pect of his wages, or any labourer under the covenant of works could take from the remunerations of the law. And in this warfare against the body, an advantage may sometimes have been gained by it, such an advantage as the law would have irretrievably condemned us for, and declared against us all the ruin and disgrace of a fatal overthrow: but such an advantage as under the gospel though it has cast us down yet will not destroy us--but, after perhaps a severe discipline of mortification and sorrow, will arm us with fresh resolution for the contest; and inspire into us a more cordial hatred. against the body of sin, and all its sinful instigations, than ever; and give to the heart a more burning earnestness, that we may not only recover all the ground which we have lost, but may rise more aloft than ever above all the gross and terrestrial ingredients of our corrupt nature-till, having passed through a series of watchfulness and endurance and busy working, and so having made full proof of our discipleship, we can say with the apostle when the time of our departure is at hand, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith-Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me on that day, and not to me only but also unto all such as love his appearing."

From the expression to mortify the deeds of the body,' I may here advert to that law of our moral constitution, by which it is that if we refuse

to perform a sinful deed, we by that very refusal weaken the sinful desire which prompted it; and that thus by mortifying the deeds you mortify the desires. Every act of sinful indulgence, arms with a new force of ascendancy the sinful inclination. Every act of luxury makes you more the slave of the table than before. Every draught of the alluring beverage, might bring you nearer to the condition of him who is the victim of a habitual intoxication. Every improper licence granted to the eye or the imagination, sinks you into more helpless captivity under their power. Every compliance with lawless appetite, enthrones more firmly than before another oppressor, another tyrant over you. And therefore if you want to dethrone the appetite, refuse the indulgence; if you want to starve and enfeeble the desires of the inner man, mortify the deeds of the outer man. Begin in a plain way the work of reformation. And let it be the resolute purpose on which you shall put forth all the manhood of your soul, that, however you may be solicited by the affections that are within to that which is evil, you shall not give the actions that are without to their hateful service that however sin may have been desired, sin shall not be done by you-that with the control which you have over the hand and the tongue and all the organs of the body, they shall with you not be the instruments of sin but the instruments of righteousness: And thus it is that the corrupt propensities of the heart, wearied out with resistance, and languishing under the con

stant experience of hopeless and fruitless solicitation, would at length weaken and expire. The body would be mortified; and the soul, delivered from its presence, and again translated into it after the last taint and remainder of its evil nature had been done away, would find itself in a perfect condition for the joys and the services of life everlasting.

But it is well to mark, that, in order to make this mortifying of the deeds of the body effectual unto life, it must be done through the Spirit. For the very same thing might in great measure be done without special grace from on high, in which case it hath no fruit in immortality. How many are the evil passions, which can at least be restrained by the pure force of a natural determination. In the pursuits of fortune, or of ambition, or of war, what a violence a man can put upon himself—what a heroic self-denial he is capable of carrying into full operation—what a mastery he can reach over some of the most urgent inclinations of nature; and all this certainly without one particle of a sanctifying influence, but rather by the strength and power of one unrenewed principle lording it with a high ascendancy over all the rest. To make then the mortification of your earthly desires available for heaven, there must be an agency from the Holy Ghostelse there is nought of heaven's character in the work, and will be nought of heaven's reward to it. And if the Holy Ghost indeed be the agent, then He will not select a few of our carnal tendencies for

of

extermination by His power; but He will enter into hostility with all of them-He will check the sensuality of our nature, and He will mortify its pride, and He will check its impetuous anger, and He will wean it from its now clinging avarice. Let it be your care then, from the very first moment your strenuous resistance to these deeds and affections of evil-let it be your care, that, instead of trusting to the energy of your own firm and highminded resolves, you invoke the constant supplies of aid from a higher quarter. Let yours be a life of prayer along with a life of performance; and then will you strive mightily, but according at the same time to the grace of God that worketh in you mightily.

Ver. 14. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the sons of God.'

There is frequent cognisance taken in the Bible, of the degrees in which the Spirit of God may operate on the heart of man. There is one work from which He ceases, because He will not always strive; and there is another work which after He hath begun, He will carry on even unto perfection. There is a tasting of God's Spirit by those who afterwards fall away; and there is an anointing by God's Spirit that remaineth. It is this which hath given room to the distinction made by theologians, between the saving and the ordinary influences of the Holy Ghost, the former signifying those by which a man is effectually called unto the faith, and afterwards completed in the sanctification of the

gospel; and the latter signifying those by which he is made to feel the stirrings of a conviction, and a desire and even a partial delight in many of the accompaniments of sacredness, which, had he improved, would have been followed up with larger measures of grace and illumination-but which as he quenched, do at length vanish into nothing, and leave him short of the kingdom of God. In these circumstances it were well, if any definite or satisfactory mark could be assigned, by which to discriminate between the one set of influences and the other-by which to ascertain whether we have only so much of this heavenly influence as will suffice for condemning our resistance to it; or so much as will carry us forward to a meetness for the inheritance above, as will be effectual for salvation.

Now the verse before us supplies us with the test that is wanted. There are many who are solicited by the Spirit of God, yet who are not led by Him -many to whom the Spirit offers the guidance of His light and of His direction, but who refuse that guidance-many, we believe all, to whom the Holy Ghost hath made through conscience that ear of the inner man the intimations of His will, yet most of whom have not followed these intimations. They have been in so far then the subjects of the Spirit's operation, as to have been perhaps in converse, and even occasionally in desirous and delighted converse with Him; but they have not given themselves up to His authoritative voice. They have been so far enlightened by Him, yet not led by Him. The