I. Because fleshly or sensible objects, are the chief delight and aim of sinners. They pursue them, and they rejoice in them; and these lead away the soul from God to sin. It is the great business of sinners to _fulfil the lusts of the flesh, and make provision for it_. This is their character in St. Paul’s writings; to gratify the appetites of the body, to provide for the desires of their animal natures, eating and drinking, and luxury, and lusts of the flesh, are the cares of most unregenerate men. _The lust of the eye_, and the gaities of life, gold and silver, pomp and equipage, a fine house, a gay appearance in the world, gaudy cloathing and glittering ornaments of the body, great splendor in the eyes of men; these are the idols, the gods of sinners; and they are the temptations of the saints too. The things that relate to the flesh, and the enjoyments of this sensible and present life, are the objects of sinful appetites, or of lawful appetite in a sinful degree; and therefore sin is called flesh. II. Sin is also called flesh, because it is communicated and propagated to us by the parents of our flesh. It is by our flesh that we are a-kin to Adam, the first great sinner, and derive a corrupted nature from him; from this original taint we derive iniquity, as a polluted stream from an unclean fountain; he is the father of a sinful posterity. Our spirits indeed are formed immediately by God, and being united to these bodies that come from Adam by the laws of creation, we become the children of Adam, and so are partakers of his sinful nature. How this is done, we may learn from other discourses: it is enough here to say, that irregular humours, and motions, and ferments are transferred and propagated from the first man, even from the same blood of which are formed all the nations of men that dwell upon the face of the earth; Acts xvii. 26. These are transmitted down to us the wretched posterity. In some instances this is so evident, that all men see and believe it. How often does the haughty, the peevish, or the choleric temper of the parent appear in the son or the daughter beyond all contradiction? And often, when we see a drunken or a wanton sinner, we cry, “He is the express copy of his father, he borrows his vices as well as his features, and seems to be his perfect image.” And though it is not so evident in all men, that they borrow the seeds of iniquity from their predecessors, yet there is proof enough from the word of God, that we are _conceived in sin, and shapen in iniquity_ that _man who is born of a woman_ is neither clean nor righteous. _Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?_ It is impossible; for _that which is born of the flesh is flesh_; Psalm li. 5. Job xv. 14. John iii. 6. Irregular tendencies towards lawful delights, and strong propensities towards unlawful ones, a neglect of God, and aversion to all that is holy or heavenly, with an inclination towards fleshly and sinful objects, are