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THE POWERS AND CONTESTS
OF
FLESH
AND
SPIEIT.
sacred
work.
We forget
God
to
pursue
the
creature,
even
in his
Own
awful
presence,
and
in
the midst
of
our
solemn
devotions.
A
curious
ear
shall
wrap
up
the
soul
in the melody
of
the
song, till
it
has lost the divine sense
and
meaning. A vain and wandering
eye
roves among
the
faces,
the postures, and the dress of
our
fellow
-wor-
shippers, and
calls
the mind
away from
.
prayer and
devout
attention.
Oh
how
often does the criminal
indul-
gence
of
these sensitive powers
carry the
soul
afar
off
from
God
and
religion
!
How does it break off many
a
holy
meditation
in
a
moment
!
What
long
intervals
does
it
make
in
our addresses to our
Creator,
and interline our
prayers
with
folly
and
sin
!
So,
when
we
are
employed
in
any
business
of
the
civil
life,
that
is
our
proper
present
duty,
our
senses
glance
at
some
other
object,
and
draw
the
soul
away to
a quite
different
work, which
is
sinful
at
that
season
;
though perhaps it might
be
the duty of
the
next
hour, or the proper
business
of
the morrow, And
where
is the
man
that
has
not reason
to
complain often
of
this
sort
of
temptations
every day, while his
spirit
dwells
in this
house
of
flesh
?
5.
Consider' further, that
most
of
the
temptations
that
we
meet
with, even when the
outward objects are absent,
arise
from the
images
of
them
remaining
in
the
brain
;
which
is,
as
it
were,
the shop, or storehouse,
of
the
memory and
the fancy.
The impressions
which
:those
objects made
on
the outward
senses, when
they
were
present, are
conveyed to the brain,
and
laid
up
there,
ready
to
appear
at
the
first
call
of
the mind, when these
objects are withdrawn. But they oftentimes also
start
out unbidden,
and
a whole scene
of
wickedness
is
spread
all
over the imagination, before the
soul
is
aware
;
and
sometimes
when
the soul expressly forbids it too.:
Then
the
corrupt
appetites are
kindled,
and
sinful passions
awake again.
Thus the temptations
return,
and solicit
the spirit
tó sin, even
when the objects
are
afar
off,
and
out of
reach
:
For
fancy and memory are
but
the
pictures
of
sense
;
it
is
sight and
hearing
at
second hand. Now
if
the soul seeks
and calls for these tempting
"
isions to
appear,
or
if
it indulges these impure
exercises
of
the
imagination
;
if
it delights itself
in
these criminal ideas
when they happen
to
arise,
and
pleases
itself
with these
painted shapes
of
iniquity, then
it
too
frequently repeats
the
sin,
and
renews its
own
guilt and
defilement.