They had a "life hid with Christ in God;" they were happy in their spirits, for "the spirit of glory and of God rested on them.'

Thus were the apostles "judged according to men in the flesh," when they were beaten before the Sanhedrim, and commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus; and thus did they "live according to God in the spirit," when "they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were worthy to suffer shame for his name."1 Thus were Paul and Silas "judged according to men in the flesh," when, by order of the magistrates of Philippi, they were beaten, and, "after many stripes had been laid on them, thrust into the inner prison, and had their feet made fast in the stocks;" and thus did they "live according to God in the spirit," when, “at midnight, they prayed and sang praises to God," with a voice so loud and clear that "the prisoners heard them."

And it is so still. Whenever the gospel believed transforms the character, the individual becomes an object of dislike to worldly men ; he is "judged according to men in the flesh;" and the manner in which that dislike is manifested depends on circumstances; it may be in silent contempt, in malignant misrepresentation, in spoiling of goods, in persecution to the death; and just as certainly does he "live to God in the spirit," obtaining "a peace" in God “which passeth all understanding," which, as the world could not give, it cannot take away; a new life so superior to all that he formerly experienced, that, when he looks back to the time that is past, it appears to him as he had been "dead while he lived."

Materially the same sense may be brought out of the words, giving to "that" its more common sense, "to the end that" by interpreting the passage on the same principle as you must interpret the words, “God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin; but ye have obeyed from the heart the form of doctrine delivered to you;"2 that is, God be thanked, that, though you were the servants of sin, ye have obeyed from the heart the form of doctrine delivered to you. So here, "For this cause, that they may give over living to the lusts of men, and begin to live to the will of God, was the gospel preached to the spiritually dead; that they, believing the gospel and yielding to its influence, though persecuted as to their external circumstances by men, may enjoy true spiritual happiness in God."

The only interpretation that can come into competition with this, is that which considers both clauses as referring to the direct and intended effect of the preaching of the gospel; understanding by being "judged in the flesh," the being condemned and punished in reference to that which is depraved in our nature, "the flesh;" having the body of sin destroyed, the being made to deny self; "mortifying our members on the earth," taking up the cross; all which, "according to men," in the estimation of men, unregenerate men, is no better than death; and understanding by "living in the spirit according to God," such an exercise of all their faculties, under the influence of their renewed nature, as in God's estimation deserves the name of life; as if he had said, 'the gospel was preached to the dead in trespasses and sins, that they might become dead to sin, and alive to God, dead in

1 Acts v. 40, 41; xvi. 22-25.

2 Rom. vi. 17.

the sense in which they were alive; alive in the sense in which they were dead; which is just equivalent to, "that they may no longer live to the lusts of men, but to the will of God." This is Archbishop Leighton's view of the passage, so far as I can understand it; but Ï do not see how this sense can be brought out of the words without doing violence to them.

The force of the motive may be thus briefly expressed: Ye ought to live the rest of the time in the flesh to the will of God, not to the lusts of men, for that was the grand design of the gospel when preached to you "dead in trespasses and sins;" and though by believing the gospel, and yielding yourselves up to its sanctifying influence, you will certainly expose yourselves to the condemnation and persecution of an ungodly world (which, however, can only affect your external condition), you will find far more than a compensation for this in the life, the happiness, which in your spirits you will obtain from God.'

In the very important, but, as we have found, somewhat difficult, paragraph commencing with the eighteenth verse of the preceding chapter, and ending with the sixth verse of this, the great leading features of the Divine method of transforming depraved human nature are strikingly delineated. Man has gone astray from God, and is living, not to his will but to his own lusts. He has thus incurred the righteous displeasure of God, and brought on himself the dreadful curse of his holy law. That curse rivets, as it were, the chains of his depravity. He is lost, beyond the power of created wisdom and agency to rescue him. But what man, what angels could not do, God has done. The obedience unto the death of the incarnate Son, the divinely-appointed Saviour, the just One, in the room of the unjust, gives full satisfaction to the violated law, and is the propitiation for our sins; securing for Him all the power and authority necessary to gain the ultimate ends of his sacrifice. This well-attested record of this mystery of wisdom, righteousness, and love, is the gospel of our salvation, which, attended by the Spirit, finds its way into the understanding, and conscience, and affections of men, transforming them by the renewing of their mind, and leading them to live henceforth no more to the lusts of men, but to the will of God; while, at the same time, the sinner, justified and renewed by the grace of God, has presented to him motives the most powerful and persuasive to induce him to abstain from every kind of evil, and to cultivate holiness in all manner of conversation; and, amid all the sufferings to which he may be exposed from an evil world, is sustained by the energies of that spiritual life in God, the exhaustless source of peace and joy, which they enjoy by their union to him who died for them in weakness, but lives forever by the power of God.

It deeply concerns us all, seriously to inquire whether we, through the atoning death and restored life of our Lord, have become dead to the world and to sin, alive to God and holiness; whether, under the influence of the truth on these subjects, we are living, not as we once did, to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. This is the appropriate evidence, this is the only satisfactory evidence, that the

gospel of salvation has come to us not in word only, but in power; that the end for which the gospel is preached to the dead has been gained in us.

Let Christians seek clearer views, more settled convictions, respecting the death of Christ as the great atoning sacrifice, and their own interest in it as not only the price of their pardon, but the means of their sanctification; and let them open their minds and hearts to all those powerful motives, from such a variety of sources, which urge them to live devoted to Him, who died devoted for them; to glorify Him whom they have so long dishonored; to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly, in the world; constantly seeking more and more disconformity to this world, by being more thoroughly "transformed by the renewing of their minds, and proving the good, and perfect, and acceptable will of God." And let those who are still running the mad career of thoughtlessness and sin, living not to the will of God, but to the lusts of men, consider, ere it be too late, what must be the end of these things. Men and brethren, allow me to expostulate with you. You "must give account to Him who is ready to judge the quick and the dead." And that account must be given in not with joy but with grief. That judgment must be condemnation. Indeed, you are condemned already, and you know it, however you may try to strangle the conviction. God, in his word, condemns you, and your consciences condemn you also. Where is the man who dare say, it is right, it is wise, it is safe, to live to the lusts of men, so foolish, so shameful, so ruinous; and not to the will of God, so wise, so benignant, so reasonable, so advantageous; to make human inclination, rather than Divine law, the rule of conduct? What has the time past of your life been, but a blank or a blot, guilty inutility or noxious guilt, inglorious inaction or base activity? and how many years have been thus wasted? In many cases, I am afraid, by far the greater part even of a long life.

Surely "the time that is passed may suffice." Enough, more than enough, of such madness. Dishonor has received sufficient measure. Close the term of infamy. It is time for fairer days to begin their course. Oh! relinquish those foolish and deceitful lusts, to which you have been so long enslaved, and come to Christ, who will bring you to God, that you may know him and love him, and serve him and enjoy him. In him there is spirit and life; dead though you be, he will enable you to live this heavenly life which the apostle enjoins ; this life to the will of God, his God and your God, his Father and your Father.

Delay no longer this happy exchange of the slavery of sin for the glorious liberty of the sons of God. Put it off till to-morrow, and it may become impossible. The seal of eternity, ere to-morrow, may be put on thy thraldom. Thinkest thou that it is irksome to do the will of God? Think that it will be found more than irksome to suffer his wrath forever. But it is not irksome. Ah! thou knowest not how sweet they find his service who have tried it, and who, with one voice cry," "O taste and see that the Lord is good; his yoke is easy, his burden is light."

Think not to say within thyself, I will abandon the service of the lusts of men by and by; I will live to the will of God; though not now, yet afterwards. Ah! who can make thee sure of the will or of the afterwards? And if afterwards, why not now? Hast thou not served sin long enough? May not the time past suffice? Is it not more than enough? He who does not live to God, is "dead while he livth." He who lives to sin, lives in a dark dungeon, laden with fetters; he who lives to God, dwells in light, walks at liberty. The uncertain wildfires of worldly pleasures, which but light those who follow them to their doom, will soon be extinguished in the blackness of darkness forever. But he that followeth Christ, in living to the will of God, "shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." His path shall be like that of the shining light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day."

NOTE A. p. 556.

Amyraut, in his paraphrase, gives the sense very clearly:-" Mais encore nous devons armer de cette bonne pensée contre toutes sortes de tentations au mal,' que celui qui a souffert en cette nature humaine, n'a desormais plus de commerce avec le peché.' And Gerhard,—“”Orɩ rectius accipitur expositive, exponit enim Apostolus illam cogitationem Évvoíav qua nos vult armari: hæc cogitatio erit vobis instar firmissimi scuti et munimenti contra peccatum." Erasmus Schmid's version is,—“Eadem cogitatione armamini, nempe, quod qui passus est carne destitit a peccato." Beza's version is of the same purport.

NOTE B. p. 570.

I am aware that the words rendered "hath ceased from sin," have been translated "has caused sin to cease;" bringing out this sense-Christ, by suffering in the flesh, has caused sin to cease; has finished transgression, made an end of sin, brought in an everlasting righteousness.' This is a truth, and a truth suggested, as we have seen, by the words; but to make them directly express this, requires very great violence to be done to the original language. The words have also been rendered "has ceased from sin-offering" bringing out the idea, that his one perfect offering has rendered unnecessary any farther sacrifice for sin. This is true, too, and, like the other, substantially implied in the statement; but it is to give an unusual meaning to the word "sin," and it is to give the same word two distinct meanings in the same sentence; for certainly “sin,” in the first clause of the first verse, does not mean "sin-offering."

NOTE C. p. 586.

Propter hoc enim et mortuis, evangelicatus est,-nobis, qui quondam videlicit extabamus infideles."-CLEM. ALEX. Adumbrat. ad. 1 Ep. Pet. Edit. Pott. Tom. ii. p. 1007.Apud Beausobre.

Simplicissime per 'mortuos' quibus Evangelium prædicatum esse Apostolus asserit, intelliguntur spiritualiter, in peccatis, mortui."—GERHARD. "Fieri potest, ut mortuos dixerit infideles h. e. in anima mortuos. No cogit apud inferos intelligi."—AUGUST. Ep. xcix. ad Euodium. "De mortuis dicit Apostolus quod judicentur carne. Jam vero uaturaliter mortui non habent carncm; ergo intelligitur de homnibus in terra viventibus.”LUTHER. According to Maimonides (More Nevochim), it was a proverb among the Jews: Impii etiam viventes vocantur mortui."

1 Leighton.

DISCOURSE XVIII

SOBRIETY AND WATCHING UNTO PRAYER ILLUSTRATED AND ENFORCED.

1 PET. iv. 7.—But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.

In the preceding part of this chapter, the apostle presents those to whom he wrote with a general view of christian duty, as "living not to the lusts of men, but to the will of God;" points out to them the only and effectual means of realizing this view of christian duty in their own experience—the keeping constantly before their minds the great characteristic truth of the gospel, that the perfect and accepted atonement made by Christ, has secured for himself, and for all interested in him, rest from sin; and unfolds to them the powerful motives rising out of the statement he had made of the leading principles of evangelical truth, which urge them to follow the course prescribed to them. In the subsequent context, he proceeds to enjoin the cultivation of a variety of particular christian dispositions, and the performance of a variety of particular christian duties, which the circumstances in which they were placed peculiarly required. Two of these injunctions, with the special ground on which they stand, lie before us in the verse which we have read as the text of the following discourse.

The subject which these words bring before the mind may be treated in two different ways. We may either illustrate, first, the statement on which the apostle founds his injunctions, “The end of all things is at hand;" and then the injunction built on this statement, "Be sober, and watch unto prayer;" or we may reverse the order, and consider, first, the duties which the apostle enjoins, and then the motive by which he urges to their performance. It does not matter much which of these two plans we adopt; but, as a choice must be made, we, upon the whole, prefer the latter.

I-THE DUTIES ENJOINED BY THE APOSTLE.

Let us then proceed to consider the duties which the apostle enjoins. They are-sobriety, and watching unto prayer. Be sober,

and watch unto prayer.”

§ 1.-Sobriety.

The first duty enjoined is sobriety-" Be sober." In the common usage of the English language, the word sobriety is almost exclusively