in the matter of our justification. But there is no proper ground for this controversy. All do or ought to admit, that in adult age, good works, as far as opportunity for them is given, always accompany saving faith. They prove it to be saving; and in this way justify our profession of faith before the world; which is precisely what St. James intends, when he says we are justified by works, and not by faith only. We are justified before men, by the works which flow from faith, and which men can see. But in our justification before God, the Apostle Paul teaches that no work, no act of man, has any meritorious agency, more or less. We owe it all to the righteousness of Christ. Faith receives and rests on this; because, as has been shown, it is proper to faith, and to no other grace, to do so. But this very act of faith, although sincere, is still imperfect, and its imperfection is pardoned through that very righteousness of Christ on which it rests, and to which it leaves the whole undivided honour and merit of our justification and salvation.

My dear youth, in concluding this lecture, in which I have endeavoured shortly to explain a fundamental doctrine of the revealed will of God, let me entreat you

1. Not to indulge in speculations on this article of our faith, beyond what is plainly laid down in the sacred oracles. The most serious practical evils have often resulted from a licentious indulgence of human reason in regard to this, as well as to some other doctrines, which are clearly revealed in the word of God. We doubt not that every doctrine, and every declaration, which we find in the Bible, is perfectly reasonable; because we believe that the whole has proceeded from a Being whose understanding is infinite, and whose equity and truth are immaculate and inviolable. But it is one thing for a doctrine to be reasonable, and another for us to see that it is so, and to be able to explain all the grounds or principles on which it rests. There are, as I have repeatedly remarked to you, many undeniable truths, or facts, in the naturals

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 reason 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." Amen.

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 qualification 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,