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THE
POWERS AND CONTESTS OF FLESH AND
SPIRIT.
let
him
run at
random
because
he
is
full
of
rage.
What
dost
thou think the
event
will be,
O
sinner
?
When thy
native appetites
are
still grown
stronger
by
indulgence,
and
become utterly ungovernable, and
thou
art
plunged
into
unspeakable
guilt,
and endless
misery,
what
a cut-
ting reflection
it
will
be to thy conscience,
that, instead
of
watching, praying,
and
striving against thine inbred
sins,
thou wert ever
quarrelling
at
the
great God
thy
Maker)
that
he did
not
form thy
nature
just
according
to
thy
directions
:
Especially when thou
shalt
see
others
advanced to
high
seats
in glory,
and
reaping the
joys of
the
Christian
conquest,
who
had
as
many adversaries
to
wrestle
with
in
the
days
of
their
flesh,
and
each of
them
as
violent
and as mighty as
thine.
Question
VII.
If
the springs
of
sin
lie
so
much
in
the
flesh,
are not
some
methods
of
reforming the
flesh
proper
to
be
practised,
in
order
to
facilitate the
work
of
mortification,
to
cure our
sinful
distempers, to
prevent
actual
transgression, and break the habits
of
sin
?
Answer. Since the seeds
and occasions
of
sin lie
sa
much
in
the
flesh
and blood, doubtless
it
is
our
duty
to
take some
care
that
these
seeds
of iniquity
be
suppressed
and
killed, as
far
as possible, by all
proper
methods;
such as
do
not necessarily interfere
with
other
commands
of
God, or
plain
duties of christianity. But in
all
mat-
ters
of
this
nature, persons are in danger
of
running
into
extremes.
The
papists
require
a
certain abstinence
from
meats,
and
forbid to marry,
without a due attendance
to
the
ciscumstances of times, places, and
persons;
whereby
superstition
is
supported, and
sinful
appetites
are
often
irritated, intead
of
suppressing
them.
At other
times
they wear sackcloth
on
their
flesh,
they scourge and
whip
themselves,
they lay
their
bodies
under much
pain-
ful discipline,
and
sometimes
too
under
bloody correc-
tion,
in
order
to
mortify sin.
But
it
was
never required
of
.God,
that
we
should
break
the sixth command
in
Order to keep
the seventh; for the
advice of Christ
about
parting
with a
right
-hand, or
a
right
eye,
Mat.
v.
2.9.
is
to
be
taken metaphorically for the mortification of
darling
sins,
or
).east,
in
a
comparative
sense,
that it
is
better
to
bear
the
loss
of a
limb
than
to be-
eternally