has provided is useless: it cannot be received-you will not-you cannot come to Christ. But if you are really humbled for sin, are you then putting your trust not in your own resolutions, not in your future obedience, not even in the motives and affections which you derive from the Gospel, but in that great Sacrifice offered upon the cross? Are you directing your view to it; relying upon it; joyfully believing the record that that God has given, thankfully receiving it as his inestimable gift, and daily walking with God, through the hope with which the death of Christ inspires us? Objections, indeed, you may expect to rise in your minds against this way of salvation. It is not at once that we discover our own weakness, and the unworthiness even of our best deeds. It is not at once that the glory of Christ, given for sinners, appears the principal object in our view. Yet let me exhort you to seek after a clearer discovery of your own state, and of the efficacy of that sacrifice for sin which your Saviour has offered. Thus may you be led to a firmer faith in Christ. It is his death which we preach to you, as the hope, the only hope for sinners. It is his death which we are now about to commemorate, as the object of a Christian's hope, in the symbols of it set before us. Look therefore to that, with the expectation of virtue to be derived from it, able to heal your soul and to restore to it the favour and blessing of God and eternal life. Thus may Christ dwell in your hearts by faith, and your hope be founded upon the Rock of ages!

SERMON IV.

THE NATURE OF HUMAN CORRUPTION.

Rom. viii. 7.

The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

IT is related of the old men amongst the Jews, who had been witnesses to the grandeur and excellence of the temple built by Solomon, that, when on their return from Babylon they saw the inferiority of it as rebuilt by Nehemiah and Ezra, they lifted up their voices and wept. How much more cause have we for sorrow, if we consider the original state of man, the living temple of the Lord, created in righteousness and true holiness, worthy of the Divine Architect, and fit for an habitation of God; and compare this with that state of ruin into which it has now fallen-with the marks of sin, corruption, misery, and death, which are every where stamped upon it!

Sin came into the world by the transgression of Adam: "by the disobedience of one, many were made sinners." The children of Adam were born in the same corrupt

state into which he had fallen; all of them were heirs of the same miseries, and exposed to the same dreadful consequences of sin which had followed his transgression. Such, then, is the state of every man now born into the world. He possesses a nature which, according to the words of the Article of our Church, is "very far gone from original righteousness,”—a nature which is even enmity against God, and which, till renewed by Divine influence, is not, and cannot be, subject to the law of God We might be induced, by this representation of our state, to pray for that operation of the Holy Spirit which alone can cleanse us from the defilement of our sin.

In considering the subject of my text, three points present themselves to our inquiry.

I. What is meant by the term carnal mind.

II. In what sense we are to understand the carnal mind to be at enmity with God.

III. What proofs of this we experience in ourselves, or see in others.

I. What we are to understand by the term carnal or fleshly mind.

We may observe, that the terms flesh and spirit are generally in Scripture opposed to each other; and the Spirit, when that opposition is expressed, evidently means, not merely the soul of man, as distinguished from the body, but the spiritual frame of mind which is wrought in the believer through the influence of the Holy Ghost. And therefore the flesh, which is opposed to it, must signify the state of man by nature; as he is, when left to himself, without such Divine power or agency exerted upon him.

In this sense, the whole context leads us to interpret the passage. "They that are after the flesh,'" says the Apostle, "do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit:" i.e. Those who are merely in a natural state. regard only the things belonging to the body, and to this life; but they that are spiritual, or renewed in

their minds, do mind the things of the Spirit. But he adds, "Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you." Now, "if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." In these passages, taken together, we have first the origin of our spiritual life-the Spirit of God dwelling in us; then the effect of it-minding the things of the Spirit; and the issue of it-life and peace. Let this be compared with the issue, the effect, and the origin of the condition which is termed carnal; and we shall find that the expression is evidently intended to describe the state in which men are by nature, without the renewal of the Holy Spirit; in which they live in sin; and in which if they die, they inherit eternal death.

The same opposition of the flesh to the Spirit is found in our Lord's discourse to Nicodemus and in the same sense: "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." The agency of the Spirit of God upon the soul, in order to qualify it for the kingdom of God, is here expressly asserted; and the state of a person living under this Divine influence is termed "spirit." "That which is born of the Spirit, is spirit." The flesh, therefore, which is put in opposition to this, must signify the state of man without the agency of the Holy Spirit. And this is not peculiar to a few who are more than ordinarily sinful: it is not the effect of confirmed habits or a long course of sin, but is inherent in the very constitution of man: for "as that which is born of the Spirit is spirit, so that which is born of the flesh is flesh."

sense.

I will add another passage, in which the same terms are opposed to each other, and evidently in the same In Galatians, v. 16, it is said, "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh." Here the flesh is represented as a corrupt principle within us, naturally lusting after that which is evil: but this is more fully expressed in the following words:

"For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and they are contrary the one to the other." What could have been said more plainly to shew, that when the Apostle speaks of the flesh, as opposed to the Spirit, he means something evil in the nature of man, which resists and counteracts what is excellent and holy; the laws of God, for instance, and the motions of his good Spirit in the heart? And, would we know more particularly what are these lusts of the flesh, and what the effects of the Spirit's influence; that is, what are the works of a sinful, and what those of a renewed, nature: the Apostle goes on to inform us "The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

From all these passages, taken collectively, we may have a full view of what the Scriptures intend by the flesh, and the spirit or spiritual mind. We learn from them, that mankind are born in a depraved, sinful, ruined state; that the mind of man in that state is fixed only upon earthly things; that the works natural to him are "wicked works," such as arise from lust, vanity, pride, anger, and selfishness; that in this state he is utterly unfit for the kingdom of God, and incapable of enjoying the spiritual happiness of that kingdom; that “in him, that is, in his flesh, dwelleth no good thing." but that God has been pleased to send his Holy Spirit into the world to guide, bless, and sanctify those that truly embrace the Gospel of his Son; that from him they receive a spiritual principle, a holy and divine nature; that they "mind the things of the Spirit, put off the old man with his corrupt deeds, and put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness;" that thus they become new creatures in Christ Jesus; "old things pass away, behold all things