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THE
POWERS AND
CONTESTS
OP
FLESH
AND
SPIRIT.
If
the
eye
beholds
food,
,though the man
be
assured
there
is
hidden
poison in
,it,
yet the hungry stomach
will
have
a
nati.
1
appetite
toward
it,
and
this
is
not
sinful
;
but
if
the soul comply, and the man
eat
it,
or desire
to
eat
it, he
breaks the sixth command,
which
forbids
all
Murder.
Our
Saviour
has sufficiently
decided
this
part
of
the controversy
in his
sermon
on
the
mount,
that
the
soul's very desire
and
consent, to
sin
is
sinful
?
]Wat.
v.
97. And
the fuller and stronger the consent
of
the
will
is,
and the
further
it
goes
on
to
encourage
or
impel
the
body
to
the forbidden action,
so
much
greater
is
the
sin.
When our
blessed
Saviour spake these
words:
"
he
that
looketh upon a
woman, to
lust after
her,
bath
com-
mitted adultery already
in
his
heart
;"
flat.
v.
28.
it
can
-.
not
be
supposed
that
lie
intended to
give a law
that
should
make the inward motions
or
ferments of' mere animal
nature
sinful
;
for these were
not
originally
and naturally
subject
to
the immediate command of the
soul in
the
state of
innocency,
so
as to be
raised or prevented abso-
lutely
and immediately
by
the
will,
as the
motion
of
the
hand
or
foot.is.
But
his
design
is
to shew,
that
the
soul
itself
inwardly consenting to these animal ferments and
motions, or encouraging or indulging them
but
one mo-
ment,
is
really,
sinful in
the sight
of
God,
even
though
the
man
did
never
proceed
to
the outward
and actual
commission
of
those
sins in
the
flesh
:
And hereby
he
vindicated
the
l:zw
of
God
from those
narrow and
cor-
rupt
expositions which' the
scribes,
and doctors,
and
interpreters of
those
days,
put upon
it,
who would allow
nothing
to
be
sinful
but
the
outward
act.
This
will
appear
with
fuller
evidence,
if
we
consider
that
there
might
be
in
the
flesh
of innocent
Adam,
some
natural
appetites
toward objects
that
might
be forbidden
by the express
and
positive
law
of God
;
for
the
flesh,
merely considered
in itself,
has
a
natural
propensity,
to
things
that
please
and
gratify
it,
without
any
regard
to
the
unseen
circumstances or moral relations
of
things
;
without
any
respect
to a law
that
permits or prohibits
them.
Thus
Adam, or
his
partner,
might
feel an
inno-
cent inclination
in
their animal natures, towards
any
fruit
in the
garden
that
was
pleasant
to
the
eyes,
and
good
for
food, even
to
that.
of the
tree
of
knowledge
:
And
this