Agreeably hereunto St. Paul, you have heard, asserts, that there is no condemnation to them, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. The promise is not to them, who have the Spirit, but to them, who walk after the Spirit. To walk after the flesh, is to follow wherever the impulses of sensuality and selfishness lead us; which is a voluntary act. To walk after the Spirit, is steadily and resolutely to obey good motions within us, whatever they cost us: which also is a voluntary act. All the language of this remarkable chapter (Rom. vii.) proceeds in the same strain; namely, that after the Spirit of God is given, it remains and rests with ourselves whether we avail ourselves of it or not. "If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the flesh ye shall live." It is through the Spirit that we are enabled to mortify the deeds of the flesh. But still, whether we mortify them or not, is our act, because it is made a subject of precept and exhortation so to do. Health is God's gift but what use we will make of it, is our choice, Bodily strength is God's gift: but

but of what advantage it shall be to us, depends upon ourselves. Even so, the higher gift of the Spirit, remains a gift, the value of which will be exceedingly great; will be little; will be none; will be even an increase of guilt and condemnation, according as it is applied and obeyed, or neglected and withstood. The fourth chapter of Ephesians (verse 30.) is a warning voice upon this subject. "Grieve not the Spirit of God:" therefore he may be grieved: being given, he may be rejected; rejected, he may be withdrawn.

St. Paul (Rom. viii.) represents the gift and possession of the Spirit in these words. "Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you:" and its efficacy, where it is efficacious, in the following magnificent terms: "If the Spirit

of him that raised Christ from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies, by his Spirit that dwelleth in you." What, nevertheless, is the practical inference therefrom

stated

"We are

stated in the very next words? "Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh, for if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die:" consequently it is still possible, and plainly conceived, and supposed, and stated to be so, even after this communication of the Spirit, to live, notwithstanding, according to the flesh: and still true, that, if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die. debtors;" our obligation, our duty imposed upon us by this gift of the Spirit, is no longer to live after the flesh; but, on the contrary, through the Spirit so given, to do that, which, without it, we could not have done, to "mortify the deeds of the body." Thus following the suggestions of the Spirit, ye shall live: for "as many as are led by the Spirit of God," as many as yield themselves to its guidance and direction," they áre the sons of God."

To conclude the subject. The difference be tween those who succeed, and those who fail in their christian course, between those who obtain, and those who do not obtain salvation, is this:

They

They may both feel equally the weakness of their nature, the existence and the power of evil propensities within them; but the former by praying with their whole heart and soul, and that perseveringly, for spiritual assistance, obtain it; and, by the aid so obtained, are enabled to withstand, and do, in fact, withstand, their evil propensities; the latter sink under them. I will not say that all are comprised under this description for neither are all included in St. Paul's account of the matter, from which our discourse set out; but I think, that it represents the general condition of christians, as to their spiritual state, and that the greatest part of those, who read this discourse, will find, that they belong to one side or other of the alternative here stated.

SERMON XXIX.

THE DESTRUCTION OF THE CANAANITES.

JOSHUA X. 40.

"So Joshua smote all the country of the hills, and of the south, and of the vale, and of the springs, and all their kings; he left none remaining, but utterly destroyed all that breathed, as the Lord God of Israel commanded."

I

HAVE known serious and well-disposed christians much affected with the accounts, which are delivered in the Old Testament, of the Jewish wars and dealings with the inhabitants of Canaan. From the Israelites first setting foot in that country, to their complete establishment in it, which takes up the whole book of Joshua and part of the book of

Judges,