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FLESH
AND
SPIRIT,
BIC:
CSERM.
IV.
drawn-
away to
the
còmmission
of
this folly;
if Thad not
an
ear,
I
had
not
been tempted
from
God
at
such
a sea-
son;
if
I
had
not
such
appetite or
senses in
exercise,
I
had been secured
from-many
a
snare;
if I
did
notwear
this
flesh
about
me, which
is
so
fond and
tender
of
it-
self,
and
so
impetuous and active in.tlie
pursuit
of
its
ease
and satisfaction,
I
had
not shrunk
away
at
such
a
time from
a
dangerous duty
;
I
had
not
been
so
fearful
and cowardly
at
such
a
place
in
the profession
of
my
faith,
nor
so
often
polluted
my
soul with sensualities,
and
made
work
for
bitter repentance.
'
Thus
the experience
of
Christians,
and
the
language
of
scripture concur
in
this
point,
That
the occasions
of
sin
evidently
lie
most.
in
the
flesh
:
and
a contradiction
or opposition
to
sin,
proceeds
more
from
the spirit.
It
is
true indeed,
and must
be
confessed,
that
the soul
being
but
in
part
sanctified,
too often
complies with
these motions
of
sin
which work
in
our members;
and
the
affections,
of
the soul itself,' being
not
perfectly
holy,
are
too easily induced
to
indulge the
desires and
pas-
sions
of
the
flesh
;
and
thereby
sin
is
committed,
and
guilt contracted. The
law,
or principle
of
sin
in
the
members, leads the mind, too often, captive
;
Rom. vii.
23:
Thus
the
soul
is
very
culpable
for want
of perpe-
tual
resistance, and
becomes guilty
before God,
by
every
such
inordinate
passion
breaking forth, and
by
the
satis
faction
of
every such sinful
raging
appetite
:
yet
I
must
believe
that
the soul
of
a
Christian
would
not
be
guilty
half
so
often,
if
the lusts
of
the body were
not
more ac-
tive
than
the mere
abstracted
lusts
of
the mind are.
The
spirit
lusteth
against, the
flesh,
and
the
flesh
against the
spirit, Gal.
v:
17.
That part
which
is
chiefly
sanctified,
and
that
which
is
chiefly
unsanctified, strike
against each
other;
and
it
is
true
rn
a literal
sense, as well as
a
figurative
one,
that
a saint
with his
mind serves the law
of
God,
but
too often with his
flesh
the
law
of
sin.
Thus
I
have given the
chief reasons
why
the
principles
of
sin
are represented
in
scripture
by
flesh,
and the
springs
of
holiness
by
spirit.
[This sermon
may b
divided
here.]
From
this
consideration
of
flesh
'and
spirit,
of
holi-
ness
and
sin,
which
are set forth
in
the word
of
God,.-
aad thus explained
in the
most free
and
intelligible me
--