Therefore when a Man (or as foon as a Man) believes in Chrift, God gives him, and he receives the great Bleffing of Adoption:

4. That the Adoption into the Number of the Children of God, is a Bleffing purchased for us by Jefus Chrift. See Letter I.

5. That they who have received the Adoption are Heirs of God, Heirs to an Inheritance most glorious and everlasting; but of this, I shall fay more hereafter. See Letters D. K.

6. That Adoption is an Act of God's free Grace. See Letters L. M. Behold what Manner of Love the Father hath beftowed on us in making us his Children! A wonderful Inftance of free Favour utterly undeserved by us!

7. That true Believers are predeftinated of God to this Felicity. See Letter L.

O how great is the Happiness of all fincere Chriftians? To be the Children of God is the highest Dignity. This Honour have all the Saints.

But the Unbelieving, and Difobedient have it not: No, they are of their Father the Devil, and the Luft of their Father they do.

But this great Bleffing includes many others; which are a Ground of Comfort at all Times. They are very many: I fhall only felect fome of them, as follows viz.

1. God has foretold, that he will give them his PRESENCE.

His gracious Prefence will make a Wilderness to bea Paradife: how often has it made Prifons, Houses of Joy, and Gladness to the perfecuted Saints? The Omniprefence of God, which excites painful, Thoughts in the Minds of the Wicked, when they think upon it, gives a Pleasure to serious Chriftians.

And

And how should we daily pray for God's Prefence with us? We may pray for it with a chearful Hope, if we read fome of his Predictions.

In Exod. xxxiii. 14. God fays, My Prefence fhall go with thee. In Pfal. cxl. 13. It is faid to God, the Upright shall dwell in thy Prefence.

In Ifa. xli. 10. God fays, Fear thou not, for I am with Thee. In Deut. xxxi. 8, It is faid, The LORD, be it is that doth go before thee, he will be with Thee, He will not fail Thee, neither forfake Thee.

And in John xiv. 23. Chrift fays, If any Man love me, he will keep my Words: And my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our Abode with him.

Let ferious Chriftians contemplate thefe Declarations frequently; and with the Influence of the Holy Spirit, they will derive much Comfort from them.

2. It is likewife predicted, that God will hear the Prayers, and grant the Petitions of his Children.

It is a great Advantage for a Man to have a rich and compaffionate Friend, able and willing to fupply and help him on every Occafion :

But the Favour of God affords inexpreffibly more abundant Confolation.

And there are gracious Predictions that he will regard the Prayers of his People.

In Pfal. iv. 3. It is faid, But know that the LORD bath fet apart him that is godly for himself: The Lord will bear, when I call unto him.

In Pfal. xxxiv. 15. It is written, The Eyes of the LORD are upon the Righteous, and his Ears are open unto their Cry. ver. 17. The Righteous cry, and the LORD beareth, and delivereth them out of all their Troubles.

In Pfal. cxlv. 19. It is faid, He will fulfill the Defire of them that fear him: He alfo will bear their Cry, and will fave them. Comfortable Predictions!

In Zech. xiii. 9. Our good God fays, They fball call on my Name, and I will bear them: I will fay, It is my People, And they shall fay, the LORD is my God.

In Matt. vii, 7. Our loving Redeemer fays to his Disciples, Ask, and it shall be given you: Seek and ye hall find: Knock and it shall be opened unto you.

And in Matt. xxi. 22. he says, And all Things whatsoever ye shall afk in Prayer, believing, ye Shall receive.

These are comfortable Predictions; and many, very many more of like Import I might mention; for the Sacred Scriptures abound with them, They are Evidences of our Heavenly Father's Loving-kindness to his Children.

O what Encouragements has he given unto us to the Duty of Prayer? And to pray with humble Hope of Succefs to our Petitions? None of his Children ever fought his Face in vain, nor trufted, nor hoped in him in vain.

If ferious Chriftians did record the Petitions they afk of Him, and the gracious Answers to them, which they receive from Him, what a Display of the Divine Power, Goodness, Mercy, and Faithfulness might they behold in God's Dealings with them?

The Predictions mentioned, and the Accomplishment of them, fhould be improved to confirm our Faith, heighten our Love, and our thankfulness to our Father, which is in Heaven; and they should more and more endear our glorious Saviour and Mediator to our Souls,

As

As we offer up our Supplications at the Throne of Grace in his Name, and as He is continually making Interceffion for us, fo it is for his Sake, that we are accepted with the Father, and that our Requests are granted.

In John xvi. 24. Chrift faid unto his Difciples, Hitherto, ye have afked nothing in my Name. Ask, (q. d. in my Name,) and ye shall (for my Sake,) receive, that your Joy may be full.

III. SANCTIFICATION, is another of the great Bleffings predicted for true Believers, and is that Work, by which polluted Sinners become Holy in Heart and Life, and are renewed more and more after the Image of God.

This, is the Work of God's Holy Spirit: It begins when true Faith begins in the Soul of a Sinner.

The Bleffings of Juftification and Adoption, tho' different the one from the other, yet are conjoin'd, and are bestowed on the Believer, in the fame Article of Time; and at the fame Time the glorious Work of a Sinner's Sanctification does also begin.

But this is gradually carried on through the Course of a Believer's Life, from his first being born again to the Time of his Death; when Believers are made perfect in Holiness..

This, indeed, is a moft bleffed and important Work of the Holy Spirit. It is that Divine Operation by which we are renew'd in the Likenefs and Image of God. A Bleffing abfolutely neceffary to fit us for the happy Enjoyment of him; Because without Holiness no Man fhall fee the Lord. Heb. xii. 14.

But this Bleffing (as is evident from the Sacred Scriptures,) belongs to them that believe in Christ.

The holy Jefus, when he pray'd for all his true Difciples to his Father, faid, Sanctify them through thy Truth: thy Word is Truth. John xvii. 17. And ver. 19. he adds, And for their fakes I faniify myfelf, that they also may be fantified through the

Truth.

The Apostle Paul faid to the believing Theffalonians, For this is the Will of God, even your San&tification. 1 Thef. iv. 3. And in 2 Thef. ii. 13. God hath from the Beginning chofen you to Salvation, through Sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the Truth.

The Apostle Peter calls the true Believers, Elect according to the Foreknowledge of God the Father, through Sandlification of the Spirit unto Obedience. 1 Peter i. 2.

The Apostle Paul fays to Titus, Chap. ii. 11. The Grace of God which bringeth Salvation bath (by the Gospel) appeared to all Men, teaching us that denying Ungodliness and worldly Lufts, we fbou'd live foberly, righteously, and godly in this prefent World; looking for that blessed Hope, and the glorious Appearing of the great God, and our Saviour Jefus Chrift; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all Iniquity, and purify unto himself (by the Operation of the Holy Spirit,) a peculiar People, zealous of good Works. See alfo Tit. iii. 4—7:

The Way which infinite Wisdom has contriv'd, for the Recovery and Salvation of fallen Man is most remarkable: For as our first Parents fell into a State of Sin and Mifery, through a proud Ambition of being wifer, and in a higher Rank than their glorious Creator thought fit; and through Unbelief of God's Word to them; for they believed the Words of the Devil, and difbelieved the Words of the Lord, who made them: So the righteous and wife God has feen