SERMON IV. Mesh and Spirit; or, the Principles of Sin and Holiness., Rom. viii. 1. Who walknot after the Mesh, bat after the Spirit. WHENwe use the words flesh and spirit, in theirliteral and proper sense, all men know what wemean by them : Flesh gene- rally 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 humannature. But these words areoften in scrip- ture used metaphorically, and that in various senses ; yet the metaphor, as it stands in my text, bath such justness and pro, piety 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 usesthis expression of walk- ¡n after the flesh, to signify a course of sin; and by walking ater 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 theflesh, 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 foundin man, whether they have their immediate and distinct residence in the body or in thesoul. 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 theyare so used, those words of our Lord himself to Nicodemus, John iii. 6. seem to make this mostevident : What is born of the flesh is flesh, andwhat 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. Qr, more plainly thus : all the princi- ples of sin spring from mere human nature, as derived from our parents, and arecalled flesh ; and, on the contrary, all the princi- ples 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 pentenées, flesh and spirit are taken literally for the flesh of man,
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