(1st.) The nature of that house. It is made up of such persons as it is impossible that any but adopted children should have right unto a place in it. It is composed of “living stones,” 1 Pet. ii. 5; — a “chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people,” verse 9; — “saints and faithful in Christ Jesus,” Eph. i. 1; — “saints and faithful brethren,” Col. i. 2; — a people that are “all righteous,” Isa. lx. 21; and the whole fabric of it is glorious, chap. liv. 11–14, — the way of the house is “a way of holiness,” which the unclean shall not pass through, chap. xxxv. 8; yea, expressly, they are the “sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty,” and they only, 2 Cor. vi. 17, 18; all others are excluded, Rev. xxi. 27. It is true that oftentimes, at unawares, other persons creep into the great house of God; and so there become in it “not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and of earth,” etc., 2 Tim. ii. 20; but they only creep in, as Jude speaks, verse 4, they have no right nor title to it.