to gratify liimself, and to follow the bent of his own carnal inclinations. He may not indulge in gross sins : but he is alto^ gether earthly : and whatever he may have of religion, it is a mere form, that engages not his heart, not is in any respect the delight of his soul.
In a word, the one looks forward to a future harvest, and sows with a view to that ; the other looks no further than to this present world, and has all his desires bounded by the things of time and sense.]
2. Let us see how far this distinction is confirmed by the word of God —
[This is the very distinction which St. Paul himself makes between the carnal and the spiritual man ; " They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh ; and they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirif^." The one " seeks his own things, and not the things that are Jesus Christ's*^:" the other "lives not unto himself, but unto Him who died for him and rose again '^."
It is here particularly to be noticed, that the Scriptures do not make the distinction to consist in outward acts, but in the inward habit of the mind : the wicked is not necessarily dis- tinguished by open irregularities ; but he makes self the end, and aim, and object of his life ; whilst " the righteous liveth altogether for, and to, his God."]
A similar difference will be found between them, II. In their end —
The wicked follows a mere shadow, which eludes his grasp —
[He seeks for happiness, and hopes to find it in the path which he has marked out for himself. But " he worketh a deceitful work," which invariably disajipoints his hopes. What- ever be the gratification afibrded him, it is transient, and brings no solid satisfaction with it. Whether his pursuit be more sensual, or more refined, it still leaves in the bosom an aching void, which the world can never fill. Solomon tried every thing that was within the reach of mortal man, intellectual as well as sensual ; and, after a I'ull experience of it all, declared it all to be " vanity and vexation of spirit." And, if there be a man in the universe who is able from experience to give any other testimony respecting it, we will be content that that man shall walk in his own ways, and not in the ways of God. But we have no fear that this concession will be productive of any evil ; for there is not a man in the whole world that will presume to avail himself of it, since there is no man whose conscience does not tell him that the creature altogether is a broken
c Rom. viii. 5. ^ Phil. ii. 21. e Rom. xiv. 7, 8.