340 THE POWERS AND CONTESTS. OF FLESH AND SPIRIT. v. Deny the flesh sometimes in its lawful appetites, to teach it subjection, and let it learn to be governed, by., being sometimes restrained and disappointed in its.inno- cent desires, that it may with more ease be withheld when unlawful objects appear. The holy apostle seems to have this in his eye, when he tells the Corinthians, "that ,he that striveth for the mastery must be temperate. in all things :" And he assures them, that " he keeps his. own body under, and brings it into subjection.;" 1 Cor. ix. ßr25, 27.. And in the last.verse of the eighth chapter, " he will eat no fleshwhile. the world stands rather than. make his brother offend." Surely then he would use the: same self-denial, rather than bein danger ofgiving him self leave to offend. 4, Keep the body in such temper and circumstances as. may render it fittest for the present duty. If excess, qf faintness and feeble. spirits make it unfit for service,, refresh it with the proper comforts of life.. If through: excess of vigor and a florid state of the blood, it' grow unfit for any duties of religion, or lead the mind astray to dangerous vanities and allurements, it may sometimes be kept under. diligence in labour, by sparing diet,. and diminished hours of sleep. " When Jeshurun waxed fat, he kicked ;" Deut. xxxii. 15. And the danger of 'Sodom. was plenty and luxury, which the scripture de- scribes by " fulness of bread," joined with " abundance of idleness,;" EÑek. xvi. 49. And it is upon this account, that you find fasting joined with prayer, in the New Testament as well as in the Old; and perhaps the word watching, which is coupled there- with, may in some places be supposed to include its li- teral sense also.: for abstinence from full measures of food and sleep may give occasional assistance to the.soul in devout exercises; and where experience finds that a full indulgence either .of sleep or food unfits the Jody, or clogs the .soul in any duties of religion, there those ap- , petites of the flesh are certainly to be restrained. I might add, in the, last place, that if any sharp dis- eases of the body, or disordered humours; awaken the sinful ferments of any passion or appetite, in a more than ordinary manner, seek relief from the physician, to restore the flesh to its best state of service to the soul; that it .may,be delivered, through the divine blessing,
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