Ses 48t 1FYRST i'Rutt! 6r! Tlt¢ SPIRIT ; blt tY)ISC. X. some way or other made to serve the detestable and wicked purposes of the sinful children of men, and may be figuratively said to groan on this account. And if we have tasted of the fruits- of the spirit of grace, we cannot but in some measure groan with the rest of the creation in expectation of the blessed day, When the creatures shall be delivered from this bondage of corruption, to which the providence of God 'has suffered them to be. subjected in this degenerate state of things. We hope there is a time coming, when the crew tures themselves shall be used according to the ori- ginal appointment of their Maker, agreeable to their own first design, and for the good of their fellow-crea- tures,. and supremely for the honour of_their God, " ir1 that daywhen holiness to the Lord shall he written upon the bells of the horses ; and everypot in Jerusalem shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts ;" Zech. xiv. 10. Why should we not join then with the whole creation in groaning and longing after this promised time, when all the works of God shall be restored to their rightful use, and the glory of their Maker shall some way or other be 24hade to shine in every one of thei ? The apostle then adds, in the words of my text, " and trot these creatures only, but ourselves also who have the first fruits of the Spirit," we who are filled with the gifts and graces of the holy Spirit, and eminently the first fruits hereof appear in our taste and relish of the divine provisions that God has given us here in this world to prepare for a better ; and even bestows upon some of his christian servants these first fruits"of the tree of paradise, these blessings and these foretastes which are near a kin to those of the upper world, when the saints shall_ be raised from the dead, when their adoption shall be- clearly manifested, and they shall look like the children óf God, and their bodies and all their natural powers shall be redeemed from those disorders, whéther of sin or sorrow, and from all the springs and seeds of them, which they are more or less liable to feel in the present state. IIere let it be observed, that the first fruits of any field, or plant or tree, are of the same kind with the full product of the harvest: 'Therefore it is plain, that the Iirst fruits of the spirit in this-place cannot chiefly signify
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