»
100 SEUMONS UruN ROMANS VIII. [SeK. XXI.
Answer, 1. Continually desire his assistance and powerful conduct: Luke xi. 13, ' If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him ? ' It is pleasing to God : 1 Kings iii. 9, 10, ' Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart, to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and had ; and the speech pleased the Lord.'
2. Let us co-operate witli his motions, mortifying the wisdom and the desires of the flesh; avoiding all those things he dissuadcth us from. You grieve him, when you disturb his comforting work, or disobey his sanctifying motions : Eph. iv. 30, ' And grieve not the Holy Spirit, whereby ye are sealed to the day of redemption.' Do not break through when he would restrain you, or refuse or draw back when he would impel and invite you to good. The Spirit of God will not forsake you, unless you forsake him first ; he is grieved when the wisdom of the flesh is obeyed before his counsel, and his holy inclinations smothered, and we yield easily to the requests of sin, but are deaf to his motions.
3. Let us humble ourselves when we sin through frailty, and leave the directions of the Holy Ghost ; let us ever be more wary afterwards : Ps. li. 6, ' In the inward parts shalt thou make me to know wisdom.' We catch many a fall when we leave our guide ; a.s the child when without his nurse he will take to his own feet.
Use 3. Is trial ; for it is propounded as a mark of the children of God. Now by whose counsel are you guided? Some follow their own spirit, not the Sjjirit of God ; are guided by the wisdom of the flesh, and their own carnal affections ; led away from God by the lusts of their own heart, and the temptations of the devil ; taken captive by him at his will and pleasure, 2 Tim. ii. 26. Our conversations will declare that which is prevalent. Priiicipiala respondent suisprincipiis, the constant effects declare the prevailing principle.
1. The effects of the Spirit's leading are an heavenly life : 1 Cor. ii. 12, ' Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit of God, that we might know the things that are freely given us of God;' and Eph. i. 17, IS, 'That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him ; the eyes of your understandings being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheiitance in the saints.' The Spirit leadeth us to those things that are above ; the flesh leadeth us to those things here below ; to flesh-pleasing vanities, vain perishing delights, grateful only tf) sense.
2. The Spirit leadeth to an holy life, and obedience to God : Eph. iv. 24, ' And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.'
3. To spiritual things : Rom. viii. 5, ' They that are after the flesh, do mind the things of the flesh ; but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit ; ' and Gal. vi. 8, ' He that soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption ; but he that soweth to tlie Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting,' — to excel in these things, though with the loss of carnal pleasures.
VbR. 15.] SERMONS UPON KOMANS Vlii. 101
4. To all duties to our neighbour : Eph. v. 9, ' For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth ; ' Gal. v. 22, 23, ' But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance ; against such there is no law.'
SERMON XXir.
For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear ; hut ye have received the spirit of adoption, whei-ehy ive cry, Abba, Father.— Rom. VIII. 15.
The words contain a reason why those who are led by the Spirit are the children of God. The reason is, because they have received the covenant of grace ; and the spirit which accompanieth the new covenant is not the spirit of bondage, but adoption. It is propounded, — 1. Negatively; 2. Affirmatively.
1. Negatively. They vfeve freed from the servile fear <jf condemna- tion, which the legal covenant wrought in them.
2. Affirmatively. They were endowed with the spirit of adoption, or a persuasion of their Father's love, or of God's admitting them into his family, and the right of inheritance ; and so were drawn to obedi- ence by noble motives, suitable to the covenant they were under.
For the first clause in the text, ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear.
In which words observe, —
1. The state of men under the law-covenant — it is a state of bondage.
2. The operation of the Spirit during that dispensation, — it made men sensible of their bondage : ' Ye have not received the spirit of bondage.' There is the Spirit mentioned, and, ■jriiKw, again, implying that during that dispensation they had it.