of enabling us better to understand a confessedly difficult, and an obviously important, passage of Scripture, neither you nor I will have cause to regret their length. That man does not rightly estimate the value of the pure ore of divine truth, who grudges the labor that is necessary to dig out of the mine, and separate it from rubbish; and who, when he in any good measure succeeds, does not “rejoice as one who findeth great spoil." I am not without hope that we shall find this passage, though at first sight beset with so many difficulties, in no ordinary degree rich in christian doctrine, and law, and motive; "profitable for doctrine, and for reproof, for correction and instruction in righteousness."

I-THE BASIS OF THE EXHORTATION.

The first branch of the subject-THE GREAT PRINCIPLE OF CHRISTIAN TRUTH, "Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh;" which the apostle lays down as the basis of his exhortation, need not detain us long, as we have in our last discourse considered, at great length, the full announcement of it, in the close of the last chapter, on which the more abbreviated statement in the text plainly reduplicates. It is a summary of all that is most peculiar and important in the religion of Christ, a comprehensive epitome of the gospel of our salvation. It is that which Paul first received and first declared to the churches, assuring them that it was that gospel, which, if they received it, and kept it in memory, would certainly save the soul. Its import may be thus briefly stated.

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Christ, the long-promised, divinely-appointed, divinely-qualified, divinely-accredited, divine Saviour, in human nature has endured numerous, varied, violent, severe sufferings, terminating in death.

These sufferings were penal, "for sins," being the execution of the penal sanction of the divine law, the manifestation of the displeasure of God against sin. He was made sin, he became a curse.

These sufferings were vicarious. They were not for his own sins, for he had none, but for the sins of men. "He suffered, the just in the room of the unjust." He "became a curse" in the room of the accursed. "We all like sheep had gone astray; we had turned every one to his own way; and the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all." "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was on him.”

These sufferings were expiatory. In them the penalty was not only borne, but borne away. He made an end of sin, by making reconciliation for iniquity. He took away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” He is the propitiation for our sins," and he is "set forth a propitiation;" and the righteousness of God, in the remission of sins, is thus declared, "God being just and the justifier of him who believes in Jesus."

The design of these penal, vicarious, and expiatory sufferings of the divinely-appointed, divinely-qualified, divinely-accredited, divine Saviour, is to bring men to God; to restore ignorant and deluded

1 1 Cor. xv. 1, 2.

man to the true knowledge of God, guilty man to the favor of God, depraved man to the image of God, and miserable man to the enjoyment of God, thus making him truly wise, truly good, and truly happy forever.

Finally, while these sufferings terminated in the death of the incarnate Saviour, they obtained for him, as their merited reward, that spiritual power which he exerts through the preaching of the gospel, in giving liberty to the spiritually enslaved, and life to the spiritually dead; and a seat at God's right hand in the Heaven of heavens, angels, and principalities, and powers, being made subject to him. Such is the great truth referred to by the apostle in the words "Christ has suffered for us in the flesh," and which he lays down as the basis on which he builds an exhortation to universal holiness, "holiness in all manner of conversation."

II-THE EXHORTATION.

That EXHORTATION forms the second division of our subject, to the consideration of which we now proceed. It is contained in these words: "Arm yourselves with this same thought, that He who hath suffered in the flesh has been made to rest from sin, that ye no longer should live the rest of your time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God." The exhortation, as I have already had occasion to remark, is twofold; the apostle calls on them to use certain means in order to secure a certain end; to cultivate a particular mode of thinking that they may follow a particular course of conduct; to arm themselves with an influential thought that they may perform a difficult work. It will, I believe, subserve the purpose of clear exposition, if we consider the two parts of the exhortation in the inverse order in which they are presented to us in the text; that we first consider the course of conduct which the apostle would have Christians to pursue, and then the means he would have them to employ in order that they may follow that course of conduct.

§ 1.—The particular object to be sought—negative—positive. The course of conduct which the apostle would have Christians to pursue, is described in these words: "No longer live the rest of your time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but live the rest of your time in the flesh to the will of God." The exhortation, you perceive, is both negative and positive. It forbids one course of conduct and enjoins another.

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(1.) Negative.—“ Not to live to the lusts of men.”

The negative exhortation plainly proceeds on the principle, that in the former part of their lives, previously to their conversion, they had been distinguished by a mode of conduct not only different from, but directly opposite to, that by which they ought henceforward to be characterized; they had done what they are now not to do; they had not done what they are now to do; they had lived the former 1 Boa. Aptum verbum: non dicitur de brutis.—Bengel.

σαι.

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part of their time in the flesh to the lusts of men, and not to the will of God. It is of great importance that Christians should keep habitually in mind their state and character previous to conversion; "that they should often look to the rock whence they were hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence they were dug." It is fitted to hide pride from their eyes, to excite gratitude, to deepen the sense of obligation. To gain these ends God's ancient people were often put in mind of their humble origin, and their enslaved state in Egypt; and Christians are frequently, directly and indirectly, called on to reflect on the state of error and guilt and condemnation and spiritual enslavement from which they have been delivered. "Once were ye darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord; walk in the light."

"Such were some of you," says the apostle, after giving a list of enormous transgressors; Such were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified, in the name of the Lord. Jesus, and by the spirit of our God." "In time past," says he, speaking to those who had been, in the great love wherewith the God who is rich in mercy had loved them, quickened together with Christ, and made to sit together in heavenly places in him, "ye were dead in trespasses and sins; ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience; among whom also, we all had our conversation in time past, in the lusts of our flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." Remember," says he, "that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and being without God in the world." And here the apostle, not the less impressively because indirectly, reminds the Christians to whom he wrote, that they had spent the former part of their lives in rebellion against God, and in base subjection to his and their enemies.

The time in the flesh" is an expression just equivalent to the period of our mortal life. During the past part of this life, previous to their conversion, they had lived "not to the will of God, but to the lusts of men." To live to the will of God, is to live according to the will of God, to make the will of God the supreme rule and the ultimate reason of our sentiments and conduct. In his unconverted state no man does this. He is ignorant and misinformed as to the will of God, and no way disposed to seek after more extended or accurate information on this subject. He does "not like to retain God in his knowledge;" and when God presses the truth re specting his will on such a man's notice, he turns away, saying in his heart, "Let me alone," "depart from me, I desire not the knowledge of thy will or thy ways." In most cases, in forming a determination as to a course of conduct, the question, Is the course resolved on agreeable to, or inconsistent with, the will of God?' is never put. God is not in all the thoughts. Nor is this the worst of it; for there are cases in which the man is, from circumstances, compelled to admit into his calculations the element of conformity or disconformity with the will

1 Isa. li. 1, 2.

2 Eph. v. 8. 1 Cor. vi. 11. Eph. ii. 1, 2, 11, 12.

of God; and then, instead of giving it its proper place, which is that of supreme control, he deliberately sets it aside, and proceeds to choose and to act in direct opposition to what he knows to be the Divine will, choosing and doing what he knows God disapproves, and rejecting and refusing to do what he knows God approves.

And while thus not living to the will of God, he is living "to the lusts of men." The lusts of men are just the desires whereby mankind in their fallen state are characterized; some of them sinful in themselves, others of them innocent in themselves, but faulty from excess or misdirection; all of them unfitted for a purpose which they were never meant to answer, to be the regulating principle of conduct. And to live to these desires is just to make them the rule and reason of what we do; to spend life in endeavoring to obtain the gratification of these desires, seeking to conform ourselves to our own natural inclinations; "fashioning ourselves," as the apostle phrases it in the first chapter of this Epistle, "according to our former lusts in our ignorance;" forming our character entirely under their influence, and the influence of their objects, present and sensible things, things seen and temporal;" or seeking to conform ourselves to those desires as reigning in and manifested by others, being "conformed to this world," embracing commonly prevalent opinions, regulating ourselves by commonly prevalent maxims, just because they are com monly prevalent, "walking according to the course of this world; and, while obstinately refusing to be servants of God in living to his will, basely becoming the slaves of men by living to their lusts. This is a true account of the mode of life of every unrenewed man. once the mode of life of those to whom the apostle is writing. It was once the mode of life of every true Christian. It is the mode of life of vast multitudes of professed Christians still.

It was

Worldly

But, says the apostle to the strangers scattered abroad, this must be your mode of life no longer. Now that ye are "in Christ," ye must become "new creatures; old things must pass away, and all things must become new."1 You must no more live the rest of your time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. desires," whether in yourselves or in others, are not to be the guiding principles of your conduct. You are not, because you desire, or other men desire, a particular object, to set about forthwith to endeavor to obtain it. You are to bring all your own desires, and all the desires of others, viewed as influencing your choice and conduct, before the tribunal of a higher principle; and, according to its awards, you are to refuse, or modify, or gratify them. Where they are condemned, they are, as existing in ourselves, to be sought to be weakened and destroyed; cut off, though apparently useful as a right hand; pulled out, though felt to be dear as a right eye; and cast from us as an abominable and pernicious thing; and, as existing in others, they are not to be complied with, but steadily resisted. And even where they are not sinful in their nature, but merely in danger of becoming exorbitant in their demands, they are never to be permitted to be the guide of our conduct, the controlling power of action. Christians are not to "obey sin by the desires of the body, yielding their members to it

1 2 Cor. v. 17.

as the instruments of unrighteousness." They are not to "make provision for the flesh to fulfil its desires;" on the contrary, they are to "mortify their members that are on the earth;" they are to crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts;" they are to "deny themselves;" they are not to be "conformed to this present world;" and they are to turn away from them "who walk after their own ungodly desires;" they are to "have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather to reprove them. They are not to "walk as men," but as Christians; not as "born of the flesh," but as "born of the Spirit."

(2.) Positive—“To live to the will of God."

The principle which is to guide their conduct and fashion their character, and which is to control and direct the desires, whether in themselves or others, as principles of their conduct, is "the will of God." They are to live the rest of their time in the flesh, “to the will of God," that is, according to the will of God. Not human desire, either in ourselves or others, but Divine will, is to be the rule and reason of our conduct.

The will of God is the rule of his own conduct. He worketh all things according to the counsel of his own will." "He doeth according to his will in the armies of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth." His will is the law of all inanimate and irrational being. "He has established the earth, and it abideth. They continue this day according to his ordinance, for all are his servants." This will is

the rule and the reason of the conduct of all holy, intelligent beings. The angels that excel in strength, "do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word; they are his ministers that do his pleasure." 2 This will should be the rule and reason of the conduct of all intelligent beings.

The will of God can be the rule and reason of the conduct of intelligent beings, only in the degree in which it is revealed to, and known by, them. The secret will of God, or what we ordinarily term his decrees, so far as unrevealed, cannot be the guide of our conduct. But when his will becomes apparent in his providential dispensations, then it is our duty to submit to it with unmurmuring acquiescence, however opposed to our natural inclination, saying, "It is the Lord; let him do with us what seemeth good in his sight. The will of the Lord be done. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.'

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It is however his will, as made known in his word, that is to be the chief, the paramount rule of our conduct. He has, in the Scriptures of truth, "showed us what is good and what he requires of us;" "his good, and acceptable, and perfect will." He has declared to us what is true, and what is right; and it ought to be our habitual endeavor to ascertain what he has declared to be true, that we may believe it; what he has declared to be right, that we may do it. To the ques

1 Matt. v. 29, 30; xviii. 8. Rom. vi. 12, 13; xiii. 14. Col. iii. 5. Gal. v. 24. Matt. xvi. 24. Rom. xii. 2. 2 Tim. iii. 5. Eph. v. 11. 2 Cor. iii. 3. John iii. 4. Eph. i. 11. Dan. iv. 35. Psal. cxix. 90; ciii. 20, 21. 1 Sam. iii. 18. Acts xxi. 14. Matt. vi. 10.

* Micah vi. 8. Rom. xii. 2.