325 / 652
THE POWERS AND. CONTESTS OF FLESH. AND
SPIRIT.
:115
alone. How often have eyes
and cars been
the unhappy
torches to kindle
either
unlawful love,
or
malice and
re-
venge,
according as a
man
bath been casually
led within
sight
or hearing
of
the
person that
has
allured
him
tó
pleasure, or put
him.
to
pain
?
Pictures and
stories have
many a time become fatal
instruments
of
the same
mis-
chief;
When
we
sit
at
a well-spread-table,
Both
not
our
palate
often
tempt
us
to
improper
food,
and
to
riot
upon
a
beloved dish
?
We
venture
to
taste
of
the
luscious
compound,
even though
we
suspect,
or
are almost
cer-
tain,
it
has
sickness
or
disease
lurking
in
it
;
and
some-
times
:
we
indulge the freedom
of appetite
in
the
most
wholesome provisions,
to a vicious excess
and surfeit,
How
many
a
wretch
is
enticed
to
become a
glutton,
or
a.
drunkard, or to rush
on
to the
pursuit of adultery and
polluted
pleasure,
by
his
passing
through
some
ensnaring
occurrences of
life,
and
having
the
soul
united
to
this
sinful flesh?
The
wanton
eye,
and the greedy
palate
art
tempting
engines,
that
draw
the mind
away to
forbidden
objects.
It
is
upon
this
account
that our
blessed
Lord
gives
advice
in his
excellent sermon
:
"
If
thy right -eye offend
thee, pluck
it out
;;
or,
if
thy
right
-hand
offend thee,
cut
it
off,
and
cast
them both away from thee
;
for
it
is
pro*
fitable for thee
that
one
of
thy
members should perish,
and not
that
thy
whole
body should
be
cast into
hell
;»
Mat.
v.
E9,
30.
And though
our Lord
may
be sup*
posed
here
to
speak metaphorically, and
to
bid us
part
with those beloved sins
that are dear
to us
as an
hand or
an
eye,
yet
he designs to
teach
us
that
the
eye,
and the
hand, and the
fleshly
powers, may
become wretched occa-
sions
of
sin
to
us
;
and
if there
were
no
other
way
to
avoid
the danger, it
is
better
to
bear the
pain
of
parting
with
those mischievous and
offensive
members,
than
yield
to
their
temptations, and rush
on
to guilt and eternal
misery.
I
might here
also
take
notice,
that
the very presence
of
all
sorts
of
corporeal
objects, even
the most
necessary;
and
the
most
innocent,
may become occasions
of
sin,
at
special seasons
;
as
when
we
are engaged
in
any part
of
divine worship, the common and obvious
appearances
round about
us,
the
walls,
the
doors, the windows,
the
furniture of
the
place,
or
the persons present, impress
our
senses
and often
turn
away
the
thoughts
from
the