AN ESSAY On the Powers and Contests of Flesh and Spirit. IT is agreed by all the more sober and thinking part of the world, that man is a compounded creature ; and it is made evi- dent from this plain and easy observation, viz. that he puts forth hourly such different kinds of action, as one simple being could never perform. Flesh and spirit are the two ingredients that go to the composition ; yet, they keep their own natures still distinct, unmingled, and unconfounded. By the flesh we eat, drink, walk, and sleep, and are a-kin to brute animals : by the spirit the think, know, and chuse, and hold kindred with angels. It ap- pears to every careful observer, that each of these parts of the man have their particular and distinct natures, qualities, and ope- rations. The flesh, or body, includes in it the limbf, blood, and breath, with all the grosser and finer materials, solid or fluid ; that make up the animal ; it has many inward ferments ands ap- petites of its own ; it has several visible, as well as hidden mo- tions ; and it receives various impressions, made'by outward ob- jects of sense, which are proper to itself, and in which the spirit has no share. On the other hand, the soul or spirit includes the understanding and will, which are itd chief powers : It has its thoughts and conceptions, its judgments and reasonings, its acts of choice, aversion, and desire, in great variety; which are pe- culiarly its own, and belong not to the flesh. But while we dwell in this present world, there is such a near and special union between soul and body, that there are very few operations or affections of the mind, which do not receive 'a sensible turn or influence from the qualities and ferments, the im- pressions, powers, and passions, of flesh and blood. Sometimes these animal motions attend or followthe acts or exercises of the mind, and yet even then they increase them in many cases : So when the soul is ashamed, the blood flushes in the face, and the shame is doubled ; when the spirit is angry, the cheeks kindle, or grow pale, and the inward wrath burns fiercer. So in a fit of fear, the blood retires, the flesh trembles, the natu- ral spirits flutter, or sink into faintness, and the soul is more ter- rified and overwhelmed. At other times these inward ferments of the juices of the body are entirely beforehand with the soul those motions or impressions of the flesh, and sense, and animal
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