(3.) In some the Lord may make use of it to bring on conv'ersion ; for according to our sense of sin and misery, so is a saviour and redeemer welcome to u.s, and prized by us. There must be a sensible awakening knowledge of our great necessity, before we will make use of Christ for our cure and remedy. None but the sick will care for the physician. Mat. ix. 12 ; the burdened for ease, Mat. xi. 28, 29 ; tlic pursueil for a sanctuary and refuge, Heb. vi. 18 ; none but the condemned, to be justified and acquitted, Eom. viii. 33, 34 ; the lost and miserable to be saved, Luke xix. 10.
2. How is it the fruit of the law-covenant? The law-covenant is double : cither the coveuant of nature, wliich concerned both Jew and Gentile ; or the first administration <:if the covenant of grace, made with the Jews only. [1.] The covenant of nature, which we are all under naturally, breedeth bondage and shyness of God ; we are sensible that we are his creatures, and so owe him duty and subjection ; that we have failed in our duty to him, and therefore lie obnoxious to his wrath and punishment. Heathens, that had but some obscure notions of God, felt somewhat of this bondage, Kom. i. 32 ; they ' knew the judgment of God, and tliat they which commit such things are worthy of death.' They stood in dread of angry justice ; and not only they, but all mankind are under it, Eom. ii. 15. According to that natural sense which men have of religion, so is their bondage more or less; still under fear of death, and tlie consequence thereof. This sense or
10-1 SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIII. [SeR. XXII.
conscience of sin and wrath, wliich the breach of God's law hath made onr due, is so engrained in the nature of man that he cannot dispossess himself of it. The apostle compareth it to tlie bond of marriage, which is indissoluble till one of the parties die, Rom. vii. 1-3. The conscience of man is cither married to the law as its husband, or Christ as its husband ; not to the latter, till it be dead to the former : ver. 4, ' Ye are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye might be married to another, even to him that was raised from the dead.' Well then, this bondage is the effect of the law, or covenant of nature, impressed upon the heart of man, and ariseth from a consciousness of guilt, and obnoxiousness to God's wrath and displeasure, because of God's broken covenant.
[2.] The first administration of the covenant of grace. That bred a spirit of bondage ; witness that allegory. Gal. iv. 22-26. Abraham's two wives did represent the two covenants ; the first and second admini- stration of the covenant of grace. The first gendered to bondage, men of a servile spirit, doing what they did, not out of love, but slavish fear : 2 Cor. iii. 9, ' But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not sted- fastly behold the face of Moses, for the glory of his countenance, whicli glory was to be done away ; ' 'for if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness excel in glory.' Aiaicovia KaraKpiaew^, their gospel was dark, and had little efficacy to change the heart of man ; it did little allay and vanquish this shyness of God ; rather increased it, as it conduced to revive the knowledge of God in their minds, and held forth the ransom and way of appeasing God's angry justice obscurely and darkly ; rather showed our distance from God. Israel was God's first-born, and so his heir, but an heir in non-age, Gal. iv. 1, 2 ; their ordinances were a bond, ours an acquittance ; but what is this to us? Ansiocr. Much every way:—
(1.) That we may bless God for the greater advantages that we have to breed a child-like spirit in us by the new covenant ; where the Lord who is offended by sin, is propitiated by the death of Christ, and willing to admit man into his presence ; and bless him, that God as a judge driveth us by the spirit of bondage to Christ as mediator ; that Christ as mediator by the spirit of adoption may bring us back again to God as a father ; and then having God for our father, we may have Christ for our advocate, and the Spirit for our comforter and sanctifier, to enable us to observe the gospel precepts of repentance towards God, and fiiith in our Lord Jesus Christ ; and so be made capable of the promises of pardon and life. One covenant niaketh us sensible of the grace of the other ; Clirist dealeth with us as children of the family, requiring duty from us upon reasonable and comfortable terms.
(2.) Because those that live under the gospel dispensation, and have not received the power of it, may be yet under a spirit of bondage, and cherish a legal way of religion. In every one that entertaineth thoughts of religion, law and gospel are at conflict in his heart, as well as flesh and corruption ; this is clear by Gal. v. 17, 18 ; ' For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that