And, therefore, if He honours any person with His love, that person thereby becomes deserving; because, if He was not so before, He makes him so; He stamps His own image upon him in true and lively colours; and, as he is holy Himself he makes him holy likewise. Hence it is, that this Heavenly adoption is no less properly, truly, or frequently, in the sacred Scriptures, called, regeneration. [Пaλiyyeveoia.] And though a Jew and a celebrated doctor of the Jewish law, excepted against this doctrine, when it was proposed to him under this name; yet, neither all of that nation, nor even the Gentile philosophers, were quite unacquainted with it. Rabbi Israel calls proselytes, new-born Jews. And those passages which we frequently meet with, concerning the seed of Abraham, and, in

the Prophets, concerning the numerous converts that were to be made to the Church, are, by their Rabbins, and the Chaldee paraphrase, applied to this spiritual generation, which they believed would remarkably take place in the days of the Messiah; particularly those two passages in the Psalms, in one whereof the spiritual sons of the Church are compared to the drops of the morning dew, Psal. xlv. 16; cx. 3; not only on account of its celestial purity, but also with regard to the vast multitude of them. Some of these doctors also observe, that the number of proselytes would be so great in the days of the Messiah, that the Church, omitting the ceremony of circumcision, would receive them into its bosom, and initiate them by ablution or baptism. Concerning this renovation of the mind, Philo Judæus says expressly, "God, who is unbegotten Himself, and begets all things, sows this seed, as it were, with his own hand, &c. *" Hierocles, and other Pythagorean philosophers, treat also of this moral or mystical regeneration; and under this very name, Plutarch also makes mention of it, and defines it to be "the mortification of irrational and irregular appetites." And Seneca's words relative to this subject are: "The families of the arts and sciences are the most noble, choose into which of them you will be adopted, for by this means we may be born according to our own choice; nor will you be adopted into the name only, but also into the goods of the family +.'

Is not, also, the common custom that prevailed among the ancients, of honouring their heroes, and those men who were remarkable for exalted virtue, with the title of sons of God, a plain allusion to this adoption we have under our consideration? And what we have observed on the philosophers, who acknowledged this moral or metaphorical regeneration, is so very

* Αγέννητος ὁ Θεὸς, καὶτ ὰ συμπαντά γεννῶν, σπείρει μεν τοῦτο το γέννημα τὸ ἴδιον, &c.

Nobilissimæ sunt ingeniorum familiæ, elige in quam adscisci velis, hac enim ratione, nobis ad arbitrium nostrum nasci licet; nec in nomen tantum adoptaberis, sed et in ipsa bona.