tion, burning up the root of it, by a real efficiency difcovereth to us the evils thereof, helpeth us in our addreffes to God, verfe 16. calleth to mind the crofs of Chrift, difcovereth a fulnefs in him, and helpeth us to wait upon him, and expect daily fupply from him; therefore it is added, If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body. See Gal. v. 24. 25. Ezek. xi. 19. and xxxvi. 26. Ifa. lvii. 17. 18. XII. Tho' this work of mortifying the deeds of the body, be mainly the work of the Spirit, who works all our works in us, Ifa. xxvi. 12. as faith, 2 Theff. i. 11. Col. i. 12. and prayer, Zech. xii. 10. yea, our very willing, Phil. ii. 23.; yet is it ftill our duty, and an act of obedience in us; we mortify, the Spirit acting his graces in us, and facilitating the work, oiling the wheels with his continual influences: If ye mortify, through the Spirit, &c. XV. As fuch as are making confcience in fincerity, of mortifying the deeds of the body, may expect life and falvation for ever hereafter; fo may they, in God's ordinary courfe of dealing, look for a peaceable and comfortable life, even here away; fin which was as a thick cloud intercepting the beams of God's love, being removed; tho' God may difpenfe otherwife with fome for his own holy ends, as with Heman, Pfal. Ixxxviii. If ye thro the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye hall live. XVI. Tho' there be no fuch connection between the mortification of fin and life eternal, as betwixt a caufe and its effect, life being the gift of God, Rom. vi. 23.; yet is there a connection between them as betwixt the means and the end; mortification is the way to life, as the end: If ye mortify the deeds of the body, ye ball live. XVII. Tho' God hath unalterably determined the end of his own to be life, for the glory of his great name; yet as he hath in the fame decree determined both the means, and the end which they lead to, fo will the have the means ufed, although we have a promife of the end made us; therefore, though he faid before, verse 1. that there was no condemnation to them that were in Chrift, and then afterwards afferted them to be in Chrift; yet he fays here, If ye mortify the deeds of the body, XIII. Tho' unregenerate men, may, upon fome carnal account, forfake the practice of fome fin, and feem to get the victory now and then over fome corruption, which hath broken forth to their great trouble, and threatens fad judgments to come upon them, and they and firive against it, fo as it may ly ftill for a while; yet let fuch ufe never fo much diligence, earnestnefs, and watchfulness, they fhall never be able to mortify one luft: it is only the believer, who hath this Spirit of Ged, by which this is gotten done, a-ye shall live. biding in him; therefore he fpeaks to believers, and fays, If ye mortify. XIV. In mortifying the deeds of the body, there fhould be much fincerity used, and an univerfal aim against all and every one of its deeds, flowing from a real hatred against fin, and every fin; and it is an unprofitable and unfucceisful courfe, to fet about the killing of one fin, keeping truce with another; our ftroke of mortification fhould be against all fin without exception; therefore we are commanded to mortify the deeds of the body indefinitely, none excepted. See 2 Cor. vii. 1. From verfe 14th OBSERVE, I. Whom the Lord has chofen to himself from all eternity, thofe, in his own time, he not only bringeth into a state of favour and reconciliation with himself, but alfo into a ftate of adoption, whereby they are received into the number of his fons, John i. 12. having the Lord for their Father, 2 Cor. vi. 18. and have a right to all the liberties and privileges of the fons of God; thus they are called the fons of God. II. Tho' believers, being brought out of nature into grace, have received the prin - VI. Tho' wicked perfons do partake of the influences of God, as to their natural actions, feeing in him they live, move, and have their being, Acts vii. 28. and are act ciples and habits of grace, and fo being enlivened are more able to walk in the way of obedience than before; yet fo weak is grace in them, who fee only but in part, and fo strong and active is corrup-ed by him in refpect of external gifts and tion, that they cannot walk in the ways of endowments; yet it is peculiar to the chil obedience without help; they are as blind dren of God only, to be fo acted and inmen, and little children, needing one to fluenced with divine and faving influences: guide them and lead them; they are led For as many (and no more) as are led by by the Spirit. the Spirit of God, they are the fans of God. III. The guide which believers have received to lead them is the Holy Spirit of God, who, as he infufeth the habits of grace, doth bring the fame forth to act, by daily renewed influences, and fo illuminates their minds more and more, to know the will of God, and fweetly moveth and inclineth them to obedience: they are led by the Spirit of God. VII. Sanctification, and following the warm and kind motions of the Spirit of God, in the conftant tract of our life and daily walk, is a fure mark of our adoption, and intereft in God as our Father; For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the fons of God. VIII. As fin and iniquity doth much darken and overcloud folks intereft in God as their Father, that they cannot read and understand the fame; fo the privilege of adoption itfelf, yea, and the perceiving and clearly feeing of the fame, fhould ftrongly move and induce us to follow ho and the body of fin: for this is an argu. ment preffing mortification of corruption, that whoever are led by the Spirit of God, are the fons of God. IV. Albeit the Spirit of God, in his outletings of faving influences, whereby his people are guided and directed, be a mot free agent, both as to the meafure of them, and the renewed grant, as to particular occafions, fo as many at feve-linefs, and labour to mortify corruption, ral occafions may be left to fall, 2 Chron xxxii. 31. as we fee in Noah, David, Solomon, &c. yet as to the keeping in of the life of grace, and as to the ac tuating it fo, in their habitual tract of walking, as they fhall certainly enjoy the crown, there is fome neceflity, and fo affurance, that they fhall be conftantly led by the Spirit; for by this, that they are led by the Spirit, they might know that they were the fons of God. IX. As it is the Spirit in and by whom we get fin and corruption mortified, as we cleared, verfe 13. Doctrine XI.; fo the best way to get this matter efectuated, is to be giving up ourfelves wholly unto the guidance and direction of the Spirit, and to be welcoming, and not oppofing, reliftV. Tho' believers cannot walk nor acting, nor impeding the influences of the but as they are guided by the Spirit of God; yet this doth not loofe them from a moral obligation to obedience: Tho' we fhould not fee a harmony and fweet concord between the phyfical influences of the Spirit upon the wills of believers, and the free actings of their wills in obedience, yet there is; for although he fays here, that they are led by the Spirit of God. yet he preffeth them before, to the mortifying of the deeds of the body. Spirit: for taking this verse as rendering a reafon of what was affirmed laft, thefe words, led by the Spirit of God, are exegetical of thefe, mortify the deeds of the body. X. Adoption is an undoubted arles of everlafting falvation; for hereby he con firmeth, that they that mortify the deeds of the body fhall live; becaufe they who are led by the Spirit of God, they are the Juns of God. VERSES 15. 16. For ye have not received the fpirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itfelf beareth witness with our Spirit, that we are the children of God. THE HE laft argument which the apoftle made mention of, verfe 13. viz. That fuch as mortified the deeds of the body, through the Spirit, fhould live, he confirmed, verfe 14. by an argument, which alfo, as we fhewed, ferves as a new reafon to prefs this duty of mortification. And this confirmation, fet down, verfe 14. he maketh good in all its parts. We may take up the reafon thus: All that are the children of God fhall live; but fuch as are led by the Spirit, or by the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, are the fons of God; for we may take the one as exegetical of the other, as was shown. The propofition he confirmeth, verse 17. If children, then heirs, &c. the affumption he confirmeth in verfes 15. and 16. But he fo fpeaks to the confirmation thereof, as applying it particularly to the believing Romans, and fo as it might ferve to clear their intereft in God as their Father, and point forth undeniable grounds of their adoption; and for this caufe he giveth feveral evidences of their fonship; evidences which undeniably prove the fame. As, 1. The Spirit of adoption which they have received; that is, the Holy Spirit, which cleareth and confirmeth them of their adoption, and which uniteth fouls to Chrift, and fo beftoweth upon us the right of adoption, applying Chrift to us, and us to Chrift, by faith. And this is amplified and further cleared, (1.) from the effects of this fame Spirit upon the fame perfons, laying them in fetters, under the lafh of the law and curfe of God, by manifefting unto them their fin and mifery; and hence he is called the Spirit of bondage, which once they had received as a gift of grace; and from this followed fear of God's curfe and wrath, and fear left they fhould be for.. ever banished from God. (2.) Though once, would he fay, you was laid into the ftocks by the Spirit, and knew no way to efcape, and was once at your wit's end, yet it is not fo with you now, there is a happy change, and you fhall no more be troubled with fuch fharp exercifes, by the Holy Spirit, as formerly; You have not received again, &c. (3.) This Spirit of adoption is farther amplified from a fweet fruit and effect which he works, viz. a holy, bold approaching unto God as a Father, and a confident laying open our wants unto him, as our Father; whereby we cry, Abba, Father: Crying imports boldnefs and confidence, and Abba, Father, is to fhew, that there is now no difference between Jew or Gentile, fuch as ufed the Syriac language or the Greek; Abba is a Syriac word, and Pater is a Greek word. 2. Next he fays, verse 16. that this Spirit beareth witness with our fpirits, that we are the children of God; that is, this fame Spirit witneffeth the fame with our confciences right informed, viz. That we are the children of God. OBSERVATIONS. I. As the elect of God, no less than others of the loft children of Adam, are by nature dead in fin, drowned over head and ears in the fea of fin and mifery, kept in flavery and chains under Satan's command, Eph. ii. 2. 2 Tim. ii. 26.; fo it feemeth good in the Lord's eyes, to make even thofe who are his own chofen veffels, to meet with bonds of another kind, because of their fins, and to faften them in fetters of iron, under the guilt of fin, and due ftroke of juftice: Even these who are children, and made partakers of adoption, did once receive the Spirit of bondage. II. When the Lord is thus dealing with his own chofen, he fo difcovers unto them the fpiritual meaning and power of the law, Rom. vii. 9. whereby they fee themfelves condemned, and armeth con fcieuce fcience against them, to pannel and accufe them of their tranfgreffing the law, and that fo and fo often, and fo and fo heinoufly; and that fo convincingly, that they can have nothing to fpeak against the accufation given in, but are forced to acknowlege themfelves guilty, A&ts ii. 37. Ifa. lix. 12. Pfalmol. 21. and then beareth home the due fentence of death, which in juftice they cannot but expect, and fo maketh them to tremble, Acts xvi. 29. and unable to ftand, Ezek. xxii. 14. and filleth them with forrow and grief, Pfalm cii. 9. and troubleth them, that they fcarce know what to do, feeing no help from one hand or another, but looking on themfelves as utterly gone, for any thing they can fee; and this locketh them up into the ftocks, out of which they cannot win until his own time; therefore this cafe of theirs is called a cafe of bondage. | IV. Albeit the Lord, who is the holy One of Ifrael, and muft not be limited, may, and doth fometimes, bring home fome of his own in their young and tender years, Luke i. 41. 44. 2 Tim. iii. 15. Matth. xix. 13. 14. with Mark x. 13. and Luke xviii. 15. &c. and others more fweetly and gently, and others more calmly and quickly, foas they do not tafte much of the bitternefs of this work of bondage; yet in the Lord's ordinary way of calling home his own, he firft becometh a spirit of bondage, before that he become a fpirit of adoption. The Lord thinks it fit, to the end that they may the more easily be weaned from corruption and fin, brought to a high prizing and valuing of inestimable Jefus, and to a willingness to accept of him upon any terms, that they may be more fited for comfort, and engaged to watchfulness in time coming, patience under tribulaIII. Though Satan be a fpirit of bon- tion, boldnels in time of opposition, to dage, keeping his own in the basest flave-thankfulness, Pfalm cxvi. 3. 4. 6. 12. love, ry that is, 2 Tim. ii. 26. keeping them under the command and dominion of fin, and alfo accufing them fometimes for fin, fo as they defpair of help, being bound with the bonds of death, and chains of darknefs, as was Cain and Judas, and fo hereby drives them to deftruction; yet the ftrong convictions of guilt and mifery, which the elect of God, unconverted, ly under, when their confciences are awakened, and the law is ftaring them in the face, and the wrath of God appearing as due by law, whereby they are driven in to Chrit the only city of refuge, and who only can fave, Acts iv. 12. flow from the Spirit of God, whofe work it is to convince of fin, John xvi. 9. and who dealeth with men and women as with rational creatures, convincing them of their need of a phyfician, that they may be driven in to Chrift; for they are faid to have received the Spirit of bondage; and fo it is the Holy Spirit, for it is faid to be received, and is the fame with the Spirit of adoption, and differs ly in working a different effect. Namb. IV. 4. verfe 1. and a humble way of walking all their days; as alfo for the glory of his own juftice, Lam. i. 10. Neh. ix. 33. truth, power, Heb. x. 31. Mal. iii. 2. mercy, Eph. ii. 4. 1 Pet. i. 3. 1 Tim. i. 13. Pfalın clxv. 9. and ciii. 8. and goodness, Rom. ii. wifdom and holinefs, Exod. xv. 11.; for thefe ends, I fay, the only wife God thinks fit to make the cords of hell compafs about his own, Pfalm xviii. 5. 6. and to bind them over in fetters of iron, and fo put them in the ftocks before he enlarge them; he will first become a fpirit of bondage, locking them up in prifon, before he become a fpirit of adoption : Ye have not received the ffirit of bondage again, fays he, but the spirit of adoption; and fo the one is faid to go before the other. 37. V. Albeit the Lord deal not with all who are come to age, in this manner, after one and the fame measure, as we fee, Matth. ix. 9. compared with Acts ii. but fome are kept longer in the place of on-breaking forth of children, as fome who are more froward, Acts xvi. 24. altogether igOo norant, fuch a fharp difpenfation, while they are lying under it; hence they are faid to receive this Spirit of bondage. It is a gift, and a gift of free grace, flowing from the bowels of everlasting love. norant, Acts xvi. 14. enemies to Chriftia- | nity, as Paul, Acts ix. who have led a moft wicked life, have had many warnings, are fettled on lees, Jer. xlviii. 11. and fo cannot be gotten eafily weaned from fin; and others are brought a fhorter cut; yet VIII. When the foul is thus under the the Lord acquainteth thofe of his own, lafhes of the fpirit of bondage, it is lying whom he bringeth home at age, with fo under great fear of being cut off for ever much of this work of bondage, as maketh by the hand of juftice: it is a spirit of fin a burden unto them, Matth. xi. 28. loth-bondage to fear. See 2 Tim. i. 7. Heb. fome, and that which they dare not tam-ii. 15. per with again; and maketh the poor finner go out of himfelf altogether, and become humble in his own eyes, fo as the fadeft difpenfations fhall be welcomed; and alfo maketh the foul prize Chrift, and clofe with him upon his own terms, over the belly of difcouragements, without further excufes and delays, Matth. xviii. 19. And, in a word, he fo far convinceth them of their fin and mifery, as they fee no remedy, but Christ, and are content to fubmit to him with all their heart, and make peace with him upon his own terms: Therefore he fays of all the believing Romans indefinitely, that they had received the fpirit of bondage; Ye have received the spirit of bondage. VI. While the elect of God are under the grips of the spirit of bondage, though they be in fome near capacity for, and not far from the kingdom of God; yet are they all that time in a ftate of nature, there being but two ftates, under two covenants; for as long as they are under the Spirit of bondage, they have not received the fpirit of adoption. VII. Albeit unregenerate finners may fet about these means which God hath appointed for conviction of guilt and mifery, fuch as prayer, Pfalm cxix. 18. preaching, &c. yet, there being no neceffary connection between these duties and this fpirit of bondage; it is an act of the Spirit of grace, who bloweth where and when he lifteth, to take his own and fhut them up in prifon, and fo proceedeth from love, though they read nothing but anger and wrath in IX. Howbeit the children of God, who are made partakers of the fpirit of adoption, and brought in to Chrift, may lie under great trouble of mind, and have many grips and pangs of an accufing and troubling confcience, Pfalm xl. 2. yea, and poffibly forer throws than ever they met with before, by reason of Satan's increafing the jealoufy which their deceitful hearts hath against God, and otherwife working upon the heart, thro' God's permiffion; the Lord alfo, for wife and holy ends, withdrawing the influences of his Spirit, whereby they might be fupported and comforted; yet the Spirit of God doth never become a fpirit of bondage to them again, convincing them of being in a ftate of fin and enmity, and of being under the curfe and condemning wrath of God, and as lying under God's vindictive juftice as yet unfatisfied: Ye have not received the Spirit of bondage again. X. After God has fufficiently humbled his own people, under the hand of the fpirit of bondage, he bringerh them into a gracious state of adoption, and the work of the fpirit of bondage ends always thus in the elect, Ifa. lxi. 1. 2. 3. Pfalm cxxvi. 5.6.: Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again.---but ye have received the Spirit of adoption. XI. This noble privilege of adoption which is peculiar only to the elect, Eph. i. 5. whereby, of God's free love, Eph. i. 3. 5. 1 John iii. 1. through Chrit as purchaser, Gal. iv. 5. Eph. i. 11. 1Pet. i. 3. 4. and deriver, as head of all the reit, |