(2.) Steep your minds in frequent thoughts of God's fatherly good- ness : 1 John iii. 1, ' Behold what manner of love is this, that we should be called the 'sons of God ! ' Consider it, and admire it !
Use 2. Reflection. Have we the .spirit of adoption ? It is known, —
[1.] By a kind of naturalness to come to God, and open our hearts to him ; in all our wants to go and cry, Abba, Father. The spiiit of adoption much worketh and discovereth itself in prayer ; to cry to our Father is an act becoming the sons of God ; the manner is fervent, affectionate ; this cry is not by the tongue, but by the heart ; the Lord needeth no interpreter between him and the hearts of his children ; he that heareth without ears can interjiret our desires, though not uttered by the tongue; desires are strong cries: Ps. x. 17, ' Thou hast heard the desires of the humble ; Ps. xxxviii. 9, ' Lord ! all ray desire is before thee, and my groaning is not hid from thee.' This crying is opposite to that careless formality and deadness, which is in other men's prayers; this crying to God, as one that is able and ready to help us, is a great fruit of the spirit of adoption ; it is a childlike boldness.
[2.] A childlike ingenuousness in the course of obedience to him; both in our abstaining from sin, — as the Rcchabites are an emblem:
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Jer. XXXV. 6, ' We dare not break the cominaTlcls of our father,' — and in a ready diligence in our obedience : 2 Cor. v. 14, ' The love of God constraineth ns ; for we thus judge, if one died for all, then were aU dead.' &c. The will of our Father is instead of all reasou.s ; Christ ever urged this, ' This is the will of my Father,' John vi. 26, 38. So to christians, 1 Thes. v. 18, 'This is the will of God in Christ concerning you : ' 1 Thes. iv. 3, ' This is the will of God, even your sanctification.' That is enough, beyond all enforcements.
[3.] As to the inheritance, they are very chary of it, and will not hazard the hope and comfort of it upon easy terms : Heb. xii. 16, ' Let there not be found a profane person, as Ksau, who sold his birth-right for a mess of pottage ; ' 1 Kings xxi. S, ' And Naboth said to Ahab, the Lord forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance of my father to thee.'
Use 3. Is direction to us in the Lord's supper. This is the seal of the new covenant ; the table which God keepeth for the entertainment of his family ; the feast for souls ; God's children are sure of welcome ; it is children's bread we eat ; we come hither both to remember the grounds of our adoption, and to receive the comfort of it; we come t<j meditate on the fatherly love of God, and to get a new taste and experience of it in our own souls. Here we have special communion with him as children with a father ; we come for a further participation of the Spirit, ' for we all drink into one Spirit,' 1 Cor. xii. 13. Here we look up unto God, and in our hearts cry, Abba, Father. We bind ourselves also to perform the duty of children ; with new resolution to submit to his fatherly government, both in his laws and providences, to his commanding and disposing will ; and we lift up our hope for the eternal inherikince.
SERMON XXIV.
The Spirit itself witnesseth to our spirits, that we are the children of God— KoM. VIIL 16.
In the words we have, — 1. The privilege assured : That we are the children of God. 2. The double testimony by which it is confirmed, — - The Spirit itself beareth witness to our spirits ; or if you will, here are testes, et testimonium ; the thing witnessed, — that we are the children of God ; and the witnesses, — they are two, the Spirit itself, and our spirits ; and in the mouth of two or three witnesses every thing is established. The Spirit itself is the Holy Ghost, and our spirits are our renewed consciences.
Doct. That our adoption into God's family is evidenced by the testimony of the Spirit to our spirits.
First, I shall show you the worth and value of the privilege ; Secondly, Speak something of this double testimony by which it is assured to us.
122 SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIII. [Ser. XXIV.
First, It is certainly a great privilege, for we are excited to consider it with wonder and reverence : 1 John iii. 1, ' Behold what manner of love the Father liath bestowed upon us, that we should he called the sons of God ! ' It is a blessed privilege, questionless, to have God for our father, and Christ for our elder brother, and heaven for our portion ; what can we desire more? And this will appear to you, if j'ou consider, —