316 THE POWERS AND CONTESTS OF FLESH AND SPIEIT. sacred work. We forget God to pursue the creature, even in his Own awful presence, and in the midst of our solemn devotions. A curious ear shall wrap up the soul in the melody of the song, till it has lost the divine sense and meaning. A vain and wandering eye roves among the faces, the postures, and the dress of our fellow-wor- shippers, and calls the mind away from . prayer and devout attention. Oh how often does the criminal indul- gence of these sensitive powers carry the soul afar off from God and religion ! How does it break off many a holy meditation in a moment ! What long intervals does it make in our addresses to our Creator, and interline our prayers with folly and sin ! So, when we are employed in any business of the civil life, that is our proper present duty, our senses glance at some other object, and draw the soul away to a quite different work, which is sinful at that season ; though perhaps it might be the duty of the next hour, or the proper business of the morrow, And where is the man that has not reason to complain often of this sort of temptations every day, while his spirit dwells in this house of flesh ? 5. Consider' further, that most of the temptations that we meet with, even when the outward objects are absent, arise from the images of them remaining in the brain ; which is, as it were, the shop, or storehouse, of the memory and the fancy. The impressions which :those objects made on the outward senses, when they were present, are conveyed to the brain, and laid up there, ready to appear at the first call of the mind, when these objects are withdrawn. But they oftentimes also start out unbidden, and a whole scene of wickedness is spread all over the imagination, before the soul is aware ; and sometimes when the soul expressly forbids it too.: Then the corrupt appetites are kindled, and sinful passions awake again. Thus the temptations return, and solicit the spirit tó sin, even when the objects are afar off, and out of reach : For fancy and memory are but the pictures of sense ; it is sight and hearing at second hand. Now if the soul seeks and calls for these tempting " isions to appear, or if it indulges these impure exercises of the imagination ; if it delights itself in these criminal ideas when they happen to arise, and pleases itself with these painted shapes of iniquity, then it too frequently repeats the sin, and renews its own guilt and defilement.
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