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ftil his Advice and Precepts into them. To which end, he first puts them in mind of the great Debt that lies upon all Chriftians, by virtue of that Holy Profeffion they have ta ken upon them; Brethren, we are Debtors: that is, we have many Obligations lying upon us by our receiving the Gof pel, and embracing Chriftianity, being bound, by the Condition of our fpiritual Being, to lead another Course of Life than we did before. And this Debt is contracted not barely by our Chriftian Profeffion, which obliges us to all Purity and Holiness; but likewife by the Covenant and Promife we thereby enter into; as alfo by the many Benefits and Privileges that we are entitled to, and receive by it: all which are strong Engagements to leave our former finful Courfes, and to live in Newness of Life, now we have embrac'd the Chriftian Faith.

But the Apostle proceeds, in the next words, to declare more particularly the Debt that lies upon us on these accounts, which he expreffes first negatively, We are Debtors (faith he) not to the Flesh, to live after the Flefb: that is, tho our flefhly Part hath many natural Appetites and Defires, that call upon us to be gratify'd, and we are fo far indebted to Nature, as to be oblig'd to answer and fatisfy the regu lar Demands of it; yet we are not bound to hearken to the irregular Motions of corrupt Nature, or to follow the Sway of our finful Lufts: yea, we are oblig'd to the contrary, to mortify our earthly Members by Fafting and Prayer, and to make no provifion for the Flefh, to fulfil the Lufts thereof. To which the Apostle adds a strong Reafon or Inducement; For if ye live after the Flesh ye shall die: If ye give up your felves to the Command of a carnal and fenfual Appetite, and fuffer your felves to be carry'd away by the Temptations of your fleshly Lufts, ye will inevitably expofe your felves to the Deftruction of Body and Soul; Death will be the certain End and Iffue of fuch, unmortify'd Lufts: for to be carnally minded is Death, ver. 6. And that not a temporal Death only, or a fhort Separation of Body and Soul, but eternal Death, which is a Separation of both from God for ever. For the carnal Mind is En-· mity against God, it is not fubject to the Law of God, nor indeed can be: and what carries fuch a direct Enmity and Opposition against God, can never be fo reconcil'd as ever to enjoy him. So that we cannot be Debtors to the Flesh, to live after the Flesh, which is attended with fuch a fatal Destruction,

But

But how then are we faid to be Debtors? Why, 'tis to the Spirit, to live after the Spirit, who hath regenerated and begotten us again to a new Life, 'tis to him we owe our Reception into Chrift's Church, and being call'd thereby into a State of Salvation. This hath laid upon us a Debt of Thankfulness and Obedience, which we are to be always paying; and that is to be done by living after the Spirit, by obferving and obeying its godly Motions, and by govern ing our felves and Actions by the Gifts and Graces of it: for as to live after the Flesh is to follow the corrupt Inclinations of the Flesh, and to obey it in the Lufts thereof; fo to live after the Spirit is to follow the Conduct of God's Holy Spirit, and to obferve the Dictates and Directions of that Divine Guide. As for the former, we have no Obligation, but to renounce and forfake all the Works of the Flesh, which are hurtful to all that indulge themselves in them: for the latter, we are indebted to labour for, and to bring forth the Fruits of the Spirit, which are highly useful and profitable for us. And to this our Chriftian Profeflion, and the Hopes we have from it, ftrongly oblige us for 'tis but reafonable that we fhould act and live up to what we pretend to and being enter'd upon a new and better Cove nant, that is establish'd upon better Promises than we had before, we should anfwer it by a fuitable Converfation. Hence St. Peter, mentioning the exceeding great Dignity and Advantages of our Chriftian Profeffion, ftiling Chrif tians, A chofen Generation, a Royal Priesthood, a Holy Na tion, a peculiar People; wills them not to do any thing unworthy of themselves, that might debafe the Honour, or deprive them of the Benefit of their high and holy Calling. And because nothing could more endanger both, than living after the Flesh, he befeeches them, as Strangers and Pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly Lufts, which war against the Soul, 1 Pet! 2. 9, 10, 11. And to this St. Paul here gives us abundant Encouragement; for tho he before told us, that if we live after the Flefh, we fhall die, yet he adds, that if we thro the Spirit do mortify the Deeds of the Body, we fhall live. And tho to be carnally minded is Death, yet to be Spiritually minded is Life and Peace: where, as eternal Death is the Wages and Confequent of a finful and fenfual Courfe of Life; fo eternal Life will be the End and Reward of a fpi ritual and heavenly Converfation. The Proof whereof the Apoftle gives us in the following words:

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For

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the Sons of God; meaning, that being led by the Spirit of God, and living by the Dictates and Directions of it, we become the Sons and Children of God, and confequently he will deal with us as his Children, and beftow upon us the Inheritance of eternal Life. And this Sonfhip we have not. barely by Right of Creation; for in that refpect all, even the worst of Men, are faid to be the Sons of God; but by a new Title of Regeneration and Adoption, whereby from Aliens and Outcafts we are taken into Chrift's Family, and entitled to all the Privileges of the Sons of God. This he farther confirms in the next words, faying, For ye have not received the Spirit of Bondage again to fear, but ye have received the Spirit of Adoption, whereby ye cry, Abba, Father: meaning, that we are not now in the Condition of Servants or Slaves, who are call'd upon to do their work, and inftead of Wages are in continual fear of the Lafh; neither are we now, as the Jews fometimes were, in Bondage to the beggarly Elements of the World, or the childish Rudiments of Mofes's Law, which was a State of Servility and Thraldom: but now our Condition in Chrift is mightily alter'd; we have another Spirit that carries us above all fuch fervile and flavish Fears, and gives us the Boldness and Confidence of Children, even the Spirit of Adoption, which enables us to go freely to him, and cry, Abba, Father: a Form of Speech whereby Children were wont to addrefs their Parents, fignifying that we are allow'd to come to God, not as Servants to a hard Mafter, but as Sons to a tender and loving Father, expecting all fatherly Ufage from him, even Affiftance to perform his Commands, and Affurance to receive the Reward of them.

But how are we confirm'd in the Belief and Certainty of our Sonship? Why, that the next words declare, The Spirit it felf beareth witness with our Spirit, that we are the Children of God, meaning, that we have the Teftimony of God's Holy Spirit, concurring with our own Spirits, to confirm us in the Truth of our filial Relation to him. Our own Spirit of it felf is fallible, and might be apt to flatter and deceive us in this matter; but the Teftimony of God's Holy Spirit is infallible, and cannot deceive us: The Heart of Man is deceitful, faith the Prophet, and not to be truf ted alone; but the Spirit of God is a Spirit of Truth, that leads into all and nothing but Truth: and having the concurrent Teftimony of both these for the Truth of our Son

fhip, we may fafely rely upon it, that we are the Children of God. And, this Evidence we have by the Spirit's bearing witness with our Spirits, teftifying to our Confciences that we are more than Servants (the higheft Privilege that the Jews could boaft of) even the Sons of God. And yet this is not all; for

If Children, then Heirs, Heirs of God, and Joint-Heirs with Jefus Chrift. 'Tis, we know, the Cuftom of all Places and Countries, that Children fhould be Heirs to their Father: in like manner therefore God being our Father, we thereby become Heirs of God; and being our heavenly Father, we are thereby entitled as Heirs to the Kingdom of Heaven: to which we are Joint-Heirs with Chrift; He indeed, as a Son by natural Generation, and fo the First-born, and in that fenfe the only-begotten Son of God, and fo fole Heir by Nature; we as Sons by Adoption and Grace, and by virtue of that having a fhare in the Inheritance, and fo are Co-heirs with Chrift. In earthly Kingdoms the Inheritance goes only to the elder Brother, but God makes all his Children Heirs, and Joint-Partakers of his heavenly Kingdom. But how come we, who had forfeited both our Sonfhip and Right to the Inheritance by the first Tranfgreffion and Rebellion against our heavenly Father, to be thus reftor'd by Adoption, and reinstated again into the Privileges of Sons? Why, this was done for us by the Merits and Mediation of Chrift: for fo faith the Apoftle, If a Son, then an Heir thro Chrift, Gal. 4. 7. And tho no elder Brother is wont to divide the Inheritance with the younger, and make him Co-heir with himfelf, yet Chrift, our elder Brother, hath taken us into Co-partnership with him; and by his Sufferings purchas'd and procur'd Redemption for us, and by that means hath made us Heirs of Salvation, and entail'd this Inheritance upon us; Heb. 1. 4. 1 Pet. 1. 4. So that we need not be difmay'd at any Sufferings that may befal us for his fake: for.

If fo be that we fuffer with him, we shall also be glorify'd together. Chrift himself was made perfect by Sufferings, and is thereby become our powerful and all-fufficient Saviour; he went to Heaven by the Cross, and we must go the fame way to obtain the Crown. The Happiness that he procur'd for us by his Sufferings, we are to be prepar'd for, and poffefs by our own: For God hath predeftinated us to be conform'd to the Image of his Son, that he may be the

Firt-born among many Brethren, ver. 29. that is, we must firft fuffer with Chrift, and then we fhall reign with him.

Thus we fee the Senfe of all the material Paffages of this Day's Epiftle; from whence 'we are instructed in the following Leffons:

1. From our not being Debtors to the Flesh, we are taught to abandon all the finful Lufts and Defires of it, and that too upon pain of Death and Damnation; for if we live after the Flefh, we fhall die. Indeed to fatisfy the ordina ry and natural Appetites and Cravings of the Flesh, is neceffary to preferve our bodily Life; but to gratify the unlawful and irregular Motions of it, will bring upon us Death temporal and eternal: and therefore if we are at any time call'd upon and follicited to any Evil by the Im portunity of our Lufts, let us not hearken or yield to any fuch Suggestions of our corrupt Nature, but rather let us turn the deaf Ear, and bid adieu to them. Mortify there fore your Members which are upon Earth, Fornication, Uncleannefs, and all inordinate Affection; and learn to poffefs your Veffels in Sanctification, and Honour, not in the Luft of Concupifcence, as the Gentiles that know not God, but in all Purity and Holiness, as becometh Chriftians: Col. 3. 5. I The. 4.4, 5.

2. Being Debtors to live after the Spirit, let us labour to difcharge that Obligation, by giving up our felves to the Guidance and Conduct of God's Holy Spirit, following the Direction of its Light, and the Influence of his Grace in all our ways. This is to walk worthy of the Vocation wherewith we are call'd, and to walk as becometh the Gospel of Chrift: which will ftand the Trial of the laft Day, and fecure to us the Reward of eternal Life; for there is no Condemnation to them that are in Chrift Jefus, who walk not after the Flesh, but after the Spirit.

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3. From the great Privilege of Sonfhip granted to all fuch, we may learn to behave our felves as the Sons or Children of God. The Duty of Children, we know, is to love their Parents with a hearty and entire Affection : This we are to render in the highest and most fuperlative degree to our Father in Heaven, loving him with all our Heart, and with all our Mind, and with all our Strength, and expreffing it upon all Occafions. Again, Children owe Honour and Reverence to their Parents: A Son honoureth his Father, faith God; and we have had Fathers in the Flesh,

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