e walls of flesh are taken down, he will
carry forth the soul into that glorious liberty of the sons of God, and
not long after he shall quicken our very dust, and raise it up in glory to
the fellowship of that happiness. Now, my beloved, consider what all this
tends to,--mark the inference you should make from it. "Therefore we are
debtors," debtors indeed, under infinite obligations for infinite mercies.
But what is the debt we owe? Truly it might be conceived to be some rare
thing, equivalent to such unconceivable benefits. But mark what it is, "To
live after the Spirit, and not after the flesh," to conform our affections
and actions, and the tenor of our way and course to the direction of the
Spirit, to have our spirits led and enlightened by the Holy Spirit, and
not to follow the indictment of our flesh and carnal minds. Now, truly, it
is a wonder that it is no other thing than this, for this is no other
thing than what we owe to ourselves, and to our own natures, so to speak,
for truly there is a conformity and suitableness of some things to the
very nature of man that is beautiful,--some things are decent and becomes
it, other things are undecent and uncomely, unsuitable to the very
reasonable being of man, so that they put a stain and blot upon it.

Now, indeed, there is nothing can be conceived more agreeable to the very
constitution of man's nature than this, that the far better and more
excellent part should lead and command, and the baser and earthly part
should obey and follow. That the flesh should minister and serve the
spirit, "doth not even nature itself teach it?" And yet no heavier yoke is
put upon us than what our own nature hath put upon us already, which
indeed is wonderful! And certainly this wonderful attempering of his laws
unto the very natural exigence of the spirit of man, makes the
transgression of them so much the more heinous.

Now, all these three forementioned bonds do jointly bind on this law upon
man. In general they oblige strongly to subjection and obedience to the
will of God, but particularly, they have a constraining influence upon
this living "after the Spirit," and not "after the flesh." Our very
creation speaks this forth, when God made man after his own image, when he
beautified the spirit of man with that divine similitude and likeness, in
that he breathed a spirit from heaven, and took a body out of the dust,
and then exalted that heavenly piece to some participation of his o