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DISCOURSE VIII.

ROMANS viii. 16.

The Spirit itfelf beareth witnefs with our fpirit, that we are the children of God.

To be the children of God is the greatest privilege under the Gospel, and, confequently, implies in it all the advantages that belong to, and all the qualities neceffary to make, a good Chriftian. Thus our Apostle argues: if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Chrift. As this is a new ftate, which belongs not to us by nature, fo our entrance into it is ftyled a new birth; and we are faid to be born again, and to be begotten again, to these hopes he, from whom we receive thefe hopes, is the Father that begets us, and his children we are: and therefore, as we receive our fpiritual life from the gift and mercy of God, he is our father, and we are his children. Thus St. Peter tells us, that we are born again, not of corruptible feed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever, 1 Pet. i. 23. This new life we receive by the miniftration of the Spirit: the powers which belong to this life, and in which it confifts, depend upon the influences of the Spirit and

therefore we are said to be born of the Spirit. He is the earnest of our inheritance, the pledge and fecurity which we receive from God of our future immortality our right of inheritance depends upon the relation we bear to God of fons and children: and therefore the Spirit of adoption, by which we are born to God, is the pledge and fecurity of our inheritance, as he is ftyled by our Apostle.

But the difficulty is, how to make the first step, and to know affuredly that we are the children of God. When once we are fure of this, it will not be hard to believe that God will provide for his own children, and fecure to them an inheritance that fadeth not away. And here the Apostle tells us, that the Spirit itself, that is, the fame Spirit by which we are made children, beareth witness with our Spirit, that we are the children of God. It is matter of great difpute, what fort of evidence the Apostle here means, and what kind of certainty arifes from it. Some have placed this evidence among the gifts of the Spirit, and supposed it to be given on purpose to affure the elect of the certainty of their falvation. Others maintain, that no man, unless it be specially revealed to him by God, can ever know that he is in a state of security in this life and this opinion was received and confirmed by the Council of Trent, as may be seen at large in the fixth feffion. It will not be worth my pains or your patience to enter into the niceties of this controversy: and therefore I fhall confine myself to St. Paul, and endeavour to fhew you his meaning in the text, which will go a great way towards giving us right notions and apprehenfions in

this matter. In order to this, I propose three things to be confidered:

First, How many witneffes St. Paul points out to us in the text, and who they are.

Secondly, What kind of evidence each of them gives in this cafe.

Thirdly, What the refult of their evidence is, and with what kind of certainty we know that we are the children of God.

First, We are to confider how many witnesses St. Paul points out to us in the text, and who they are. As our tranflators have reprefented St. Paul's meaning, there is no room for difpute concerning the number of the witneffes, which are evidently two : the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit: the Spirit itfelf, that is, the Spirit of adoption, which Chriftians receive, is one witnefs; and our own spirit is the other witness. But the vulgar Latin, and feveral other translators, render the words to this effect the Spirit itself beareth witness to our Spirit. According to this fenfe, which is maintained by Grotius and Crellius, and fome others, there is but one witness, the Spirit of adoption, who bears evidence to our spirit. But the words in the original evidently imply the fenfe which our tranflators follow : Αὐτὸ τὸ πνεῦμα συμμαρτυρεῖ τῷ πνεύματι ἡμῶν. Eupμagrupe fignifies to be a fellow-witnefs, or to witness the same thing that another does: and fo the word constantly fignifies in Scripture, and is never used but where there is a concurrent evidence of two witneffes. We meet with the fame word in Rom. ii. 15: which fhew the work of the law written in their hearts, their confcience alfo bearing witness,

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and their thoughts the mean while accufing or else excufing one another. And to this place Grotius fends us, to fhew that the word is used of one fingle witness only; as here the confcience only is faid to bear witness. But a little attention will shew us in this place another witness: the Apoftle proves from the evidence of confcience, that the Gentiles had the work or matter of the law written in their hearts the law teftifies to men what is good, and what is evil if conscience teftifies the fame thing to be good and just which the law does, then conscience proves the matter of the law to be written in the heart; if it testifies any thing else, so be it : but no other evidence will prove the Apoftle's afsertion, that the Gentiles have the work of the law written in their heart. And therefore the Apostle's argument ftands thus: the Gentiles fhew the work of the law to be written in their heart by the testimony of their confcience, which agrees with the teftimony of the law; their confcience and the law both allowing and forbidding the fame thing. So that the Apostle's argument plainly fupposes the concurrent evidence of the law and of confcience. And therefore even here the word συμμαρτυρεῖν points out two witneffes to us. The fame word is used by St. Paul in the first verse of the ninth chapter of the Romans: I fay the truth in Chrift, I lie not, my confcience alfo bearing me witnes, συμμαρτυρήσης μοι. But here evidently are two witneffes to the fame thing. When a man does not speak the truth, it is certain that he witneffes one thing, and his confcience witneffes another, and are therefore two diftinct witneffes:

fo are they likewise when a man speaks truth; for the fame evidence will not make two witneffes to be one witness. And therefore here also there are two witneffes; St. Paul, who witneffed his affection to his countrymen; and his confcience, which witneffed for his fincerity. The word is used but once more in the New Teftament, and that is in the laft chapter of the Revelations; and there it is ufed with respect to a teftimony, in which Chrift, and his Angel whom he fent to the churches, and even St. John, were concerned. So that the word is every where used of the concurrent evidence of two or more witneffes. And, this being the conftant use of the word, there can be no reason given why it fhould not be taken in the same sense here, and rendered, The Spirit itself beareth witness, not to, but with, or together with our fpirit, that we are the children of God. Here then are two witneffes; and who they are, is next to be confidered.

Who the firft Spirit is, must be learnt from what goes before. In the fecond verfe of this chapter we read of the Spirit of life in Chrift Jefus, which hath made us free from the law of fin and of death: in the ninth verfe he is called the Spirit of God and of Chrift; in the eleventh verse, the Spirit of him that raifed up Jefus from the dead; in the fifteenth verse, the Spirit of adoption, by which we cry Abba, Father. In the verse of the text reference is had to this Spirit: the Spirit itself, that is, the Spirit which has made us free in Chrift Jefus, the Spirit by which we have received adoption, does itself bear witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. But the queftion then is, whether Spirit in all these

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