delight in the law of God after the inward man. But I fee another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of fin, which is in my members, ver. 21, 22, 23. See then the divided empire of fin and reason: reafon approves what is juft and holy, confents to and delights in the law of God; but fin captivates and enthrals it, and makes the man the flave of fin, though the admirer and approver of virtue. The upshot of the whole matter is, as St. Paul in the laft verfe expreffes it, With the mind, or spirit, I Serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of fin. And now confider what affiftance this condition requires: the man's fpirit is right and pure; it loves, it delights in, it approves the law of God; and, could he follow the dictates of his reason, and obey the law of God as well as love it, and practise holiness as well as approve it, he would want no other evidence of his being the fon and fervant of God: his fervants ye are, fays the Apostle, to whom ye obey. The man who is taken captive, and carried into flavery, obeys by force his tyrant's law ; but he loves his own country and king, and longs to come under the obedience of his natural prince again. As to his own mind, he knows whofe fubject he is, and would be; but outward neceffity fhews him that he is a flave by the constrained obedience he yields to the foreign law. Take off force, and the man's own inclinations will return him foon to his natural obedience. And this is not unlike the cafe St. Paul puts the unregenerate man in: he loves God and his law; but he obeys the tyrant, fin. Deftroy the power of fin, and reason

will return him to the obedience of God, and foon fhew whofe true fon and fervant he is. So that the evidence of reafon, even in the ftate of nature, fhews us that we are the fervants and fons of God: but power constrains us, luft and appetite rule over us, and woful experience fhews us that we are the flaves of fin. Now, to complete this evidence of our minds, and to render it convincing to ourselves and others, that we are indeed the children of God, what more is wanting, than to deftroy the power of fin, and to give us up to follow the dictates of reafon in obeying the juft laws and commands of God? For this is a complete evidence that any man is the fon and fervant of God, that he loves him, that he obeys him, and keeps his commandments. You fee then what the evidence of our own spirit is: it loves and delights in the law of God, and is restless to obey the law it loves: with the mind I ferve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of fin: which words I defire you to bear in your memory, whilft I fet forth to you the evidence of the Spirit of God.

In the eighth chapter St. Paul tells us, that the redemption by Chrift Jefus has put an end to the wretched captivity we lived under: the law of the Spirit of life in Chrift Jefus hath made me free from the law of fin and death. Law here fignifies power; for power is a law to those who live under it. Now then the power of the Spirit has destroyed the power of fin. The power of fin was oppofite to the mind and reason of man; fo that man, whilst he lived under that power, was a flave. But the power of the Spirit is on reafon's fide, and works together with it; fo that to be under this power is a ftate of freedom

and liberty and therefore it is juftly said, that the law of the Spirit of life hath made us free. The confequence of our being under the power of the Spirit is, that we walk not after the flesh, but the Spirit, ver. 4; that we mind the things of the Spirit, ver. 5; that we mortify the deeds of the body, ver. 13; that we are the fons of God, ver. 14; that we cry Abba, Father, ver. 15. Thefe are the fruits of the Spirit. Now, to walk after the Spirit, and to do the deeds of the Spirit, is to walk according to our own mind and reafon; for reafon approved the things of God, and the things of the Spirit are the things of God. To cry Abba, Father, proceeds from a settled and undisturbed mind, from filial duty and reverence. Children, who live in disobedience to their parents, are not apt to meet them with these endearing expreffions: but, when the child loves, and is under no rebukes of confcience for misbehaviour towards his parent, he meets him with thefe words of love and of confidence. This therefore we owe to the Spirit : for before, however our minds confented to his laws, yet ftill we were finners, and confcience ftood between us and our Father; fo that we could not approach without fear and trembling, our minds ftill representing him to us rather as an injured Lord, than as a tender Father. But, fince the power of the Spirit hath ftilled the horrid conteft that was in us between reason and fin, and that we both love and obey him, we now no longer fear his presence; but, like children longing for the return of a kind father, we run out to embrace him, with words of friendship and affection in our mouths, crying Abba, Father and by this means, fays St. Paul, the Spirit

itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. With the mind, fays the Apoftle before, I ferve the law of God: and now, fays he, by the Spirit you obey the fame law; and the Spirit of God and your spirit agree to give you the utmost affurance of being the children of God. You are no longer in the fad condition before described, the mind leaning one way, and the flesh another; fo that you defired to do one thing, but yet did the contrary, and were always reftlefs and uneafy, rebuked within, and constrained without: for the Spirit, by which you are now ruled, confents to your mind, and is bent to perform the fame things which the mind approves; from whence you may have the greateft confidence towards God: for what more perfect obedience can there be, than that to which both outward and inward man confent? or what plainer figns can you have of a good fon and fervant, than to know that he loves the law of his father, and obeys it? Love the law indeed you did before; but obey it you could not: but now by the Spirit you obey it, and have the greateft fatisfaction, both from within and without, that you are the children of God. This may fuffice to fhew the Apostle's meaning, and to explain the nature of the evidence which each spirit gives.

We must now, in the laft place, confider, what the refult of this evidence is, and with what kind of certainty we may know that we are the children of God.

And firft, you must take notice, that these two evidences ftrengthen and fupport each other, and muft both meet to give us the affurance we expect.

We muft have the evidence of our own fpirit that we do indeed love and approve the law of God; and we must have the evidence of the Spirit of God working in us by obedience: and, when we both love and obey the commands of God, we want nothing farther to affure us that we are the children of God; but, where either of these is wanting, the evidence of the other avails nothing. If you love and approve the command, but do not obey, you are felf-condemned, you are in your fins; luft has dominion over you, and not the Spirit of God. If you obey the law, and conform outwardly to it, but do not love and like it, you are an hypocrite, no fervant of God, but of the world; and your outward compliance is fleshly wisdom, and not the work of the < Spirit.

So then you have two ways of judging yourselves, which must both concur; you have inward and outward figns of grace: the inward figns are a pure confcience, a fincere love for God and religion, and whatever tends to the glory and honour of your Maker: the outward figns are acts of obedience conformable to the inward purity and love of your mind. These are fruits by which you may judge yourselves. Our Saviour tells us, that we may know men by their fruits; much rather may we know ourfelves by our own fruits; efpecially when we may know the stock too from whence they grow, the motions and workings of our own heart.

Hence it appears, that the evidence of the Spirit is not any fecret infpiration, or any affurance conveyed to the mind of the faithful; but it is the evidence of works, fuch as by the Spirit we perform: