God hath adopted us, not as natural men, for this or that respect, to an earthly inheritance, but God freely adopts us to an heavenly inheritance that fadeth not; neither doth God adopt us as men do men for the solacing of childlessness, for God hath a Son in whom he is pleased; neither again can men’s adoption make their adopted sons to be good; but when God adopts us, he makes us as he would have us to be, like himself. Other adopted sons, many of them are not sharers together of the inheritance; but we are made heirs and fellow-heirs with Christ himself.
Richard Sibbes
