LECTURE
XLVII.
ROMANS. viii, 5.
"For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the
flesh
but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit."
I SHOULD like if I could give you a clear understanding of
the difference that there is, between your simply dwelling in the flesh as yonr
tenement - and your being immersed, with the practical consent of your will and
mind, in those pursuits and pleasures which are natural to the flesh.
And
the first thing which might occur, for the illustration of this difference, is
to offer, as expressive of it, that distinction of meaning which one feels
between the two phrases, to be in the flesh and to be after
the flesh. The one may be thought simply to imply, that the flesh is the
place of the soul's present residence; and the other, that all the souls
inclinations and energies, are in full prosecution of those objects which
minister to the appetites of the flesh.
But then you have the very
phrase of being in the flesh applied in Scripture not to the state of one who
barely occupies the flesh as his present tabernacle, but of one who delights in
the flesh as his congenial and much-loved element. And it must be in this
latter sense of the phrase that it occurs at the distance of a very few verses
from the one one submitted to us - when it is said, that they who are in the
flesh cannot please God and when it is further said, that ye are not in the
flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.
At the same time it must be remarked, that, in other passages of the
Bible, the phrase of being in the flesh denotes the souls simple
occupation of a fleshly tabernacle, and not the souls immersion in
fleshly habits or fleshly desires. The apostle who said that Christ liveth in
me, also says I live in the flesh; and that to abide in the flesh is more
needful for you. In this sense too, even Jesus Christ was God manifest in the
flesh; and it was a most essential point of orthodoxy that He had come in the
flesh. In both of these instances, flesh was the temporary abode ; but in
neither of them, was it the chosen or the much-loved home. It is true of both,
that, though in the flesh, they walked not after the flesh; and though we have
not been so fortunate, as to find the former phrase to be in the Bible
universally characteristic of nothing more than simple occupancy - yet we
believe of the latter phrase, that it is uniformly descriptive of that state,
in which a man abandons himself to the propensities of nature, and lives in the
full prosecution of its delights or its interests.
And the distinction
between these two things, is very well marked by the apostle within the compass
of one verse. Though we walk in the flesh, we do not walk according to
the flesh - we do not war after the flesh." And it is well, that, in this fifth
verse, we have a descriptive clause, by which we are presented with something
like a definition of being after the flesh. They who are after the flesh, mind
the things of it. It is not that the flesh assails them with its suggestions,
for this it does, and often as forcibly with those who resist the suggestions
as with those who yield to them. But it is that their mind follows after the
flesh - that they make a study and a business of its enjoyments - that they
prosecute them in thought, in purpose, and in will. Some there are, who dwell
in the flesh, and so are surrounded with the importunity of its delights and
temptations; but who nevertheless abide in the firm attitude of withstanding
them all. Their mind is not after the flesh, but in opposition to it. But for
these some, there are the many, who are dragged willingly along in that very
direction in which the flesh draws them - who, not only resign themselves
implicitly to the force of its instigations; but who, even in their hours of
calm and dispassionate exemption from them, are in some way labouring or
devising for the pleasures and aecommodations of the perishable body - whose
mind, both in its likings and in the exercise of its faculties, is wholly given
over to the pursuit of these things.
What the things are, we may learn
from the apostle John - when he bids us love not the world nor the things that
are in the world; and when he comprehends these things in the one summary
description of all that is in the world, which he maketh to consist of the lust
of the flesh and the lust of the eye and the pride of life. Thus are we to
understand of all those who are after the flesh, that either, as slaves, they
are tyrannized over by the master-idols of sensuality or avarice or ambition;
Or that, with a sort of free and more sovereign agency, they at least give
themselves up to the object of providing for these gratifications - that, if
not dragged after them by the force of appetite, they at least drive after
them, and that, of spontaneous and withal of steady and settled choice.
And
thus, in the habitual preference of their mind as well as in the propensities
of their animal system, are they altogether entitled to the denomination of
worldly. And there is one thing that you would do well to advert unto. It is
not necessary that you mind all the things of the flesh, in order to constitute
you a carnal man. It is enough to fasten this character upon you, that you have
given yourself over to the indulgence or the pursuit, even of so few as one of
these things. A miser may not be a debaucher, and neither the one nor the other
may be an aspiring politician. But whatever the reigning passion may be, if it
have the effect of attaching you to some one object that is in the world, and
which with the world will terminate and perish - then still your mind is in
subjection to an idol, and the death of the carnally minded is your inheritance
and your doom.
Be not deceived then, ye men, who engrossed with the
cares and observant of all the sobrieties of business, are not addicted to the
profligacies of dissipation - nor ye, who, heedless of wealths
accumulations, can mix an occasional generosity with the squanderings of
intemperance and riot - nor ye, who, alike exempted from sordid avarice or
debasing sensuality, have yet, in the pursuit of an ascendancy over the minds
and the measures of your fellow-men, made power the reigning felicity of your
existence - nor yet even ye, who, without any settled aim after one or other of
these gratifications, fluctuate in giddy unconcern from one of this
worlds frivolities to another. None of you mind all the things of the
flesh; yet each of you minds one or other of these things, and that to the
entire practical exclusion of the things of the Spirit from the preference of
your habitual regards. We do not charge you with a devotion of heart to
all those things in the world, which are opposite to the love of the Father -
any more than we charge you, with idolatrously falling down in obeisance to all
the divinities of a heathen polytheism. But still if onlyone of these
divinities be your god, this were enough to constitute you an idolater, and to
convict you of a sacrilegious disownal of the King who is eternal and
immutable. And so your one earthly appetite, though free from the tyranny of
all the others - your one habit of ungodliness, though it be the only one that
breaks out into visible expression in the history of your life - of itself
renders you a carnal man; of itself exiles you from the spiritual territory; of
itself proves that you are still one of the children of this world, and that
you have not passed from death unto life. They who are after the Spirit
mind the things of the Spirit.
The man to whom this character
belongeth is as effectually tabernacled in flesh, as he who is altogether
carnal; and the natural tendencies of his constitution to evil, may be as
strong and as urgent as those of the latter. By temperament, for instance, he
might have as great a taste for luxury - by original disposition, he might be
as apt to rejoice in grandeur or in wealth; and there be spontaneously within
him, the same kindlings of ambition, or the same grovellings of sensual and
avaricious desire. But though he feels these impulses, yet he walketh not after
them; and that just because his mind is wholly set against them - whereas the
mind of the other goeth wholly along with them. It is the direction of that
sovereign faculty the will, which explains the difference. If this be enlisted
on the side of the flesh, as it is with every unconverted man, then he sinneth
wilfully. If this be enlisted on the side of the Spirit, as it is with every
man who hath truly turned him unto the Lord Jesus Christ - then he may sin
accidentally; and, in some moment of sleep or of surprise, he may be overtaken;
and ere the will, as it were, has had time to rally and to recover, some
outpost may have been carried, and even some advantage have been gained to the
length of a most humiliating overthrow. But deep is the grief, that is thereby
awakened; and strenuous is the resistance, that is thereby summoned into the
future warfare; and heavy is that mourning of sackloth and of ashes, wherewith
the soul of the penitent offender is afflicted; and though he hath stumbled on
the way of temptation, yet utterly he refuses to walk therein - so giving
testimony to the mode, in which the leading tendencies of his spirit have most
painfully and most offensively been thwarted by the momentary power and assault
of his great adversary; and that the whole drift of his choosing and
deliberating and purposing faculties, is indeed on the side of God and the side
of righteousness.
The remark that we made however about the things of
the flesh, is not applicable to the things of the Spirit. A giving up of the
mind to but one thing of the flesh, makes you a carnal man. But a spiritual man
gives up himself not to one thing, but to all the things of the Spirit. To be
the servant of any other master than God, marks you an idolater; and, for this
purpose, it is not necessary that you should obey all the masters who arc apart
from God or hostile to God. But to be the servant of God Himself, you must obey
Him in all things - you must aspire at least, and that in firmness and in
truth, at universal conformity - you must mind, not merely one thing, but all
the things which He authoritatively lays upon you. And these are just the
things of the Spirit, whose fruit is not in any one branch of righteousness, or
in any specific number of them - but whose fruit is in all righteousness and
goodness and truth. His office is to put the law in your heart, and so to give
you a taste and a liking for all its acquirements. It is not enough that you
maintain the sobrieties of human conduct, if not its equities also. It is not
enough that you be strict in honour, if not also kind and gentle in humanity.
It is not enough that you excel your fellows in all the virtues of society -
you must be further arrayed in the virtues of sacredness.
And neither
is it enough that a general sabbath complexion he upon your history - You must
proceed on Christianity being the religion of your life, being the guide and
the ornament of your daily conversation - a mingling ingredient., which
diffuses itself throughout the mass of your ordinary affairs - a light that
sheds its pure and celestial tint over the whole of your path; and leaves not
one little space in the field of humanity unirradiated by its beams.
You
have already heard me expatiate on the difficulty of ascertaining the real
state and character of ones mind, by a direct examination of it; and if
the immediate question were put to the inner man, whether he minded the things
of the flesh or those of the Spirit, a clear answer might not so readily be
obtained - and that, more especially, as they who arc spiritual often feel on
the one hand the instigations of the flesh; and they who are carnal have at
times the visitation upon their heart, of a wish and an aspiration and an
effort however ineffectual after a life of sacredness. It is well then, that
this verse supplies us with a test for the resolving of this ambiguity. They
who mind the things of the flesh, arc they who walk after the flesh; and they
who mind the things of the Spirit, are they who walk after the Spirit.
With both classes, there maybe the inward struggle of the opposite and
conflicting elements - the one not being totally exempted from evil
inclinations, and the other not being totally bereft of their longing after
godliness. When we look only within, it may be hard to say from the fight that
is going on, which of these two elements shall prevail. But this may be
decisively gathered, if not from the battle itself, at least from the issue of
the battle; or, in other words, from the way in which it terminates upon the
conduct. The spiritual man is urged by the corrupt propensities of his nature -
nevertheless he follows not after them, and this from that preponderance of
motive and of inward power on the side of what is good, which marks his mind to
be set on the things of the Spirit. The carnal man is urged by the voice of
conscience, and its remonstrances against all that is evil - nevertheless he
obeys it not in deed, and this from that prevalency of force and of impulse on
the side of what is corrupt, which marks his mind to be set on the things of
the flesh. The working of the inner mechanism is not palpable. But the result
of that working on the outward history is so; and thus from the stream do we
learn the nature of the fotintain, and by the test of man's fruits do we know
them.
Go to Lecture 48
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