chiefly to be influenced by fear, or by an apprehenfion of the feverity of their mafters, and of the rod always hanging over them. Slaves. are commonly good for nothing, but when they are handled with rigour, and fwayed to fubjection and obedience by the terror of prefent punishment. To this the apostle opposes the" fpirit of adoption." He thought it not enough to say, the fpirit of liberty, which the oppofition feemed to require; but more emphatically, the fpirit of adoption. Servants might be made free, and often were among the Romans, without being taken for fons; but Christians are made more than bare freemen, even fons; and therefore they have a filial fpirit, fuch as fons have: a fpirit, which fways them not only or mainly by fear, but by love to God as their Father; an ingenuous difpofition, and a liberal boldness and confidence. By virtue of this "they cry, Abba, Father.” The two words fignify the fame thing. Abba in Syriac is father, or my father; TaTng the fame in Greek. Chrift has ufed both these words in his agony, Mark xiv. 36. and poffibly the apostle chofe to use both in conformity to him, to befpeak the more fully, that it was "Spirit of his Son" which " God fent into their hearts," as in Gal. iv. 6. Or, when he was fpeaking of the common privilege of believing Jews and Gentiles, he would fignify that glory of the evangelical state by repeating it in both languages: in the Syriac, which was the common language of the Jews at that time in Judea; and in Greek, which was fo much uied in the Gentile world. Or it may

be

be he only doubles the word for the greater emphafis. I need not fay, that by their "crying, Abba, Father," under the influence of the Spirit, the bare pronouncing of the words is not all intended; but all that difpofition of mind toward him, which becomes the relation; a filial affection and manner of application, and a childlike frame in the performance of duty.

But ftill it may be enquired; what fort of perfons, or what period of time the apoftle refers to, wherein the fervile fpirit prevailed, in diftinction from the filial fpirit.

And I think it is plain, that he defigns the one eminently for the character of thofe under the law, and the other of those under the Gofpel. When he fays in general to the believingRomans, that they had not received the one, but the other; he must be understood to speak of a thing belonging to Chriftians in common, and not of that which is peculiar to fome. In the spirit of bondage he would exprefs the state of the Jewish church under the difcipline of the Mofaical law. That difpenfation is upon many accounts in the New Teftament reprefented as a state of bondage, and as leading to a fervile fpirit. And fo the participation of the fpirit, whereby we cry, Abba, Father, is directly oppofed by this fame apoftle writing to the Galatians, to the ftate of the church under the law; as we fhall fee prefently.

The fenfe of the words may be included in this obfervation,

That the temper, to which we are led by christianity,

christianity, is not fuch a fervile fpirit, as that which prevailed under the law; but a fpirit of adoption, leading us to confider God, and to act toward him as a Father.

In the confideration of this truth, I fhall fhew,

I. In what fenfe it is made the character of thofe under the law, to have received the fpirit of bondage; and of those under the Gofpel, to have received the fpirit of adoption.

II. How the Old Teftament difpenfation contributed to a fervile fpirit; and how, on the contrary, the Gofpel leads to a filial temper.

III How therefore our deliverance from the one, and our participation of the other, fhould influence us.

I. It will be proper to fhew, in what fenfe it is made the character of thofe under the law, to have received the fpirit of bondage; and of thofe under the Gospel, to have received the spirit of adoption. It is needful the fenfe of this fhould be ftated: For,

We must not suppose, that the fincere members of the church of God under the Old Teftament were deftitute of the agency of the fame fpirit of God, as is communicated under the New He was the author and spring of fanctification to all good men then, as well as now. Nor were the faints of thofe times altogether without a fhare in his influences to produce in them a filial temper. David in his Pfalms plainly fhews a great deal of fuch a difpofition.

On the other hand, it cannot be faid that all under

under the Gofpel, even all fincere Chriftians, exprefs a more filial temper, than fone faints did under the Old Teftament. Nor is all fear unfuitable to the evangelical fpirit. We are required by the Gospel itself, to "ferve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear," Heb. xii. 28. to "pafs the time of our fojourning here in fear," and that becaufe "we call on the Father," 1 Pet. i. 17. to "work out our falvation with fear and trembling," Phil.

. 12. and becaufe "a promife is left us of entering into reft, therefore to fear, left we fhould feem to come fhort of it,” Heb. iv. 1. There is ftill room for a reverential fear, and no fmall ufe to a Chriftian of fome fear of punishment, as long as he fojourns below.

But when the apostle mentions these as the diftinguishing characters of the two difpenfations, I apprehend he intends two things.

1. To express what the two difpenfations mainly and most naturally lead to; or, what I may call the most proper and diftinguishing genius of each. The covenant, into which God entered with the Jews on mount Sinai, "gendered into bondage," Gal. iv. 24. this was its proper tendency. But the Gospel moft directly leads men to a childlike temper, and lays in fufficient provifion for it. As far as any thing of a filial disposition appeared in fome faints under the Old Teftament, it was not owing to the influence of the Mofaical law; but to the view they had beyond their neighbours of the grace of the Gofpel, by the Fight of the promise. And though the Gofpel is not intended to extinguish fear, yet it

more

ftrongly leads to love and as far as a mere fervile fpirit governs in any good men under the Gofpel, this arifes not from any defect in the Gofpel to inspire them with more generous principles; but either is owing to their mistaken apprehenfions about the Gospel or about themselves, or to the weakness of their faith in the revelation they have, or to fuch an imperfection in their obedience as makes their fincerity questionable, or to the diftemper of their bodies. The law in its nature terrified; the Gospel contains what is fit to relieve every upright mind against those terrors.

2. To defcribe the difpofitions ordinarily prevailing in fact, under both difpenfations. A fervile fpirit more ufually governed people under the law; but a fpirit of adoption is more generally and in larger measures communicated to believers now, fuitable to the more exalted and refreshing difcoveries of the Gospel. The apostle very elegantly reprefents this in Gal. iv. wherein he makes the difference between believers before Chrift's coming and those fince, to be like that of an heir in his nonage, and an heir grown up to maturity, ver. 1, 2. "Now I fay, that the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a fervant, though he be lord of all, but is under tutors and governors, till the time appointed of the father." Though the child in his minority may be intitled to an eftate by the will of his father; yet he is not an actual mafter of it, but kept in fubjection to those to whom the management of him is left, till the time comes, which was fixed by his father's will,

for