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THE
POWERS
AND
CONTESTS
OF FLESH AND
SPIRIT.
27
Betimes then,
.O
ye
young
sinners,
awake betimes
to
serious
.piety,
and
flee
every
youthful
lust
;
avoid
the
persons
and the places
that
would
tempt
you to
sensual
or profane practices,; turn.
your
eyes
away from
the
very
appearances
of
guilt,
and
from all defiling
representa
Lions
;
let your
ears
be
deaf, to
all
the
language
of
pro-
faneness
or
immodesty,
lest
you suffer
a
fatal
inroad to
be
made upon
the
avenues
of
the fancy,
-.and
admit such
a
guilty
treasure of
mischief
and
iniquity there,
that
may
lay
a
.foundation for toil
and
anguish,
and
much
bitter-
ness
of
soul, in
the
following
and the
better
years
of
life.
Question
III.
Whether
we may be guilty
of
sin in
our
dreams,
in
hours of delirium,
under
a fever,
or
in
seasóns
of
distraction
and madness
?
Answer..
I
join
all
these
three together, because they
all agree
in this,
that
the
representations
made on the
brain are
so
strong and
predominant
in all
of
them,
that
imagination
is
almost equal to
sense
;
it
imitates sight
and
hearing,
and the appearances and actions
of
life
so
nearly,
that
the soul
cannot
distinguish them
;
and
some
times the
wild
operations
of
the brain overpower even the
present
impressions made upon the
senses,
and
fancy
pre-
vails.
above
the ear or the
eye.
Dreaming
is
but
sleep
ing
distraction,
as
the
distraction of
a
delirious
hour
is
but
a waking
dream.
Now
where
the images
of
fancy
are
so
prevalent, the
soul even
of.a.h.oly
man may
be so
far overpowered,
as
that reason
is
quite thrown out
of
its
seat;
the
under
standing
is
dazzled and
deceived
by
the glaring
flashes
of
imagination
;
the notions
of
conscience, the rules
of
duty,
and
the
sacred
motives
of
religion, are,
as
it
were,,
confounded and overwhelmed,
and lost for
a
season,
under
the
constant
strong impressions.
of
the
Animal
spi-
rits
revelling
in
the recesses
of
the brain
:
And where
the
disorder
rises
to
such a
degree
as this,
the
springs of
car-
nal appetite and
passion
are
soon
touched and
awa-
kened
;
and
being
of
a
kindred
nature, are suddenly
inflamed;
so
that
a
man
of
piety
may be
hurried
to
con-
sent
to
sinful practices,
under
any
of
these waking
or
sleeping distractions.
In
such
a case the guilt
seems to.
be lessened
so
far
as
the reason
is
drowned
in
confusion
and darkness, and
the
thought
and conscience over
-.
powered and cheated
with
false
impressions,
Perhaps
a