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THE
POU'ERS AND
CONTESTS
OP
ELESSE
AND
SPIRIT.
that
it
may
not get
the mastery.
over the
soul.
Gal.
v.
24.
and
1
Cor.
ix.
27.
Nourish and support
the
flesh,
that
is
your duty
:
Heal
it
when
it
is
sick,
and endeavour
to
preserve it
in
health,
that it
may
be
a
proper
servant
to the spirit..
It
was
made for this
end
;
and the
soul'
should know its
own
dignity, and keep the body
in
its
place: But dare not
pamper
it
with
too much
fondness, lest
it
usurp
the do-
minion, and
cause
the
soul to walk
after
it
in
the
sinful
appetites
and inclinations
thereof;
which
is
quite
con-
trary
to the
character
of
the saints,
as
they
are
described
by
the apostle
;
Rom.
viii.
1.
"
Those
that
are
in
Christ
Jesus,
to whom
there
is
no
condemnation,
walk
not
after
the
flesh,
but after
the spirit."
MEDITATION
II.
Is the
body such a
'foul and wretched
spring
of
sin
?
Then
what
a heaven
of purity and pleasure
is
provided
for the
children
of God at
their
'death,
and
is
contained
in
those
few
words
of
the
apostle,
absent
from
the
body
;"
Cor.
v.
8,
When
a child
of
Adam
has
received
a
new
nature
by
the
new
-
creating
power
of
the Holy Spirit, and
is
become
a
son
or daughter
of
God,
it
is
thencefòrward
as
it
were,
a prisoner
in
this
untoward
mansion
of
flesh
and
blood
:
It
is
in a
state
of
perpetual
conflict,
yet it
cannot
change these
old
sensual
Appetites,
nor correct at
once
these
long habits
of
irregular
desire.
It
labours
daily
in
this work
;
it maintains, a vigorous warfare
against
the flesh; but, through the-power
of
sensible
enticing ob-
jects
all
around
us,
it
is
too often carried away into
sinful
compliances, O wretched
man
that
Iam,
saith the apos-
tle,
what an
unhappy
laze,
or
spring
of
sin,
is
there
in
mry
members,
that
carries
me
away from
the
better
dic-
tates
of
the
law
of
my
renewed mind and bears
me cap
-
tive
to
the
law
of
sin
that
is
in
my
flesh
!
O
wretched
man.
indeed
!
and
who
shall
deliver Me? O
blessed hour
of
death,
that
shall break the
chain and set
the
prisoner
free
!
O sweet and glorious
moment
of
release
from this
body,
which
tainted
my
spirit
early
with its
poisonous
influences;
and,
by
drawing
me away
perpetually
by its
dangerous attachments
to things
sensible,
has
kept
me
long
at
a
painful
distance
from
my
God
!
THE
IMPROVEMENT.
The
former
part
of
this
discourse proposed
this
senti-