fì tt 6§ FLESH AND SPIRIT. from these ears by whichwehave been allured to transgression and defiling iniquities ! Absent from those lusts and passions, from that fear and that hope, that pleasure and that pain, that love, that desire, and that anger, which are all carnal, and seat- ed in the fleshlynature, and become the springand occasion of so much sin to our souls in this state. Absent from the body, and presentwith the Lord : Methinks there is aheavencontained in the first part of these words, absent from the body; and a double happiness in the last, present with the Lord: present with him who hath saved our spirits through all the days of our christian conflict, and bath given us the final victory: Present with that God, who shall eternally influence us to all holiness, who shall forever shine upon upon us with his own beams, and make us conformableto his own holy image : Present with that Lordand Saviour, from whom it shall notbe in the power of all creatures to divert or draw us aside. It is by our flesh in this world that we are a-kin to so many temptations, a-kin to all the objects that stand around us, to tempt us-from our God ; and we are ready to cry out, " O the blessed angels that were never a-kin to the flesh ! O those bles- sed spirits, who move swift as flames to execute the will of their God, without the incumberance of flesh, without being allured by that most powerful and successful tempter ! Happy beings ! they know not our toils ; they feel them not ; they are all spirit; they are all holy ! O the blessed saints in glory, that are releas- ed from their flesh, which once theyhad so many, and so sore combats with ! Their flesh, which heretofore prisoned them, and, pained them, and drew them often away from God, con- trary to that heavenly bias that wasput upon their souls by God the Sanctifier !" But werejoice in hopethat ourturn shall come too. There is a day ofdeliverancefrom this sinful.flesh provided for us. All our times are in the hand of God ; and the best time, is the time of release from this sinful companion. Let our faith say, " I read in the promises that this same happiness belongs tome, which the saints above are now possessed of : It is coming, it is coming as fast as time and the heavens can move, as fast as days and hours can remove out ofthe way." Thenwe shall haveno flesh for the world to lodge one temptation in, nor for Satan to make use of as an engine of his malice, tobatter the constancy and duty of our souls ; then we shall be freed from all those methods of injury to our spirits, which we receive now bymeans of the flesh. Thus at the day of our death is derived a glorious liberty, and thence we date ourjoys ; but our joys rise high indeed, if our faith can but look a little farther, and take a prospectofthat day, whenour flesh shall be raised in perfect holiness, and our spirits
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