Rom. viii. 13. If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die : but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
IT is of infinite importance to know our state as it is before God, and to ascertain on scriptural grounds, what our condition will be in the eternal world. Numberless are the passages of God's word which will afford us the desired information ; but there is not in the whole inspired volume one declaration more explicit than that before us. It presents to our view two momentous truths, which, as they admit not of any clearer division or arrangement, we shall con- sider in their order.
I. A carnal life will terminate in everlasting misery — To "live after the flesh" is to make the gratifying of our corrupt nature the great scope and end of our lives —
[The " flesh " does not relate merely to the body, but to the whole of our corrupt nature. It is used to signify that innate principle of sin, which governs the unregenerate, and continually fights against the spiritual principle in those that are regenerate a. And its fruits comprehend the actings of the mind, no less than those of the bodyb. To " live after" this corrupt principle, is, to be governed by it in all our deli- berations and pursuits. It signifies nothing what may be the immediate path which we choose for ourselves, provided our main object be to gratify ourselves. One may seek pleasure, another riches, another honour, another the knowledge of arts and sciences ; but if they have no higher end of life than to attain these things, they all equally live after the flesh c.]
The consequence of such a life will be eternal death —
[The death mentioned in the text cannot relate to the mere death of the body, because that must be experienced by the spiritual, no less than by the carnal man. It must import that death of the soul, which is emphatically called the second
a John hi. 6. Gal. v. 17. b Gal. v. 19, 20.
c Compare ver. 5. with Phil. iii. 19.