Colossians (ii, 12, 13), "God hath raised Christ from the dead:" "Ye are risen with Him" (Gr. "were raised "); "And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath God quickened together with Him:" another in the Epistle to the Ephesians (ii, 4, 5, 6): “God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ." Our resurrection then from sin, wrought by Him who raised Christ from death, is St. Paul's habitual thought, and is probably his thought in verse 11 of chapter viii.

You will find in the margin of our version of this verse, that instead of "by His Spirit," our translators suggest, "because of His Spirit ;" and there can be very little doubt that this is the true rendering. If

here will be an additional objection to the common notion that a resurrection from temporal death is the quickening here spoken of. For the wicked, who have not the Spirit of Christ, as well as they in whom He dwelleth, will participate in the general resurrection. The Holy Spirit dwelling in us is nowhere spoken of as the cause of or the agent in that resurrection, but only in the new birth and in the new life of the "new creature," which any man is who continues to be in Him into whom he has been grafted.

There is but one brief remark to add. It has been

suggested that if the Spirit of God dwelleth in us, He hath quickened and doth continually quicken us, body and spirit, to glorify God therein: whereas the Apostle here writes, "shall quicken," as though speaking of an act still future. To this remark I think it enough to give the brief reply of Professor M. Stuart: "The process of sanctification, until all the bodily appetites are thoroughly subdued and mortified, is usually a long one, and the Apostle might well employ the future tense;" implying, of course, that its completion is still future, although its progress be present.

Indeed, the life of grace, wherein body and spirit are conformed to the image of Christ, finds its completion only in the life of glory when He shall have 'changed our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body." (Phil. iii, 21.)

SERMON XXII.

ROM. viii, 14.-"As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God."

We take up the thread of the Apostle's discourse WE at the 12th verse of this chapter. "Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh." He had said, describing man in his natural condition, "I am carnal, sold under sin;" a slave, that is, a debtor, under an obligation which the law of sin in my members compels me to fulfil. From that obligation or indebtedness "the law of the Spirit of life" set us free. "Therefore, brethren," adopted children of the same Father, "we, Christians, being thus set free, are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh." A debt is a legal obligation to pay a debtor is one from whom the law will enforce a payment. "debtor to the flesh," in the Apostolic language, is

A

man in a state of nature from whom the law of sin will enforce payment to the flesh,—to its corrupt and depraved affections and lusts. Such were the heathens in ancient times, such are the heathens now, such also do Apostates from Christ become, putting "to an open shame" Him whose name they bear. This is that which is plainly set forth in our tenth Article,"The condition of man after the fall of Adam is such, that he cannot turn and prepare himself, by his own natural strength and good works, to faith and calling upon God." He is, by nature, a "debtor to the flesh," and cannot escape the obligation. Wretched man that he is, who shall be his deliverer, his Saviour, out of this bondage? As we have seen, the Gospel is the good tidings of deliverance. Such has been the course of the Apostle's argument, that he is able to come to that conclusion,—“Therefore, brethren, (in Christ Jesus), we (being no longer men in a state of nature) are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh."

But the very next words imply a possibility that they, even they, having been set free from the obligation, might nevertheless choose to act as though it still existed. "For if ye" (he does not say "we," not choosing to include himself in such a supposition), but, "if ye live after the flesh," (as of course ye may, though ye be no longer debtors to the flesh), but "if ye will resist the

Spirit and live after the flesh, then ye shall die:" some translate it,-"ye must die:" the words, literally rendered, are ye are about to die;" that is to say, death eternal is your future doom:-ye are on the way to perdition.

Who doubts the Apostle's declaration? Who knows not, by the very teaching of the unwritten law, apart from the Scripture, that a life spent in known sin is inconsistent with a hope of acquittal at the Judgment day? What judgment a God of Infinite Equity may pass on heathens, whom Christ and His Spirit never did deliver, we cannot tell. The Judge of all the earth will do right. But what judgment awaits Christians who "live after the flesh," we are here plainly warned. Once more, "if ye live after the flesh, ye are about to die." On the other hand,-" if ye by the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body," (as of course ye may, for God does not mock men by saying,—" if ye do impossibilities :") "ye shall live." Here is one condition in order to eternal life, one answer to the question,-" What shall I do to inherit eternal life ?"—set forth plainly in few words. How anxiously and honestly ought men to examine and analyse these words, to see whether they are within reach of that glorious promise: "YE SHALL LIVE." There is first this question:-What are "the deeds of the body" which we must mortify or put to death?