That moulds and forms the heart anew;
Blasphemers can no more withstand,
But bow and own thy doctrine true.
The guilty wretch that trusts thy blood
Finds peace and pardon at the cross;
The sinful soul averse to God,
Believes and loves his Maker’s laws.
Learning and wit may cease their strife
When miracles with glory shine;
The voice that calls the dead to life,
Must be almighty and divine.
_Common Metre._
Witness, ye saints, that Christ is true;
Tell how his name imparts
The life of grace and glory too:
Ye have it in your hearts.
The heav’nly building is begun
When ye receive the Lord;
His hands shall lay the crowning stone,
And well perform his word.
Your souls are form’d by wisdom’s rules,
Your joys and graces shine;
You need no learning of the schools,
To prove your faith divine.
Let heathens scoff, and Jews oppose,
Let Satan’s bolts be hurl’d;
There’s something wrought within you shews
That Jesus saves the world.
SERMON IV.
_Flesh and Spirit; or, the Principles of Sin and Holiness._
Rom. viii. 1.—Who walk not after the Flesh, but after the Spirit.
When we use the words flesh and spirit, in their literal and proper
sense, all men know what we mean by them: Flesh generally signifies the
animal nature; that is, the body and blood, &c. and spirit means an
intelligent nature that has understanding and will. When these are
attributed to man, they are but other names to express those two
distinct beings, the body and soul, that make up human nature. But these
words are often in scripture used metaphorically, and that in various
senses; yet the metaphor, as it stands in my text, hath such justness
and propriety in it, that the sense of it is not very difficult to be
traced, being happily and nearly derived from the proper and literal
meaning. It is plain that St. Paul uses this expression of _walking
after the flesh_, to signify a course of sin; and by _walking after the
spirit_, he describes a course of holiness. This is the character of
such as believe in Christ, and to whom belongs no condemnation, _that
they walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit_; they live not in a
course of sin, nor according to sinful principles, but follow the
principles of holiness that are wrought in them.
Thus the word flesh signifies, and includes all the principles and
springs of sin that are found in man, whether they have their immediate
and distinct residence in the body or in the soul. The word spirit
signifies and includes all the principles of holiness that are wrought
in any person, whether immediately residing in soul or body. And among
the many places of scripture where they are so used, those words of our
Lord himself to Nicodemus, John iii. 6. seem to make this most evident:
_What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the spirit is
spirit_; by which he means to assert, that what comes by natural
generation tends towards sin, and what is derived from the operation of
the Spirit of God leads to holiness. Or, more plainly thus: all the
principles of sin spring from mere human nature, as derived from our
parents, and are called flesh; and, on the contrary, all the principles
of holiness spring from the Spirit of God, and are called spirit; and
thence his argument derives the necessity of being _born again_, or born
from above. In the first part of these two sentences, flesh and spirit
are taken literally for the flesh of man, and the Spirit of God. In the
latter end of the sentences, flesh and spirit must be taken
figuratively, for the principles of sin, and the principles of holiness.
Now since the apostle frequently uses the terms flesh and spirit in the
same sense which his Lord and Master put upon them, and talks often on
this subject: I shall spend this discourse in shewing the grounds of
this figure of speech in my text, and in giving a full explication and
improvement of it in the following manner:
I. I shall offer some reasons why sin, and the principles of it, are
represented by the flesh.—II. I shall likewise propose the reasons why
the principles of holiness are expressed by the term spirit. And,—III.
Draw some useful remarks from the whole.
_First_, Let me shew why sin is represented by flesh, so often in
scripture; and I give these reasons for it:
I. Because fleshly or sensible objects, are the chief delight and aim of
sinners. They pursue them, and they rejoice in them; and these lead away
the soul from God to sin. It is the great business of sinners to _fulfil
the lusts of the flesh, and make provision for it_. This is their
character in St. Paul’s writings; to gratify the appetites of the body,
to provide for the desires of their animal natures, eating and drinking,
and luxury, and lusts of the flesh, are the cares of most unregenerate
men. _The lust of the eye_, and the gaities of life, gold and silver,
pomp and equipage, a fine house, a gay appearance in the world, gaudy
cloathing and glittering ornaments of the body, great splendor in the
eyes of men; these are the idols, the gods of sinners; and they are the
temptations of the saints too. The things that relate to the flesh, and
the enjoyments of this sensible and present life, are the objects of
sinful appetites, or of lawful appetite in a sinful degree; and
therefore sin is called flesh.
II. Sin is also called flesh, because it is communicated and propagated
to us by the parents of our flesh. It is by our flesh that we are a-kin
to Adam, the first great sinner, and derive a corrupted nature from him;
from this original taint we derive iniquity, as a polluted stream from
an unclean fountain; he is the father of a sinful posterity.
Our spirits indeed are formed immediately by God, and being united to
these bodies that come from Adam by the laws of creation, we become the
children of Adam, and so are partakers of his sinful nature. How this is
done, we may learn from other discourses: it is enough here to say, that
irregular humours, and motions, and ferments are transferred and
propagated from the first man, even from the same blood of which are
formed all the nations of men that dwell upon the face of the earth;
Acts xvii. 26. These are transmitted down to us the wretched posterity.
In some instances this is so evident, that all men see and believe it.
How often does the haughty, the peevish, or the choleric temper of the
parent appear in the son or the daughter beyond all contradiction? And
often, when we see a drunken or a wanton sinner, we cry, “He is the
express copy of his father, he borrows his vices as well as his
features, and seems to be his perfect image.” And though it is not so
evident in all men, that they borrow the seeds of iniquity from their
predecessors, yet there is proof enough from the word of God, that we
are _conceived in sin, and shapen in iniquity_ that _man who is born of
a woman_ is neither clean nor righteous. _Who can bring a clean thing
out of an unclean?_ It is impossible; for _that which is born of the
flesh is flesh_; Psalm li. 5. Job xv. 14. John iii. 6. Irregular
tendencies towards lawful delights, and strong propensities towards
unlawful ones, a neglect of God, and aversion to all that is holy or
heavenly, with an inclination towards fleshly and sinful objects, are
conveyed to us all, even from our first parents. Sinful Adam begat his
sons _in his own likeness_; Gen. v. 3. and therefore sin is described by
flesh, because it came from the father of our flesh.
III. Another reason why sin is called flesh, is because the chief
springs of sin lie most in our fleshly natures; all the while we
continue here in this world, the occasions of sin lie much in our body,
in our blood, in our natural constitution, in this mortal frame and
contexture; fancy and passion, in all their wild irregularities, are
much influenced by the flesh and blood. Our bodily senses, our natural
appetites, are continually tempting us away from our duty, and leading
or enticing us to the commission of sin; or, at least, immediately
falling in with temptation: insomuch that _sin_ is said _to work in our
members_; Rom. vii. 5. _to reign in our mortal body_; vi. 12. Sinful
actions are called _the deeds of the body_; viii. 13. Our sins are
called our members, Col. iii. 5. _Mortify by the spirit the deeds of the
body_, saith the apostle in one place; _mortify your members which are
upon the earth_, saith he in the other place; in both which he means the
mortification of sin. He borrows words from the human body to describe
sin.
Here let it be noted, that we do not suppose that mere flesh and blood,
distinct from the soul, are capable of sin, properly speaking, or can
become guilty in a proper sense; for these are but mere matter, and,
separate from the mind, cannot be under a moral law, any more than brute
creatures: Therefore we say, sin is not formally in the body of man, but
it is occasionally there; because the senses and appetites, the parts
and powers of the body become very often an unhappy occasion of sin to
the soul; and upon this account the apostle often describes sin by the
word flesh.
I proceed now to the second thing proposed, and that is, to shew the
grounds of this metaphorical use of the word spirit: And there are the
same sorts of reasons to be given why this word is used to represent the
principles of holiness, as there are why flesh should signify the
principles of sin.
I. Because the objects and aim of holy souls are chiefly spiritual,
_viz._ God and heaven, invisible and eternal things. Spiritual objects
are chief in their esteem, most in their thoughts, and in their desires,
and have the first place in their designs and pursuits: As _they that
are after the flesh, mind the things of the flesh_; so _they that are
after the spirit_, mind _the things of the spirit_; Rom. viii. 5. A
saint, who is _spiritually-minded_, aims at those things that are more
a-kin to the nature of a spirit; he seeks the knowledge of the favour of
God, who is the supreme of Spirits, the infinite and self-sufficient
Spirit, in whose knowledge, and in whose love, all intelligent creatures
find a full sufficiency of blessedness. He knows that all created
spirits who are holy and happy, are made so by derivations from God’s
all-sufficient holiness and happiness; and therefore he applies himself
with zeal and vigour to all those spiritual exercises of meditation,
faith and prayer, wherein God reveals himself and his mercy. The
knowledge of God and his worship, of Christ and his gospel, of the Holy
Spirit and his grace, is the chief desire of a holy soul. These are the
objects of the pursuit of a spiritual man; he has devoted himself to God
and things divine; upon account of which, a man is denominated holy, and
therefore holiness is called spirit.
The holy man seeks the welfare of his own soul or spirit before that of
his flesh; and while sinful men lay out their whole care and contrivance
about the body, which must die, and grasp at the things of this life to
make _provision for the flesh_, the saint is most concerned about his
soul, which is an immortal spirit; he endeavours to rectify those
disorders of it, which sin and the flesh have introduced, and is ever
diligent to make provision for this soul of his in the spiritual and
unseen world, because it must have a being there for ever. The holy man
is most solicitous that his soul may be happy in an unknown hereafter,
while the sinner seeks all his happiness here.
As the natural man neglects the two chief Spirits he has any concern
with, that is, God and his own soul; so fleshly objects are his chief
desire: But the spiritual man despises them all, in comparison of the
unseen desirables of the spiritual world. The men of this world take
pains to gratify their senses, and indulge every fleshly appetite among
the entertainments of this present world; but those who are holy,
mortify their sinful passions, and set their affections on things above;
_Col._ iii. 1, &c. They look and aim at things that are unseen, that are
eternal, while the men of this world look only at the things that are
visible and temporal; 2 Cor. iv. 18. The sinful many, or multitude of
sinners, say, Who will shew us any good? But they seek it only among
corn, wine, and oil, &c. The saint prays to his God, _Lord, lift upon me
the light of thy countenance; and_ this shall _put gladness into my
heart more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased_;
Ps. iv. 6, 7. This is the first reason holiness is described by the word
spirit.
II. Holiness is represented by the spirit, because it is communicated to
us by God the Father of our spirits, even as sin is conveyed down to us
by the parents of our flesh. It is wrought in us by his blessed Spirit,
whose character it is to be holy. In Rom. viii. 13, 14. you see holiness
described as receiving its very nature and operation in us from the
Spirit of God. As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the
sons of God; and it is by the spirit we mortify the deeds of the flesh,
or body, that so we may live. As they that are born of the flesh are
flesh, so they that are born of the spirit are spirit: John. iii. 6.
This is the language of our Lord Jesus Christ. They who have past
through no renewing and reforming change of heart since their natural
birth, they are still in a natural sinful state, and the principles of
sin are prevalent in them: but they who have been thus changed and
renewed by the blessed Spirit of God, have a new and spiritual natural
principle and temper given to them, and are made holy. As by being born
of man, we become the children of Adam, and gain a sinful nature; so by
being born of God we become the sons of God, and gain a divine, a holy
nature. We are born of God unto holiness, as we are born of flesh unto
sin; 1 John iii. 9. _He that is born of God sinneth not_; that is, sin
is not his nature and delight, nor his common and allowed practice. We
are regenerated and new-created by the Spirit of God; Titus iii. 5. _Not
by works of righteousness which we have done, but of his own mercy hath
he saved us by regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit._
III. Another reason why the principle of holiness is called spirit, is
because the chief springs of holiness, and of opposition to sin, are
found in the soul or spiritual part, as the springs and occasions of sin
are chiefly seated in the flesh.
This is true both in saints and sinners, for even in sinners that have
no renewing grace, there is the light of nature, as well as the
knowledge of scripture in our nation; there are the powers of reason and
conscience; and these judge concerning _vice_ and _virtue_, that one is
to be avoided, and the other practised; these inward and intellectual
principles tell us, that sin is offensive to God our Maker; that it
exposes us to his anger, and deserves terrible punishment; and by the
exercise and influence of natural reason, added to the knowledge of
scripture, and by the inward stings, and sharp reproofs of natural
conscience, many an evil motion of the flesh is suppressed, many an
inordinate appetite and passion subdued, and many a grosser sin
prevented. Now though all this is not properly called holiness, till the
nature itself be renewed, the love of sin broken, and the love of God
wrought in the heart; yet it is evident that those principles which
resist sin, and have any distant tendencies toward holiness, lie chiefly
in the mind or spirit.
This is yet more evident in a saint, a man that is regenerated and
sanctified by grace: For though in such a person, the body as well as
the spirit, may be in part sanctified; that is some of its irregular
appetites may be much weakened and subdued; yet still I cannot help
supposing that the spirit, or soul, has a greater share of
sanctification than the flesh in this life. It is in the soul that the
love of God is wrought by the Holy Spirit; it is the soul that repents
of past sins, and watches against temptation; it is the soul that
believes the gospel, and trusts in our Lord Jesus Christ; it is the soul
that by faith takes a distant prospect of heaven and hell, and converses
with invisible things beyond the reach and power of flesh and sense: It
is by the powers of the soul enlightened and renewed, that we come to
see the value and excellency of religion, and spiritual things above
temporal; and are inclined to chuse God for our only happiness, and
Jesus Christ _as the way to the Father_. The understanding and will are
faculties of the soul, and the flesh has no part in their operations.
The soul of a believer seems to be the more proper, immediate, and
receptive subject of the sanctifying influences of the Spirit of God and
this will appear by consulting the word of God, or the experiences of
men.
The word of God leads us very naturally into this sentiment by its
constant language. The apostle speaks indeed in one place of being
_sanctified wholly_, and our _whole spirit, soul and body_, being
preserved _blameless, &c._ 1 Thess. v. 23. But he much oftner expresses
sanctification by the _renewing of the mind_; Rom. xii. 2. Renewing of
the spirit of the mind; Eph. iv. 23. _Though the outward man_, or body,
perish, _yet the inward man_, or spirit, _is renewed day by day_; 2 Cor.
iv. 16. And the constant language of the scripture calling sin flesh,
and holiness spirit, in the saint, intimates that there is more sin in
the flesh, and more holiness in the spirit of one that is sanctified.
Thus we read in St. Paul’s discourse from the 16th ver. of Romans vii.
to the 25th, where you find him all along distinguishing the flesh and
the mind. By one of them he complains in a variety of expressions, that
he is led away to sin, while the other of them approves and pursues
after holiness; and though the words flesh and spirit are often used for
the principles of sin and holiness, yet it may be remarked, that he does
not confine himself here to these terms, but uses also the words body
and members, to represent sin; inward man and mind, when he points to
the springs of holiness; which would lead one very naturally to believe
that there is more sanctification in the mind or soul of a believer, and
more of the occasions of sin remaining in his body or flesh.
We may find this also in a great measure from our own experience: We are
tempted to many more sins by our various carnal appetites and senses,
than by the mere inclinations that belong to the mind, which are purely
intellectual. There are indeed the lusts or sinful desires of the mind,
as well as _the lusts of the flesh_; Eph. ii. 2. There is a sinful
curiosity of the mind; such was part of the temptation of Eve, a desire
to know evil as well as good; there is a spiritual malice and envy
against God and his saints: there is a spiritual pride of intellectual
endowments, &c. and some of these are found too much in true christians,
as well as in unbelievers; yet it must be acknowledged from constant
observation, that the lusts of the flesh are much more frequent, more
numerous, and more powerful in the greatest part of men; and it is
manifest that acts of religion and holiness, and exercises of grace,
begin more frequently in the inward inclination of the spirit,
distinguished from the flesh, as sin more frequently begins in, and from
the flesh itself, either in the outward or inward parts and powers of
it.
Surely if our souls were sanctified by divine grace, but so much as many
are in this world, and had no flesh about them, they would not sin so
much as they do. When we are engaged in the exercise of grace, or
performance of spiritual duties, such as meditation, prayer, delighting
in God, rejoicing in Christ Jesus, we should not be so soon weary of it,
nor so immediately called away from it by the mere vanity or wandering
of our minds, if we had no fleshly objects about us, no outward senses,
no inward treasures of fancy, no appetites of the body to start up and
mingle with our religion, to clog us in our sacred work, to make us grow
weary under it, and draw us from it. How often must a saint say, “My
soul is sincerely set against every sin, and I fear to offend him whom
my soul loveth; _with my mind I serve the law of God_, and I watch
against every rising iniquity: But my outward senses, or the inward
ferments of fleshly appetite or passion, surprize me before I am aware
and defile my soul. Sometimes my spirit wrestles hard _with flesh and
blood_; I summon all the powers of reason and scripture, conscience and
christianity; I make a firm stand for a season, and maintain a brave and
painful resistance; but the restless and perpetual assaults of fancy or
passion, at last over-power the feeble spirit, and I sinfully submit and
yield to the fretful or the luxurious humours of the body; and thus the
brutal powers overcome the mind, and _I am led away captive to sin_. If
I had not an eye, I had not been drawn away to the commission of this
folly; if I had not an ear, I had not been tempted from God at such a
season; if I had not such appetites or senses in exercise, I had been
secured from many a snare; if I did not wear this flesh about me, which
is so fond and tender of itself, and so impetuous and active in the
pursuit of its own ease and satisfaction, I had not shrunk away at such
a time from a dangerous duty; I had not been so fearful and cowardly at
such a place in the profession of my faith, nor so often polluted my
soul with sensualities, and made work for bitter repentance.”
Thus the experience of christians, and the language of scripture concur
in this point, That the occasions of sin evidently lie most in the
flesh: and a contradiction or opposition to sin, proceeds more from the
spirit.
It is true indeed, and must be confessed, that the soul being but in
part sanctified, too often complies with these _motions of sin which
work in our members_; and the affections of the soul itself, being not
perfectly holy, are too easily induced to indulge the desires and
passions of the flesh; and thereby sin is committed and guilt
contracted. _The law_ or principle, _of sin in the members_, leads the
mind, too often, captive; Rom. vii. 23. Thus the soul is very culpable
for want of perpetual resistance, and becomes guilty before God, by
every such inordinate passion breaking forth, and by the satisfaction of
every such sinful raging appetite; yet I must believe that the soul of a
christian would not be guilty half so often, if the lusts of the body
were not more active than the mere abstracted lusts of the mind are.
_The spirit lusteth against the flesh, and the flesh against the
spirit_; Gal. v. 17. That part which is chiefly sanctified, and that
which is chiefly unsanctified, strike against each other; and it is true
in a literal sense, as well as a figurative one, that a saint _with his
mind serves the law of God_, but too often _with his flesh the law of
sin_.
Thus I have given the chief reasons why the principles of sin are
represented in scripture by flesh, and the springs of holiness by
spirit.
[This sermon may be divided here.]
From this consideration of flesh and spirit, of holiness and sin, which
are set forth in the word of God, and thus explained in the most free
and intelligible method that I am capable of, I would derive some
remarks for our information and practice.
Remark I. We may hence derive a rule of judgment concerning our own
state, and find whether we have any principle of holiness in our hearts
or no, or whether we are yet in the flesh, and in a state of sin. We may
draw an easy answer to these questions, by making an inward enquiry into
ourselves, according to the three descriptions of flesh and spirit.
_First_, What are our chief aims and desires? Are they bent to gratify
the appetites of the flesh, and set upon sensual enjoyments? Or do we
seek and pursue spiritual and eternal things, as our most valuable and
lovely portion? What is our chief treasure? Where are our hearts and our
hopes? Are they wandering amongst heaps of gold and silver, roving over
fair and large estates, entertaining themselves with gay cloathing,
honours, and vanities? Or are they pointing upwards, and directed
towards God, the first and best of beings; and fixed on the blessedness
of the spiritual world? Is our chief concern _to make provision for the
flesh_ and this life, or to secure an inheritance for our souls among
the incorruptible glories of the upper world? What is it that sits
highest in our esteem, and awakens our warmest affections and brightest
joys? Is it God or the creature, heaven or earth, things fleshly or
invisible? Let conscience be faithful, and answer to such inquiries.