SER:H. Iv. P.LTSH- JO7D SP/RIT, &C. Ga of the mind, as well as the lust of the flesh, Eph. There is a sinful curiosityof the mind; such was part of the temptation of Eve, a desire to know evil as well as (food ; there is spiritual . malice and envy against God and his saints ; there is a spiritual pride of intellectual endowments, &c. and some of these are found too much in true christians, as well as in unbelievers; yet it must be acknowledged from ; constant observation, that the lusts of the flesh are much more frequent, more numer- ous, and more powerful in the greatest part of men ; and it is manifest that -acts of religion and holiness, and exercises of grace, begin more frequently in the inward inclination of the spirit, distinguished from the flesh, as sin more frequently begins in, and from the flesh itself, either in the outward or inward parts and powers of it. Surely if our souls were sanctified by divine grace, but so much as many are in this world, and had no flesh about them, they would not sin so much as they do. When we are engaged in the exercise of grace, or per- formance of spiritual duties, such as meditation, prayer, delighting in God, rejoicing in Christ Jesus, we should not be so soon weary of it, nor so immediately called away from it by the mere vanity or wandering of our minds, if we had no fleshly objects about us, no out- ward senses, no inward treasures of fancy, no appetites of the body to start up and mingle with our religion, to clog us in our sacred work, to make us growweary un- der it, and draw us from it. How often must a saint say, " My soul is sincerely set against every sin, and I fear to offend him whom my soul loveth; with my mind I serve the law of God, and I watch against every rising iniquity: But my outward senses, or the inward fer- ments of fleshly appetite" or passion, surprize me before: I am aware and defile my soul. Sometimes my spirit wrestles bird with flesh and blood ; I summon all the powers of reason and scripture, conscience and christi- anity; I make a firm stand for a season, and maintain a brave and painful resistance ; but the restless and perpe- tual assaults of fancy or passion, at last overpower the, . feeble spirit, and I sinfully submit and yield to the fret- ful or the luxurious humours of the body; and thus the brutal powers overcome the mind, and I am led away, captive to sin, If I had not an eye, I had not been.
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