of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness;" and not these only, but also "idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wraths, strifes," &c. and these are mental sins, yet the apostle includes them in "the works of the FLESH.' And as the intellectual faculties, the reasoning powers, the genius, the imagination, are all comprehended in that fallen nature of man, here called the flesh, so also to them must be added the heart. This is the great fountain of evil in man, and here is the centre of human depravity. "For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: these are the things which defile a man, "* saith our Lord. And Jeremiah had testified long before, that "the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." Thus the whole man is corrupt and depraved; he is flesh; carnal, polluted, estranged from God in every way, in body, in mind, in heart. The mental endowments originally designed for the service of God, are often perverted to the basest purposes, and devoted to the most unworthy objects and sometimes are actually employed in blasphemous attempts to disprove the existence of their Creator. The heart, formed to adore Him, is utterly estranged from Him, and ex

* Matt. xv. 19.

VOL. II.

F

"The

clusively engrossed by earthly idols.
whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.”

But it is to the perpetuity and unvarying identity of this corrupt nature of fallen man that our Lord chiefly directs our attention. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh;" everywhere and always the same. A corrupt body can beget only a corrupt body-from a fallen man only fallen sinners can proceed-the child is the image of his father, and the fathers to the children hand down the same inheritance of guilt and rebellion which they received from their fathers. As the children are partakers of flesh and blood, so are they of sin and misery; as on their countenances they bear the natural, so on their hearts the moral image of their parents. And as in the great family of man there is one general outline of feature by which it is distinguished from all other orders of creation, and "face answers to face;" so heart to heart, and mind to mind. Scripture and experience alike confirm this striking and humbling truth. New continents and islands are discovered, still we find in their inhabitants an identity of sinfulness in other points infinite diversity, in this, invariable agreement. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh;" this is the universal law of moral, no less than of natural existence. The evil principles of man's heart may be restrained and partially corrected by education, or

they may be concealed beneath the polish of refined society, but still they are never eradicated. "Who can change the Ethiopian's skin or the leopard's spots?" "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean ?" It is a moral impossibility. A change so complete is not effected even by the grace of God itself! When a new nature is imparted, it does but struggle with the old one; and though more or less it may prevail, still the "flesh" is there. "In me, that is, in my flesh," in my corrupt and fallen nature, "dwelleth no good thing," said the converted Paul.* And of the christians in the Galatian churches the same apostle declared, "The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would."† Clearer proof cannot be given of the continued existence of "THE FLESH" in believers, and its unalterable character as an evil, corrupt nature, which may be restrained, crucified, and is even said to be

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destroyed;" so completely may it be subdued by grace, and yet it is there; and continues in and about the believer as long as he lives in the body, nor leaves him until his departing "soul, delivered from the burden of the flesh, is in joy and felicity."

This point will appear more clearly, if we proceed, II. To consider THE OPPOSITE PRINCIPLE + Gal. v. 17.

Rom. vii. 18.

OF WHICH OUR LORD FURTHER SPEAKS, THAT NEW

NATURE WHICH IS IMPARTED TO THE CONVERTED

MAN: "THAT WHICH IS BORN OF THE SPIRIT IS SPIRIT." The Spirit is God the Holy Ghost, the third person in the eternal and adorable Trinity. Of this there can be no doubt. He is declared

in many passages of Scripture to be the holy inmate of the believer's bosom. "What, know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God?"* And St. Peter declares that the exceeding great and precious promises of God's word are given to us, "that by these we might be PARTAKERS OF THE DIVINE NATURE, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." This was that Comforter who was promised to his sorrowing church by her departing Lord: "I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him; but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." This indwelling Spirit is the source and origin of all that is good in the converted sinner; it is He that awakens, convinces, converts, and sanctifies; "It is the Spirit that quickeneth," or giveth life, "the flesh profiteth nothing." If any man believe, "receive Christ," and "become one of the sons of God," * 1 Cor. vi. 19. † John xiv. 16, 17. John vi. 63.

it is because "he is born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."* If any spiritual light visit the dark chamber of the human breast, it is because "God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined into the heart, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." If any life be imparted to the soul which is by nature dead, it is because that same Spirit has visited it which was poured upon the Ephesian church, when St. Paul addressed them, saying, "You hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins." Were it necessary, passages might be greatly multiplied to prove that the Holy Spirit of God coming down and making his personal abode in the heart of a sinner constitutes conversion-that great change which is the subject of our present consideration.

The particular mode in which it may please God the Holy Ghost to act upon the mind, and the various means which He may use for the accomplishment of his merciful purpose, it is comparatively unimportant to inquire. Whether His hidden operations commence in the ordinance of baptism and gradually increase, modelling the souls of our dear children whom we have dedicated to Christ in their infancy, according to his most gracious invitation; or whether the change Eph. ii. 1.

* John i. 12, 13. + 2 Cor. iv. 6.