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3ERM.
YV.7
FLESH
AND
SPIRIT,
&C.
73
in
which
we
inhabit:
we
drag our
chains
about
with
us;
we
are
tied down to
our
senses
;
we
are
too nearly allied
to
the passions
and appetites
of
this
animal
in which the
soul
dwells,
and these the
soul
cannot master and
Sub-
due entirely:
however,
let
us
wrestle
with
flesh
and
blood,
as well
as
with
the tempting
world,
and the
malice
of
Satan
;
let
us
bestir
ourselves,
and
fight
the
good
fight
of
faith, for the crown
is worth the
labour of
the conquest..
Yet
there
is.
another
difficulty
attends
this
part of
our
spiritual
warfare,
viz.
This
is
a
"combat to which the
Captain
of
our Salvation did
not
lead
us
on in
person,
and
in
which
Christ never went before
us.
It
is
a
labour of
piety
in which
our
blessed
Saviour
was
not our
pattern;
nor
could he
be,
for he had
no
principle
of
sin
in
his
soul,
nor
any sinful motion
in
all
his
sensitive powers.
His
flesh itself,
in a
literal
sense, was
born
of
the spirit,
and
he
was
all
spirit,
all holy.
The
Holy
Ghost
over-
shadowed the blessed virgin
;
and
that
holy
thing that
was
born
of
Mary, was sanctified
in its
original,
and
united
to
the
eternal
Son
of
God, Luke
i.
35.
Never
had
he
one
disorderly passion; never
one vicious
appe-
tite,
no
criminal
wish,
no guilty
inclination
;
he knew
no excessive
tendencies towards
a lawful object,
nor
did
he
feel
any inward
propensity toward
an unlawful one.
He
tools
part
of
flesh
and blood,
indeed, because the
children
were
partakers
of
it:
In
all
things
he was made
like to
his
brethren, but without
sin,
and tempted
in all
points,
as
we
are,
except
this inward and native
tempta-
tion;
Heb.
ii. 14,
17.
and
iv. 15.
This
part of our
war-
fare,
therefore,
we
have no
perfect
pattern
tor;
the
leader
of
the holy army
never went through these special
and
sore
conflicts,
in which
our
spirits are daily engaged,
even the war with
corrupt nature
and
sinful
flesh
:
yet
he pities
and sympathizes
with
us;
for, as
God,
he
knows
our
whole frame
perfectly; and
he
knows, as
man, what
our
flesh
is,
and
what
its sinful
appetites are,
so
far
as his holy
nature
will
admit of
this sympathy.
In
such a
case as this, which he
never experienced,
yet
he
supplies
us
with such
grace
as
is
effectually suited to
re-
lieve
these
agonies; and
the
kind angel
of
the
covenant
will be
at our right
hand, to
strengthen
the sincere corn-
bátants,
that
they
be
not
overcome.