2. As a rule whereby to regulate your conduct —
[It is clear, from this passage, what ought to be the con- stant habit of our lives. We should be growing continually in a deadness to the world, and in a superiority to every thing here below. The great concerns of eternity should more and more occupy our minds ; and the whole course of our life should be such as to bear witness to us that we are candidates for heaven. As to this present world, we should consider ourselves as mere pilgrims and sojourners, that have but little interest in any thing around us, and whose chief concern is to pass through it in safety to our destined home.]
Rom. viii. 6. To be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
THE world in general are much mistaken with respect to the means of solid happiness. They seek
200 ROMANS, VIII. 0. [i860.
the vanities of time and sense in hopes of finding satis- faction ; and they shun religion under the idea that it would make them melancholy : but the " way of transgressors is hard3." On the contrary, the ways of religion afford both peace and pleasure b. The testimony of St. Paul respecting this is clear and decisive. His words naturally lead us to consider the difference between the carnal and the spiritual mind,
I. In their operations —
By " the carnal mind " we understand that prin- ciple of our fallen nature which affects and idolizes carnal things. The spiritual mind imports that prin- ciple which leads the soul to spiritual objects, and is implanted by the Holy Spirit in the hearts of the regenerate. The difference between these two prin- ciples is discoverable in our thoughts —
[The thoughts will naturally be fixed on the objects that are best suited to the reigning principle0: to these objects they recur with frequency, fervour, and complacency. If we be under the dominion of a carnal principle, we shall be thinking of some pleasure, profit, honour, or other worldly vanity : if we be led by a spiritual principle, God, and Christ, and the con- cerns of the soul, will occupy the mind.]
The principles will also operate on the affections —
[Whatever we most esteem, we desire it when absent, hope for if it be attainable, love the means of attaining it, and rejoice in it when secured. If there be danger of losing it, we fear ; we hate the means that would deprive us of it ; and if it be lost, we grieve. The carnal mind is thus exercised about carnal objects: the spiritual mind is thus exercised about spiritual objects. Hence that caution given us with respect to the affections'1 — ]
The principles will yet further influence our aims and ends of action —
a Prov. xiii. 15. b Prov. iii. 17.
c Our occupations in life indeed will give a direction to our minds : a carnal mind may from necessity be conversant about spiritual things, and a spiritual mind about carnal things. Particular occasions also may fix the attention much either on spiritual or carnal objects. But we speak of those seasons only, when the mind is free from pressing engagements, and can fix on the things which it most affects.
11 Col. iii. 2.