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." 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. En. i. 171. ALEX. MORUS' note is curious:-" Apud Ethnicos quoque lapidum vivorum reperies mentionem, Xovs ¿μ¿úxovs. Plutarchus de fluminibus non semel vocat lapides vivos, inter quos partdecor Eurota 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 Egyptio Philosopho qui rite dignoscere calleret ἀγάλματα τὰ ζῶντα, καὶ μὴ ζῶντα vel άψυχα καὶ ἄμοιρα θέιας ἐπιπνοίας. Contra Petrus fideles vere lapides vivos vere spilantes ac loquentes, Dei statuas spirituales et participes Ocias innvoías hic dixit." Notæ ad quædam loca N. F. p. 210. NOTE B. p. 224. «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. “HooσKÓTтoval-'Amelodytes:" the former of these words designates punishment; the latter, sin. The pronoun -es & 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 8, in the teeth of grammar, to AoAs; 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 poppa, 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." To unfold, 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. L-THE DUTIES ENJOINED. § 1.—Abstinence from "fleshly lusts.” The first duty enjoined in the text is, "Abstinence from fleshly lusts." "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 Gal. v. 19-21. 2 Gen. vi. 13. Psal. lvi. 4. Matt. xxiv. 22. Rom. iii. 20. John i. 14. 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." 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. 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. 1 Rom. vii. 18; viii. 5. Gal. v. 13. 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:" 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." 2 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. This, like every one of God's laws, is "holy, just, and good." It 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. 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. • Prov. xxiii. 5. 2 1 Cor. x. 14. 1 John v. 21. Col. iii. 5. aware of: but it may serve a good purpose, before closing this part of the discussion, to say a word or two on the way in which we are to yield obedience to this most reasonable command, "Abstain from fleshly lusts." The first remark to be made here is, that, in order to abstain from fleshly lusts, we must carefully guard against temptation. We are in continual danger; there are always objects at hand fitted to provoke sinful desire in some of its forms; and a busy, crafty adversary, is ever ready to take advantage of any opportunity that offers against us. We must therefore avoid placing ourselves in circumstances in which such desires are likely to be excited; and when, by the providence of God, we are placed in such circumstances, we are to "keep our hearts with all diligence;" and, sensible that all our keeping will not serve the purpose, we must give our hearts to God to keep them. We must "watch and be sober;" "be sober and watch;" "watch and pray;" and this should be our prayer: "Incline my heart to thy testimonies, and not to covetousness," the general name of fleshly, worldly desires. "Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity." " We must recollect that nothing can overcome the world, and the things that are in the world-" the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eye, and the pride of life," and "the god of this world," who by these subjugates us, and makes us his slaves-but the word of God dwelling in us. It is "our faith" of that word; or, to employ an equivalent expression, that word believed, that "overcometh the world." It brings us under "the powers of the world to come," and thus "delivers us from this present evil world." Were the realities of eternity habitually before the mind, fleshly lusts could no more take root and flourish there, than "perishable materials be reared into structures amid the fires of the last day." 2 The grand preservation against "fleshly lusts" is to have the mind pre-occupied with spiritual and heavenly affections; and to have the heart so full of holy happiness in the enjoyment of God, as that there is neither room nor relish in it for low-born, earthly, sensual, sinful enjoyments. The strong man can be put out of the house, and kept out of it, only by the stronger than he getting possession, and keeping possession of it. The true way of emptying a vessel of atmospheric air, and keeping that from re-occupying its place, is to fill it with some heavier fluid. you: It is finely said by the good Archbishop I have so often quoted to "The happiness and pleasantness of the Christian's estate sets him above the need of the pleasures of sin. The apostle has said before: Since ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious, desire the sincere milk of the word;' desire that word, wherein ye may taste more of his graciousness; and as that fitly urgeth the appetites' desire of the word, so it is strong to persuade this abstinence from fleshly lusts; yea, the disdain and loathing of them. If you have the least experience of the sweetness of his love, if you have but tasted of the crystal river of his pleasures, the muddy polluted pleasures of sin will be hateful and loathsome to you; yea, the best earthly delights that 1 Prov. iv. 23. 1 Tim. v. 6. 1 Pet. iv. 7; v. 8. Psal. cxix. 36, 37. |