pride, anger, envy, covetoufness and other evil affections which are the deformities of the foul. If thou art a christian; thou haft put off the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lufts, and art renewed in the fpirit of thy mind, and haft put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. If thou art a chriftian; thou art adorned with the graces of the Holy Spirit, with purity and peace, with meeknefs and humility, with love and charity. If thou art a chriftian; thou doft follow the example of thy Redeemer; thou doft walk even as he walked; and the fame mind is in thee which was in Chrift Jefus. If thou art a christian; thou doft refemble thy creator; thou art made a partaker of the divine nature; thou art holy as he who bath called thee is holy; and merciful as thy father who is in heaven is merciful. What is it then that hinders thee from rejoicing? Turn thine eyes upon the vain and fenfual part of mankind, and from them learn thy duty; for it is lawful to learn even from an enemy. Profane and wicked men will rejoice; men who are immerfed in fenfuality, whofe God is their belly, who mind earthly things,

24

things, and know no pleasures but those of the body. These men, I fay, will rejoice and wilt not thou, christian, who haft the image of God ftamped upon thee, and the Spirit of Chrift refiding in thee; whofe converfation is in heaven; and who haft felt those pleafures which refult from communion with God, and the practice of true religion and virtue? Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice ye righteous, and fhout for joy all ye that are upright in heart. This is the fecond reason why chriftians should rejoice evermore; viz. because they are fanctified or made holy.

III. Another reason why chriftians fhould rejoice evermore, is because they enter into a filial relation to God, and become his children. Indeed God is the father of all men by creation. That was a true faying of Aratus the heathen poet, which is cited by St. Paul in his fpeech to the Athenians, that we all are his offspring. He is called the father of fpirits, and the God of the Spirits of all flesh. And well may he be called fo, fince from him all mankind receive their beings, and by him are continually upheld and preserved.

But

But ftill it muft be acknowledged, that christians are in a more peculiar manner the children of God, than other men are. The evangelist John faith, that to as many as received Chrift, to them he gave power to become the fons of God, even to them that believe on his name, John I. 12. Whereby he infinuates, that to those who do not receive Christ, or believe in him, this power is not given. To become the fons of God, is a privilege peculiar to chriftians, and which the reft of the world are not fharers in, at least in that eminent and extraordinary degree in which chriftians

are.

Other men are the fons of God by creation only: but chriftians are so, not only by creation but also by regeneration, and the new birth; being born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man; but of God.

This privilege of adoption is fet forth at large in the eighth chapter of the epiftle to the Romans, from the fourteenth verfe to the end of the fixteenth. For as many as are led, or acted by the Spirit of God, they are the fons of God: for ye have not received the spirit of bondage again unto fear; i. e. ye are not through fear of death all your life time

Sub

1

fubject to bondage, as the Jews were under the law of Mofes, which perpetually fubjected them to a flavish fear of death, because it threatned death for every tranfgreffion. But ye have received the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba father: i. e. ye have received the Spirit of God, which being a fign or evidence of adoption, is for that reafon called the Spirit of adoption, and by virtue of which dwelling and refiding in chriftians, they are enabled to look up unto God as their father, and to look upon themselves as his children. Agreeably whereunto he adds, in the 16th verfe, that the Spirit of God bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. The fame apoftle teaches the fame doctrine in his epiftle to the Galatians, chap. III. ver. 26. For ye are all, i. e. both Jews and Gentiles, the children of God by faith in Chrift Jefus. And chap. IV. 4-7. But when the fulness of the time was come, God fent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of fons and because ye are fons, God bath fent forth the fpirit of his Son into your hearts, crying

Abba

Abba Father. Wherefore thou art no more a fervant, but a fon?

And now to apply this to our present purpose. If chriftians are the fons of God, it will naturally follow that it is their duty to rejoice evermore; for both the honour of the relation, and the happy fruits and confequences of it are motives hereunto.

Con

I. The honour of the relation. fider how great and glorious a being God is. How fublime are the defcriptions which are given of him in fcripture! The Lord is a great God, and a great king above all Gods. Who in the heaven can be compared unto the Lord? who among the fons of the mighty can be likened unto the Lord? He is very great, he is clothed with honour and majefty: be covereth himself with light as with a garment. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion endureth throughout all generations: he is the bleffed and only potentate, the king of kings, and lord of lords; who only hath immortality. These are but a few out of the many lofty titles which are afcribed to God in the fcriptures. And yet these are enough to fhew that those persons

are