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who suffered in the body, and confessed Christ, and endured severe bodily pain for His sake? They carried the flesh, but were not carried by it. So it is then-not they who live in this world, but they who live a life of carnal pleasure in this world,-they cannot please God."

So far St. Augustine. The great point, however, to apprehend in these few verses seems to be this: that man's nature, since the fall, is so diseased that he cannot, without supernatural aid, do the will of God. The law gave no such aid. The Gospel proclaims its offer, and its gift. That aid is the Spirit of God. Walking after His guidance, and so far only as we do so walk, we fulfil the righteousness of the law. And set free by Him from the law of sin and death, therefore there is now no condemnation to us in Christ Jesus and for His sake.

In conclusion, I would recommend the student to compare Gal. v, 16-25, with the passage which we have been considering in this sermon. What evil deeds constitute the minding of the flesh, and what Christian graces are the minding of the Spirit, he will find there plainly set forth. So that, whether he be walking after the flesh or after the Spirit is by no means a mystery hard to be understood of any single-hearted

man.

"The works of the flesh," says the Apostle, "are

manifest:" no man, whether he be Jew, heathen, or Christian, can affect to doubt what are the works which God hates, but to which his natural will inclines: "which are these,-Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, (or sorcery), hatred, variance, emulations, (or jealousy,) wrath, strife, (or, a factious spirit,) seditions, (or, divisions into sects and parties,) heresies,* envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like." He warns them "that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." This warning is precisely equivalent to that in the Epistle to the Romans (viii. 6). "To be carnally minded is death :" or, "the mind or minding of the flesh is death:" and it is a most valuable interpretation of this statement, for it contains a definition of the kind of evil works and evil passions which constitute "carnal-mindedness."

On the other hand, "the fruit of the Spirit,"—that fruit by which the branch is known whether it be abiding in the Vine, into which it has been grafted, or not," is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,

* Wiclif, Tyndale, and Cranmer translate this word "sects." It is however the previous word, in our version rendered "seditions," which expresses that "work of the flesh," in these days so lightly heeded, which consists in saying,-"I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ." (1 Cor. i. 12; iii. 3, 4.) The names are changed, but the thing remains: and all such sect-making is "carnal," however loud are its professions of godliness.

(or, benevolence,) goodness, faith, (or rather, trustfulness)* meekness, temperance, (or, self-control.")

Now, "to be spiritually minded," or, "the mind or minding of the Spirit, is life and peace." In other words, to "bring forth the fruits of the Spirit," enumerated by Saint Paul in this passage, this is the assurance to the faithful of eternal life and the only evidence of present peace with God. All other assurance is rash self-confidence, and all other peace is that which was proclaimed by the false prophets, who said "Peace! peace!" when there was no peace. (Jer. vi. 14; Ezek. xiii. 10). "There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." (Isaiah lvii. 21). They alone who are led by the Spirit, and who walk after the Spirit, are led by Him through paths of peace in this world on to life eternal in the kingdom of their Father. And so "to be spiritually minded" is at last "life and peace" for evermore.

"Faith in God's promises, and reliance on His mercies." (Dean Ellicott, Crit. and Gramm. Comm. on Gal.')

SERMON XXI.

Now if any man have not
Christ be in you, the body

ROM. viii, 9, 10, 11.-" But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. And if is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you."

In the last sermon we examined eight verses of this eighth chapter. We found the Apostle in verse 2, claiming for himself, in Christ Jesus, freedom from that law or dominion of sin, on account of which he was once a "wretched man" (vii, 24). The date of his emancipation was his conversion to the faith of Christ and consequent baptism into Him. Thenceforth he was "in Christ Jesus." Then it was that the power of the life-giving Spirit set him free from that bondage to sin in which all men were and are by nature. In that freedom,-the glorious liberty of a child of God,--he spent the remainder of his days; not as though this freedom became an absolute right

which he could never forfeit, but rather a treasure which he watched and guarded, and for which he "fought a good fight" against the world, the flesh, and the devil, unto his life's end.

His own case was the case of all the Christians to whom he is writing. They had been converted to They and their families had been

the faith of Christ. baptised into Him. They had been set free from the law of sin by the law of the Spirit of life. Whether they also, like the Apostle, fought the good fight under Christ's banner unto their life's end, or whether they deserted Him and returned to the bondage out of which they had been delivered: this the day of final judgment will declare. Some doubtless, then as now, walked after the Spirit and some rebelled against Him. But that Christ died for them all, and loved them, each and all, with equal and impartial love, and gave them all, like their fathers in the wilderness, (1 Cor. x, 3, 4,) to eat "the same spiritual meat" and to drink "the same spiritual drink" this neither nature nor revelation permits us to doubt.

I have said before that the Apostle, by saying in verse 2, "made me free," claims no privilege for himself above all other Christians, but, as in chapter vii "me" signifies "me and all men under law," so here "me" signifies "me and all men under grace." As

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