uncloying sweetness: What then shall the full measure of grace and glory be; where there is nothing to abate it, or to distract its course for a single moment?

And all this is thine, assuredly thine, thou weakest of be lievers! God never gives grace to the soul, to disappoint it of glory. It is a blasphemy, perhaps, against the Spirit of grace to utter so detracting an expression against his nature and office. The very term of communicated grace, precludes such a notion. For if it might be lost as soon as given, it ap pears no better than the gift of a man, who cannot secure the possession of any one thing to himself or to others, for a moment. But the gifts and calling of God are without repentance; and whom the Lord loveth, he loveth to the end. Man would change in a moment without the divine help; but God, being God, changeth not. All change implies defect; and therefore both are impossible in God. Christians in this life are

full of defects and are kept from changing only by an al mighty hand. It was Cain's curse to be a vagabond or wanderer upon earth. The law of God restrained him not; and the grace of God, not being imparted, gave him no rest. All men by nature, like Cain, stroll about in the land of Nod; and none enter into Canaan, but (as Abraham did) through the sovereign call and power of God. But grace, which is fixed in itself, fixes the believer in Jesus. This is the work of the Holy Spirit, and, to the redeemed soul, it is one of the most incontestible arguments of his divinity. He is essentially God to bestow grace: And he is God almighty to preserve it, where bestowed, against all the powers of darkness for evermore. By him, from being a dismal wanderer after peace, the Christian enters into rest, His aching heart is privileged, through him alone, to obtain quietness and assu rance for ever. And this is thy privilege, fainting, feeble, and heavy-laden soul: It is thy privilege more than any. For he, that thirsts most after God, by God's own promise, hath the most right to Him. O look upon this grace, which God the Spirit can alone bestow; and is not thy very soul wrapt up in eagerness to possess it? And why is thy soul thus eager? Is there any principle in thy heart in the least similar to this heavenly gift? No. Thy heart is naturally full of baseness, corruption and unbelief, and would lead thee, (like fallen Adam) from God instead of to him. This is the cause. The Holy Spirit hath already quickened thee with his living grace, and worketh in thy soul all these desires after himself. If he had not wrought them, thou never couldest have had them. And if he hath stirred up these holy longings; did he stir them up to disappoint thee at the last? O think not so unworthily of the God of all grace; for this in fact is calling the God of truth by the name of liar. He hath promised,

nay, to give thee strong consolation, he hath sworn, and sworn by bimself, because he could swear by no greater; that whosoever cometh to him, he will in no wise cast out; that they, who hunger and thirst after righteousness, shall be filled; that the weary and heavy-laden, who come to him, shall find rest to their souls; and, in a word, that he will be a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow and a belp, a very present belp in the time of trouble. God is thus rich in mercy, that thou shouldest be rich in faith: And when thy faith once embraces his mercy, thou wilt have a present comfort in that act, and e'er long, in the best time, a sure fulfillment of the promise. Remember; God cannot lie; and, while thou trustest in Him, thou canst not be disappointed. The manner and the means may not be after thy imagination; but the end will be right, and thou wilt rejoice in it at the last. Thou hast laid hold of an omnipotent arm; and thy great business is to be stayed upon it.

In the view of all these things, what encouragement is there for the believing soul, not only to contemplate, but to enjoy the Spirit of grace, and the effusions of his divinity? He is the Spirit of grace, and grace itself, which, like all his other perfections, is unutterable. Grace is his nature; and grace, in the effect, is his office. He will be gracious to whom be will be gracious; for he possesses grace as the sovereign dispenser, and receives it from none. In the union of the persons in the Godhead, he enjoys every essential glory, in perfect equality and concord, and bestows the grace of the eternal throne, according to the eternal covenant and decree. He is the immediate agent conferring that grace in which the other two persons essentially concur. It is equally the grace of the Father and the Son; but it is the Spirit's office to reveal it unto men, and to effectuate by it their eternal salvation.- wonderful creature, thou believing Christian, who art born of God!-Saved by a cost, which angels cannot count, and in a manner, which fills all heaven with amazement! A brittle clod, a crawling worm, or at the highest, a rebellious sinner, full of the enmity of hell and the insignificance of earth; is saved for glory, for the highest glory of heaven; saved by the abasement, by the sufferings and death of the Son of God; saved by the power of the almighty Spirit and his effectual grace; saved according to the eternal purpose and decree of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost! What an expence of salvation, for beings, who are minute as atoms in the universe of things, and fit only for devils and the damned in the bosom of hell! O the height and depth! Love passing knowledge! Love without end! Angels wonder, and all heaven is filled with joy, both at the

complacency of God, and at the happiness of man: And shalt not thou, O believer, participate the joy, who art so immediately the object of its excitement? Can beaven pour forth its praises for thee; and canst thou be dumb? No. If thou art silent, it must be from the excess of gratitude and joy, overpowering the organs of speech or the extent of imagination; and, in this respect, there may, sometimes, be silence in beaven: But it will not, it cannot last. God will improve thy power of praise, with the increasing sense of its due. He will be glorified, and thou shalt be blessed in glorifying him, throughout eternity.-LORD, what is man, that thou art mindful of him; or the son of man that thus thou vi

sitest bim!

SPIRIT of Grace, my heart renew,
(Each faithful Christian cries)
And where the weeds of error grew,
Let plants of truth arise.

My soul, an howling wilderness,
Shall then such beauties wear,
That heav'n with rapture shall confess
Thy workmanship is there.

SPIRIT OF ADOPTION.

ADOPTION, among men, is the taking of a stranger in

to a family, and conferring upon him all the rights and privileges of a son: And as it depends upon the adopter's free choice and bounty; the favor is more or less valuable, according to the inheritance which is entailed upon it. When Tiberius was adopted by Augustus Cæsar, it was understood, that whatever the patron or adopter possessed, would of right descend to the adopted: And thus Tiberius inherited the empire of Rome, to which otherwise he could not have aspired from any notion or pretence of hereditary right.

The first instance of adoption, that can be found, is the reception of Moses by Pharaoh's daughter; and from this instance we may believe, that it was in that early age a wellknown or established custom; or it may be presumed, that a king's daughter would not have ventured to begin it. We will Vol. II. A a

omit the silly stories, which Josepbus and the Rabbins relate concerning Muses in this exalted station, on purpose (as they think) to embellish his character, and will only add that illustrious testimony of him from the voice of truth, which does him more honor than the plaudits of ten thousand historians. By faith Moses, when be was come to years, refused to be cal-· led the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to suffer afliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches iban the treasures of Egypt. Hebr. xi. 24-26. “ What a madman!" cries human policy. "What wisdom!" says Moses now, and ali heaven with him.

This practice was so well established among the Greeks, that they had positive laws to direct the form and extent of it; so that every adoption might appear by a public act, and become notorious to the world. And it was followed by the Romans down to the times of Justinian, who, in his institutes, has established particular regulations concerning the adopted, putting them under the adopter's power, as though they were their own offspring.I

God hath been pleased to use this term, in order to convey to our minds another view of his grace and love to the souls of his people. Every image of endearment in nature he hath employed for the expression of his kindness; and this important one, therefore, among the rest. The motives of this af fection and adoption are entirely within himself. Indeed, they could not but be so; for all the world was become guilty before God; and when he looked down from heaven, he saw that all men were become abominable, and that there was none doing good, no not one. There were no attractions in miserable, bateful, and bating, sinners; and there could be none to win the love of a holy and righteous God. Thus, when he was pleased to adopt the people of Israel from among the sinful families of the earth, a very particular declaration is given, That the LORD did not set bis love upon, nor choose then, because of their number, for they were the fewest of all people-nor for their wealib, for He gave them the power to get wealth-nor for their righteousness, for they were a rebellious and stiff-necked people: But because the LORD lov ed them, and because he would be gracious to whom be would be gracious, and shew mercy on whom he would shew mercy. Every cause, reason, and purpose, existed entirely in himself; and, from his own benignity, did every blessing proRous Arch. Att. 1. c. 155

JUSTIN. Inst. 1. i. tit. 11. The reader may see a curious controversy, upon the subject of adoption, in the remains of Marcus Annæus Seneca, (father of the great Seneca) in his second book of Controv. f. 9. cum notis varior.

teed. And yet bad as this people was, what shall we think of this other declaration, which God made, in their behalf, in the face of their enemies? Thus saith JEHOVAH, Israel is. my Son, even my FIRST-BORN. Exod. iv. 22. See Rom. ix. 4. And of what was said to themselves? Trasa pr, Void of all cause IN thy fathers, JEHOVAH mann pun adhered to love them, or would love them; and he chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day. Deut. x. 15. Not that the LORD wanted their service, or would have been less a fulness without their salvation, for the beaven, and the beaven of heavens, belonged to Jehovah their Alchim, the carib and all that is therein. v. 14. He chose and adopted, not because be wanted them, but because they needed him. And he mentions to them their high inheritance, that they might adore his bounty, be encouraged to live upon him, and be looking beyond the grave for the full possession.

What the LORD once did to Israel, he doeth for ever to all his people. The calling and salvation in the type fully expresses, and was designed to express, the calling and salvation. of all the redeemed in every age of the world. His election of grace is a truth as positively revealed to believers by the Old Testament, as it is or can be to them by the New; fər the same eternal Spirit dictated both, and both for the same end. And the only difference between the terms election and adoption is; the former expresses God's simple choice of his people, without any motives for that choice, but his own; and the latter implies the same kind of choice, but at the same time conveys with it an idea of what they are elected to. Election is the choice of God, as it exists in himself; and adoption is that very choice, as it becomes manifested to them. By their adoption therefore they are persuaded of their election; and not of their adoption by their election. Their faith does not conclude from what exists in the unrevealed mind of God, which it is impossible for them to know; but from what hath already passed upon their own minds, as greeable to his mind revealed, which God hath designed that they should know. They do not infer without evidence, which would be enthusiasm with a witness, or something worse; but, in their earnestness for the knowledge of salvation, they are so far from being satisfied with faint hopes and mere conjedures, that they require no less testimony than God's own warrant and God's own seal with that warrant, to prove that it is for them. This doctrine, consequently, cannot be abused, wherever it is understood in faith and experience: And as for those, who will abuse it; they are to be pitied and deplored for the predominancy of that corruption, which ever turns, the use and benefit of the best things into uselessness or destruction.