In accordance with this account, the flesh, and the Spirit, are represented as the great principles of life and of death. To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. And they are also represented as the two commanding principles of all human conduct, good or bad; "They that are after the flesh, do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.-There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, which walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 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."

5. Flesh and Spirit are terms of opposition; the one employed to denote all the remaining sin, the other all the existing holiness in the believer.

In the experience of Paul, these two terms suffice to describe all which was felt of good or evil by him; they are the two leaders of the contending hosts in his heart. Thus speaking of himself, Rom. VII. 14. "The law," he says, "is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin." He does not call indwelling sin which annoys him the carnal mind, because it was not in him the entire principle of action, but he calls it carnal, as retaining the same general nature of opposition to the law of God. He speaks of himself also, as "sold under sin," as sy nonymous with his being carnal, intending by the bondage not the entire dominion of sin, but the constancy and irksomeness of its influence upon his heart. This constant influence upon his heart of what he terms the flesh, he assigns as the cause of his doing what he disallows and hates, and of his leaving undone the things which he would do; 11-15. That in him which he denominates carnal, in the 14th verse, be calls "sin that dwelleth in me" in the 17th verse; and this sin that dwelleth in him he calls in the 18th verse, me, my flesh. In the 21st verse, he calls this same

flesh a law that when he would do good, caused evil to be present with him, and which in the 23d verse he describes as "warring against the law of his mind, and bringing him into captivity;"-a law which in the 24th verse he denominates a body of death, and in the 25th, the flesh, which serves the law of sin, while he himself with the mind serves the law of God. In describing the experience of the Galatian converts he employs the same language as in describing his own. Gal. V. 17. "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

Having now by an exposition of the term carnal mind, or fleshly mind, shown that it denotes the whole moral nature of man, I proceed to inquire what account the Scriptures give of man's moral nature under this term; and we have seen already that they declare the whole moral nature of man to be enmity against God, and at variance with the law of God. It is declared that none of the moral exercises of man's heart by nature are conformed to the law of God, and that they are in their very nature, all of them, so opposed to its requirements, that they can by no means be obedient in the least degree.

It is also declared that in the flesh of man, his whole moral nature before regeneration, there dwells no good thing.

I know, saith the Apostle, that in me, that is in my flesh, there dwelleth no good thing. This is said indeed of his depraved nature, as weakened by the existence of holiness, but if in this relatively enfeebled state, there was no goodness in it, there surely could have been none when the flesh constituted his entire moral nature.

The Scriptures decide that in the whole moral nature of man, termed the flesh, there is nothing by which he can by any means please God. "So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God." This it will be observed, is an inference from the

text, so often quoted; The carnal mind is enmity against God; so then, because the carnal mind is enmity against God, they that are in the flesh, or under its influence, as the sole principle of moral action, cannot please God. The carnal mind is not subject to the law of God; so then because there is in it no principle of obedience to the great law of his empire; they that are in the flesh, or under the sole guidance of this rebellious disposition cannot please God. The carnal mind cannot be subject to the law of God; so then they that are in the flesh cannot, under its influence, as the sole principle of accountable action, do any thing to please God. The principle of loyalty being gone, and that of rebellion existing in full vigour, there is nothing which God can approve.

The description of man's moral na ture under the term flesh, decides that there is in man by nature no moral excellence, different from holiness, and of an inferior kind.

The Scriptures are silent with respect to the existence in man of any such secondary moral excellence inferior to holiness. Did such excellence exist, there must be two moral laws, one requiring holiness, the other, this secondary inferior moral excellence; for moral excellence is, in its nature, excellence in an accountable creature, and consists in conform ity to some law. But the moral law is the great and sole rule of moral obligation, and standard of moral excellence. There can be no moral excellence therefore, which does not include that holiness which is conformity of heart to the law.

There is no need of any secondary kind of moral excellence to answer all the ends of our social and accountable existence; the higher principle of moral excellence included in holiness, answering completely all the purposes of a supposed secondary kind of virtue. The great principle of love to God and love to man, operating in the heart according to the commandment, will control the actions of man,

and regulate and direct all the instincts, sympathies, and natural affections of his nature, which are local in their objects, limited in their benign tendencies, and may become, without the guardianship of holiness, principles of collision, cruelty, and desolation.

If it should be supposed that in the absence of holiness, this secondary virtue had been inculcated as a partial substitute, I answer, that the secondary virtue if it exist at all, exists as a part of man's nature which has survived the fall. There must have been therefore, two moral laws and two kinds of moral excellence in Paradise, before the fall, which would be like making a master-spring of suffi cient power to control every movement, great and small, of an extended machinery, and then to plant another feeble spring by its side, on which a portion of its minor movements should be made dependant,

Let the holy love which the law commands beat in the heart of man, and by its mighty impulse, his intellect, his memory, his imagination, his conscience, his natural affections, his instincts and sympathies, and his willing hand and tongue will all perform, with unerring constancy, their respective parts, in constituting a state of perfect society. A secondary moral excellence is not needed therefore, and it is presumed does not exist. In this conclusion we are confirmed by the consideration that ali moral evil consists in the transgression of the moral law, to which holiness is obedience.

But if there were a secondary moral excellence, not including holiness in its nature, there must of necessity be a secondary kind of moral evil not consisting in the transgression of the moral law. But as we find no secondary moral evil, we conclude there is no secondary, inferior kind of moral excellence in man. As all his depravity consists in the carnal mind, so all his moral excellence con sists in that love which is the fruit of

the Spirit. This point so plain already, is settled by the consideration that goodness in man in its most comprehensive sense is denominated a fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is love, goodness; as all goodness or moral excellence in man then is the effect of regeneration by the Spirit, none existed in his nature before that event.

The declarations of the Scriptures concerning the carnal mind, the flesh, &c. lead us to the conclusion, that man is by nature entirely depraved. If in his natural condition, called the flesh, he is an enemy to God; is not, and while remaining in that state cannot be subject to the law; if in his flesh, his whole moral nature, there dwells no good thing; if he cannot please God while in the flesh, possessing not only no holiness, but not moral excellence of any, even an inferior kind; and if all his moral excellence as a christian is the result of his regeneration, and is a fruit of the Spirit, I perceive not for myself, any way to evade this testimony of the Bible to the entire depravity of man D. D. by nature.

A SERMON.

Genesis xxviii. 17.--And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! This is none other but the house of God, and this is the Gate of Heaven.

THESE are the words of the Patriarch Jacob. At the earnest request of Rebecca, who was anxious that her favourite son should escape the vengeance of Esau ;-and under the solemn charge of Isaac, his father, who was unwilling that he should take a wife from the idolatrous Canaanites, Jacob arose to go to Padan-Aram, to the house of Bethuel, his mother's father. He went wholly unattended, and with small supplies, probably to escape the notice, and thus avoid the rage and envy of his brother Esau, Night came on him, in a certain place; the sun was set, and he lay

down to sleep, a stone his pillow, the canopy of heaven his covering, In his dream, he saw, a vision, a ladder, reaching from earth to Heaven, the angels of God ascending and descending upon the ladder, and over it, the Lord God, who called to him, and confirmed the promise before made to Abraham. "And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of Heaven."

What 'place,' did Jacob intend, when he said, 'This is the house of God'? There was no house near him. He lay in the open field, beneath the vault of heaven. Even though we should suppose he had some particular reference, to the spot of ground on which he lay, or the stone on which his head had rested, yet why did he call the place a house? By the house of God, the Gate of heaven, he doubtless had reference to the place of the vision. He had seen God, in his dream, therefore he was afraid.' 'God,' said he, is in this place, and I knew it not. How dreadful is this place. This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.' The place of the vision, the expanse above and around him, seemed to him as the house of God. The extended earth on which he stood, seemed the floor, and the arches of the sky, the lofty roof of the magnificent dwelling place of the Almighty. It seemed indeed the house of God, for in it he had seen the visible presence of the Lord of Hosts, attended by his retinue of holy Angels.

It was this sight, that made the Patriarch afraid. Though it is said 'he was afraid,' yet he could not have a fear for his personal safety. The whole vision was fitted to banish such fear. The mercy of God to a guilty world, was shadowed forth, the angels descending with messages of grace and errands of mercy, and ascending with reports of their ser

vices, showed the gracious Providence of God, and the blessing which God himself pronounced on Jacob, confirming to him the promise before made to Abraham, was all of it adapted and designed by God, to banish fear and despondency from the heart of the solitary wanderer, and to fill him with hope and comfort on his journey of exile from his father's roof. Yet he was afraid, and said how dreadful is this place.' The fear which Jacob felt was religious awe, the dread which falls upon men from the sensible presence of Almighty God.

Jacob had been occupied in his own concerns, eager in pursuit of earthly good, and anxious for his life and welfare, and had not sufficiently thought of the presence of the invisible God. This vision brought to him a realizing view of a present God. He felt as if suddenly and unexpectedly brought, not into the palace of an earthly monarch, but into the house of the living God.

Oh could the vision of the Almighty, burst, at once, upon a thoughtless world, could they see him inhabiting this universe, which he has built for his dwelling place,-could they see his arm guiding the hosts of heaven in their circuits, and moving forward the operations of nature around them, could they see him by their side, upholding every power and faculty, which they pervert to opposition against him, and bestowing with his own hand every blessing which they ungratefully enjoy and abuse,-could they see his eye, which is in every place, heholding the evil and the good, how would astonishment and dread fall upon them? With a more painful fear, than that of the Patriarch, would they exclaim,-" Surely God is in this place, and we knew it not. How dreadful is this place. This is none other but the house of God, in which he is seen to dwell. This is the gate of heaven.

And yet, God is surely thus in this world, though many know it not. He is here thus upholding by his power,

directing by his wisdom, and blessing from his goodness, and thus beholding us as a Lord and Judge. He is not far from every one of us.' In him we live, and move, and have our being. This earth is his footstool, heaven is his throne, the universe is his dwelling place. Here he governs his mighty household. Here his angels descend and ascend on errands of grace and mercy-encamping about the just, and ministering to them who shall be heirs of salvation. And though the eye of sense does not see God, though he retires from human view, behind his own creation, and makes this material universe a garment with which he covers himself; though even reason, dimmed with sensual passions, does but faintly discov er the presence of the Almighty, yet faith sees the invisible God. faith, the believer walks with God, lives in his presence, is awed by his majesty and glory, prays for the light of his countenance, and seeks to be directed and upheld by his powerful hand.

By

This constant sense of the presence of a holy God, makes this, to him, a solemn world, and the state he holds in it, an awful place. The believer, though filled with joy and peace, possesses a joy which is far from levity. How dare he trifle in the presence of God, his Judge. How dare he behave with irreverent impropriety in the house of God. In every place, he discovers some manifestation of the presence of his Lord and Judge, and therefore, always, according to the liveliness of his faith, is ready to say, 'How dreadful is this place. This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of Heaven.

This, then, is a solemn world. The station we hold in it as accountable beings in the presence of God, is a solemn station.

In view of our subject, we observe more particularly in the first place, To be capable, as we are, of discovering the invisible things of God, from the things which he has made, even his Eternal power and Godhead,'