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and folly. This subjects the man to the law of sin, or is that principle of evil by which sin does give us laws. 2. To this law of the flesh, the law of the mind is opposed, and is in the regenerate and unregenerate indifferently: and it is nothing else but the conscience of good and evil, subject to the law of God, which the other cannot be. This accuses and convinces the unregenerate, it calls upon him to do his duty, it makes him unquiet when he does not; but this alone is so invalidated by the infirmity of the flesh, by the economy of the law, by the disadvantages of the world, that it cannot prevail, or free him from the captivity of sin. But, 3. The law of the Spirit, is the grace of Jesus Christ, and this frees the man from the law of the members,' from the captivity of sin, from the tenure of death. Here then are three combatants; the flesh, the conscience, the Spirit. The flesh endeavours to subject the man to the law of sin; the other two endeavour to subject him to the law of God. The flesh and the conscience or mind contend; but this contention is no sign of being regenerate, because the flesh prevails most commonly against the mind, where there is nothing else to help it: the man is still a captive to the law of sin. But the mind being worsted, God sends in the auxiliaries of the Spirit; and when that enters and possesses, that overcomes the flesh, it rules and gives laws. But as in the unregenerate the mind did strive though it was overpowered, yet still it contended but ineffectively for the most part: so now, when the Spirit rules, the flesh strives, but it prevails but seldom, it is overpowered by the Spirit. Now this contention is a sign of regeneration, when the flesh lusteth against the Spirit;' not when the flesh lusteth against the mind or conscience.' For the difference is very great, and highly to be remarked. And it is represented in two places of St. Paul's Epistles: the one is that which I have already explicated in this chapter; "I consent to the law of God according to the inner man but I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin that is in my members :" where there is a redundancy in the words but the Apostle plainly signifies, that the law of sin which is in his members, prevails; that is, sin rules the man in despite of all the contention and reluctancy of his e 'Hyμovxor Græc. Hebræis

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f Rom. vii. 23.

Rom. vii. 22, 23.

conscience, or the law of his mind.' So that this strife of flesh and conscience is no sign of the regenerate, because the mind of a man is in subordination to the flesh of the man, sometimes willingly and perfectly, sometimes unwillingly and imperfectly.

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32. I deny not but the mind is sometimes called spirit ;' and by consequence, improperly it may be said, that even in these men' their spirit lusteth against the flesh:' that is, the more rational faculties contend against the brute parts, reason against passion, law against sin. Thus the word spirit is taken for the o low av0pwros, 'the inner man,' the whole mind together with its affections (Matt. xxvi. 4. Acts xix. 21.). But in this question, the word "Spirit is distinguished from mind; and is taken for the mind renewed by the Spirit of God:' and as these words are distinguished, so must their several contentions be remarked. For when the mind or conscience, and the flesh, fight,-the flesh prevails; but when the Spirit and the flesh fight, the Spirit prevails. And by that we shall best know who are the litigants, that, like the two sons of Rebecca, strive within us. If the flesh prevails, then there was in us nothing but the law of the mind; nothing but the conscience of an unregenerate person: I mean, if the flesh prevails frequently or habitually. But if the Spirit of God did rule us, if that principle had possession of us, then the flesh is crucified, it is mortified, it is killed, and prevails not at all but when we will not use the force and arms of the Spirit, but it does not prevail habitually, or frequently or regularly, or by observation. This is clearly taught by those excellent words of St. Paul, which, as many other periods of his Epistles, have had the ill-luck to be very much misunderstood."This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh: for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, so that ye cannot [that ye do not, or may not do, iva un πore] the things that ye would. But if ye be led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law." The word in the Greek may either signify duty' or event.' Walk in the Spirit, and fulfil not (or, ye shall not fulfil) the lusts of the flesh.' If we understand it in the temperative sense, then it is exegetical of the former words: He that walks in the Spirit, hoc ipso,' does

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Rom. vii. 22, 23. viii. 3. 7. 9.

Gal. v. 16--18.

To do one, is not to do the of the flesh, and is ruled by

not fulfil the lusts of the flesh. other; whoever fulfils the lusts that law, he is not ruled by the graceof Christ, he is not regenerate by the Spirit. But the other sense is the best reddition of the word; reλéonte, as if he had said, Walk in the Spirit, and then the event will be, that the flesh shall not prevail over you, or give you laws; you shall not then fulfil the lusts thereof.' And this is best agreeable to the purpose of the Apostle. For having exhorted the Galatians, that they should not make their Christian liberty a pretence to the flesh, as the best remedy against their enemy the flesh, he prescribes this walking in the Spirit,' which is a certain deletory and prevalency over the flesh. And the reason follows; "for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would;" that is, though ye be inclined to, and desirous of, satisfying your carnal desires, yet being under the empire and conduct of the Spirit, ye cannot do those desires; the Spirit overrules you, and you must, you will, contradict your carnal appetites. For else this could not be (as the Apostle designs it) a reason of his exhortation. For if he had meant, that in this contention of flesh and Spirit, we could not do the good things that we would, then the reason had contradicted the proposition. For suppose it thus; "Walk in the Spirit, and fulfil not the lusts of the flesh. For the flesh and the Spirit lust against each other, so that ye cannot do the good ye would;"-this, I say, is not sense, for the latter part contradicts the former. For, this thing, that the flesh hinders us from doing the things' of the Spirit,' is so far from being a reason why we should walk in the Spirit,' that it perfectly discourages that design; and it is to little purpose to walk in the Spirit,' if this will not secure us against the domineering and tyranny of the flesh. But the contrary is most clear, and consequent:" If ye walk in the Spirit, ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh;' for though the flesh lusteth against the Spirit,' and would fain prevail, yet it cannot ; for the Spirit also lusteth against the flesh,' and is stronger, so that ye may not, or that ye do not, or that ye cannot (for any of these readings, as it may properly render the words of iva un TоTE, so are not against the design of the Apostle),

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do what ye otherwise would fain do; and therefore, if ye will walk in the Spirit, ye are secured against the flesh."

33. The result is this. 1. An impious, profane person, sins without any contention; that is, with a clear, ready, and a prepared will, he dies and disputes not. 2. An animal man, or a mere moral man, that is, one under the law, one instructed and convinced by the letter, but not sanctified by the Spirit, he sins willingly, because he considers and chooses it; but he also sins unwillingly, that is, his inclinations to vice, and his first choices, are abated, and the pleasures allayed, and his peace disturbed, and his sleeps broken; but for all that, he sins on when the next violent temptation comes. The contention in him is between reason and passion, the law of the mind and the law of the members, between conscience and sin, that weak, this prevailing. 3. But the regenerate hath the same contention within him; and the temptation is sometimes strong within him, yet he overcomes it, and seldom fails in any material and considerable instances: because the Spirit is the prevailing ingredient in the new creature, in the constitution of the regenerate, and will prevail. For" whatsoever is born of God, overcometh the world; and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even your faith';" that is, by the faith of Jesus Christ, by him you shall have victory and redemption: and again; Resist the devil, and he will flee from you";' For he that is within you, is stronger than he that is in the world"; and, Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may stand against the snares of the devil, that ye may resist in the evil day, and having done all, to stand°;' for, All things are possible to him that believes ;' and Through Christ that strengthens me I can do all things 9;' and therefore in all these things we are more than conquerors:' for, God is able to do above all that we can ask or think';' he can keep us from all sin, and present us unblamable in the sight of his glory.' So that to deny the power of the Spirit, in breaking the tyranny and subduing the lusts of the flesh, besides that it contradicts all these and divers other scriptures, it denies the omnipotency of God, and of the Spirit of his grace, making sin to be

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m Jam. iv. 7.

P Mark, ix. 23.

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n 1 John, iv. 4.
1 Phil. iv. 15.

Rom. viii. 13. v. 37. Jude, 24.

stronger than it, and if grace abound, to make sin superabound: but to deny the willingness of the Spirit to redeem us from the captivity of sin, is to lessen the reputation of his goodness, and to destroy the possibility, and consequent ly the necessity, of living holily.

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34. But how happens it then, that even the regenerate sins often, and the flesh prevails upon the ruin, or the declensions, of the Spirit? I answer, it is not because that holy principle which is in the regenerate, cannot or will not secure him, but because the man is either prepossessed with the temptation, and overcome before he begins to oppose the arms of the Spirit, that is, because he is surprised, or incogitant, or, it may be, careless; the good man is asleep,' and then the enemy' takes his advantage and 'sows tares;' for if he were awake, and considering, and would make use of the strengths of the Spirit, he would not be overcome by sin. For there are powers enough, that is, arguments and endearments, helps and sufficient motives, to enable us to resist the strongest temptation in the world; and this one alone, of resurrection to eternal life, which is revealed to us by Jesus Christ, and ministered in the Gospel, is an argument greater than all the promises and enticements of sin, if we will attend to its efficacy and consequence. But if we throw away our arms, and begin a fight in the Spirit, and end it in the flesh, the ill success of the day is to be imputed to us, not to the Spirit of God, to whom if we had attended, we should certainly have prevailed. The relics and remains of sin are in the regenerate; but that is a sign that sin is overcome, and the kingdom of it broken; and that is a demonstration, that whenever sin does prevail in any single instances, it is not for want of power, but of using that power; for since the Spirit hath prevailed upon the flesh in its strengths, and hath crucified it, there is no question but it can also prevail upon all its weaknesses.

35. For we must be curious to avoid a mistake here. The dominion of the Spirit, and the remains of the flesh, may consist together in the regenerate; as some remains of cold with the prevailing heat; but the dominions of one and the other are, in every degree, inconsistent; as both cold and heat cannot in any sense be both said to be the prevailing

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