31O TUE POWERS AND CONTESTS AP BLESH AND SPIRIT. swered ; and that is drawn from the words of our. Sa- Viour ; Mark vii. 21, 23. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornica- tions, murders, &c. All these evil things . come from withini and defile the man. Now some person may say, it is evident, that by the heart he did not mcan that in- ward bowel so called, but the soul itself; because, ac- cording to the vulgar philosophy, andcommon sentiments of the Jews, the soul of man had its chief residence in the heart ; and upon this account they attributed to the heart the several affections and inward operations of the soul, whether they were sinful or holy; and in this sense our Saviour may be supposed to attribute to the soul, OF spirit in man, all thesewickednesses. Butit is easy to solve this difficulty two ways. 1. That neither the philosophy of the Jews, nor the common language which our Saviour used, did make any nice distinction in those principles of human actions, what share the spirit had in them and what the flesh ; but they used the word heart, for all those inward powers of the man whence outward actions proceeded ; and this because the springs and motions of the blood and life, ás well as the ferments of several passions, were found there : So that our Saviour, using the common language of the people, does by no means exclude the inward ferments of the flesh from their share in these sinful actions; but rather includes them in the word heart. '2. If we could suppose the word heart in this place to signify merely the soul or spirit, yet it would by no means exclude the inward ferments of the flesh from being the first springs and occasions of many of these sinful prac- tices ; for they do not become sins till the soul has con- sented to them; nor can they break forth into outward acts without the command, or, at least, the sinful com-, pliance of the soul. Thus all those actions that may justly be called evil and wicked, such as Christ here mentions, proceed from the soul, so far as they are truly and properly sinful ; and yet the first secret occasions and incentives of many of them may spring very much from the powers of the flesh. Now as I have made it to appear in some good mea- sure, that the springs and principles of sin lie very much in our fleshly natures, from the frequent expressions of
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