places be the name of a perfon, or whether it denotes only a quality and temper belonging to Chriftians; so that the Spirit of Christ shall fignify no more than the mind of Chrift does in another place, Let the fame mind be in you which was in Chrift Jefus ; that is, the fame temper and difpofition. This fense Crellius maintains, and others after him; and thus he explains the text: our evangelical spirit, that is, as he explains himself in another place, our evangelical temper, is a fufficient argument to our own minds that we are the children of God. I mean not to dispute this point with Crellius, and his brethren, the Socinians; which would be to run into a great controverfy: but, fince the Spirit of Chrift may and does fometimes fignify both ways, I fhall endeavour to point out to fuch as have no private prejudices to be maintained, which sense is here to be followed. First then, this Spirit is the Spirit of life, by which we are made free; that is, by which we are regenerated in Christ Jesus, and set at liberty from the heavy yoke of fin, which the Apostle had been defcribing in the foregoing chapter. Now, an evangelical temper is not the caufe, but the confequent of this freedom. The Spirit of God is the efficient cause; of whom we are faid, for that reason, to be born. Secondly, it is the Spirit of him who raised up Chrift; that is, the Spirit by which he wrought that great wonder and miracle, as is evident by taking the whole eleventh verfe together: If the Spirit of him who raised up Jefus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Chrift from the dead fhall alfo quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. So that the Spirit of him who raised

Chrift from the dead, is the Spirit by which he raised Chrift from the dead; that is, the Holy Spirit, who is mighty in works and wonders. Laftly, it is the Spirit of adoption, by which we are made fons: the Spirit of adoption is the Spirit of which we are born in Chrift; of which birth an evangelical temper is not the cause, but the effect. So that, by the whole tenor of the Apoftle's arguing, it appears, that the Spirit which beareth witness with our fpirit, is the Holy Spirit of God, which works together with our spirit to enable us to perform the just and holy will of God. As to the fecond witness, our own spirit, I need not spend much time to tell you who it is, fince moft are agreed that it is our own mind. Who knoweth the things of a man, fave the Spirit of a man which is in him? that is, fave his mind and confcience. So then the faithful Chrif tian has two witneffes of his being the Son of God; the Holy Spirit of God, and his own mind and conscience.

Let us therefore, in the fecond place, inquire, what evidence each of them gives in this case. In order to this, we must look back to the latter part of the foregoing chapter, to which this verse of the text relates for in all this eighth chapter there is not one word faid before of our own mind or spirit, nor the leaft hint of any evidence that it gives of our being the children of God. Our crying Abba, Father, in the fifteenth verfe, is very improperly pitched upon by fome as the evidence proceeding from our own mind; fince it is faid exprefsly, that we cry Abba, Father, by the Spirit of adoption : fo that our crying Abba, Father, is an evidence

coming not from our own minds, but from the Holy Spirit. The power to do good comes from the influence of the Holy Spirit; and therefore the good we do is such an evidence of our being the fons of God, as we stand obliged to the Spirit of God for: As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the Jons of God, ver. 14. To be led by the Spirit, is through the Spirit to mortify the deeds of the flesh, ver. 13. So that our victory over the flesh is the effect of our having the Holy Spirit to affift and strengthen us, and is confequently, as it is a great evidence and affurance to us of our being the children of God, the evidence of that Spirit from whom it proceeds; that is, not our own fpirit, but the Spirit of God. So that the great privileges mentioned in this chapter, fuch as being made free from the law of fin and death, of walking not after the flesh, but the Spirit, being fuch as we receive from the Spirit of God, are therefore evidences of the Spirit for our regeneration.

But where then must we look for the evidence of our own spirit? fince all the marks and figns of regeneration mentioned in this eighth chapter manifeftly belong to the evidence of the Holy Spirit. This difficulty put the Greek commentators upon a very forced interpretation of this place; for, obferving that all the figns of adoption mentioned by the Apostle proceeded from the power and working of the Holy Spirit, in effect they made the two witneffes of the text but one. Thus Chryfoftom by the Spirit itself understands the Holy Spirit; and by our spirit he understands the gift of the Holy Spirit within us: "What is this?" fays he "the Spirit

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"beareth witness with our fpirit." To which he anfwers, "The Comforter beareth witness to the gift "bestowed on us; for the voice, that is, of crying "Abba, Father, belongs not only to the gift or grace, but likewife to the Spirit who beftows the grace." The gifts of the Spirit are fometimes called by the name of Spirit. The gift of prophecy is ftyled the spirit of prophecy. But I do not remember that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are ever ftyled our Spirit in facred writ. Befides, as I obferved before, this reduces the two witneffes to one; for how does the Spirit bear witness but by the gifts and graces beftowed on us? and, if fo, then the evidence of the gift, and the evidence of the Spirit, are one and the fame evidence.

Keeping therefore to the fenfe already laid down, let us confider what St. Paul had in his view when he penned the place now before us. Those who are converfant in St. Paul's writings need not be told that they must not always fearch for the connection within a verfe or two of what they read. The Apostle often looks back to what went before at some distance, and, after a long chain of confequences, returns to his point without giving his reader notice. This might be made plain by instances, were it our business at prefent to examine the manner or way of St. Paul's writing. But as to the place before us in the latter part of the feventh chapter St. Paul describes the state of an unregenerate Jew, or heathen; for what he fays equally belongs to both. This he does in order to fhew them the neceffity of redemption through Chrift, inasmuch as neither the law of Mofes, nor

of nature, could free them from the power and dominion of fin, nor, confequently, from death, which ever follows close at the heels of fin. That this was the Apoftle's intent, appears from the lamentation he makes over the ftate of nature, and the remedy he immediately proposes of faith through Chrift: 0 wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death! I thank God through Jefus Christ our Lord. And then, in this eighth chapter, he fets forth the power of redemption, fhewing, in every part, how it fupplies the weakneffes and infirmities both of the law and of nature. The unregenerate man was brought into captivity to the law of fin, chap. vii. 23. But the law of the Spirit of life in Chrift Jefus hath made us free from the law of fin and of death, ver. 2. In the unregenerate man there dwelleth no good thing, ver. 18: but in the Chriftian dwelleth the Spirit of Chrift, ver. 9. So that the Apostle's main defign here is, I think, pretty evident. But, to clear the matter before us, we must more particularly examine what he fays of the unregenerate man's condition. He defcribes him as under the moft wretched flavery, obeying fin, with the greatest reluctance to his own mind and reason that which I do, I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I, ver. 15. His mind he allows to be uncorrupted, and to stand firm to the law of God, approving the things which are good; but then the lufts and appetites of the flesh are too ftrong for it, and force it into the obedience of the law of fin, which it hates and condemns: I find a law, fays he, that, when I would do good, evil is prefent with me: for I