II.

I2

13

we shall live.

by his Spirit that dwelleth

12 Therefore, Brethren, we are Debtors, not to the Flesh, to live after the Flesh.

13 For if ye live after the Flesh, ye fhall die: But mortify the Deeds of the if ye through the Spirit do Body, ye fhall live.

96
If we mortify the Deeds of the Body,
Sect. 16. tho' corrupted and confumed in the Grave, by
the Agency of that great and powerful Spirit, in you.
Rom. VIII. which now dwelleth in you, and acts to quicken
you in the Divine Life.
Therefore my
dear Brethren, fince it is certain
the Gratifications of the Flesh can do nothing for
us, like that which will be done for us at the Re-
furrection, and fince all prefent Enjoyments are
mean and worthlefs, when compared with that;
here is a moft fubftantial Argument for that Mor-
tification and Sanctity, which the Gospel requires.
And it neceffarily follows, that we are Debtors to
the Spirit, which gives us fuch exalted Hopes,
and not unto the Flesh, that we should live after
the Dictates, Defires, and Appetites of the Flesh.
For I muft plainly and faithfully tell you, and
muft repeat and inculcate it upon you, as a
Matter of infinite Importance, that if you tho'
profeffing Chriftians, and fome of you eminent
for fo high and distinguishing a Profeffion, (Com-
pare Chap. i. 8.) do live after the Flesh, and
mind nothing fuperior to its Interefts, ye shall
For affuredly die, that is, fhall perish by the Sen-
tence of an holy GoD, no less than if you were
Jews or Heathens. But if you thro' the Influ-
ence and Affiftance of God's Holy Spirit, and
the Exercise of these Graces which he by Rege-
neration has implanted in your Souls, do mortify
and fubdue the Deeds of the Body, thofe carnal
Inclinations from whence all criminal Indulgen-
ces of the Body arife, ye shall live; ye fhall fi-
nally obtain a State of compleat Felicity, in
Spight of all that Death can do to diffolve thefe
animal Bodies: Not now to infift on that true
rational Delight, which is only to be found here
in fuch a Courfe, and without which our Abode
on Earth fcarce deferves the Name of Life.

14 For as many as are

they

14 Well may it be expected, that in this Cafe, you led by the Spirit of GOD,
shall live for ever; fince hereby your Adoption
of God, which muft entitle you to a blissful Im-
mortality, will be approved. For as many as
are led by the Spirit of GOD, and humbly refign
themselves to be guided whither-foever he will,
by his sweet and fecret Influence on the Soul

they

For the Spirit teftifies, that we are the Children of GOD:

they are GOD.

15 For ye have not received the Spirit of Bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of Adoption, whereby we cry, Ab

ba, Father.

For ye, 15

14.

97

the Sons of they are indeed the Sons and Daughters of GOD, Sect. 16.
and shall inherit eternal Life with their heavenly
Father Of which indeed, if we are obedient Rom. VIII.
to his holy Dictates and Motions, we already
receive the Earnest and Foretastes.
who are real Christians, have not received the
Spirit of Bondage again unto Fear (c), ye are not
come under another Difpenfation like that of
Mofes, which was much more adapted to strike
the Mind with Terror, and often produces a fer-
• vile Difpofition; but, on the contrary, ye have
received the Spirit of Adoption, the Confi-
dence of Children in approaching to GOD; by
which Spirit, whatever our different Nations and
Languages may be, we can, with equal Joy and
Freedom, prefent our Addreffes to his Throne,
and cry, with the Overflowings of filial Affec-
tion to him, and fraternal Love to each other,
Abba, Father (d). For as the Communica- 16
tion of the vifible and extraordinary Gifts of
the Spirit, both to Jews and Gentiles, witneffes
that we are, without Diftinction, in this Re-
spect accepted and owned by GoD as his People;
fo alfo he himself, by his internal and gracious
Operations, beareth Witness with the Answer of
our Spirits, when seriously examined and interro-
gated, and gives us an inward and joyful Affurance,
that we are the Children of GOD, and perfonally
interested in his paternal Love. And from 17
hence arifes a moft joyful and triumphant Hope;
for if we are his Children, then we are undoubt-
edly Heirs of a glorious and immortal Inheri-
tance: We are then Heirs of GOD, and fhall
for ever enjoy him, as our gracious Father, whofe
Prefence and Love is the very Heaven of Heaven.
And

16 The Spirit itself beareth Witness with our Spirit,

that we are the. Children of GOD.

17 And if Children, then Heirs; Heirs of GOD, and Joint

(c) The Spirit of Bondage.] Both Mr. Locke and Mr. Pierce understand this, of the Fear of Death, under which the legal Difpenfation left the Jews; but I rather understand it of that comparitively fervile Spirit, which ran thro' the whole Mofaick Oeconomy, and which is finely illuftrated by Dr. Evans, in his Sermon on this Text. Evan's Chriftian Temp. Vol. i. Serm. xvii. Serm. xviii.

(d) Abba, Father.] I fuppofe, few of my Readers will need to be informed, that the Word Abba fignifies Father, in the Jewish Language, that is, the Syro-Chaldaick; and the Infertion of it here beautifully reprefents the Union of Jewish and Gentile Believers, in those Devotions, which were dictated by a filial Spirit.

VOL. IV.

N

98

Sect. 15. Rom. VIII.

17.

Ver. 17.

Ver. 15.

Ver. 14.

Ver. 9.

Ver. I.

Ver. 7.

Ver 6,

fo be that we fuffer with

If Children, then Heirs of GOD, and Joint-Heirs of Chrift.
And we are alfo Joint-Heirs of Chrift, we fhall Joint-Heirs with Chrift: If
enjoy this Happiness, as with him, in his Sight, him, that we may be alfa
and fhall be formed to a Refemblance of him, glorified together.
as the great Foundation of that Enjoyment.
But then let it ever be remembered, that this is
to be taken in Connection. It is provided that
we are willing, not only to deny ourselves in pro-
hibited carnal Gratifications, and to govern our
Lives by his Precepts, but also to fuffer with
[him], that is, in Conformity to him, if called
out to it for the Honour of GoD, and for the
Teftimony of a good Confcience; that so we may
alfo be glorified together with him, in that World
where he now triumphs, and where all the Infa-
my and Pain we endure for his Sake, fhall be
amply repaid with Honours and Joys everlasting.

WELL

IMPROVEMENT.

ELL may we rejoice in Privileges like thefe; well may we be aftonished to think, that they should be bestowed on any of the Children of Men! That any of them thould be Heirs of GCD, and JointHeirs with Chrift; the adopted Children of an heavenly Father, and marked out by the Communications of his Spirit for an Inheritance, which he hath prepared! That they should be fitted and enabled to approach him with that endearing Compellation, Abba, Father, in their Mouths! Oh that every one of us may know by Experience, which alone can teach us, how fweet it is! And if we would obtain and fecure this Witness, let us fee to it, that we be obediently led by the Spirit of GOD; for that Spirit is not, where he does not effectually governs and if any Man have not that Spirit of Chrift, he is none of Chrift's Difciples, nor is he intitled to any of the Privileges of his People.

Let the Matter therefore be seriously examined: And let it be determined by inquiring, whether we do on the whole walk after the Flesh, or the Spirit. Let us guard more and more against that carnal Mind, which is Enmity against GOD, and cannot be fubject to his Law, nor leave Room for us to pleafe GOD, while it prefides and governs in us. Let us often reflect upon that Death, which would be the Confequence of our living after the Flesh; and never conceive of ourselves. upon any Occafion as Perfons, who, in Confequence of fomething that has already paffed, have found out a Way to break the Connection here established, and in the Nature of Things effentially established, between a carnel Mind, and Death. May our Spirits be more and more enlivened

by

Reflections on the Privileges of the Children of GOD.

99

by that vital Union with a Redeemer, which may give us a Part in the Sect. 16. Merits of his Righteousness, and in the Life it has fecured for all true Believers; and may the Efficacy of his Spirit to raise our Souls from a Death of Sin to a Life of Holinefs, be in us a bleffed Earnest, that he will compleat the Work, and at length quicken our mortal Bodies by his Spirit which dwelleth in us. When Flesh and Senfe can adminifter a Confolation like this, let us hearken to them: In the mean Time let us remember, let us always remember, how much we are Debtors to the Spirit; and let us endeavour to act according to these immense Obligations.

The glorious Profpects, which the Gospel fets before us, are reprefented and urged as a further Advantage, which it gives us for Holiness; even that confummate Glory, the Difcovery of which the whole Creation, now fubject to Vanity, Seems to wait and call for. The Apostle then mentions Confolations, which are derived from the Affiftances of the Spirit in Prayer, as further illuftrating his main Defign. Rom. VIII. 18---27.

Ν

ROMANS VIII. 18.

IN reprefenting the high Privileges of our Adop- Sect. 17.

18.

tion, I have been observing, that if, in Confequence of our Fidelity to our Saviour, we should Rom. VIII. fuffer with him, we fhall also be glorified together with him: And in this perfecuted State, in which, as Christians, we now are, I befeech you attentively to enter into this Thought, that your Hearts may be duly quickened and fortified by it. I have for my own Part been obliged, amidst the peculiar Hazards of my Apoftolick Office, frequently to weigh and exactly to examine the Matter; and I find upon the moft deliberate Computation, that the Sufferings of the prefent Time, how extream foever they may be, [are] not worthy [of any Account] at all, nor fo much as worthy of a MenN 2 tion,

100

Sect. 17.

Rom. VIII.

18,

19

The Creation waits for the Revelation of the Sons of GOD, tion, when fet against that great and unalterable to be compared with the GloGlory, that fhall in due Time be revealed to us; ry which fhall be revealed us;n us. but which at prefent exceeds even our most ele... vated Conceptions, and can never be fully known, till we fee each other wear it, and by Conscioufnefs feel it in our felves.

Thefe, my dear Brethren, are the Views,
with which I would animate your Minds: And
furely no Object can give them more noble, or
more delightful Employment. For methinks,
when I look round upon the blafted and wretched
State of this World of ours, it seems that all
Nature does, as it were, call aloud, in pathetick
Language, for that bleffed Change, which the
Gospel was intended to introduce. The earnest
Expectation of the whole Creation (a), fo far as
it now lies open to our View, is waiting for the
Revelation of the Sons of GOD; for the happy
Time when he shall appear more openly to avow
them, and that Reproach and Distress fhall be
rolled away, under which they are now disguised
For the Creation foon loft its
20 and concealed.

original Beauty and Felicity; a fad Change paffed
on Man and his Abode, fo that all the vifible
Face of Nature was made fubject to Vanity and
Wretchedness in a Variety of Forms; and this
not willingly, not by the perfonal Misbehaviour
of those who are now moft deeply affected with-
out, but by him who fubjected [it,] that is, by

Adam,

19 For the earnest Ex

pectation of the Creature tion of the Sons of GOD.

waiteth for the Manifefta

20 For the Creature was willingly, but by reafon of made fubject to Vanity, not him who hath subjected the fame in Hope.

(a) The earnest Expectation of the Creation, &. This and the following Verses have been generally, and not without Reafon, accounted as difficult as any Part of this Epiftle. The Difficulty has perhaps been fomething encreased by rendering hos, Creation in one Claufe, and Creature in another. To explain it as chiefly referring to the brutal, or inanimate Creation is infufferable; fince the Day of the Redemption of our Bodies will be attended with the Conflagration, which will put an End to them. The Interpretation therefore, by which Dr. Whitby and Mr. Grove refer it to the Gentile World, is much preferable to this. But on the whole, I think, it gives a much fublimer and nobler Senfe, to fuppofe it a bold Profopopeia, by which on Account of the Calamity and Sin brought and continued on the whole unavangelized World, (tho' few of its Inhabitants faw fo much of their Mifery, as actually to defire the Remedy,) it is reprefented as looking out with eager Expectation, (as the Word enoxapadoxia exactly fignifies,) for fuch a Remedy and Relief as the Gofpel brings, by the Prevalency of which human Nature would be refcued from Vanity and Corruption, and inferior Creatures from Tyranny and Abuse. Nothing is more common, than to reprefent a Land as mourning or rejoicing, as calling for Rain, &c. And if this be allowed to be the Meaning of these three Verfes, the Gradation in the 23d will be much more intelligible, than on any other Scheme that I know. See Note (b) below.

7

(6) Bring