3
The Puritans were fond of stressing the transforming power, superlative value, and
surprising wonder of adoption. They spoke often of its greatness, excellency, dignity, and
comprehensiveness.
William Perkins said that a believer should esteem his adoption as God`s child to
be greater than being the childe or heire of any earthly Prince [since] the sonne of the
greatest Potentate may be the childe of wrath: but the child of God by grace, hath Christ
Iesus to bee his eldest brother, with whom he is fellow heire in heaven; hee hath the holy
Ghost also for his comforter, and the kingdome of heauen for his euerlasting
inheritance." Perkins lamented how few people realize this experientially: At earthly
preferments men will stand amazed; but seldome shall you finde a man that is rauished
with ioy in this, that hee is the childe of God.
13
Spiritual adoption is the comprehensive apex of God`s salvation. The Puritans
often shared the apostle John`s sense of awe when he declared, Behold, what manner of
love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God (1 John
3:1). What a stupendous wonder adoption is! Wilhelmus à Brakel put it this way: From
being a child of the devil to becoming a child of God, from being a child of wrath to
becoming the object of God`s favor, from a child of condemnation to becoming an heir of
all the promises and a possessor of all blessings, and to be exalted from the greatest
misery to the highest felicity--this is something which exceeds all comprehension and all
adoration.
14
And how comprehensive adoption is! Most Puritans place their treatment of
adoption in the ordo salutis between justification and sanctification, following the order
set forth by the Westminster divines. Logically, that makes considerable sense, given the
inevitable ties between justification and adoption, and sanctification and adoption, as we
shall see shortly. Other Puritans, however, have pointed out that though adoption can at
times be viewed as one aspect of salvation, or one part of the ordo salutis, at other times
it can be understood best as comprehending all of soteriology. For example, Stephen
Marshall writes, Though sometimes in the holy Scriptures our Sonship is but one of our
Priviledges, yet very frequently in the Scripture all the Beleevers do obtain from Christ in
this world and the world to come, here and to eternity, all is comprehended in this one,
That they are made the Children of God." Marshall goes on to cite several examples: I