time their spiritual bodies by this endowment shall be where, ever they pleafe to be. This alfo St. Austin affirms to Hfych, Ep. 79. and Jerom on this text faith, The faints having this endowment with Chrift, who is the prime and principal eagle, fhall Ay up into heaven, Matt. xxiv. 28. Wherefever "the carcafe is, thither fhall the eagles be gathered together, "where Chrift fhall be, there the bleffed faints fhall be." And Hilary upon that of Pfalm cxxxix. 9. If I shall take the wings of the morning, underftands it of Chrift, who took his wings in the morning of the refurrection.

The 6th defcription of the future glorious state on earth yet to come, is, the adoption of believers; fo our text, verfe 23. We ourselves wait for the adoption. The native fonfhip which we had in the innocent Adam, by creation, (for which he is called the fon of GoD, Luke iii. 38.) we have fince by his fall utterly loft, and fo are not fons to Gon, but by adoption. The word adopto, to adopt, taken from the Heathen Romans, fignifies to chufe. Human adoption Civilians thus define; "it is a "legitimate act, whereby one of another race, is admitted " and taken into a family, that is, not his own, and into the right of fonfhip of that family." In which definition note three things.

Firft, Choofing one to be adopted.

Secondly, Making him a fon, according to due form.

Thirdly, Settling him actually in the right of fonfhip, So divine adoption is used three ways in Scripture, setting forth the three parts making it compleat. 1ft, We have in Eph. i. 5. God's choice unto adoption. God hath predeftinated us unto the adoption of fans. Here is only God's fingling out a believer to be his fon; yet without this choice adoption could never be; for no man can be adopted without the will of the adoptor. 2dly, We have Rom. viii. 15, 16. the formal making and pronouncing him an adopted fon: Ye have not received the fpirit of bondage to fear again, but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba Father. To the fame effect is Gal. iv. 6. God hath fent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba Father. In both places are defcribed God's formal making a man his adopted son, viz. by naturalizing him to the divine affection of a child, to God his Father. God having the pre-eminence above all adoptors, (who can act it only by law and education) can put his Spirit into his adopted, to filialize them into genuine adopted fons. 3dly, We have in Rom. viii. 23. mention of an adoption, after which the creature, and believers themselves (the Apoftle

putting himself for one among them) ftill groan. Though before they had the spirit of adoption, verse 15, and again, verse 23, it is confeffed they had received the firft fruits of the fpirit, yet ftill they groan for adoption. Therefore this can be no other than the actual installing all the adopted fons of God, to poffets their full inheritance which defcends to them by adoption, at and in that glorious reigning ftate yet to come, of which we treat.

The difference of adoption from juftification is, juftification puts away the difpleasure that was in God, when he caft us off from being fons by our fall in Adam; fo now we that believe, cannot be condemned, Rom. viii. 1. Adoption fits us to be received and owned as fons again, and to inherit as fons, if children, then heirs.

The two adoptions last named, viz. that by the spirit of adoption, Rom. viii. 15. and that in verfe 23. differ from the first, in Eph. i. 5. which is an imminent act in God's mind; the second and third adoptions being tranfient acts, differ between themselves four ways.

Firft, Adoption by the Spirit, is an adoption in and by infufed grace. But adoption groaned for, is a state in the future fuper-added glory we fpeak of, which is a cloathing upon, 2 Cor. v. 2 for ye fee evidently that it is added as the Apostle's fixth defcription to defcribe that state of glory.

Secondly, The former adoption is jus ad rem, a right to that glory; but the latter adoption is jus in re, the actual enjoyment of it: and this is couched, verse 17, If sons, then heirs; there is our right to it: then it follows, If fo be we fuffer with Chrift, that we may be glorified together with him; there is our right in it, actually enjoying it.

Thirdly, If any think, that to have the spirit of adoption, is to have an actual enjoyment, we anfwer, it is of grace, not of glory. The Apoftle anfwers, we have but the first fruits of the Spirit, verfe 23, of the text; which the Apostle only calls, Eph. i. 13, 14. The carneft of our inheritance; in both which expreffions he intimates, that the whole crop of the commodity, the full vintage, the entire inheritance, is yet to come, in glory.

Fourthly, The former adoption is clam, viz. fecretly, as to the world, and only of and in the spirit of believers, done by the Spirit of God, as defcribed in Rom. viii. 15, 16, A fpirit af adaption, crying, Abba Father; and a fpirit witneffing with our fpirits, that we are the fons of God: But the latter adoption is palam, viz. openly, before all the world at the refurrection

of the faints, verfe 19, and is of their whole persons; for, as before they had the freedom of their spirits, by the spirit of God operating and teft fying in them, fo now they have the redemption of their bodies.

The laft defcription of the future glorious ftate of believers at their refurrection, the redemption of their body, we have in verfe 23. And not only the creature, but we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. The Apoftle puts in himself for one of the groaners after this redemption, by fpeaking in the first perfon plural, we ourselves; which redemption of the body cannot be merely an explication of that adoption, as fome, though learned, have conceived; for it is as wonderful to hear the Apostle speak of a redemption of faints to be performed at that time, of the aged world; the refurrection, as it is to hear him make mention of their adoption to be acted at that time; feeing the fcriptures as often, if not oftener, mention believers redemption, as done in this world by the blood of Chrift, as it doth adoption, of free grace, by the Holy Spirit. And therefore if the Apoftle had made this final redemption the expofition of that final adop tion (next before handled) he had expounded an obfcurity by an obfcurity, if not more obfcure; redemption being more fun damental, and forwarder in time or nature, than adoption, yea fundamental to adoption itself. But I must not stay to dilate here. -To go on then, here is no to wit to be inferted in the text, there being no fuch thing in the original Greek, nor in the ancient Syriac. But here is the figure Afyndeton, which is a recital of divers words, and different things in them contained, as here of adoption and redemption without a copulative. In which, the Apostle would teach the faints, the wonderful extent of redemption, and adoption, from their converfion, to the time of their refurrection. The word redemption, elpecially as in the original Greek, fhould be carefully confidered.

Ift, In its fignification, which is a purchafing again, ranfoming at a price them which are in bondage. Thus fpiritually we are redeemed by the blood and death of CHRIST, from the power of fin, death and hell, to be transferred to a freedom in glory: Eph. i. 7. compared with ver. 13, 14.

2d, Its confignification, as used in this text, is, that together with the faid fignification of buying, &c. it hath an intimation of the time of its completion, viz. a future time, which can be no other than the refurrection of believers, because he men tions the redemption of the body. Believes are redeemed in this life in foul, but not in body, till the refurrection; and

then our bodies delivered from all incumbrances and corruptions with which they were fettered, are compleatly redeemed, and put into perfect enjoyment of all the privileges of redemption.

By which it appears, there are several acceptations of redemption in Scripture. Not to expatiate upon corporal redemption from enemies, Luke i. 68, 71. or ceremonial redemption, Exod. xiii. 13. or political redemption of persons, lands, houfes &c. Exod. xxii. 8. Lev. xxv. 24, 31.

There are two acceptations in Scripture of fpiritual redemption, fetting forth the two parts or degrees of redemption, taken in its full latitude, viz. redemption by grace, at converfion, by faith in the blood of CHRIST, Rom. iii. 24, 26. redemption by glory, at the refurrection of believers, in the text, as appears by the Apoftles and faints at Rome groaning for it, though already redeemed with the first redemption. Of which redemption by glory, our Saviour alfo fpeaks, Luke xxi. 28. The powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they fee the Son of Man coming in the clouds with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh. And of this our Apoftle fpeaks, Eph. i. 13, 14. In whom after ye believed, ye were fealed with that Holy Spirit of promife, which is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchafed poffion. So that the first redemption is but the earnest, or feal of the fecond, Eph. iv. 30. Grieve not the Spirit of God, whereby ye are fealed unto the day of redemption. Again, the first redemption is of the foul, from fin; the fecond is of the body, from mifery; we may note, that the Apostle mentions faints in the plural, we and our; but body in the fingular, our body, fitly intimating the union of faints. As we all form the myftical body of CHRIST, and fare alike in the fame kind of grace and fpiritual comforts; fo we fhall all fare alike in the fame kind of glory and glorious triumphs, as if we were all but one natural body. Let us juft obferve,

1. The Expreffion of it.

2. The Validity of it.

In the Apostle's expreffion of the inftinct, or appetite of the creature, confidered in the general, an earnest expectation, there is fuppofed, as feems to fome, a Profopopia in the words, that is, a poetical feigning (as they exprefs it) of perfons in the creatures. Others take no notice of any fuch figure in the text; nor is it altogether, needful, left we should weaken the Apostle's argument from the appetite of the creatures, espe

cially feeing they have in a fimilar manner, their wills, defires, affections, expectations, waitings, groanings, &c. In animals, every man may fee, that through their fenfitive knowledge they have a fuitable will to take, or refuse an object; to express their defires with founds or notes of voice; to exprefs their affections of love and hatred, by fociableness, and conflicts, of joy and forrow, by other notes and noises: nor is it hard to believe the Botanifts, .faying, that plants, trees and herbs, have their paffions or affection: their love appearing in their fympathy, their hatred in their antipathy, as in the vine and colwort, that will not profper near each other; their forrow in pining and withering; their joy in bloffoming and flowering. Thus of the expreffion in general.

Next in particular, of the four expreffions of the Apofte, and how in them, the creatures in their kind, and to the power of their fphere and faculty, exprefs or manifeft their inftinct and appetites after the glorious ftate we speak of.

First, The earnest expectation, v. 19. The Greek for this phrafe is a very strong word, and we have no need to speak to the Hebrew Pleonafme, to aggravate the fignification. It is compounded of three words, of or from, the bead, and to lesk: "The reason of which compofition is, (faith a Lapide) because "they that vehemently defire to fee a thing, look at it with "ftretching forth the neck, putting forward the head, and "lifting it up to heaven, either thence expecting, or admiring "it." This earnest expectation of the creature we may know by its analogy to man's earneft expectation; who when he fo expects, his mind is always upon, and his fpirit longing for it: fo in the creature, the inftinct thereof is always mot intent, and its native fpirit continually longing for the begin ning of that glorious state.

Secondly, Waiteth, verfe 19. The creature waiteth for the manifeftation of the fons of God. Some authors, I know not to what improvement, think that the Apoftle fhould fay, The expectation of the creature expecteth. But I must confefs I can. not fee it in the words. And I am fure there is a difference (precifely confidered) between expecting and waiting. Expecting is the inward intention of the fpirit of the expectant; waiting is the outward attention of the body of the waiter, putting itself in a meet place, pofture, and readiness to receive the thing expected when it comes. How of: do we in comcommon fpeech, anfwer; I ftay here waiting for a friend whom I expect. As a man waits, when he abides in a proper place, and posture, where he may meet with that he waits for, and