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Sit
TAE
DOWERS
AND
CONTESTS
OF
FLESH
AND
SPSRtT.
accidental
distemper.
The
man
that, perpetually carries
;about
with him the vigorous and active seeds
of
any
sin
fuI
appetite
or affection,
may
take ten
times more
pains
in
mortification than anotlíer
does who
is
of a
happier
.temperature, and
yet
may. fall
more
,frequently into
his
awn
peculiar iniquities, and
be overcome
by
the
sin
that
easily
besets
him
:
Nor
is
his
guilt
so
great
as
it
is
in
those
who
are
blessed with
a
better
animal
nature, but
either take
no
care
to
guard against
those
sins,
or
perhaps
excite
nature
topractise
the-same iniquities,
beyond
its
own
inbred appetite.
And for
this
reason it
is
evident,
that
a person,
who
in
different periods
of
life,
commits the same
sins,
may
de-
serve
much
More
blame
at
one
time than
another
;
so
wanton practices are more hateful and
criminal, in
old
age,
and
slothfulness and
inactivity
in
duty
is
a
greater
fault
in the
days
of
youth
;
because in those different
seasons
of human
life,
there
is
less
temptation
to
those
sins
arising from the
flesh.
So fear,
and sudden anger, and
sorrow,
wheresoever
they are found
excessive
in persons of enfeebled con
-
stitutions, Iabouring under sharp
pains,
or oppressed
by
nervous
maladies,
and
weak
natural
spirits, have
not
,quite
so
much
guilt
in
them
a,s
those sins would have
in
the
same persons,
when they were in
a
state
of
vigour
and health
;
for then
they had
less
uneasiness within
to
join
with the
provocations and temptations
from with
-.
out
;
and
besides they were
much more
capable of
brill,-
ling
the inferior
powers,
of
countermanding
the
animal
motions and
evil
ferments
:
Then
they could .more easily
maintain
a
wise
self
-
government,
they could range
their
thoughts
in
better
array to resist these sudden attacks
of
the
flesh.
I
might add
further
also,
that under
these sort
of
infir-
mities,
they are
more exposed
to
sudden surprizes;
the
hurry
of
the
natural
spirits
shakes
the
whole
network
of
the
nerves
in
a
moment;
they throw all the blood into
the
face
at
once
:
or,
by
a contrary operation, spread an
universal
chill
and
tremor
over the
body,
and clothe
the
countenance
in
paleness and the
image
of
death:
They
flash
like
gunpowder, they force
the
sweat
through
every pore, and, convey
a
ferment
of
passion
through
the
whole
nature
at
once,
so
that
the soul
i