SERM.'1V.3 FLkSit AND SPIRYT, &C. 57 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 gaitics of life, gold and silver, pomp and equipage, a fine house, a 'gay appearance in the world, gaudy clothing 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. Ildly. Sin is also called flesh, because it is communi- cated 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 mo- tions, 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 tem- per 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 ofan unclean? It is impossi
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