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tion; and he was fully persuaded that men will never be holy, but in the degree in which they believe that God is good, good to them. "When the love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that we, being justified by his grace, might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they who believe in God may be careful to maintain good works.'

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The apostle Peter does not leave us to find out his object by such a reference as we have now made to general principles. He distinctly shows us why he appeals to the graciousness of the Lord: "Love one another with a pure heart fervently. Lay aside all malice, and guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil-speakings," "As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby," "Seeing ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.' He plainly acts on the same principle as his beloved brother Paul, when he says, "I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God," manifested in the divine method of justification, "I beseech you, by the mercies of God, that ye present yourselves as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, by Christ Jesus, which is your rational ministry as spiritual priests; and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, that ye may prove what is the good, and perfect, and acceptable will of God." 2

I cannot conclude these illustrations without dropping a word of warning to those to whom this word of salvation has come, but as yet come in vain; to whom God has long been proclaiming, "Behold, I have laid in Zion as a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foundation," but who, instead of believing on it, coming to it, building on it, have been, like the Jewish builders, rejecting it, disallowing it. Your situation, "men and brethren," is awfully perilous. If you will not build on that stone, you must stumble over it, and fall, and be broken. As to present privileges, you are in far better circumstances than the heathen, who never heard of the way of salvation; but as to future destiny, if you do not enter on the way of salvation opened before you, you shall be in far worse circumstances than they. Yes, in the day of judgment, "it shall be more tolerable for the inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon, of Sodom and Gomorrah, than for you." All the happiness of the highest heavens is freely offered you, if you will accept of it in the only way God can give it, or you receive it; but if you contemptuously put it away from you, you not only must lose it, but you must sink yourselves into the very lowest depths of hopeless misery.

If you perish—and you cannot perish but by your own obstinate refusal of a salvation, ready to be bestowed on you if you will but accept of it-your perdition will be no ordinary perdition. The awful declarations of the Apocalypse will be realized in your experience: "The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he 2 Rom. xii. 1, 3.

1 Tit. iii. 4-8.

shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb; and the smoke of their torment ascended up forever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night." 1

But, oh, why should it be so? God has no "pleasure in your death;" he swears by his life that he has not. He wills you to turn from your evil ways, and live. If you perish, you must be self-destroyers. "Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die?" Be no longer disobedient to the word of mercy. Receive it gladly, gratefully; and in receiving it you will receive the Saviour and his salvation. The feast of gospel grace is set before you, and urged on your acceptance: "O taste and see that the Lord is good." May the good Spirit render effectual the invitation of the word, and induce you all to take of the bread and the water of life freely, that, eating and drinking, you may live for

ever.

NOTE A. p. 174.

"Saxo quod adhuc vivum radice tenetur."-OVID. Met. xiv. 714. "vivoque sedilia saxo.”—VIRG. Æn. i. 171. ALEX. MORUS' note is curious :-" Apud Ethnicos quoque lapidum vivorum reperies mentionem, Xilovs ¿púxovs. Plutarchus de fluminibus non semel vocat lapides vivos, inter quos Opacúdedov Eurote proprium lapidem nominat, qui, tuba sonante, prosiliebat, ad ripam scilicet; Atheniensium autem audito nomine, mergebatur in profundum. Nec minus fabulosa quæ Suidas habet de Heraisco Ægyptio Philosopho qui rite dignoscere calleret ἀγάλματα τὰ ζῶντα, καὶ μὴ ζῶντα vel ἄψυχα καὶ ἄμοιρα θέιας ἐπιπνοίας. tra Petrus fideles vere lapides vivos vere spilantes ac loquentes, Dei statuas spirituales et participes Oɛías Eπinvoías hic dixit." Notæ ad quædam loca N. F. p. 210.

Con

NOTE B. p. 224.

εις δ

"Προσκόπτουσι. Απειθοῦντες. Horum autem verborum prius designat proprie pœnam, posterius culpam; pronomen autem ad quod refertur ad prius, non ad posterius. Improbos destinavit Deus ad pœnam, non ad culpam." CAPPELLUS.—“ Προσκόπτουσι-Απειθοῦντες : the former of these words designates punishment; the latter, sin. The pronoun ♪refers to the former, not to the latter. God appoints the wicked to punishment, not to sin. Some anti-Calvinists have found in these words a proof, that even they who perish through unbelief were appointed to salvation. They refer &, in the teeth of grammar, to Xoλos; and try to bring out, or rather put in, the sense, to use the words of one of them, a very worthy Lutheran, HEMMINGIUS: "Etsi illis destinata erat salutis promissio, tamen non crediderunt." It is sad when the love of system leads good men thus to "pervert” the word of God. Mens Petri est: Hoc infidelium præsertim Judæorum scandalum et рóσкоμμа, ad Christum lapidem angularem dudum a prophetis, Christo, aliisque assertum et prædictum esse."-Jer. viii. 14, 15. Matt. xxi. 42, 44. * Luke ii. 34. Rom. ix. 32, 33.— KYPKE, ii. 430.

1 Rev. xiv. 10, 11.

DISCOURSE IX.

A SECOND FIGURATIVE VIEW OF THE STATE AND CHARACTER OF CHRISTIANS, WITH APPROPRIATE EXHORTATIONS.

1 PET. ii. 11, 12.-Dearly beloved, I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; having your conversation honest among the Gentiles; that, whereas they speak against you as evil-doers, they may, by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.

THESE two verses, which form one sentence, bring before our minds a very important department of christian duty; to the illustration and enforcement of which it is our intention to devote this discourse. The subject naturally divides itself into two parts; an injunction of duty, and a statement of the motives which urge compliance with that injunction. The duty enjoined is twofold: abstinence from fleshly lusts, and having the conversation honest among the Gentiles. The motives are these: "Ye are strangers and pilgrims." "These lusts war against the soul;" and abstinence from them, and the maintenance of an "honest conversation among the Gentiles," have a tendency to overcome their prejudices against both you and your religion, and to lead them to "glorify God in the day of visitation." fold, then, the meaning of these injunctions, and to point out the force of these motives, are the two objects which I have in view in the following remarks.

To un

I.-THE DUTIES ENJOINED.

§ 1.-Abstinence from "fleshly lusts.”

The first duty enjoined in the text is, "Abstinence from fleshly lusts." 66 Lusts," in the New Testament use of that word, signifies desires; strong desires; usually inordinate, unduly strong desires. The phrase "fleshly lusts" is often considered as meaning, desires for sensual enjoyment; desires which obtain their gratification by means of bodily organs. This is, however, very unduly to limit the signification of the term. Among the "works of the flesh," which are just the lusts of the flesh embodied, we find enumerated, "hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies," as well as "adultery, fornication, uncleanness, and lasciviousness.” 1

Flesh is the principal constituent of the human body, and the body is the visible part of the compound being, man. Hence flesh comes to be used for human nature, or mankind. All mankind, since the 1 Gal. v. 19-21. 2 Gen. vi. 13. Psal. lvi. 4. Matt. xxiv. 22. Rom. iii. 20. John i. 14.

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fall, are depraved beings; and hence flesh is often, especially in the epistolary part of the New Testament, used to signify fallen human nature, or mankind as depraved. Agreeably to this use of the term flesh, fleshly desires are those desires which characterize mankind as depraved, which belong to, and are distinctive of, fallen human nature, what are elsewhere termed "worldly lusts." 2

The desires, including under that name the appetites and the passions, as well as those principles of which the word 'desires' is the appropriate technical name, form a very important part of our active nature, and are fitted to serve numerous useful and benevolent purposes. The desire of meat and of drink; the desire of knowledge; the desire of esteem; the desire of power; the desire of property, and other desires of a similar kind, belong essentially to human nature; and are as much the gifts of God as reason or conscience; and, like these higher faculties, are plainly intended and calculated to minister to man's improvement and happiness.

Some of these desires, as belonging to man as an embodied being, may be termed fleshly, as they cannot exist in purely spiritual beings ; but these are not the desires here referred to. God never requires impossibilities; and to abstain from the desires we have mentioned is an impossibility. Those desires are neither virtuous nor vicious. They are parts of our constitution, which ought to be regulated and restrained when they come in competition with more important principles, which, in a perfect state of human nature, they never would. To eradicate them, if the thing were possible, which I believe it is not, would not be to improve, but to mutilate human nature. The amputation of arms and legs would not at all add to the beauty and usefulness of the human body; and just such an improvement on the mind, would be the depriving it of any of those active powers with which its infinitely wise and benignant Author has endowed it. That were to make us new creatures," in a sense very different indeed from that in which the apostle uses the term.

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In no part of our natue has the malignant influence of the fall been more apparent, than in our moral or active faculties; and in none of these active powers do we discern clearer marks of degeneration than in our desires. Our desires, in very many instances, seek their gratification in objects, the pursuit of which is proscribed by God, as his will is indicated by reason, by conscience, or by an express revelation; and where the object of desire is not in itself improper, the desire itself is often foolish, in consequence of its being disproportioned to the real or comparative value of the object: and criminal, because unsubordinated to the will of God.

These are the desires which are here termed " fleshly lusts;" such desires as Adam was a stranger to while he continued innocent; such desires as are now characteristic of the whole of his degenerate offspring. These desires, unlike the original principles referred to above, are not to be regulated, but destroyed. They are right hands that are to be cut off; right eyes that are to be plucked out. As members of the old man, they are to be mortified; as affections and lusts of the flesh, they are to be crucified.

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1 Rom. vii. 18; viii. 5. Gal. v. 13.

2 Tit. ii. 12.

To "abstain from fleshly lusts," then, is to refrain from desiring that which is forbidden. It is, in other words, to yield obedience to the tenth commandment, "Thou shalt not covet;" thou shalt not desire that which God says thou shouldst not seek to obtain. Every desire of what is forbidden, what is criminal in itself, or criminal to us in our circumstances, is a "fleshly desire," a desire which marks the being who indulges it as morally depraved, and is not to be indulged, even in the slightest degree, is not to be tampered with, but destroyed, strangled in its birth, repressed on its first rising.

But this is not all: To "abstain from fleshly lusts," is to refrain from all inordinate or excessive desire, even of what is in itself lawful. It is in this form of the evil that Christians chiefly need to be warned against fleshly or worldly lusts. It is a sad mistake to suppose that our desires are lawful, because the objects of our desire are not forbidden. It may be that they are so far from being forbidden, that we would sin if we did not desire them, and yet in desiring them inordinately we may sin. Our desires may be "fleshly desires," that is, desires rising out of the depravity of our nature, and at once exercising and increasing that depravity.

To desire anything seen and temporal, be it pleasure, knowledge, power, fame, money, or anything else, as absolutely necessary to, and sufficient for, our happiness, is a fleshly desire. That is, in other words, to make that thing our God, and is in direct opposition to the commandment, "Thou shalt have no other God before me : me:" to the breathing of the Spirit, "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none on all the earth whom I desire besides thee." 1 He who cherishes any desire unsubordinated to the will of God, cherishes a fleshly desire; and from this species of fleshly desire, as well as the former, Christians are commanded to "abstain." They are to“ flee from idolatry;" to "keep themselves from idols;" and "covetousness," that is, the inordinate desire of any created good, "is idolatry." These, then, are the two branches of the great law, "Abstain from fleshly lusts." Refrain from desiring whatever is forbidden. Refrain from inordinately desiring anything seen and temporal, however innocent in itself.

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This, like every one of God's laws, is "holy, just, and good." leaves abundant room for the healthy operation of natural desires. It allows us to desire everything that is really desirable, in the degree in which it is desirable. It only forbids us to indulge a desire which, whether gratified or not, must end in disappointment and ruin. The language of this law is, "Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not?" Surely it is impossible not to recognize the Divine wisdom and kindness in this spiritual commandment. It puts the check in the right place. It seeks to prevent the works of the flesh, by prohibiting the lusts of the flesh. Human laws seek to dam up or divert the stream; the Divine law seeks to dry up the fountain.

3

From these few plain remarks, every person who wishes to understand the subject, may easily perceive what it is to abstain from fleshly lusts—a much more extensive and difficult duty than many are

1 Psal. lxxiii. 25, 26.

3 Prov. xxiii. 5.

2 1 Cor. x. 14. 1 John v. 21. Col. iii. 5.

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