Watts - BX5200 .W3 1813 v.2

332 POWERS AND CONTESTS CIF FLESH AND SPIRIT. walk after it in the sinful appetites and inclinations-- thereof; whichis quite contrary to the character of the saints, as theyare described by the apostle ; Rom. viii. I. Those that are in Christ Jesus, to whom there is no condémnation, walk not after theflesh, but after the spirit. II. Is the body such a foul and wretched spring of sin ? Then what a heavenof purity and pleasure is provided. for the children of God at their death, and is contained in those few words of the apostle, absent from the body; 2 Cor. v. S. When a child of Adam has received a new nature by the new creating power of the Holy Spirit, and is become a son or daughter of God, it is thenceforward as it were, a prisoner in this untoward mansion of flesh and blood : It is in a slate of perpetual conflict, yet it cannot change these old sensual appetites, nor correct at once these long habits of irregular desire. It labours daily in this work ; it maintains a vigorous warfare against the flesh ; but, through the power of sensible enticing objects all around us, it Is too often carried away into sinful compliances. O wretched man that I am, saith the apostle, what an unhappy law, or spring cf sin, is there in my members, that carries me away from the better dictates of the law of my renewed mind and bears me captive to the lawof sin that is in myflesh! 0 wretched man in- deed ! and who shall deliver me? 0 blessed hour of death, that shall break the chain and set the prisoner free ! 0 sweet and glorious moment of release from this body, which tainted my 'spirit early with its poisonous influences; and, by draw- ingme away perpetually by its dangerous attachments to things sensible, has kept me long at a painful distance from my God ! The Improvement. The former part of this discoursepro- posed this sentiment, viz. That the principles and springs, or occasions of sin, lie chiefly in our bodily natures, in our flesh and blood : And as I have made this to appear from several places of scripture, so I have proved it from rational observa- tions ; viz. how great an influence the different constitutions of mankind, their casual distempers, and their various ages of life, -have upon the soul, to incline it to thepractice of different sins ; and all these are plainly derived from flesh and blood. I have considered further, what sinful actions arise from the presenceof tempting object§ impressing the senses ; and when the images of them that are treasured up in the brain, they be- come,the seeds ofimpure imagination and sinful appetite. Many of our sins also are nearly imitated by the brutes that perish, whose blood is their life and soul; and even original sin is con- veyed -to tus by the flesh. Hence we may learn to judge aright concerning several cases of difficulty in the christian life, relating to sins and temp - tations, and find an answer to some practical questions of great importance.

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