ページの画像
PDF
ePub

in me, shall not die eternally." Die he must, but not eternally: die the first death; but not the second. It is undoubtedly, therefore, the second death, which St. Paul meant by the worst death, when he wrote down the sentence, "the body of this death" and the second death is the punishment, perdition, and destruction, which the souls of sinners will suffer in a future state. It is well worthy of observation, that was indeed the only death, which those, who wrote the New Testament, and probably all sincere Christians of that age, regarded as important; as the subject of their awe, and dread, and solicitude. The first death, the natural and universal decease of the body; they looked to simply as a change, a going out of one room into another; a putting off one kind of clothing, and putting on a different kind. They esteemed it, compared with the other, of little moment or account. In this respect there is a wide difference between the Scripture apprehension of the subject and ours. We think entirely of the first death; they thought entirely of the second. We speak and talk of the death which we see they spoke and taught, and wrote, of a death which is future to that. We look to the first with terror; they to the second alone. The second alone they represent as formidable. Such is the view which Christianity gives us of these things, so different from what we naturally entertain.

You see then what death is in the Scripture sense; in St. Paul's sense. "The body of this death." The phrase and expression of the text cannot, however, mean this death itself, because he prays to be delivered from it; whereas from that death, or that perdition understood by it, when it once overtakes the sinner, there is no deliverance that we know of. "The body then of this death," is not the death itself, but a state Teading to and ending in the second death; name

, misery and punishment instead of happiness nd rest, after our departure out of this world.

And this state it is, from which St. Paul, with such vehemence and concern upon his spirit, seeks to be delivered.

Having seen the signification of the principal phrase employed in the text, the next, and the most important question is, to what condition of the soul, in its moral and religious concerns, the apostle applies it. Now in the verses preceding the text, indeed in the whole of this remarkable chapter, St. Paul has been describing a state of struggle and contention with sinful propensities; which propensities in the present condition of our nature, we all feel, and which are never wholly abolished. But our apostle goes farther: he describes also that state of unsuccessful struggle and unsuccessful contention, by which many so unhappily fall. His words are these, "that which I do I allow not: for what I would that I do not; but what I hate, that do I. For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good things: for to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not: for the good that I would I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do. I find a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man. But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members."

This account, though the style and manner of expression, in which it is delivered, be very peculiar, is in its substance no other, than what is strictly applicable to the case of thousands, "The good that I would, I do not; the evil which I would not, that I do." How many, who read this discourse, may say the same of themselves! as also, "what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that I do!" This then is the case which St. Paul had in view. It is a case, first, which supposes an informed and enlightened conscience, "I had not "I delight in the law of God." known sin but by the law." "I consent unto the

law that is good." These sentiments could only be uttered by a man, who was, in a considerable degree at least, acquainted with his duty, and who also approved of the rule of duty, which he found laid down.

Secondly, the case before us also supposes an inclination of mind and judgment to perform our duty. "When I would do good, evil is present with me to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not."

Thirdly, it supposes this inclination of mind and judgment to be continually overpowered. "I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into cap. tivity to the law of sin, which is in my members:" that is, the evil principle not only opposes the judgment of the mind, and the conduct which that judgment dictates (which may be the cause with all,) but in the present case subdues and gets the better of it: Not only wars against the law of my mind, but brings me into captivity."

66

Fourthly, the case supposes a sense and thorough consciousness of all this; of the rule of duty; of the nature of sin; of the struggle; of the defeat. It is a prisoner sensible of his chains. It is a soul tied and bound by the fetters of its sins, and knowing itself to be so. It is by no means the case of the ignorant sinner; it is not the case of an erring mistaken conscience; it is not the ease of a searched and hardened conscience. None of these could make the reflection, or the complaint which is here described. "The commandment, which was ordained unto life, I found to be unto death. I am carnal, sold under sin. In me dwelleth no good thing. The law is holy; and the commandment holy, just, and good; but sin. that it might appear sin (that it might be more conspicuous, aggravated, and inexcusable,) works death in me by that which is good." This language by no means belongs to the stupified, insen

sinner.

Nor, Fifthly, as it cannot belong to an original insensibility of conscience, that is, an insensibility of which the person himself does not remember the beginning, so neither can it belong to the sinner, who has got over the rebukes, distrusts, and uneasiness, which sin once occasioned. True it is, that this uneasiness may be got over almost entirely; so that, whilst the danger remains the same, whilst the final event will be the same, whilst the coming destruction is not less sure or dreadful, the uneasiness and the apprehension are gone. This is a case, too common, too deplorable, too desperate; but it is not the case of which we are now treating, or of which St. Paul treated. Here we are presented throughout with complaint and uneasiness; with a soul exceedingly dissatisfied, exceedingly indeed disquieted, and disturbed, and alarmed, with the view of its condition.

Upon the whole, St. Paul's account is the account of a man in some sort struggling with his vices; at least, deeply conscious of what they are, whither they are leading him, where they will end; acknowledge the law of God, not only in words and speeches, but in his mind; acknowl. edging its excellency, its authority; wishing, also, and willing, to act up to it, but, in fact, doing no such thing; feeling, in practice, a lamentable inability of doing his duty, yet perceiving that it must be done. All he has hitherto attained is a state of successive resolutions and relapses. Much is willed, nothing is effected. No furtherance, no advance, no progress, is made in the way of salvation. He feels, indeed, his double nature; but he finds, that the law in his members, the law of the flesh, brings the whole man into captivity. He may have some better strivings, but they are tinsuccessful. The result is, that he obeys the law of sin.

This is the picture which our apostle contemplated, and he saw in it nothing but misery: "O wretched man that I am!" another might have

seen it in a more comfortable light. He might have hoped that the will would be taken for the deed; that, since he felt in his mind a strong approbation of the law of God; nay, since he felt a delight in contemplating it, and openly professed to do so, since he was neither ignorant of it, nor forgetful of it, nor insensible of its obligation; nor even set himself to dispute its authority; nay, since he had occasionally likewise endeavoured to bring himself to an obedience to this law, however unsuccessful his endeavours had been; above all, since he has sincerely deplored and bewailed his fallings off from it; he might hope, I say, that his was a case for favourable accept

ance.

St. Paul saw it not in this light. He saw in it no ground of confidence or satisfaction. It was a state, to which he gives no better name than "the body of death." It was a state, not in which he hoped to be saved, but from which he sought to be delivered. It was a state, in a word, of bitterness and terror; drawing from him expressions of the deepest anguish and distress: O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death ?”

SERMON XXVII.

EVIL PROPENSITIES ENCOUNTERED BY THE AID OF THE SPIRIT.

(PART II.)

O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death ?-Rom. vii. 24. HE, who has not felt the weakness of his naure, it is probable, has reflected little upon the Mect of religion; I should conjecture this to

case.

then, when men do feel the weakness of ature, it is not always that this consciousrries them into a right course, but someinto a course the very contrary of what is They may see in it, as hath been obsery

« 前へ次へ »