works, and, therefore,
they are transient, not appointed to continue long, for they are not his
great intendment. Of this kind are those terrible representations of sin
and wrath, of the justice of God, which put the soul in a fear, a
trembling fear, and while such a soul is kept within the apprehension of
sin and judgment, it is shut up, as it were, in bondage. Now, though it be
true, that in the conversion of a sinner, there is always something of
this in more or less degrees, yet because this is not the great design of
the gospel, to put men in fear, but rather to give them confidence, nor
the great intendment of God in the dispensation of the law, to bring a
soul in bondage under terror, but rather, by the gospel, to free them from
that bondage, therefore he hath reason to express it thus: "Ye have not
received the spirit of bondage again to fear," &c. But there are other
operations of the Spirit, which are chiefly intended, and principally
bestowed, as the great gift of our Father, to express his bounty and
goodness towards us, and from these he is called the Spirit of adoption,
and the Spirit of intercession. The Spirit of adoption, not only in regard
of that witness-bearing and testification to our consciences of God's love
and favour, and our interest in it, as in the next verse, but also in
regard of that child-like disposition of reverence and love and respect
that he begets in our hearts towards God, as our Father. And from both
these flows this next work, "crying, Abba, Father," aiding and assisting
us in presenting our necessities to our Father, making this the continued
vent of the heart in all extremities, to pour out all that burthens us in
our Father's bosom. And this gives marvellous ease to the heart, and
releases it from the bondage of carefulness and anxiety, which it may be
subject to, after the soul is delivered from the fear and bondage of
wrath.

Let us speak, then, to these in order. The first working of the Spirit is,
_to put a man in fear of himself_, and such a fear as mightily straitens
and embondages the soul of man. And this, though in itself it be neither
so pleasant nor excellent as to make it come under the notion of any gift
from God, it having rather the nature of a torment and punishment, and
being some sparkle(214) of hell already kindled in the conscience, yet,
hath made it beautiful and seasonable in its use and end, because he makes
it to usher in the pleasant and refreshing sigh