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On LIVING after the FLESH, or after the SPIRIT.

ROMANS, viii. 13, 14.

For, if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die. But if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the Sons of God.

IF

F one of your children, my brethren, arrived at years of discretion, was about to be placed in some worldly situation, by which he was to gain his livelihood; there would be some points, material to his future success, concerning which you would feel desirous of being satisfied. You would ask; Is there a fair prospect, that if he shall be diligent, and in other respects shall conduct himself properly, he will succeed? Suppose yourself convinced that, on his diligence and good behaviour, his success might be regarded as You would then perhaps enquire,

certain.

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whether the method of conducting his business aright is easy to be known. Suppose yourself fully assured that it is. You would probably ask in the next place, whether success will bring with it advantages sufficiently great to compensate the labour and the anxiety necessary to obtain success. Suppose yourself to have complete proof, that the advantages would abundantly repay all the trouble, of every kind, which may be needful in order to acquire them. You would now confess that entire satisfaction has been given to you; that it would be altogether unreasonable to expect any thing more.

But what if

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a by-stander were to say to you: you have heard is true. You must, however, remember, that if your son should turn out idle, and unprincipled, he will not "succeed in his business, and will undoubt"edly bring upon himself shame and distress." You would answer: "In that case he will "deserve them. If the way to success is

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plainly pointed out to him; if success may "be deemed certain, provided that he will "follow this plain way; and if the recom

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pense which he will gain is much more "than a sufficient return for his exertions: what more can be desired? If with such prospects he shall wilfully take the road to « ruin,

ruin, he will have no right to complain of "the consequences."

Now turn your eyes to the text; and apply to your own situation, your own prospects, your own conduct, the reasoning which you have perceived, I apprehend, to be just in the case that has been represented concerning one of your children. St. Paul here brings before you the nature of that condition, in which you are placed upon earth, that you may obtain an inheritance of happiness in the world to come. He declares to you the way which you must follow, if you would succeed in your pursuit of eternal glory; the certainty of success, if you will faithfully persevere in the appointed road; and the vastness of the reward prepared for the servants of God. At the same time the Apostle distinctly shews to you the path of destruction; and the unavoidable and overwhelming miseries, which await all who pursue it.

Let us consider, with devout supplication for the guidance of divine grace, the several parts of the text in the order in which they stand.

I. If ye live after the flesh ye shall die. A momentous declaration, simple, aweful,

and alarming! What is the course of action which it specifies? What is the consequence which it denounces ?

By the flesh is unquestionably to be understood that corrupt nature, which all the posterity of fallen Adam derive from him: a nature, in itself, prone to sin, averse from holiness, helpless against temptation. What this nature is, appears by the fruits which it bears; in other words, by the works which it produces. And the works of the flesh are manifest ; uncleanness of every kind, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like (a). Such is the nature which descends from generation to generation. That which is born of the flesh is flesh (b). The descendents of corrupt parents must be in their nature corrupt. In our flesh dwelleth no good thing. To live after the flesh is to fulfil the desires of the flesh (c): to pursue those evil courses, to which of ourselves we are disposed to obey the suggestions of the carnal mind, which is enmity against God (d). Let it be carefully observed, how very large a proportion of the iniquities enumerated by St. Paul, as instances and specimens of the works of the flesh, are not only offences against

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(a) Gal. v. 19—21. (b) John, iii. 6. (c) Ephes. ii. 3. (d) Rom. viii, 6, 7.

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God, but also transgressions with respect to men; not only violations of piety, but alsó breaches of morality. Being by nature destitute of love to God, we are of course devoid of any natural disposition, either to controul our appetites, or to love our neighbour, for the sake of God. Every deed of immorality is natural to us; is a work of the flesh; is a portion of the carnal mind, which is enmity against God (d); is a part of that natural train of dispositions and proceedings, with a reference to which the word of God pronounces the solemn warning: If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die. Of such a life the consequence is death. If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die. So also speaks the apostle in the preceding verse: To be carnally minded is death. Now what is intended in these passages by death? Not merely the loss of this mortal life, the separation of the soul from the body. For this death all men experience. There is, in this respect, one event to the righteous and to the wicked (e). What more then is comprehended, for it is evident that something more is comprehended, in the death which awaits those who live after the flesh! Let St. Paul explain his own meaning. After having mentioned, in the passage which has been quoted from his epistle to the Galatians, (d) Rom. viii. 6, 7. (e) Eccles. ix. 2.

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