The principle which rules in us under the former state, is called " flesh ;" and that which animates us under the latter, is called " Spirit." Not that on the transition from the one state to the other, the former principle is taken away : No ; it lives, and acts, and withstands with all its might the latter principle, and prevents it from operating so successfully as we could wish : but still it is progressively weakened in its operations : and by the dominance of the better prin- ciple we know that we are no longer under the law, nor exposed to the curse which the legal covenant entails on all who are cleaving to it.
Thus we have somewhat of a criterion whereby to judge of our state : but still that criterion is of no farther use than as we have a distinct view of the fruits which the two opposite principles will produce : let. these be clearly marked, and then no further difficulty will arise : we have only to examine our works, of what kind they are ; and then we shall arrive at a certain conclusion as to our state before God : for, as " a good tree cannot bring forth corrupt fruit, nor a corrupt tree good fruit," we shall know the quality of the tree by the fruit which is produced by it.
This satisfaction then is afforded us by the Apostle in the words before us : in which we see,
I. The works of the flesh —
In enumerating them, the Apostle mentions,
1. Those which stand in more immediate con- nexion with the body —
[" Adultery " is an evil against which even heathens in all ages have felt the deepest indignation. " Fornication " was not regarded by them in so heinous a light: would to God the malignity of it were duly appreciated even by the Christian world ! But God views these evils with the utmost abhorrence ; and not the acts only, but the dispositions from which they spring : " Uncleanness and lasciviousness," if cherished in the heart, are marked by him with the same dis- pleasure as the acts to which they lead ; because the indulging of them, in word, in look, in thought, indisputably proves, that it is not the fear of God that keeps them from breaking out into more open acts, but some other consideration totally