secrating her whole family, (probably children and servants) to the Lord, for they also were baptized. She also displayed her love to Christ by a generous regard to his ministers; for she constrained them to lodge at her house, saying "If you have judged "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there." Thus did the Lord open the heart of Lydia, and thus he opens the hearts of all his people. "The understanding is opened to receive the divine light, the will opened to receive the divine law, and the affections opened to receive the divine love and when the heart is thus opened to Christ, the ear is opened to his word, the lips are opened in prayer, the hands opened in charity, and the steps enlarged in all manner of Gospel obedience.

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To conclude. Let us be sincerely thankful for the word. To us, even to us, is the word of this salvation sent. hath shewed his word to Britain, his judgments to England. He hath not dealt so with every nation. Praise ye the Lord!-When a scarcity of bread is felt, how severe do we deem the affliction! When plenty is restored, how great do we esteem the benefit! How much greater is the gift of the Gospel! Philippi was highly favoured when Paul and Silas paid it a visit. But we are more highly favoured. We have Peter and Paul, and the Evangelists. We have Christ himself in his written word, together with the assistance of his ministers, to explain it to us. Bless ye the Lord!

But how much is it to be lamented, that the human heart is so generally shut against the word of life! Ah! what enemies to their own souls are such persons! "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Well may we adopt the lamentation of Jeremiah," Here ye, and give ear, be not proud; for the Lord hath spoken. Give glory to the Lord your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and while ve look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness. But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride, and mine eyes shall weep sore, and run down with tears." The obstinacy of sinners in refusing to hear the voice of Christ is extremely affecting to a pious Christian, to a se

rious minister. It was so to the compassionate heart of our blessed Redeemer, for when he drew near to the rebellious city of Jerusalem, and foresaw its approaching desolation, "he wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes." The season of obtaining eternal life is but a day; if this be lost, the day of vengeance will succeed. Let us dread the - thought of rejecting the council of God against ourselves, and so perishing in unbelief; and let us who are now favoured with opportunities of reading and hearing the word, make a good use of them, lest they be finished, before the benefit designed by them is received.

We have been hearing of the grace of God in opening Lydia's heart. But let us not consider this merely as a history. Let each of us say-Has my heart been opened in the same manner? Have I regarded the word of life with a candid, serious, devout, diligent, believing, joyful, and practical attention? If not, surely my negligence of my best interest, and my contempt of the great God who speaketh from heaven, is highly criminal and dangerous. O thou who hast the key of David, who opened, and no man shutteth, exert in me the same efficacious power, and from this moment let my heart be open to thee!

If indeed, your heart has thus received the word, it will work in you effectually, as it does in all who believe; it will produce a happy and holy change in your sentiments, principles, and views, hearts and lives; it will be, as our Lord speaks, like the lump of leaven hid in the meal; it will gradually leaven the whole mass; it will in some measure sanctify all the faculties of the soul, and all the members of the body. O that this holy word may dwell in us richly more and more, that "we may obey from the heart that form (or mould) of doctrine into which we have been delivered!"

SERMON LVI.

THE ENMITY OF THE CARNAL MIND AGAINST GOD.

Romans viii. 7. The carnal mind is enmity against God.

HAT the whole human race is deplorably depraved, Tis a is a general doctrine of the Bible; and, that the mind of man, being thus depraved, is in a state of opposition to God, is the particular doctrine of the text. A doctrine, indeed, not very palatable to men in general, but absolutely necessary to be known, if we would avoid the dreadful consequences of that opposition: for, as the apostle asserts in the verse before the text-" to be carnally minded is death"-everlasting death and destruction: whoever lives and dies under the power of a carnal mind, must eternally perish. Now, our text accounts for this; it shews the justice of this, awful sentence, "because the carnal mind is enmity against God,"-it stands in direct opposition to him, to his perfections, his government, and his whole will; it is not only an enemy to him, but absolute enmity itself; and such is its desperate malignity, its irreconcilable hatred, that it cannot be brought into subjection; the heart itself must be renewed by Almighty grace, before it can be reconciled, or brought over to God.

This is a true, but awful picture of man. How different is it from that picture which man draws of himself! For fallen man is proud, and vain, and very desirous of justifying himself: he cannot, indeed, say that all is right; he is obliged to own that he sometimes does wrong; but he seems to think it rather accidental than natural. He will allow that he has his frailties and failings, yet maintains that he has a good heart, and sincerely endeavours to do his best. Now it is necessary that these mistakes should be corrected; and that we should trace the streams of vice to their fountain-head, which fountain-head you have in the text, "the carnal mind" a mind wholly fleshly and worldly, delighting only in earthly things, and therefore averse to God, and entirely destitute of love to him. This VOL. II.

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is the subject before us; a subject which may be considered as essential to the very basis and ground-work of all true and vital religion. May the Holy Spirit, who alone truly convinceth of sin, and leadeth to repentance, enlighten and impress our hearts, while we shew,

1. That the mind of man is indeed carnal; and

2. That, being carnal, it is in a state of enmity against God.

1. The mind of man is carnal-The mind of every man in a state of nature.

By the word mind-we are to understand all the pow ers of the soul; such as the understanding, the will, and the affections; or as it is expressed by our reformers in the 9th article, “this infection of nature (called in Greek phronema sarkos) which some do expound the wisdom, some the sensuality, some the affection, some the desire, of the flesh, is not subject to the law of God."

The mind of man is here called carnal, that is fleshly, because its desires and delights are fleshly. The apostle, in this chapter, divides all mankind into two classes, ver. 5. "They that are after the flesh, do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit." Our Saviour himself makes the very same distinction, John iii. "that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." The natural man is so intirely a stranger to every thing spiritual, and so completely devoted to the pursuit of worldly and sensual objects, that he is called in Scripture flesh. Man is indeed composed of two parts, flesh and spirit; but because his spirit is dead to God, and he lives only an animal life, he is very justly called flesh. So God said of the whole human race before the flood. "My Spirit shall not always strive with man," namely, by the preaching of Noah, "for that he also is flesh," that is, entirely corrupt and sensual; and this is the state of every man in the world, unless he be born again of the Spirit of God.

The understanding of man, however rational, is carnal; for this description belongs not only to the swinish sensualist, who wallows in the filth of grosser vices; but it is applicable to the most learned and intelligent person in the world, who is destitute of divine teaching. Hence we

read, Coloss. ii. 18, of the zealous Jewish teacher, or acute Gentile philosopher, who is "vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind:" and, indeed, the human mind is never more carnal, than when swelled with self-conceit and proud reasonings opposed to the word of God.

The mind of man is remarkably carnal in its conceptions of the Divine Being, of his worship, and of the way of acceptance with him. Millions of men are, to this day, so grossly carnal, that they change the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things." Yea, there are millions of men, called Christians, who bow down to a crucifix, and to images of the Virgin Mary, and dead saints, and pray to them for deliverance. Even among ourselves, how many act as if God were a being like to themselves, and hypocritically worship him with the body only, when their hearts are far from him! All this is carnal.

How carnal are the ideas of many persons respecting the holy law of God contained in the ten commandments! This law is "spiritual," and requires the love and obedience of the heart: it forbids and condemns the first motions of sin in the thoughts; but many fancy themselves very good, and fulfillers of the law, because they have not committed the acts of murder, adultery, theft, &c. though they have broken the law in the thoughts and wishes of their hearts, thousands and thousands of times.

The carnal mind mistakes the Gospel also, as well as the law. The Gospel signifies good news; good news of the love of God to helpless sinners; good news of the atonement made by the blood of Christ; good news of free pardon, holiness, and eternal life, to be had, gratis, by all who seek them through faith in Christ! But how carnal are the views of many concerning it! Some understand, by the Gospel, nothing but the history of Jesus Christ, his birth, miracles, death, &c. Others think the Gospel only a set of good precepts, given by Jesus Christ, showing us how we may make ourselves good, and save ourselves by so doing. Others, even some very learned men, tell us it is a kind of new law, offering us salvation on easier terms than the old law, namely, on the condi