passages of Scripture, as well as is supported by its analogy to human government. "And they shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me; for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched, and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh."* 2. They will serve to manifest those attributes of the Great Supreme which their conduct disowned, and which it seemed virtually to call in question. "What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction?" This is a subordinate use, not a primary end. It is that which men fit themselves for by their presumptuous and impenitent neglect of God. (1.) What blindness attaches to those who live in the total neglect of God and religion! (2.) What little room is there for that confidence which many place in the correctness of deportment towards their fellow-creatures, while religion is not even pretended to be the governing principle of their lives! (3.) What need have we all to examine ourselves, and seriously to inquire whether we are yielding that fruit unto God on which we have been insisting! (4.) How ought those to be alarmed when the result of such examination is, that they have been hitherto utterly without fruit! How strong the obligations on such, after considering their ways, to turn unto the Lord! And thankful should they be that space is afforded them for repentance and salvation.‡ X. CLAIMS OF THE FLESH. ROM. viii. 12.-Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. It is of great importance for us to ascertain, not only the quality of particular actions, but the general principle on which our life is regu lated, since it is this that must determine our true character in the sight of God. As there are but two sorts of persons in the world, the righteous and the wicked, the carnal and the spiritual, so there are only two grand principles which respectively actuate these two classes of mankind, and produce all that diversity of character by which they are distinguished. In the context they are characterized with such perspicuity and precision, that it is not difficult to decide to which we belong. The one are described as enslaved, the other as free; the one as being in the flesh, and "minding" the things of it; the other as + Preached on the morning of Sunday, October 31, 1814, at Leicester. inhabited and actuated by the Spirit: the former as the heirs of death, the latter as the joint-heirs with the Lord of a happy immortality. The text we have chosen for our present meditation is a legitimate inference deduced by the inspired writer from the premises he had been laying down; it is a conclusion at which he arrives, resulting from the views which he had been exhibiting of the condition and expectation of two opposite descriptions of persons. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh." 66 I shall endeavour, in the first place, to settle the meaning of the terms flesh and Spirit, employed in the context, in order to a right conception of the import of the proposition; and in the second place, compare and adjust the opposite claims of the flesh and of the Spirit. 1. Flesh most properly denotes the body, in contradistinction from the soul; the matter of which the corporeal structure is formed: "there is one flesh of men."* And, 2. As all men are possessed of this, it is by an easy figure of speech applied to denote human nature, or mankind universally. “The end of all flesh is come before God."t 3. Because the fleshly or corporeal part of our nature may be perceived by the eye, it is sometimes used to denote that in religion which is merely outward and ceremonial. Thus St. Paul says, “Having begun in the Spirit, are ye made perfect by the flesh?" Thus the same apostle speaks of "carnal ordinances." 4. On account of the deep and universal corruption of human nature, and this corruption displaying itself in a peculiar manner, in producing an addictedness to the indulgence of bodily or fleshly appetites, the term flesh is frequently used to denote moral corruption, or human nature considered as corrupt. It is manifest, from the consideration of the context, that this is the sense in which it is to be taken here. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh;"|| that is, corrupt and sinful. In this sense of it, the works of the flesh are contrasted by St. Paul with the fruits of the Spirit. "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like.”P From the extent of the enumeration, which comprehends many mental vices, it is manifest nothing less can be intended by the term flesh than the principle of corruption, the dictates of unrenewed nature. By the Spirit, it is plain we are not to understand the immaterial principle in man, but the blessed Spirit of God, the author of all holiness. This is evident from the context. Secondly. As they divide mankind between them, and every man walks according to the dictates of the one or the other, they are considered as competitors. We shall examine and adjust their respective claims, that we may discern to which the preference is due, and come then fully to acquiesce in the decision of the apostle: "Therefore we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh." * 1 Cor. xv. 39. † Gen. vi. 13. | John iii. 6. Gal. iii. 3. There is an ellipsis in the text, which must be supplied from the train of thought in the context. The Let us examine the claims of the flesh, or of corrupt nature. We may conceive the flesh pleading ancient possession. pleasures and freedom from restraint attending a compliance with her dictates. The general usage and course of the world, which she reminds us has been such in every age. That the far greater part of mankind have been under her sway, the greatest of men not excepted, so that she can number nobles among her vassals, and among her subjects the princes of the earth. The most distinguished by their birth, their talents, or their fortune, she may allege, never dreamed of an exemption from her dominion, never thought of any other method of life than that of living after the flesh: faithful to her dictates through the whole of their lives, they bowed submissive at her shrine, were initiated into her mysteries, and died in her communion. Notwithstanding these specious pleas, however, we shall see sufficient cause to decline her yoke, and to come to the apostolic conclusion, if we take the following things into our consideration. I. Its claims are founded upon usurpation; they rest on no basis of equity. It alienates the property from its lawful possessor; it interferes with a prior claim which nothing can fairly defeat. Sin, considered as a master, does not enter upon a property that is derelict or abandoned by its owner; but it attempts to occupy and appropriate what the proprietor never meant to resign, what he never can resign without irreparable injury to his honour. The souls of men are the most valuable part of his possessions below, and the most capable, indeed in one sense they alone are capable, of glorifying his perfections. 1. Let us consider that the Lord is our Maker, and we the work of his hands; it is "he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein." The noble powers by which we are so highly distinguished from the inferior parts of the creation, the powers of thought and reason and conscience, are of his production; from him they are derived, and by him they are sustained. His right in us is consequently more extensive than it is possible for us to conceive in any other instance, because none else ever gave existence to the smallest particle of dust in the balance; it is incomparably more than that, to which it is compared, of the potter over the clay. Whatever claim interferes, then, with his dominion over us, must be founded in absolute injustice, without the guilt of which it is impossible to withhold any thing from him; and it is injustice of the worst description, for it is robbing God. "Will a man rob God?" exclaims the prophet: "yet ye have robbed me, saith the Lord, in tithes and offerings." But what are tithes and offerings compared to that love, adoration, and obedience in which, even while they were enjoined, all their value consisted, and which are of perpetual obligation when they cease any longer to be enjoined? Nor does the dominion of God rest only on his power as a Creator; it claims our submission also on the ground of those transcendent perfections and excellences which belong essentially to the blessed God, and the exercise of which is inseparable from his administration. By virtue of these he is the sovereign good, the only good; for, strictly speaking, "there is none good but God;" the infinite, the absolute, the unchanging, the satisfying, the allcomprehending good; so that whatever appears beautiful or glorious among the creatures is but an efflux from his fulness, the faint reflection of his glory. 2. If we reflect on the powers with which we are endued, we cannot suppose that they are formed for no other end than the indulgence of carnal appetites, the amassing of riches, the enjoyment of sensual pleasures, or the procuring honours and distinctions from our fellowworms. We shall be at no loss to perceive a strange disproportion between such powers and such pursuits, and that they cannot be confined to them without descending unspeakably beneath our level, without a base forgetfulness of ourselves as well as God, and a voluntary dereliction of our rank. Jeremiah, when he witnessed the ruin and desolation of his country, beheld with astonishment those that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills; a deplorable, but an involuntary degradation. But this we are now speaking of is chosen and voluntary; these dunghills, for such are the highest forms of created good when compared with the blessed God, are embraced with appetite and desire. 3. If God were disposed to relinquish his claim, the usurpation of another master might be yielded to with the more plausible pretence: but this is not the case. If we believe his word, he never means to part with his right over his creatures. "If I am a father, where is my reverence? if I am a master, where is my fear?"* We cannot suppose, without the utmost absurdity, he will ever divest himself of his authority, which he could never do without impairing his dignity, and introducing confusion into his empire. He owes it to himself not to relinquish what we owe to him. The claims of the flesh then are founded on plain and direct usurpation. II. Let us next examine the claims of the flesh by what we have already derived from it. Let us see whether it is such a master as deserves to be served any longer. Of the boasted pleasures it has afforded, say, Christians, what remains but a painful and humiliating remembrance? "What fruit had ye in those things of which ye are now ashamed?" Has any thing accrued to you from the service of sin which you would wish to renew? Though it might flatter your imagination with the appearance of good, did it not afterward "bite as a serpent and sting as an adder?" You remember the wormwood and the gall you were made to taste when you were first convinced of its evil, and you know what a bitter and evil thing it is to depart from the living God. It has already brought you to the brink of destruction; it has placed you in a situation in which nothing but the interposition of sovereign Mercy could have saved you. By estranging you from * Mai. i. 6. God, it shut up the path to real good. In your unconverted state it indisposed you to prayer, armed you with prejudice against the salutary truths of the gospel, darkened your understanding, and seared your conscience. Such was its deceitfulness, that you were led by it to put "evil for good, and good for evil; sweet for bitter, and bitter for sweet." Your ears were closed to the voice of the charmer, charmed he never so wisely. You were made to fancy that true religion was melancholy, that tenderness of conscience was needless scrupulosity, and that happiness was only to be found in the pleasures and pursuits of this world. It engaged you in the chase of innumerable vanities. You" followed after your lovers, but could not overtake them;" fled from one refuge to another, till, to speak in the language of the prophet, "You were wearied in the multitude of your way." In the mean time, to all pleasant and delightful intercourse with the Father of Spirits, to the soothing accents of peace and pardon issuing from Christ, and to all the consolations of piety, you were utter strangers. In your more serious and reflecting moments, your heart meditated terror; death, judgment, and eternity were awful sounds in your ears, and you only felt a delusive and sickly repose, while you forgot they had any existence. On a calm review of your conduct, you felt an uneasiness which you were conscious was so just and well founded that you seldom dared to reflect. Surely you will acknowledge that you at least are not debtors to the flesh. And what has the flesh to plead for its services which will bear for a moment to be weighed against these great evils? What has Satan to plead, who by means of it "rules in the children of disobedience?" Will he venture to mention a few vain and sinful amusements, a wanton arbitrary liberty, or a few transient guilty pleasures, which I trust you are so far from wishing to repeat, that you never think of them without blushing before God? How are you more indebted to the flesh, since you had reason to hope you formed a saving acquaintance with God? The partial indulgence to its dictates has robbed you of your comfort, has retarded your progress to heaven, and made you pass many a day sad and disconsolate, when but for this the joy of the Lord would have been your strength.. The more we observe what passes around us with a serious mind, the more we shall be convinced how little men are indebted to the flesh. Look at that young man, the early victim of lewdness and intemperance, who, though in the bloom of life, has "his bones filled with the sins of his youth." Survey his emaciated cheek, his infirm and withered frame, and his eyes sunk and devoid of lustre; the picture of misery and dejection. Hear his complaint, how he mourns at the last, now his flesh and his body are consumed: "How have I hated instruction and my heart despised reproof, and have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined my ear to them that instructed me! -I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation of the assembly." Is he a debtor to the flesh? Behold that votary of the world, successful as he has been in the pursuit of it, and stained by no flagrant crime. Yet he has lived "without God in the world;" and now his days are drawing to a close, he feels himself verging to |
