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 difcretion, was about to be placed in fome worldly fituation, by which he was to gain his livelihood; there would be some points, material to his future fuccess, concerning which you would feel defirous of being fatisfied. You would ask; Is there a fair prospect, that if he shall be diligent, and in other respects fhall conduct himself properly, he will fucceed? Suppofe yourself convinced that, on his diligence and good behaviour, his fuccefs might be regarded as certain. You would then perhaps enquire,

whether the method of conducting his bufinefs aright is eafy to be known. yourself fully affured that it is. probably ask in the next place,

Suppofe You would whether fuccefs will bring with it advantages fufficiently great to compenfate the labour and the anxiety neceffary to obtain fuccefs. 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 fatisfaction has been given to you; that it would be altogether unreafonable to expect any thing more. But what if a by-ftander were to fay to you: "All that 66 you have heard is true. You must, however, remember, that if your fon fhould "turn out idle, and unprincipled, he will not "fucceed in his business, and will undoubt

edly bring upon himself shame and diftrefs." You would answer: "In that cafe he will "deserve them. If the way to fuccefs is

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

pense which he will gain is much more "than a fufficient return for his exertions: "what more can be defired? If with fuch

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

Now turn your eyes to the text; and apply to your own fituation, your own profpects, your own conduct, the reasoning which you have perceived, I apprehend, to be just in the cafe 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. you the way which you would fucceed in your pursuit of eternal glory; the certainty of fuccefs, if you will faithfully perfevere in the appointed road; and the vastness of the reward prepared for the fervants of God. At the fame time the apostle diftinctly fhews to you the path of deftruction; and the unavoidable and overwhelming miferies, which await all who purfue it.

He declares to muft follow, if you

Let us confider, with devout fupplication for the guidance of divine grace, the several parts of the text in the order in which they ftand.

1. If ye live after the flesh ye shall die. A momentous declaration, fimple, awful,

and alarming! What is the course of action which it specifies? What is the confequence 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 fin, averfe 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 manifeft; uncleannefs of every kind, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, ftrife, feditions, berefies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and fuch like (a.) Such is the nature which defcends from generation to generation. That which is born of the flesh is flesh (b). The defcendents of corrupt parents must be in their nature corrupt. In our flefh dwelleth no good thing. To live after the flesh is to fulfil the defires of the flesh (c): to purfue those evil courfes, to which of ourselves we are difpofed to obey the fuggeftions of the carnal mind, which is enmity against God (d.) Let it be carefully obferved how very large a proportion of the iniquities enumerated by St. Paul, as inftances and fpecimens of the works of the flesh, are not only offences against (4) Gal. v. 1921. (¿) John, iii, 6. (c) Ephef. ii. 3. (d) Rom. viii. 6, 7.

G

God,

God, but also tranfgreffions with respect to men; not only violations of piety, but also breaches of Morality. Being by nature destitute of love to God, we are of course devoid of any natural difpofition, either to controul our appetites, or to love our neighbour, for the fake 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 difpofitions and proceedings, with a reference to which is recorded the folemn warning: If ye live after the flesh ye shall die. Of fuch a life the confequence is death. If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die. So alfo fpeaks the apostle in the preceding verfe: To be carnally minded is death. what is intended in these passages by death? Not merely the lofs of this mortal life, the feparation of the foul from the body. For this death all men experience. There is one event in this respect to the righteous and to the wicked (e). What more then is comprehended; for it is evident that fomething 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 paffage which has been quoted from his epiftle to the Galatians, (d) Rom. viii. 6, 7. (e) Ecclef, ix. 2.

Now

the