IX.

ON THE END OF MAN'S EXISTENCE.

EZEK. XV. 2.—What is the vine-tree more than any tree, or than a branch which is among the trees of the forest?

THE vine-tree is weaker than most trees, so as to be unfit for any work, and would therefore be very contemptible but for that property it possesses of bringing forth a valuable and delicious fruit. On this account it is highly prized and diligently cultivated. But if it fail of producing fruit, the only purpose to which it can be applied is to turn it to fuel. Such is the figurative representation which the prophet gives us, in this passage, of man, considered especially as the object of Divine care and culture. He is naturally capable of yielding a precious fruit; in this consists his sole excellence; this is the sole end of his existence; and if he fails in this, he is of no use but to be destroyed.

I. Man is naturally capable of yielding a most precious fruit: this fruit consists in living to God.

1. He is possessed of all the natural powers which are requisite for that purpose. He is endowed with reason and understanding, enabling him to perceive the proofs of the being of God, and to entertain just, though inadequate conceptions of the principal attributes of his nature; his self-existence, his absolute perfection, his power, his wisdom, his all-sufficiency, his omnipresence, his holiness, justice, and goodness. Inferior animals do not on which account he is a vine-tree among the trees of the wood; inferior in many properties to some of them, but superior in those particulars which fit him for this end, and on that account incomparably more valuable.

2. As we are possessed of natural powers, fitting us for the service of God, so he has bestowed upon us much care and culture, with an express view to this end. The religious instruction he gave to his ancient people is frequently compared in Scripture to the cultivation which men bestow upon vines. "My beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill," &c.* "For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant." He gave them his will, his ordinances, his prophets, and separated them from all nations by peculiar rites, that they might be to him for a name, and a praise, and a peculiar treasure, above all nations. He has done much more for us under the gospel. None can be ignorant of the intention of God in all these provisions. "Yet I had planted thee

a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou now turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?”*

II. This is the only end for which mankind are formed and preserved; this is the proper fruit of human nature, which admits of nothing being substituted in its room.

1. A mere selfish, voluptuous life cannot be supposed to be the proper fruit of human nature. He who lives to himself is universally despised and condemned. "Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth to himself."t "For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter."

2. A life of social benevolence, in which the public good is preserved, without a supreme regard to God, cannot be this fruit. Can such persons be said to neglect the end of their existence? Undoubtedly; for the following reasons:

(1.) To do good to our fellow-creatures without regard to God is to forget the principal relation in which we stand, and consequently to neglect the principal duty. A right behaviour to each other is no. proper compensation for the want of obedient regards to God (instanced in pirates and rebels). A regard to God is the root and origin of all real virtue.

(2.) The end of man's existence cannot with any propriety be considered as confined to this world; but the proper end accomplished by social virtues is entirely confined to the present state.

(3.) No collective number of men can be independent of God, more than a single individual; therefore no such collective body has a right to consult their common interest to the neglect of God, any more than a single individual to pursue his individual interest. The aggregate of mankind appears something great and imposing in the eyes of men; in consequence of which a peculiar importance is attached to those actions which tend to the public good. The magnitude of the general interest imposes a value on those actions which are adapted to advance so great an object. But in the sight of God, all nations are as the "drop of a bucket;" "he taketh up the isles as a very little thing." Suppose all the subjects of a lawful prince were to agree to stand by each other, and to promote each other's interest to the utmost; would this be allowed by the prince as any atonement for a great and persevering rebellion? Or suppose a single individual so disposed, would not the result be the same? No other can be substituted for this.

III. He who answers not the end of his existence is fit only to be destroyed. He is like a vessel marred in the hand of the potter, proper only to be broken.

The barren vine may be useful as fuel, and to this purpose it is much applied in eastern countries. Thus wicked men may be useful with a subordinate kind of usefulness, by their destruction.

1. They may thereby become edifying examples of the just vengeance of God, in order to deter others. That this will be one of the ends answered by the punishment of the wicked seems intimated in several

* Jer. ii. 21.

† Hos. x. 1.

Deut. xxxii. 32.

passages of Scripture, as well as is supported by its analogy to human government. "And they shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me; for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched, and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh."*

2. They will serve to manifest those attributes of the Great Supreme which their conduct disowned, and which it seemed virtually to call in question. "What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction?" This is a subordinate use, not a primary end. It is that which men fit themselves for by their presumptuous and impenitent neglect of God.

(1.) What blindness attaches to those who live in the total neglect of God and religion!

(2.) What little room is there for that confidence which many place in the correctness of deportment towards their fellow-creatures, while religion is not even pretended to be the governing principle of their lives!

(3.) What need have we all to examine ourselves, and seriously to inquire whether we are yielding that fruit unto God on which we have been insisting!

(4.) How ought those to be alarmed when the result of such examination is, that they have been hitherto utterly without fruit! How strong the obligations on such, after considering their ways, to turn unto the Lord! And thankful should they be that space is afforded them for repentance and salvation.‡

X.

CLAIMS OF THE FLESH.

ROM. viii. 12.-Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.

It is of great importance for us to ascertain, not only the quality of particular actions, but the general principle on which our life is regu lated, since it is this that must determine our true character in the sight of God. As there are but two sorts of persons in the world, the righteous and the wicked, the carnal and the spiritual, so there are only two grand principles which respectively actuate these two classes of mankind, and produce all that diversity of character by which they are distinguished. In the context they are characterized with such perspicuity and precision, that it is not difficult to decide to which we belong. The one are described as enslaved, the other as free; the one as being in the flesh, and "minding" the things of it; the other as

Preached on the morning of Sunday, October 31, 1814, at Leicester.

inhabited and actuated by the Spirit: the former as the heirs of death, the latter as the joint-heirs with the Lord of a happy immortality. The text we have chosen for our present meditation is a legitimate inference deduced by the inspired writer from the premises he had been laying down; it is a conclusion at which he arrives, resulting from the views which he had been exhibiting of the condition and expectation of two opposite descriptions of persons. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh."

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I shall endeavour, in the first place, to settle the meaning of the terms flesh and Spirit, employed in the context, in order to a right conception of the import of the proposition; and in the second place, compare and adjust the opposite claims of the flesh and of the Spirit.

1. Flesh most properly denotes the body, in contradistinction from the soul; the matter of which the corporeal structure is formed: "there is one flesh of men." And,

2. As all men are possessed of this, it is by an easy figure of speech applied to denote human nature, or mankind universally. "The end of all flesh is come before God."t

3. Because the fleshly or corporeal part of our nature may be perceived by the eye, it is sometimes used to denote that in religion which is merely outward and ceremonial. Thus St. Paul says, "Having begun in the Spirit, are ye made perfect by the flesh?" Thus the same apostle speaks of "carnal ordinances."§

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4. On account of the deep and universal corruption of human nature, and this corruption displaying itself in a peculiar manner, in producing an addictedness to the indulgence of bodily or fleshly appetites, the term flesh is frequently used to denote moral corruption, or human nature considered as corrupt. It is manifest, from the consideration of the context, that this is the sense in which it is to be taken here. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh;" that is, corrupt and sinful. In this sense of it, the works of the flesh are contrasted by St. Paul with the fruits of the Spirit. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like."P From the extent of the enumeration, which comprehends many mental vices, it is manifest nothing less can be intended by the term flesh than the principle of corruption, the dictates of unrenewed nature. By the Spirit, it is plain we are not to understand the immaterial principle in man, but the blessed Spirit of God, the author of all holiness. This is evident from the context.

Secondly. As they divide mankind between them, and every man walks according to the dictates of the one or the other, they are considered as competitors. We shall examine and adjust their respective claims, that we may discern to which the preference is due, and come then fully to acquiesce in the decision of the apostle: "Therefore we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh."

* 1 Cor. xv. 39.

◊ Heb. ix. 10.

† Gen. vi. 13.

John iii. 6.

Gal. iii, 3.

Gal. v. 19-21.

There is an ellipsis in the text, which must be supplied from the train of thought in the context.

The

Let us examine the claims of the flesh, or of corrupt nature. We may conceive the flesh pleading ancient possession. pleasures and freedom from restraint attending a compliance with her dictates. The general usage and course of the world, which she reminds us has been such in every age. That the far greater part of mankind have been under her sway, the greatest of men not excepted, so that she can number nobles among her vassals, and among her subjects the princes of the earth. The most distinguished by their birth, their talents, or their fortune, she may allege, never dreamed of an exemption from her dominion, never thought of any other method of life than that of living after the flesh: faithful to her dictates through the whole of their lives, they bowed submissive at her shrine, were initiated into her mysteries, and died in her communion. Notwithstanding these specious pleas, however, we shall see sufficient cause to decline her yoke, and to come to the apostolic conclusion, if we take the following things into our consideration.

I. Its claims are founded upon usurpation; they rest on no basis of equity. It alienates the property from its lawful possessor; it interferes with a prior claim which nothing can fairly defeat. Sin, considered as a master, does not enter upon a property that is derelict or abandoned by its owner; but it attempts to occupy and appropriate what the proprietor never meant to resign, what he never can resign without irreparable injury to his honour. The souls of men are the most valuable part of his possessions below, and the most capable, indeed in one sense they alone are capable, of glorifying his perfections.

1. Let us consider that the Lord is our Maker, and we the work of his hands; it is "he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein."* The noble powers by which we are so highly distinguished from the inferior parts of the creation, the powers of thought and reason and conscience, are of his production; from him they are derived, and by him they are sustained. His right in us is consequently more extensive than it is possible for us to conceive in any other instance, because none else ever gave existence to the smallest particle of dust in the balance; it is incomparably more than that, to which it is compared, of the potter over the clay. Whatever claim interferes, then, with his dominion over us, must be founded in absolute injustice, without the guilt of which it is impossible to withhold any thing from him; and it is injustice of the worst description, for it is robbing God. "Will a man rob God?" exclaims the prophet: "yet ye have robbed me, saith the Lord, in tithes and offerings." But what are tithes and offerings compared to that love, adoration, and obedience in which, even while they were enjoined, all their value consisted, and which are of perpetual obligation when they cease any longer to be enjoined? Nor does the dominion of God rest only on