ESSAY.. 3%4 usproceed fromthe ferments of our blood too ? have you never observed the resemblance of-pride working in a peacockor a well fed horse ; how those brutal beings exult and glory, the one in his beauty, the other iu his strength and his peculiar endowments ? This proud ferment heaves and swells their bodily natures : And -Why may not some of our pride be supposed to begin there too? I confess these animals have no rational mind in them, no thinking spirit, no will, either to resist or consent to these motions of the flesh or blood ; so that they are under no moral law : These actions of theirs are agreeable to their original nature, and pre under a divine appointment rather than a prohibition ; there- fore they are not capable of sin and guilt. But man, who bath these same animal motions and ferments of the flesh, and the same appetites, and springs of passion, had nothing vicious°n his original frame and constitution, but derived all that is faulty from his first parents, who were wilful sinners, and who spoiled their whole nature ; and Upon this account he will hardly be found innocent. Buthis guilt appears much more evident, when we consider, that man has also an intelligent mind, a reasonable soul, capable, in some measure, of resisting these irregular tendencies of the flesh ; therefore he becomes guilty in the sight of God, by wilful consent tce them, and indulgence of them, contrary to the for- bidding law of his Creator, Now this proposed contest between flesh and spirit is ordainedby God ourMaker in infinite wisdom, to be a proper state of trial for us, in order to future rewards and punishments. 7. I might add, inthe last place, another argument toprove that our flesh is the chief occasionof sin to the soul, from this con- sideration; that the soul at first is tainted, corrupted, or defiled, with original sin, by its union to sinful flesh. You will imme- diately enquire, how is this possible, since the soul is a pure spiritual being, created immediately by God himself, and there- fore, innocent and holy ; and since it cannot touch, nor betouched, by any thing corporeal, such as flesh andblood ? Inwhat man- ner can the soul, though united to the body, receive any such sinful pollution; of sinful impression, from the body ? Take this account ofit in short, in these few propositions. 1. Though thespirit ofman beincorporeal, and is created by God without depraved or sinful qualities in it, yet it never exists, or comes intobeing, but as apart of human nature ; and that not as a piece of new workmanship, but as a part of mankind pro- pagated from parents by the continued power of God's creating word; " Be fruitful and multiply." When the infant-body of Man is so far formed as to become fit for union with a rational soul, thesoal comes -into existence in union with the body, by the
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