6. Yea Joy is it self a part of the Holy qualification of the Saints, and of the renewed state that grace hath brought them into. For the Kingdom of God consisteth as in Righteousness, so in Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost, Rom. 14. 17. Believers receive not the spirit of bondage again to fear, that is, they are not under the bondage of the Law, nor have the spirit or state of mind which is suited to those Legal impositions and terrible comminations: but they have received the spirit of Adoption by which they cry Abba father, that is, As they are brought under a more gracious dispensation, and a better Covenant and promises, and God is revealed to them in the Gospel as a Reconciled Father through his son, so doth he treat them more gently as reconciled children, and the spirit which answereth this gracious Covenant, and is given us thereupon, doth qualify us with a child-like disposition, and cause us with boldness, Love and confidence, to call God Father, and fly to him for succour and supply, in all ou• dangers and necessities. And how Pleasant it must be to a believing soul, to have this spirit of Adoption, this childlike Love and confidence, and freedom with the Lord, methinks you might conjecture, though its sensibly known by them only that enjoy it, Gal. 5. 22. The fruit of the spirit is Love, Joy, Peace▪ &c.] when the word is first received by Believers, though it may be in much affliction, through the persecutions and cross that ⟨p. 281⟩attend the Gospel, yet is it ordinarily in the Joy of the Holy Ghost, 1 Thes. 1. 6. The Holy Ghost is the Comforter of true Believers: And if he have taken it upon him as his work, he will surely do it, in the degree and season fittest for them. And if Joy it self be part of the state of Grace and Holiness, you may see that it is the most delightful Pleasant course.
6. Yea Joy is it self a part of the Holy qualification of the Saints, and of the renewed state that grace hath brought them into. For the Kingdom of God consisteth as in Righteousness, so in Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost, Rom. 14. 17. Believers receive not the spirit of bondage again to fear, that is, they are not under the bondage of the Law, nor have the spirit or state of mind which is suited to those Legal impositions and terrible comminations: but they have received the spirit of Adoption by which they cry Abba father, that is, As they are brought under a more gracious dispensation, and a better Covenant and promises, and God is revealed to them in the Gospel as a Reconciled Father through his son, so doth he treat them more gently as reconciled children, and the spirit which answereth this gracious Covenant, and is given us thereupon, doth qualifie us with a child-like disposition, and cause us with boldness, Love and confidence, to call God Father, and fly to him for succour and supply, in all ou• dangers and necessities. And how Pleasant it must be to a believing soul, to have this spirit of Adoption, this childlike Love and confidence, and freedom with the Lord, methinks you might conjecture, though its sensibly known by them only that enjoy it, Gal. 5. 22. The fruit of the spirit is Love, Joy, Peace▪ &c.] when the word is first received by Believers, though it may be in much affliction, through the persecutions and cross that ⟨p. 281⟩attend the Gospel, yet is it ordinarily in the Joy of the Holy Ghost, 1 Thes. 1. 6. The Holy Ghost is the Comforter of true Believers: And if he have taken it upon him as his work, he will surely do it, in the degree and season fittest for them. And if Joy it self be part of the state of Grace and Holiness, you may see that it is the most delightful Pleasant course.
