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TILE
POWERS
AND
CONTESTS
OF
FLESH
AND
SPIRIT.
n9!
your
peace,
the
i9esh
has
ever been an accomplice with
them,
and helped
onward the fatal
design;
besides
the
many
guilty
practices
into
which
it
has drawn you, with-
out
the
assistance
either
of
the
world
or
the
devil.
Not
all the
deceitful vanities
on
the
earth,
nor
all
the
armies
of
hell,
could lead your souls astray
from
God,
and your
own
happiness,
in
half
'so
many
instances
as
they have
done,
if
yoii'h.ad
not
such
a secret
traitor
so
near, you,
that
is
in
league with them for
your
ruin. And shall
this
enemy
be
your counsellor and your guide
?
Shall
this
flesh be
your chief
darling, which has been ever
warring
against your
soul
Would
you
not distrust a
man
that
has dwelt
with
you
from your childhood, and every
day
of
your
life
has
led
you into some mischief
?'
Would
you
not
be
watchful
and jealous
of
all his
motions,
who has
betrayed
you
into
some
snare almost
every
hour
?
Would
you
not guard
against
his
perverse practices,
if;
whenever
he
took a walk
with
you,
he had
thrown
yod
into
a
pit,
and defiled
your
garments?
Such a
dangerous
attendant
is
this
flesh
of
yours in the
present degenerate state.
Why then
will
ye be
so fond
of
this
'tempter,
this
de-
ceitful
companion
?
Why
will
you spend
your best
mo-
ments,
the
prime
of
youth, and the
very flower
of
life,
to
-dress
and adorn, to flatter,
and please,
and
gratify,
such
a
wretched
traitor
to
your
soul,
such
a foe
to your
eternal
welfare
?
The
very
best
of
men have
already
given
too
much
respect
to
it.
But
when a
person
is
sanctified by
divine grace,
the
flesh
begins
then to
be
subdued to some
useful
services to
God
:
Then the
eye
by
reading,
and
the ear
by
hearing,
and
the feet
by
going to
attend upon
the
divine word,
are
made
to
help forward
his
spiritual
and heavenly
interest
;
and
many
a
hundred
services
of
this kind
must
the
members
of
the
body
do,
in
order
to
make the
soul
any
tolerable recompence
for all
the
inju-
ries
that
the soul
has
received
from its
corrupt
appetite
and
passions. Well
therefore
might the apostle
say,
we
are
by no
means
debtors to
the
flesh,
to live
after
the flesh:" Rom.
viii.
12.
Nor
do
we
owe,
any more
of
our
strength,
time,
thought, or contrivance,
to
gratify its
vain
or
sinful
inclinations
;
for they
that
are Christ's
have
so
far crucified the
flesh,
with the affections
and
lusts
of
it,
as to
keep
it under,
and hold it
in
subjection.
VOL.
III.
Y