SERMON VII.

THE FREEDOM OF THE REGENERATE WILL.

ROMANS Viii. 19-21.

"The earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made

but by reason of Him who

Because the creature itself

subject to vanity, not willingly, hath subjected the same, in hope. also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God."

In these words St. Paul is contrasting the state of the unregenerate world with the state of the Church, which is born again through the Spirit of Christ. By 'the creature,' he intends the whole creation of God-the entire work of the six great days. He speaks of it as of one living and manifold person, stretching forth its head and its hands for deliverance from some oppressive burden, straining its sight in earnest longing for some great revelation of God. By this he means the silent

anguish, as it were, of the whole inanimate earth, and the universal sorrows of mankind under the dominion of the fall. For the whole creation of God was brought into bondage to corruption, that is, to sin and death, not by its own act and will, but by the first father of all, in whom all fell. And yet not without a hope even from the beginning; because through the seed of the woman there was promised a redemption, by which the creation of God should be once more restored to freedom and

to glory.

But though St. Paul speaks inclusively of the whole creation, even of the lower animals and of the world of nature, on which the tokens of the fall have manifestly passed, he speaks emphatically of mankind, and chiefly of the Gentiles.

By the bondage of corruption, he means the kingdom of Satan, which weighed upon every living soul-the mighty and ever multiplying tradition of sin, which for four thousand years had been gathering and growing in breadth and intensity over the face of the whole earth; the lineal and accumulated inheritance of personal and national wickedness, quickened by lusts, idolatry, sensual philosophies, atheism, tyranny, and bloodshed; towering to its height in the great empire of Rome; which embodied, as it were, in one visible form, the kingdom of death; the death both of

body and of soul, in this world and in the world beyond the grave.

And yet in all this misery and anguish there was an inextinguishable consciousness of a holier origin and of a higher destiny. The Gentile world was conscious of its own debasement; and by ten thousand voices, uttered a lamentation, a kind of dim prophecy of its own deliverance. It had still enough of spiritual life to sorrow and to yearn after purity and the revelation of God. By its very expectation, it prophesied of the day when the feet of Evangelists should bring glad tidings of good upon the dark mountains. The call of the Gentiles, which the Church of Israel foretold by inspiration, the nations of the earth prophesied by earnest waiting and desire. There were spiritual attractions drawing together as the fulness of time came on, preparing the hearts of God's elect for the gift of eternal life.

And this leads to the true meaning of the words, "the manifestation of the sons of God," and "the glorious liberty of the children of God." They mean the state of the regenerate, on whom was shed abroad the spirit of adoption; that is, the members of Christ's mystical body, who were taken out of the dead world, and grafted into the living Church; over whom sin and death had no power of condemnation. In many places of the

New Testament, the great grace of the Gospel is declared to be the adoption; that is, the grace and state of sonship.

as are led by the

As in this chapter, "As many Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God."

So again St. Paul says to the Galatians, "When we were children (that is, in spiritual life), we were in bondage under the elements of the world but when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ." Again, to take only one more of many passages: St. John says, Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what

1 Rom. viii. 14-16.

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2 Gal. iv. 3-7.

we shall be but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.” In all these places we are taught, that we are now the sons of God; and that there is, in virtue of our sonship, an inheritance, a fuller manifestation of grace, yet to come. “If children, then heirs, heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ.” "We know not what we shall be." "We shall be like Him." And this exactly interprets the words of St. Paul in this place. He speaks of the yearning of the creation of God, and of the Gentile world, for "the manifestation of the sons of God;" and then he adds, "and not only they, but ourselves also, which have received the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body." They yearn to be like us; we, to be "like the angels of God." Though we are manifested as His sons, we are not yet made perfect though in our spiritual life we have been delivered from the bondage of corruption," yet in the body we must still die; we must wait for the resurrection, when He shall make the body of our humiliation like to the body of His glory.2 And this explains also the meaning of the word ' regeneration,' which St. Paul uses of Baptism. It is the grace of the new Birth, "the laver of rege1 1 St. John iii. 1, 2.

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2 Phil. iii. 21.