his individual interest. The aggregate of mankind appears something great and imposing in the eyes of men; in consequence of which a peculiar importance is attached to those actions which tend to the public good. The magnitude of the general interest, imposes a value on those actions which are adapted to advance so great an object. But, in the sight of God, all nations are as the " drop of a bucket;"" he taketh up the isles as a very little thing." Suppose all the subjects of a lawful prince were to agree to stand by each other, and to promote each other's interest to the utmost; would this be allowed by the prince as any atonement for a great and persevering rebellion? Or suppose a single individual so disposed, would not the result be the same? No other can be substituted for this.

III. He who answers not the end of his existence, is fit only to be destroyed. He is like a vessel marred in the hand of the potter, proper only to be broken.

The barren vine may be useful as fuel, and to this purpose it is much applied in eastern countries. Thus wicked men may be useful with a subordinate kind of usefulness, by their destruction.

1. They may thereby become edifying examples of the just vengeance of God, in order to deter others. That this will be one of the ends answered by the punishment of the wicked, seems intimated in several passages of scripture, as well

ment.

as is supported by its analogy to human govern"And they shall go forth and look upon the carcases 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 shew 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 † Rom. ix. 22.

*Isaiah lxvi. 24.

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 regulated; 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 inhabited and actuated

Preached on the morning of Sunday, October 31, 1814, at Leicester.

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."

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."+

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 † Gen. vi. 13.

1 Cor. xv. 39.

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."§ 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 betwixt them, and every man walks according to the dictates of † Heb. ix. 10. § Gal. v. 19-21.