V er. t 5. the-8th Chapter to the ROMANS. 165 I Pet. r. $, In whom though nomyou fee him not, yet believing, ye rejoyce with joy un- fpeakeb1e, and fall of glory. In Come the fpirit only difcovereth himfelf by hungring and chilling after righteoulnefs ; in others he worketh peace, which paffeth all under - (landing, and joy unfpeakable and full of glory. 3. There is a childlike reverence, when there is not a child like confidence. They are affraid to offend their Heavenly Father, though they cannot challenge all the fruits and effe &s of his Fatherly love, as belonging to them ; when they cannot own him as a Fa- ther with delightful confidence,yet they dare not offend him; for all Gods Children have a Child -like love to him, when they have not a full fenfe and affurance of his paternal love to them ; for he hath a title to our dearer( love, before we can make out a title to his benefits ; now they that love God, hare evil ; Pfal. 97. ro. are tender of omitting any duty, or committing any offence ; where there is this Holy awe, there is a fpirit of adoption ; 'cis an owning of God as a Father, 1 Pei 1, 17. If ye call on the Father, &c. And therefore this reverence we call filial fear. 4. The heart is carried out to heavenly things, though we cannot call them ours. All that are children, do look after a childsPortion ; there is a twofold hope, Firfi, an hope which is the e, ffeul of regeneration, 1 Pet, 1. 3. And an hope which ii the eta of experience, Rom. g. 4. Now this puts a difference between the fpirit of Bondage, and the fervile mercenary fpirit, when the currant of thine affections is carried our after the eternal in- heritance ; fervants and mercenaries muff have pay in hand, they covenant with you from day to day, or from quarter to quarter; or from year to year; a child in the Fa- mily tarryeth for a Childs Portion, Math. 6. 4. When thou daft thine alms, do not found alrumpet before thee as the hypocrites do in the(nogogue, and in the fireet ; they have their reward'Aaíxecs virmie4,v`riJ' prefect wages they look for, difcharge God from other things; if he will give them the honour and pleafure of the world, they are fatisfied and look for no more. 5. Why this is the fruit of the new covenant difpenfation ? There are three things which mull not be fevered, r. The obje &. 2. A powerful agent. j. The difpofition of the fubje& thence refulting. I. There is an Ojai, and that is the Gofpel offering pardon and life, reconciliation with God, and the everlafling fruition of him in Glory. In the Gofpel or new covenant, we have the higher( difcovery of Gods Fatherly goodnefs, that hemight be more amiable and lovely to us, and be loved by us ; the great end of reconciling and Caving loft man by Chrift, his wonderful condefcention in his incarnation, life, fufferings and death, was to commend his love to us, Rom. g. 8. Herein God commended his love to us, in that when we were yet fnners,Chrifl died for us. To this end alto tend his merciful covenant and promifes, that we might not look upon God as a condemning Judg, but as a gracious and reconciled Father, offering to be fo to all that will accept Chris(, and fubmit to him. God would not immediately beget this perfwafion in our minds, by his own ferret power, but ufe this objef(ïve means, work upon our love by love, becaufe he will work on man agreeably to the nature of man ; his covenant (hall fpeak him a Father, that we may apprehend him as a Father. 2. There is an internal powerful.agent, and that is the fpirit. Befides the external ob- je &ive means, there mull be an internal effe &ive caute ; for though Gods Fatherly love doth thine resplendently without. us, in the person of the Mediator, and the riches of the Gofpel ; yet the dead and dark heart of man is not affe&ed with it, John 1. g. And the light fhineth in darlonefr, and the darknefs comprehendeth it not, till God Thine into our Hearts, 2 Cor. 4. 6. For God who commanded the light to thine out of darknefs, bath fbincd in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledg of the glory of God in the face of Jefas Chrifi. Unless this Do&rine of Gods Fatherly Love and Grace, be accompanied with his illuminating, Sandifying,Cbmforting Spirit, who (beds abroad this Love in our Hearts which is revealed in the Gofpel. 3. The dif oftion thence refulting from the application of this objeti to us by the fp irit filch as the objet( is, Poch are the affeftions ftirred up in us; as by Law- truths the fpirit worketh contition, terrors of conscience, legal contrition, Ails 2. 37. and thence Bondage arifeth ; fo by the Gofpel, where God is reprefented as the Father of Mercies, and the God and Father of our Lord Jefus Christ, and in him our God and Father 5 the Lmpreffron mutt be fuitable ; this Spirit that worketh by the Gofpel, mull needs be the Spirit of Adoption, or fuch a Spirit as,worketh a Child-like difpofition in us, for the Impreffion mull always be according to the ttaipp. a. id S E
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