that it is good." These sentiments could only be uttered by a man who was in a considerable degres at least, acquainted with his duty, and who also approved of the rule of duty which he found laid down.

Secondly: The case before us also supposes an inclination of mind and judgment to perform our duty. "When I would do good, evil is present with me: to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good, I

find not."

Upon the whole, St. Paul's account is the account of a man in some sort struggling with his vices; at least deeply conscious of what they are, whither they are leading him, where they will end; acknowledging the law of God, not only in words and speeches, but in his mind; acknowledging its excellency, its authority; wishing also, and willing to act up to it, but, in fact, doing no such thing; feeling in practice a lamentable inability of doing his duty, yet perceiving that it must be done. All he has hitherto attained is a state of successive resolutions and relapses. Much is willed, nothing is effected. No furtherance, no advance, no progress, is made in the way of salvation. He feels indeed his double nature; but he finds that the law in his members, the law of the flesh, brings the whole man into captivity. He may have some bet ter strivings, but they are unsuccessful. The result is, that he obeys the law of sin. This is the picture which our apostle con

Thirdly It supposes this inclination of mind and judgment to be continually overpowered. "I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members;" that is, the evil principle not only opposes the judgment of the mind, and the conduct which that judgement dictates, (which may be the case with all,) but in the present case subdues and gets the better of it: "Not only wars against the law of my mind, but brings me into capti-templated, and he saw in it nothing but mivity."

sery:

"O wretched man that I am!" An.

other might have seen it in a more comfortable light. He might have hoped that the will would be taken for the deed; that since be felt in his mind a strong approbation of the law of God; nay, since he felt a delight in contemplating it, and openly professed to do so; since he was neither ignorant of it, nor forgetful of it, nor insensible of its obligation, nor ever set himself to dispute its authority nay, since he had occasionally likewise endeavoured to bring himself to an obedience to this law, however unsuccessful his endeavours had been; above all, since he had sincerely deplored and bewailed his fallings off from it, he might hope, I say, that his was a case for favourable acceptance

Fourthly: The case supposes a sense and thorough consciousness of all this; of the rule of duty; of the nature of sin; of the struggle; of the defeat. It is a prisoner sensible of his chains. It is a soul tied and bound by the fetters of its sins, and knowing itself to be so. It is by no means the case of the ignorant sinner; it is not the case of an erring mistaken conscience; it is not the case of a seared and hardened conscience. None of these could make the reflection or the complaint which is here described. "The commandment which was ordained unto life, I found to be unto | death. I am carnal, sold under sin. In me dwelleth no good thing. The law is holy; and the commandment holy, just, and good; but sin, that it might appear sin, (that it might St. Paul saw it not in this light. He saw be more conspicuous, aggravated, and inex-in it no ground of confidence or satisfaction. cusable,) works death in me by that which is good." This language by no means belongs to the stupified insensible sinner.

Nor, fifthly, as it cannot belong to an original insensibility of conscience, that is, an insensibility of which the person himself does not remember the beginning, so neither can it belong to the sinner who has got over the rebukes, distrusts, and uneasiness which sin once occasioned. True it is, that this uneasiness may be got over almost entirely; so that whilst the danger remains the same, whilst the final event will be the same, whilst the coming destruction is not less sure or dreadful, the uneasiness and the apprehension are gone. This is a case too common, too deplorable, too desperate; but it is not the case of which we are now treating, or of which St. Paul treated. Here we are presented throughout with complaint and uneasiness; with a soul exceedingly dissatisfied, exceedingly indeed disquiet. ed, and disturbed, and alarmed, with the view of its condition

it was a state, to which he gives no better name than "the body of death." It was a state, not in which he hoped to be saved, but from which he sought to be delivered. It was a state, in a word, of bitterness and terror; drawing from him expressions of the deepest anguish and distress: "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death ?”

the subject of religion. this to be the case.

I should conjecture St. Paul's meaning in this matter, we must attend with some degree of care, not only to But then, when men do feel the weakness the text, but to the words which follow it. of their nature, it is not always that this con- The 24th verse contains the question, “Who sciousness carries them into a right course, but shall deliver me from the body of this death ?" sometimes into a course the very contrary of and then the 25th verse goes on, "I thank what is right. They may see in it, as hath God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Now been observed, and many do see in it, nothing there is good reason to believe, that this 25th but an excuse and apology for their sins. Since verse does not appear in our copies as it ought it is acknowledged that we carry about with to be read. It is most probable that the pasus a frail, not to call it a depraved, corrupted sage stood thus: the 24th verse asks, “Who nature, surely, they say, we shall not be amen- shall deliver me from the body of this death ?" able to any severities or extremities of judge- Then the 25th verse answers, "The grace of ment for delinquencies to which such a na- God, through Jesus Christ our Lord." In. ture must ever be liable; or, which is indeed stead of the words "I thank God," put the all the difference there is between one man and words "The grace of God," and you will find another, for greater degrees or less, for more the sense cleared up by the change very much. or fewer of these delinquencies. The natural I say, it is highly probable that this change man takes courage from this consideration. He exhibits what St. Paul really wrote. In finds ease in it. It is an opiate to his fears. English there is no resemblance either in sound It lulls him into a forgetfulness of danger, and or writing between the two sentences, "I of the dreadful end, if the danger be real. Then thank God," and "The grace of God;" but the practical consequence is, that he begins to in the language in which the epistle was writrelax even of those endeavours to obey God ten there is a very great resemblance. And, which he has hitherto exerted. Imperfect as I have said, there is reason to believe that and inconstant as these endeavours were at in the transcribing one has been confounded best, they become gradually more languid and with the other. Perhaps the substantial meanmore unfrequent, and more insincere than they ing may be the same whichever way you read were before: his sins increase upon him in the passsage: but what is implied only in one the same proportion: he proceeds rapidly to the way, is clearly expressed in the other way. condition of a confirmed sinner, either secret The question, then, which St. Paul so or open; it makes no difference as to his salva- earnestly and devoutly asks is, "Who shall tion. And this descent into the depths of mo- deliver me from this body of death?" from ral vileness and depravity began, in some mea- the state of soul which I feel, and which can sure, with perceiving and confessing the weak-only lead to final perdition? And the answer ness of his nature; and giving to this percep- to the question is," The grace of God, through tion that most erroneous, that most fatal turn, the regarding it as an excuse for every thing; and as dispensing even with the self-denials, and with the exertions of self-government, which a man had formerly thought it necessary to exercise, and in some sort, though in no sufficient sort, had exercised.

Jesus Christ our Lord." Can a more weighty question be asked? Can an answer be given which better deserves to be thoroughly considered?

The question is, "Who shall deliver us ?" The answer: "The grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord." The "grace of God" Now, I ask, was this St. Paul's way of means the favour of God: at present, thereconsidering the subject? Was this the turn fore, the answer stands in general terms. which he gave to it? Altogether the con- We are only informed, that we are rescued trary. It was impossible for any Christian of from this state of moral difficulty, of deep reany age, to be more deeply impressed with a ligious distress, by the favour of God, through sense of the weakness of human nature than Jesus Christ. It remains to be gathered he was; or to express it more strongly than from what follows, in what particularly this he has done in the chapter before us. But, grace or favour consists. St. Paul having

observe; feeling most sensibly, and painting asked the question, and given the answer in most forcibly, the sad condition of his nature, general terms, proceeds to enlarge upon the he never alleges it as an excuse for sin : he answer in these words:" There is therefore does not console himself with any such ex- now no condemnation to them who are in cuse. He does not make it a reason for set-Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but ting himself at rest upon the subject. He after the Spirit." There is now no condemfinds no relief to his fears in any such consi-nation: but of whom, and to whom, is this deration. It is not with him a ground for spoken? It is to them who first are in Christ expecting salvation: on the contrary, he sees Jesus; who, secondly, walk not after the flesh; it to be a state not leading to salvation; other-who, thirdly, walk after the Spirit. wise, why did he seek so earnestly to be de- And whence arises this alteration and imlivered from it? provement in our condition and our hopes; And how to be delivered? that becomes this exemption, or rather deliverance, from the next question. In order to arrive at the ordinary state of man? St. Paul re

fers us to the cause. "The law of the Spi-ence in those who acknowledged its authorit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free rity.

SERMON XXVIII

THE AID OF THE SPIRIT TO BE SOUGHT
AND PRESERVED BY PRAYER.

(PART III)

O, wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from the body of this death ? Rom. vii. 24.

from the law of sin and death." Which To communicate this so much wanted aswords can hardly bear any other signification sistance, was one end and effect of Christ's than this, viz. "That the aid and operation coming. So it is intimated by St. Paul, "What of God's Spirit, given through Jesus Christ, the law could not do, in that it was weak hath subdued the power which sin had ob- through the flesh, God did;" that is, God tained, and once exercised over me." With" sending his own Son in the likeness of sinthis interpretation the whole sequel of St. ful flesh and for sin," namely, sending him Paul's reasoning agrees. Every sentence almost by reason or on account of sin, "condemned that follows illustrates the interpretation, and sin in the flesh;" vouchsafed, that is, spiritproves it to be the true one. With what, ual aid and ability, by which aid and ability but with the operation and the co-operation sin and the power of sin might be effectually of the Spirit of God, as of a real, efficient, opposed, encountered, and repelled. powerful, active Being, can such expressions as the following be made to suit ?" If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.”—“ If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his."-" If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you.”"By his Spirit that dwelleth in you."-" Ye have received the Spirit of adoption."-The| Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit."| All which expressions are found in the eighth chapter, namely, the chapter following the text, and all, indeed, within the compass of a few verses. These passages either assert or assume the fact, namely, the existence and agency of such a Spirit; its agency, I mean, in and upon the human soul. It is by the aid, therefore, of this Spirit, that the deliver- IF it be doctrinally true, that man in his orance so earnestly sought for is effected; a de- dinary state, in that state at least in which liverance represented as absolutely necessary great numbers find themselves, is in a deploto be effected in some way or other. And it rable condition, a condition which ought to is also represented as one of the grand bene- be a subject to him of great and bitter lamenfits of the Christian dispensation. "What tation, viz. that his moral powers are ineffecthe law could not do in that it was weak tual for his duty; able, perhaps, on most octhrough the flesh, God sending his own Son casions, to perceive and approve of the rule of in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, right; able, perhaps, to will it; able, percondemned sin in the flesh, that the right- haps, to set on foot unsuccessful, frustrated, eousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, and defeated endeavours after that will, but who walk not after the flesh but after the by no means able to pursue or execute it :— Spirit." Which passage I expound thus: A if it be also true, that strength and assistance mere law, that is, a rule merely telling us may and can be communicated to this feeble what we ought to do, without enabling us, or nature, and that it is by the action of the affording us any help or aid in doing it, is not Holy Spirit upon the soul, that it is so comcalculated for such a nature as ours: "it is municated; that with this aid and assistance weak through the flesh;" it is ineffectual by sin may be successfully encountered, and such reason of our natural infirmities. Then what a course of duty maintained as may render us the law, or a mere rule of rectitude, (for that accepted in Christ; and further, that to imis what any law, as such is,) could not do, part the above described assistance is one of was done under the Christian dispensation; the ends of Christ's coming, and one of the and how done? The righteousness of the operations of his love towards mankind :—if, law, that is, the righteousness which the law I say, these propositions be doctrinally true, dictated, and which it aimed, as far as it could, then follow from them these three practical to procure and produce, is fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit; is actually produced and procured in us, who live under the influence and direction of the Holy Spirit. By this Holy Spirit we have that assistance which the law could not im- dictates. part, and without which, as a mere rule, First: We are to pray sincerely, earnestly, though ever so good and right a rule, it was and incessantly, for this assistance. A fundaweak and insufficient, forasmuch as it had not mental, and, as it seems to me, an insurmount force or strength sufficient to produce obedi-able text, upon this head, is our Saviour's de

rules: first, That we are to pray sincerely, earnestly, and incessantly for this assistance; secondly, That by so doing we are to obtain it; thirdly, That being obtained, we are to yield ourselves to its agency, to be obedient to its

what they are about, upon the exceedingly great consequence of what they are asking, when they pray to God, as we do in our liturgy, "to cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of his Holy Spirit ;"" to make

Holy Spirit from us ;"" to give us increase of grace;" "to grant that his Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts."

These are momentous petitions, little as we may perceive, or think, or account of them at the time. It has been truly said, that we are hardly ever certain of praying aright, except when we pray for the Spirit of God. When we pray for temporal blessings, we do not know, though God does, whether we ask what is really for our good: when we ask for the assist

We are

There is, as

claration, Luke xi. 13. If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" This declaration, besides expressing (which was its primary object) God's benig-clean our hearts within us ;""not to take his nant, prompt, and merciful disposition towards us; which here, as in other places, our Saviour compares with the disposition of a parent towards his children; beside this, the text undoubtedly assumes the fact of there being a Holy Spirit, of its being the gift of God, of its being given to them that ask him; that these things are all realities; a real spiritual assistance, really given, and given to prayer. But let it be well observed, that whensoever the Scripture speaks of prayer, whensoever it uses that term, or other terms equivalent to it, itance and sanctification of God's Spirit in the means prayer, sincere and earnest; in the full work and warfare of religion, we ask for that and proper sense of these words, prayer pro- which by its very nature is good, and which, ceeding from the heart and soul. It does not without our great fault, will be good to us. mean any particular form of words whatever ; But, secondly, We must obtain it. God is it does not mean any service of the lips, any propitious. You hear that he has promised it utterance or pronunciation of prayer, merely to prayer, to prayer really and truly such; as such, but supplication actually and truly to prayer, viz. issuing from the heart and proceeding from the heart. Prayer may be so-soul; for no other is ever meant. lemn without being sincere. Every decency, suppliants to our Maker for various and conevery propriety, every visible mark and token tinual blessings; for health, for ease, it may of prayer may be present, yet the heart not en- be for prosperity and success. gaged. This is the requisite which must make hath already been observed, some degree of prayer availing; this is the requisite indeed uncertainty in all these cases, whether we ask which must make it that which the Scripture what is fit and proper to be granted, or even means whenever it speaks of prayer. Every what if granted, would do us good. There outward act of worship, without this participa- is this likewise farther to be observed, that tion of the heart, fails, not because men do they are what, if such be the pleasure of God, not pray sincerely, but because, in Scripture we can do without. But how incapable we sense, they do not pray at all. are of doing without God's Spirit, of proceeding in our spiritual course upon our own strength and our own resources, of finally accomplishing the work of salvation without it, the strong description which is given by St. Paul may convince us, if our own experience had not convinced us before. Many of us, a large majority of us, either require, or have required, a great change, a moral regeneration. This is to be effectuated by the aid of God's Spirit. Vitiated hearts will not change themselves; not easily, not frequently, not naturally, perhaps, not possibly. Yet, "without holiness no man shall see God." How then are the unholy to become holy? Holiness is a thing But again: We must pray for the Spirit ear-of the heart and soul. It is not a few forced, nestly, I mean with a degree of earnestness proportioned to the magnitude of the request. The earnestness with which we pray will always be in proportion to our sense, knowledge, and consciousness of the importance of the thing which we ask. This consciousness is the source and principle of earnestness in prayer; and in this, I fear, we are greatly deficient. We do not possess or feel it in the manner in which we ought; and we are deficient upon the subject of spiritual assistance most particularly. I fear that many understand and reflect little upon the importance of

If these qualities of internal seriousness and impression belong to prayer, whenever prayer is mentioned in Scripture, they seem more peculiarly essential in a case, and for a blessing, purely and strictly spiritual. We must pray with the Spirit, at least when we pray for spiritual succour.

Furthermore; there is good authority in Scripture, which it would carry us too widely from our subject to state at present, for persevering in prayer, even when long unsuccessful. Perseverance in unsuccessful prayer is one of the doctrines and of the lessons of the New Testament.

constrained actions, though good as actions, which constitute holiness. It must reside within us; it is a disposition of soul. То асquire, therefore, that which is not yet acquired, to change that which is not yet changed, to go to the root of the malady, to cleanse and purify the inside of the cup, the foulness of our mind, is a work of the Spirit of God within us. Nay more: many, as the Scripture most significantly expresses it, are dead in sins and trespasses; not only committing sins and trespasses, but dead in them: that is, as insensible of their condition under them, as a

dead man is insensible of his condition. Where not. "If ye through the Spirit do mortify this is the case, the sinner must, in the first the deeds of the flesh, ye shall live." It is instance, be roused and quickened to a sense through the Spirit that we are enabled to morof his condition, of his danger, his fate; in a tify the deeds of the flesh. But still, whether word, he must by some means or other be we mortify them or not, is our act, because it brought to feel a strong compunction. This is is made a subject of precept and exhortation also an office for the Spirit of God. "You so to do. Health is God's gift, but what use hath he quickened, who were dead in trespas- we will make of it is our choice. Bodily ses and sins," Eph. ii. 1. "Awake, thou that strength is God's gift, but of what advantage sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ it shall be to us depends upon ourselves. Even shall give thee light, Eph. v. 14. Whether, so the higher gift of the Spirit remains a gift, therefore, we be amongst the dead in sin, or the value of which will be exceedingly great, whether we be of the number of those with will be little, will be none, will be even an inwhom, according to St. Paul's description, to crease of guilt and condemnation, according as will is present, but how to perform that which it is applied and obeyed, or neglected and is good they find not; who, though they ap- withstood. The fourth chapter of Ephesians, prove the law of God, nay delight in it, after verse 30, is a warning voice upon this subthe inward man, that is, in the answers of ject: "Grieve not the Spirit of God ;" theretheir conscience, are nevertheless brought into fore he may be grieved: being given, he may captivity to the law of sin which is in their be rejected; rejected, he may be withdrawn. members; carnal, sold under sin; doing what St. Paul, Rom. viii. represents the gift and they allow not, what they hate; doing not the possession of the Spirit in these words: "Ye good which they would, but the evil which are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be they would not whichever of these be our that the Spirit of God dwell in you:" and its wretched estate, for such the apostle pronoun-efficacy, where it is efficacious, in the follow. ces it to be, the grace and influence of God's ing magnificent terms: "If the Spirit of him Spirit must be obtained in order to rescue and that raised Christ from the dead dwell in you, deliver us from it; and the sense of this want he that raised up Christ from the dead shall and of this necessity lies at the root of our de-also quicken your mortal bodies, by his Spirit votions, when directed to this object.

that dwelleth in you." What, nevertheless, To those who are in a better state than is the practical inference therefrom stated in what has been here described, little need be the very next words?" Therefore, brethren, said, because the very supposition of the'r be- we are debtors not to the flesh, to live after ing in a better state includes that earnest and the flesh; for if ye live after the flesh, ye shall devout application by prayer, for the continu- die:" consequently it is still possible, and plainal aid, presence, and indwelling of God's Ho-ly conceived, and supposed, and stated to be ly Spirit, which we state to be a duty of the so, even after this communication of the spirit, Christian religion. to live, notwithstanding, according to the flesh; But, thirdly, The assistance of God's Spirit and still true, that, "if ye live after the flesh, being obtained, we are to yield ourselves to its ye shall die." "We are debtors;" our oblidirection; to consult, attend, and listen to its gation, our duty imposed upon us by this gift dictates, suggested to us through the admoni- of the Spirit, is no longer to live after the flesh; tions of our conscience. The terms of Scrip- but, on the contrary, through the Spirit so ture represent the Spirit of God as an assist-given, to do that which, without it, we could ing, not a forcing power; as not suspending not have done, to "mortify the deeds of the our own powers, but enabling them; as im- body." Thus following the suggestions of the parting strength and faculty for our religious Spirit, ye shall live; for " as many as are led work, if we will use them; but whether we by the Spirit of God," as many as yield themwill use them or not, still depending upon selves to its guidance and direction, “ they are ourselves. Agreeably hereunto St. Paul, you the sons of God."

have heard, asserts, that there is no condem- To conclude the subject: The difference nation to them who walk not after the flesh between those who succeed, and those who but after the Spirit. The promise is not to fail in their Christian course, between those who them who have the Spirit, but to them who obtain, and those who do not obtain salvation, walk after the Spirit. To walk after the flesh, is this: They may both feel equally the weakis to follow wherever the impulses of sensu-ness of their nature, the existence and thẻ ality and selfishness lead us; which is a power of evil propensities within them; but voluntary act. To walk after the Spirit, is the former, by praying with their whole heart steadily and resolutely to obey good motions and soul, and that perseveringly, for spiritual within us, whatever they cost us; which also assistance, obtain it; and, by the aid so ob is a voluntary act. All the language of this tained, are enabled to withstand, and do, in remarkable chapter (Rom. vii.) proceeds in fact, withstand, their evil propensities; the the same strain; namely, that after the Spi- latter sink under them. I will not say that rit of God is given, it remains and rests with all are comprised under this description: for ourselves whether we avail ourselves of it or neither are all included in St. Paul's account