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our condition will be in the eternal world. Numberless are the passages of God's word which will afford us the desired information: but there is not in the whole inspired volume one declaration more explicit than that before us. It presents to our view two momentous truths, which, as they admit not of any clearer division or ar rangement, we shall consider in their order.

I. A carnal life will terminate in everlasting misery

To" live after the flesh" is, to make the gratifying of our corrupt nature the great scope and end of our lives

[The "flesh" does not relate merely to the body, but to the whole of our corrupt nature. It is used to signify that innate principle of sin, which governs the unregenerate, and continually fights against the spiritual principle in those that are regenerate. And its fruits comprehend the actings of the mind, no less than those of the body. To "live after" this corrupt principle, is to, be governed by it in all our deliberations and pursuits. It signifies nothing what may be the immediate path which we choose for ourselves, provided our main object be to gratify ourselves. One may seek pleasure, another riches; another honour, another the knowledge of arts and sciences; but if they have no higher end of life than to attain these things, they all equally live after the flesh.]

The consequence of such a life will be eternal death

[The death mentioned in the text cannot relate to the mere death of the body, because that must be experienced by the spiritual, no less than by the carnal man. It must import that death of the soul, which is emphatically called the second death. Nor can there be a doubt but that this will be the fruit and consequence of a carnal life. And shall this be thought an hard saying? Surely not: for such a sentence is only a repetition of what the person has before passed upon himself: he has practically said to God, "Depart from me; I desire not the knowledge of thy ways; I will be a god to myself, and make myself happy in my own way." God replies to him, "Thou wouldest none of me; and thou shalt have none of me; depart from me for evermore."s The very state in which they lived, was a state of spiritual death; no wonder therefore that it terminates in everlasting death.]

John iii. 6. Gal. v. 17.

Compare ver. 5. with Phil.-iii. 19

e Job xxi. 14, 15.

b Gal. v. 12, 20.
Rev xx. 14.
f Ps. xii. 4.

Compare Ps. Ixxxi. 11. with Matt. xxv. 41. Ver. 6.

As a counterpoise to the apparent severity of this truth, the Apostle adds, that

II. A life of mortification and self-denial shall terminate in everlasting happiness

To mortify our corrupt nature ought to be the continual aim of our lives

[The "deeds of the body" are of the same import with "the flesh" in the preceding clause. Our corrupt nature is often represented as a body, because it has many parts or members whereby it acts. This we should endeavour to mortify in its outward actings, and in its inmost motions. As it consists principally in making SELF our idol, we must watch against it, and labour to bring it into subjection, that God in all things may be glorified by us. If we search our own hearts, we shall see a continual proneness to self-seeking, self-pleasing, and self-dependence. But instead of gratifying this propensity, we should make God's will the rule, and his honour the end, of our actions. We must therefore maintain a warfare against it, and resist it manfully, till it be subdued.*]

This however cannot be done effectually but by the assistance of the Holy Spirit

[We can walk after the flesh without any difficulty: it is natural to us, as it is to a stone to run down a precipice. But to mortify the flesh, is impossible to man: it can be effected only by the mighty working of that power, which raised Christ himself from the dead: yea, the inclination, as well as the ability, to mortify it is the gift of God." This however is no excuse for our subjection to the flesh, since the Holy Spirit shall be given to all that ask it at God's hands."]

The consequence of successfully combating the flesh shall be unspeakably blessed

[If eternal death be the fruit of self-indulgence, eternal life shall be the fruit of self-denial. There is this difference indeed; that whereas the former is the wages due to sin, the latter is the gift of God through Christ. We may well wonder at this marvellous grace of God, who has annexed such glorious consequences to our poor and feeble endeavours. But he delighteth in mercy, and will not suffer us to exert our selves in vain.]

By way of IMPROVEMENT we shall add a word 1. Of reproof

i Rom. vii. 24. Col. ii. 11.

k1 Cor ix. 27.

m Phil. ii. 13.

Rom. vi. 3.

1 Eph. i. 19, 20. and 1 Pet. i. 22. with the text.

Luke si. 13.

[Suppose it had been written, " If ye live after the flesh, ye shall go to heaven;" could the generality take any surer way to obtain the blessing, than that which they now pursue? And whence is it that, in direct opposition to the word of God, they can go on so confidently and so securely? The reason is, that Satan suggests to them, as he did to our first parents, "Ye shall not surely die." But shall we believe God or Satan? Did not the crediting of Satan ruin the whole world? and will it not eventually ruin us also? Be it known that we have but this alternative, mortification, or damnation. Either sin must be our enemy, or God. If therefore we would not perish for ever, let us immediately begin, in dependence on God's Spirit, to "mortify our earthly members:" for it is an eternal truth, that, "if we live after the flesh, we shall die."]

2. Of caution

[We are in great danger of mistaking the nature and extent of that mortification which is required of us in the text. We may be restrained from sin by the influence of education, as Joash; or put away many sins, as Herod; or set ourselves for a time against our besetting sin, as Judas under the terrors of a guilty conscience;s (as a mariner may cast all his goods out of his ship to save the vessel, without any aversion to the goods themselves) or may exchange our sins (prodigality for avarice, sensuality for self-righteousness, or the love of vanity for sloth and indifference.) But all this falls very far short of our duty: we must not be lopping off branches; but must lay our axe to the root. The besetting sin, though dear as a right eye, or needful as a right hand, must be cut off; at least, its dominion must be destroyed, and its motions be incessantly resisted. In short, to root out sin, and to serve, honour, and enjoy God, must be cur daily business, or unin termitted employment. Nor must we ever think that we belong to Christ, till we have the testimony of our conscience, that we are thus crucifying the flesh with its affections and lusts."]

3. Of encouragement

[As we have ruined ourselves, God might well leave us to restore ourselves: and then indeed would our condition be most pitiable. But he graciously offers us the assistance of his Spirit; so that none need despair: none need to decline the work of mortification for want of strength to accomplish it;

P Col iii. 5.

Mark vi. 17, 20, 27.
Mark ix. 43-48.

2 Chron. xxiv. 2. • Matt. xxvii. 3, 4. " Gal. v. 24.

seeing that "the grace of Christ is sufficient for us," and through the aids of his Spirit we can do all things: yea, "his strength shall be perfected in our weakness." Let every one then address himself to the work: "Have not I commanded thee? saith the Lord: be strong, therefore, and of a good courage; for the Lord thy God is with thee:" "Be strong, and let not your hands be weak; for your work shall be rewarded."]

* Gal. v. 16. and Phil. iv. 13.
z 2 Chron. xv. 7.

y Josh. i. 9.

CCCCII. THE SELF-DECEPTION OF COVETOUS

PROFESSORS.

Ezek. xxxiii. 31, 32. And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness. And lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an intrument: for they hear thy words, but they do them not.

NONE can be religious without appearing so; because religion must of necessity regulate our outward conduct-But persons may appear religious, while they are wholly destitute of vital godliness-Such were they, who talked of the Prophet in their houses, and expressed so much solicitude to hear from him the word of the Lord

We propose to consider

1. The characters here described

[If we look at their profession only, all is well: they unite themselves to the Lord's people, and account themselves to be of their number-They pay great attention to the ordinances; they feel peculiar delight in the ministration of the word; they express a very high regard for those who labour in the word and doctrine; they are not offended even with the most searching discourses; nor are the sons and daughters of pleasure more gratified with musical entertainments, than they

So the word "against" should be read in ver. 30. as the whole context evidently shews; and it is so rendered in the margin of the Bibles.

= are with the fluent, fervent, eloquent harangues of a faithful minister

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But, alas! their practice ill accords with their professionIt is amusement rather than real edification that they seek Their hearts are set upon the world, and riveted to their earthly possessions-In the pursuit of gain they will be guilty of falsehood and dishonesty; they will commend their goods, when they know them to be bad; they will impose on the Ignorance or the necessities of those who deal with them; they will take advantage of the confidence reposed in them to overreach their neighbour; and will condescend to meannesses, of which an honest heathen would be ashamed-They may be generous where their own inclination is strongly concerned, or where a liberal donation will advance their reputation; but at other times they will be as penurious and niggardly as the most unfeeling miser-It may be indeed that a principle of honour keeps them tolerably observant of truth and justice; but they give abundant evidence that their hearts are set upon things below rather than on things above, and shew, that they are more solicitous to be rich in this world, than to be rich towards God-

Such there have been in every age; nor are there wanting many such characters among the professors of the present day They hear the duties of a Christian opened and enforced; but they remain as much under the dominion of their lusts as ever- -]

II. The light in which they are viewed by God

[In their own eyes they are as good as any-Whatever be their besetting sin, they have reasons enough to extenuate and excuse it-Their coveteousness is nothing more than prudence and diligence; their fretfulness and fiery passions are the mere infirmities of nature, the trifling ebullitions of a warm and hasty temper, that are far more than counterbalanced by a proportionable zeal for what is good-When they hear the contrary dispositions recommended from the pulpit, they acknowledge the directions to be exceeding proper; but they scarcely ever feel their own conduct condemned by them They are eagle-eyed in spying out the faults of others; but they are almost utter strangers to their own-Their zeal for the gospel, and their attachment to those who preach or profess it, is to them a decisive evidence of their own conversion; and nothing that God or man can say to the contrary is suffered for one moment to shake their confidence

The characters of a proud and passionate professor, and of a censorious and uncharitable professor, might here be drawn, as being equally common, and equally hateful.

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