For the confirmation of this hope and faith God raised his own Son from the grave; who for that reason is said to be raised for our justification,' since on the authority and credit of his resurrection depends that great article of faith, by which alone we are to be justified.

As the blessed fruit of this faith is to all true believers life and immortality, so it highly concerns us to consider what the event of unbelief must be. Many would perhaps content themselves without the hopes of glory and future happiness, if that was all. But that is not all: for the dead shall be raised,' whether you like it or like it not; all who are in the grave shall come forth,' some to life, some to condemnation, according to the things done in the body. Nothing can secure to us more effectually a happy state in futurity, than a constant and steady belief and expectation of the resurrection of the dead. This will convince us that what we are now doing are not such trifling things as to be soon forgotten, or attended with consequences only for to-day or to-morrow; but they are things long to be remembered, things noted down in God's book, and will be exposed to view at the great day in the presence of men and of angels, and be attended with consequences through all the ages of eternity, to our great honor and happiness, or to our great confusion and misery.

SUMMARY OF DISCOURSE VIII.

ROMANS, CHAP. VIII.-VERSE 16.

Here

WHAT it is to be the children of God explained: it implies all the advantages that belong to, and all the qualities necessary to make a good Christian: if children, then heirs ; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ: as this is a new state, which belongs not to us by nature, our entrance into it is styled a new birth: and this new life we receive by the ministration of the Holy Spirit; and therefore we are said to be born of the Spirit: he is the earnest of our inheritance, the pledge and security which we receive from God of our future immortality but the difficulty is, how to make the first step, and to know assuredly that we are the children of God. the Apostle tells us, that the Spirit itself, i. e. the same Spirit by which we are made children, beareth witness with our spirit, &c. It is a matter of dispute, what sort of evidence the Apostle here means, and what kind of certainty arises from it: some opinions stated: present discussion confined to St. Paul, and the endeavor to collect his meaning in the text. In this three things considered :-I. how many witnesses St. Paul points out, and who they are: II. what kind of evidence each of them gives in this case: III. what the result of their evidence is, and with what kind of certainty we know that we are the children of God. I. According to our translation, the witnesses are evidently two in number: the Spirit of adoption which Christians receive is one witness, and our own spirit is the other. The vulgar Latin and several other translators render the words to the following effect: the Spirit itself beareth

witness to our spirit: according to this sense, which is held by Grotius, Crellius, and some others, there is but one witness, the Spirit of adoption who beareth witness to our spirit: but our translation is right: this shown by the invariable signification of the word ovμμaprupeiv in the New Testament, instanced in Romans ii. 15. ix. 1. We have therefore two witnesses; and who they are, is next considered. Who the first Spirit is must be learnt from what goes before: in verses 2, 9, 11, and 15 of this chapter, we read of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, the Spirit of God and of Christ, the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus, and the Spirit of adoption, by which we cry Abba, Father. In the verse of the text reference is made to this Spirit: but the question is, whether Spirit in all these places be the name of a person, or whether it denotes only a quality or temper belonging to Christians, as in Phil. ii. 5. which sense Crellius and others maintain, and explain the text thus: our evangelical spirit, or temper, is a sufficient argument to our own minds that we are the children of God. This point is not disputed here, as it would occasion too long a controversy: but though the Spirit of Christ sometimes is used in this sense, is it so used in the text? This Spirit is the Spirit of life, by which we are made free from the heavy yoke of sin, which the Apostle had been describing in the preceding chapter: now an evangelical spirit is not the cause, but the consequent of this freedom. Again, it is the Spirit of him who raised up Christ, i. e. the Spirit by which he wrought that miracle, as is evident from taking the whole of the eleventh verse together; it is the Holy Spirit, who is mighty in works and wonders. Lastly, it is the Spirit of adoption, by which we are made sons: the Spirit of adoption is the Spirit of which we are born in Christ; of which birth an evangelical temper is the effect, not the cause: so that it appears this first witness is the Holy Spirit of God: the second is our own spirit, that is, our mind and conscience. Who knoweth

the things of a man, save the spirit of a man that is in him? II. Inquiry into what evidence each of them gives in this case. For this we must look back to the latter part of the foregoing chapter, to which this verse of the text relates for in all this eighth chapter there is not one word said before of our own mind or spirit, nor the least hint of any evidence which it gives of our being the children of God. The great privileges mentioned in this chapter, such as the being made free from the law of sin and death, the walking not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, these being such as we receive from the Spirit of God, are evidences of the Spirit for our regeneration where then must we look for the evidence of our own spirit? This difficulty put the Greek commentators on a very forced interpretation of the passage: for observing that all the signs of adoption proceeded from the power and working of the Holy Spirit, in effect they made the two witnesses of the text but one. Thus Chrysostom by the Spirit itself understands the Holy Spirit ; and by our spirit, the gift of the Holy Spirit within us. This interpretation refuted. Keeping, then, to the sense already laid down, we must consider what St. Paul had in view when he penned the place in question. In this Apostle's writings we must often search for the connexion at a considerable distance from the passage: with respect to the one before us, in the latter part of chapter vii. he describes the state of an unregenerate Jew, or heathen, in order to show to his converts the necessity of redemption through Christ, as neither the law of Moses nor of nature could free them from the power of sin, nor from death which follows it: then in this 8th chapter he sets forth the power of redemption, showing how it supplies the infirmities. both of the Law and of Nature: to clear the matter still more, what he says of the unregenerate man's condition in chap. vii. is more particularly examined: he is described as under the most wretched slavery to sin, though with the greatest reluctance to his own mind and reason; as loving God and his

Law, but obeying the tyrant sin: so that the evidence of reason even in a state of nature, shows that we are the servants and sons of God; but power constrains us, lust rules over us, and experience shows that we are the slaves of sin: to complete this evidence of our minds, nothing more is wanting than to destroy the power of sin, which will enable us to follow the dictates of reason, and obey the laws of God: for this is complete evidence that a man is a son and servant of God, that he loves and obeys him. In the 8th chapter, then, St. Paul tells us that the redemption by Christ has put an end to our wretched captivity the power of the Spirit has destroyed the power of sin but the power of the Spirit is on reason's side and works with it; so that to be under this power is a state of freedom; and therefore it is justly said, that the law of the Spirit of life hath made us free: the consequence is, that we walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit—that we mind the things of the Spirit-mortify the deeds of the body-are the sons of Godcry Abba, Father: now this is to walk according to our own mind acted on by reason; and to cry Abba, Father, proceeds from a filial duty and reverence: this we owe to the Spirit; for before, though our minds consented to his laws, we were still sinners, and conscience kept us back from our Father: but now, like children, we run to his embrace with words of affection; and thus (says the Apostle,) the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.

In the last place it is considered, what the result of this evidence is, and with what certainty we may know that we are children of God. First, it must be observed that these two evidences strengthen each other, and must both meet to give us the assurance we expect: we must have the evidence of our own spirit that we love and approve God's laws, and that of the Spirit of God working in us by obedience. Two ways of judging ourselves; inward and outward signs of grace: inward purity and love, with acts of obedience and conformity