the will of God; the second-" Arm yourselves with this same thought, that he who has suffered in the flesh has been made to rest from sin," in order that you may avoid the one, and follow the other of these two modes of conduct.

Then there are, thirdly, the motives which the Apostle urges on them to induce them to comply with this exhortation. The first refers, chiefly, to the course they should abandon, and brings forward its criminal and disgraceful character, the strange infatuation and waywardness of those who walk in it, and the awful responsibility in which they are involved. It is the "way of the Gentiles ;" it consists in "lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries;" then they who walk in it, are so infatuated as to "wonder that you do not run with them into the same excess of riot," and "speak evil of you on that account;" and, finally, "they must give account of themselves to him who is ready to judge the quick and the dead." Surely this is not a way to walk in. We should never have walked in it; we have walked in it too long; we must walk in it no longer. The second motive refers, principally, to the way that they should follow. To bring men into this way, and keep them in this way, is the great design of preaching the gospel. "For for this cause was the gospel preached to them who are dead, that they may be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit." Some of the phraseology in which this motive is couched, is by no means easy of explication; but that it does express a motive to the duty enjoined, and that that motive is, substantially, that the great design why the gospel is preached is, to lead men to the discharge of that duty, cannot reasonably be questioned. This, then, is the general division of the subject, according to which I mean to arrange my subsequent illustrative remarks.

These preliminary observations have been longer than I could have wished; but if they have, in any measure, gained

their object, of enabling us better to understand a confessedly difficult, and an obviously important, passage of Scripture, neither you nor I will have cause to regret their length. That man does not rightly estimate the value of the pure ore of divine truth, who grudges the labour that is necessary to dig it out of the mine, and separate it from rubbish; and who, when he in any good measure succeeds, does not rejoice as one who has found much spoil. I am not without hope that we will find this passage, though at first sight beset with so many difficulties, in no ordinary degree rich in Christian doctrine, and law, and motive; "profitable for doctrine, and for reproof, for correction and instruction in righteousness."

I. THE BASIS OF THE EXHORTATION.

The first branch of the subject-THE GREAT PRINCIPLE OF CHRISTIAN TRUTH which the Apostle lays down as the basis of his exhortation, "Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh," need not detain us long, as we have in our last discourse considered, at great length, the statement in the close of the last chapter, on which the more abbreviated statement in the text plainly reduplicates. It is a summary of all that is most peculiar and important in the religion of Christ. It is a comprehensive epitome of the gospel of our salvation. It is that which Paul first received and first declared to the churches, assuring them that it was that gospel, which, if they received it, and kept it in memory, would certainly save the soul.' Its import may be thus briefly stated.

Christ, the long promised, divinely appointed, divinely qualified, divinely accredited, divine Saviour, in human nature has endured numerous, varied, violent, severe sufferings, terminating in death.

These sufferings were penal "for sins," being the execu

11 Cor. xv. 1, 2.

tion of the penal sanction of the divine law, the manifestation of the displeasure of God against sin. He was made sin, he became a curse. These sufferings were vicarious. They were not for his own sins, for he had none, but for the sins of men. He suffered, the just in the room of the unjust. He became a curse in the room of the accursed. We all like sheep had gone astray: we had turned every one to his own way; and the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was on him. These sufferings were expiatory. In them the penalty was not only borne, but borne away. He made an end of sin, by making reconciliation for iniquity. He took away sin by the sacrifice of himself. He is the propitiation for our sins, and he is set forth a propitiation; and the righteousness of God, in the remission of sins, is thus declared, God being just, and the justifier of him who believes in Jesus.

The design of these penal, vicarious, and expiatory, sufferings of the divinely appointed, divinely qualified, divinely accredited, divine, Saviour, is to bring men to God; to restore ignorant and deluded man to the true knowledge of God, guilty man to the favour of God, depraved man to the image of God, and miserable man to the enjoyment of God, thus making him truly wise, truly good, and truly happy for ever.

Finally, while these sufferings terminated in the death of the incarnate Saviour, they obtained for him as their merited reward, that spiritual power which he exerts through the preaching of the gospel, in giving liberty to the spiritually enslaved, and life to the spiritually dead; and a seat at God's right hand in the Heaven of heavens, angels, and principalities, and powers being made subject to him. Such is the great truth referred to by the Apostle in the words "Christ has suffered for us in the flesh," and which he lays down as the basis on which he builds an exhortation to universal holiness, "holiness in all manner of conversation."

II. THE EXHORTATION.

THAT EXHORTATION forms the second division of our subject, to the consideration of which we now proceed. It is contained in these words: "Arm yourselves with this same thought, that He who hath suffered in the flesh has been made to rest from sin, that ye no longer should live the rest of your time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God." The exhortation, as I have already had occasion to remark, is twofold; the Apostle calls on them to use certain means in order to secure a certain end; to cultivate a particular mode of thinking that they may follow a particular course of conduct; to arm themselves with an influential thought that they may perform a difficult work. It will, I believe, subserve the purpose of clear exposition, if we consider the two parts of the exhortation in the inverse order in which they are presented to us in the text; that we first consider the course of conduct which the Apostle would have Christians to pursue, and then the means he would have them to employ in order that they may follow that course of conduct.

§ 1.—The particular object to be sought—negative—positive. The course of conduct which the Apostle would have Christians to pursue, is described in these words: "No longer live the rest of your time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but live the rest of your time in the flesh to the will of God." The exhortation, you perceive, is both negative and positive. It forbids one course of conduct and enjoins another.

(1.) Negative." Not to live to the lusts of men."

The negative exhortation plainly proceeds on the principle, that in the former part of their lives, previously to their conversion, they had been distinguished by a mode of conduct not only different from, but directly opposite to, that by

1

which they ought henceforward to be characterised; they had done what they are now not to do; they had not done what they are now to do; they had lived the former part of their time in the flesh to the lusts of men, and not to the will of God. It is of great importance that Christians should keep habitually in mind their state and character previous to conversion; "that they should often look to the rock whence they were hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence they were dug." It is fitted to hide pride from their eyes, to excite gratitude, to deepen the sense of obligation. To gain these ends God's ancient people were often put in mind of their humble origin, and their enslaved state in Egypt; and Christians are frequently, directly and indirectly, called on to reflect on the state of error and guilt and condemnation and spiritual enslavement from which they have been delivered. "Once were ye darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord; walk in the light." "Such were some of you," says the Apostle after giving a list of enormous transgressors; "such were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." "In time past,” says he, speaking to those who had been, in the great love wherewith the God who is rich in mercy had loved them, quickened together with Christ, and made to sit together in heavenly places in him, "ye were dead in trespasses and sins; ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience; among whom also, we all had our conversation in time past, in the lusts of our flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." "Remember," says he, " that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and being without God in the world." And here

1 Isa. li. 1, 2.

2 Eph. v. 8. 1 Cor. vi. 11. Eph. ii. 1, 2, 11, 12.