world, the principles or reasons of which we cannot understand and explain, and perhaps shall never discover in the present life. If we believe revelation to be the work of God, we ought to expect that it will contain truths and facts of the same character with those of his other works. Such truths and facts revelation certainly does contain; and this is so far from forming a just objection to the sacred writings, that it is a strong presumption of their Divine original. I know that I have repeatedly said this in substance heretofore, but it is important to remind you of it, on the present occasion.

The method of a sinner's justification before God, is a matter of pure revelation. Reason never could have discovered it, if left to itself; and the most that reason has to do with it is, to examine the evidence and import of what God has revealed concerning it. To God alone it belonged to determine on what terms and in what manner, a guilty creature might be restored to his favour: and when he has told us this, we ought most thankfully and humbly to receive the information, and promptly to comply with the terms prescribed. The grounds and reasons of the procedure may not, in all respects, quadrate with what an imperfect and erring reason may seem to dictate; nor run entirely parallel with transactions which take place between one creature and another. This I am persuaded is in reality the case, in regard to the doctrine of justification, as we find it taught in the New Testament. But what better evidence do we want that a doctrine is reasonable, although our feeble intellect cannot fully measure it, than that He whose understanding, equity, and goodness are infinite, has sanctioned it, and required us to receive it? What more should a sinner ask, than that his offended Maker should tell him in what way he may be pardoned, and be rendered eternally happy? For the guilty party to stand questioning, and insist on knowing to the bottom, how, why, and wherefore the Creator has adopted this plan, and on what principles of -eason he can show it to be right, is, in my apprehen

sion, a gross and impious presumption. I seriously warn you against it. I feel bound solemnly to caution you against all those speculations, and I am sorry to say that they are becoming fashionable, which really go to set aside the Scripture doctrine of our justification solely by the imputation to us of the perfect. righteousness of a Saviour; of a Saviour taking the sinner's place, and obeying and suffering in his behalf. Cleave to this scriptural doctrine, I entreat and charge you. Cleave to it as the sheet anchor of that hope toward God, which alone will stand the test in the trying hour of death, and when the dread realities of eternity shall sweep away the sandy foundation of all those refuges of lies, to which thousands betake themselves to their eternal undoing.

2. Above all, let me exhort you not to content yourselves with a mere rational assent to this doctrine, although you should hold it in the most unexceptionable form in which the human mind can receive it. Remember that it is a dreadful thing, to "hold the truth in unrighteousness." It is not enough that you believe that nothing can justify you but the righteousness of Christ; you must personally, practically, and individually, so believe in Christ, that you may be clothed with his righteousness, may stand before God in this heavenly robe, and be able to plead it truly, as the sole meritorious cause of your acceptance. Without this, you will at last be undone and perish for ever. If there is one doctrine in the book of God more practical than another, it is this one. Each of us is a sinner by nature and by practice; and till we have, under a due sense and conviction of guilt been driven away from every other reliance, to rely, in the exercise of a living faith, solely and unreservedly on the finished righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, the wrath and curse of God abide upon us. Till then the whole weight and burden of our numerous and aggravated sins rest on our own guilty heads. Hasten, then, as for the life of your souls, to embrace that Saviour, whose blood can fully atone for your transgressions, can cleanse away all the guilt

of your crimson and scarlet stains; and by union with whom, all the benefits of his purchase shall become your own, and he "be made of God unto you wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption."

LECTURE XXIX.

WHAT IS ADOPTION?

THE second benefit of effectual calling, or rather the source of many benefits, is adoption. "Adoption," says the Catechism, "is an act of God's free grace, whereby we are received into the number, and have a right to all the privileges of the sons of God."

Here we are first to consider the import of the word adoption. It is a term taken from a human transaction, to illustrate a divine procedure in reference to redeemed sinners.

Among men, adoption is the taking of a stranger into a family, and considering and treating him, in all respects, as if he were by birth a child of that family; or, it is our acting toward the child of another as if he were our own. In like manner, in the adoption of God, those who are by nature aliens, are received into his family, and treated as his children and heirs; "heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ." Here, however, we remark some important circumstantial differences. Men seldom adopt more than one individual; and the act generally takes place on account of some amiable properties or qualifications of which, it is supposed, indications are perceptible in the person adopted. But God adopts many into his family, and not one of them on account of any thing excellent or recommendatory in the adopted party, but solely from his own unmerited love and mercy: "Having (says the apostle) predestinated us unto the

adoption of children, by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will; to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved."

The writers on this subject mention two kinds of adoption, general and special; and the Scripture warrants the distinction. General adoption relates to communities. It is the forming of a certain number of mankind into a visible church or family of God, and conferring upon them peculiar privileges. This was, in ancient times, most remarkably exemplified in the descendants of faithful Abraham, who formed the Israelitish nation. Hence, the apostle Paul, speaking of his kinsmen according to the flesh, says, "who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises: whose are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever, Amen." The same apostle elsewhere teaches us, that under the gospel dispensation all true believers are to be regarded as the spiritual seed of Abraham.

But it is to what is called special adoption, that the answer of the Catechism before us particularly refers; and to this we shall direct all our additional remarks. Fisher, in his Catechism, well defines special adoption thus: "It is a sovereign and free translation of a sinner of mankind, from the family of hell or Satan, into the family or household of God, with an investiture into all the privileges of the sons of God." He says that this is done "by the act and authority of God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; that the act of the Father in this matter is, that he hath predestinated us unto the adoption of children to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will; that the act of the Son, in this special adoption is, that, in consequence of his purchasing the sinner by the price of his blood, he actually gives the power, right or privilege, to become a child of God, in the day of believing; that the act of the Holy Ghost is, that he comes in Christ's name,

takes possession of the person, and dwells ir him, as a spirit of adoption, teaching him to cry, Abba, Father."

You will observe that adoption is called an act, because it is perfected at once. As soon as a believer is vitally united by faith to Christ, the head of God's family, and the elder brother of every saint, he is, from that moment, an adopted child of God. It is called an act of God's free grace, because the adoption of any individual or portion of mankind into the household of God, must flow entirely from undeserved love and favour in Him; since, in their previous state, those who are adopted are, without exception, wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked; every way unworthy of being so nearly and tenderly related to Him.

The answer before us, as you will remark, states, that believers are "received into the number of the sons of God." This number of the sons of God, is constituted by all the individuals who compose the whole body of the elect, both angels and men. For holy angels are also denominated the sons of God; as in Job, where it is said, "the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." Holy angels, however, are the sons of God, so to speak, by birth, and not by adoption. They have retained that sinless and happy state in which they were at first created: and it may be proper to observe,

that this also was the state of Adam before his fall. Possibly, you may never have remarked the force and beauty of Luke's concluding declaration, in tracing the genealogy of our Saviour. Having carried it up, and told of whom every individual mentioned was the son, till he comes to Adam, he says of him, that he was "the son of God." The meaning is, not only that God created him, but that creating him in his own image, in his moral likeness, Adam was properly, and in every view, a son of God, a child resembling his parent.

By his fall, man lost the moral likeness of his Creator, cast himself out of God's family, became a child