248 / 514
240
APPEARANCE
BEFORE
COD DERM.
X777,
him
in
secret, and
are perpetually'
with him
in
our
thoughts
;
that
we
take
all
proper
opportunities
to
lift
up our
souls
to
him in the midst
of
common
affairs,
and
thus
do
what
we
can to make up the
loss
of
the sanc-
tuary
:
But
we
should
be
still
breathing
also
after
church-
worship, and the
communion
of
saints;
for God
loveth
the gates
of
Zion
More
than
all the
dwellings
of
Jacob,
Ps.
lxxxvii.
2.
III.
Remark. O what unhappy
clogs
these
fleshly
sinful
bodies
are
to
the
mind.! How
they
contradict the
best
inclinations,
of
the
soul,
and
forbid
it
to fulfil
its
spiritual
desires
!
The
soul would
appear
often, before
God, but
the
flesh
forbids: The spirit
would
rejoice to
be
among christian
assemblies,
but the
body
is
too often
confined
by
sickness,
or
by
the necessary cares
that re-
late
to
this
life,
this
poor
animal
life,
that
has
so
trou
-,
blesome an influence
upon
the
noblest
enjoyments
of
the
mind.
The
soul would
wait upon
God
whole
hours together
in
praising,
in .praying, in
hearing the
word
;,
but
the
body
is
weak,
Overwhelmed
with a little attention,
and
can
bear
no
more. The
soul
wrestles
and
strives
against
the
infirmities
of
the
flesh,
and
tabours hard
to
abide
with
God
;
but
these very wrestlings
and
strivings
over-
come languishing
nature
;
the impotence
of
the
flesh
prevails against the sprightliest
efforts
and
vigour
of
the
mind
;
the
flesh
prevails, and
the
spirit must
yield.
Thus
we
are
dragged down
from
the
holy
mount
of
converse.
with God, and the
soul, who
is
a-kin to
angels,
and
em
-,
ployed
in
their
work,
must
descend, and
lie
idle,
to
re-
fresh the animal.
In
vain would
the spirit raise
all its
powers
into
lively
and devout
exercise,
if
the
flesh
grows
faint
under
a
warm affection,
it
is
forced to
let
go
the
-holy
thought, and
quit
the divine pleasures
of
religion,
until
a
better hour return.
Sometimes, through
drowsiness,
and want of natural
spirits,
we
grow
stupid and
heavy
in
religious
duties,;
and
have
but little
sense
of that God
before whom
we,
appear.
Sometimes,
through
excess
of
spirits,
our
ima
-,
gination
grows.
vain
and fluttering,
and
wanders far
away
from the
God
whom
we
worship.
If
we
fix
our
thoughts
one minute opon
things
of
the highest importance and
the
-most
awful
solen
pity;
the next
flying
idea catches
tI