conveyed to us all, even from our first parents. Sinful Adam begat his sons _in his own likeness_; Gen. v. 3. and therefore sin is described by flesh, because it came from the father of our flesh. III. Another reason why sin is called flesh, is because the chief springs of sin lie most in our fleshly natures; all the while we continue here in this world, the occasions of sin lie much in our body, in our blood, in our natural constitution, in this mortal frame and contexture; fancy and passion, in all their wild irregularities, are much influenced by the flesh and blood. Our bodily senses, our natural appetites, are continually tempting us away from our duty, and leading or enticing us to the commission of sin; or, at least, immediately falling in with temptation: insomuch that _sin_ is said _to work in our members_; Rom. vii. 5. _to reign in our mortal body_; vi. 12. Sinful actions are called _the deeds of the body_; viii. 13. Our sins are called our members, Col. iii. 5. _Mortify by the spirit the deeds of the body_, saith the apostle in one place; _mortify your members which are upon the earth_, saith he in the other place; in both which he means the mortification of sin. He borrows words from the human body to describe sin. Here let it be noted, that we do not suppose that mere flesh and blood, distinct from the soul, are capable of sin, properly speaking, or can become guilty in a proper sense; for these are but mere matter, and, separate from the mind, cannot be under a moral law, any more than brute creatures: Therefore we say, sin is not formally in the body of man, but it is occasionally there; because the senses and appetites, the parts and powers of the body become very often an unhappy occasion of sin to the soul; and upon this account the apostle often describes sin by the word flesh. I proceed now to the second thing proposed, and that is, to shew the grounds of this metaphorical use of the word spirit: And there are the same sorts of reasons to be given why this word is used to represent the principles of holiness, as there are why flesh should signify the principles of sin.