nature, may first awaken, and then maintain the anger, or fear, or love, or other affections of the mind.

Thus most of the actions of man in this present state are of a mixed nature, wherein both flesh and spirit concur, and each perform their several parts; though in such a manner, that, in many cases, it is hard to say how far the flesh and how far the spirit have their distinct shares of influence. Yet there is one excellent and unfailing rule to judge of this matter, if we could but always apply it right; and that is, whatsoever knowledge, consent, or choice, is in any action, belongs to the mind; and what implies mere matter, shape, or proper motion, must be attributed to the body.

These appetites and affections of human nature, which are the mingled operations of flesh and spirit, are either lawful, saered, or sinful; and they are properly and formally so called, partly according to the different objects of them, and partly according to their various degrees, or some other circumstances of time or place, that may attend them; as will be made evident by such instances as these: Thus it will appear that the same action or passion may be determined to be lawful, sacred, or sinful, if it be exercised toward different objects, or in different degrees. Thus it is lawful to be hungry and thirsty, and to desire proper food, bread and wine; and to desire, with faith and holy affections, to eat the bread and drink the wine at the Lord's-supper is a sacred action. But to covet that meat or drink, that bread, or that wine, which belongs to another man, is sinful; for it is a violation of the tenth command, and becomes a transgression. So to fear the great God, or to love him, is a sacred affection. To fear a robber or a roaring lion, or to love my house, or my servant, are very lawful affections: But if my love or my fear of any creature exceeds my fear or my love of God my Creator, it becomes hereby sinful. It is lawful, or rather it is religious and holy, to be angry, to hate, and to be ashamed, when sin is the object of these passions; but to be ashamed of virtue and religion, where I am called to profess them, or to hate my neighbour, or even mine enemy, or to be angry without a cause, or above a proper degree, are all criminal passions, and render a man guilty before God.

The mere motions and ferments of flesh and blood, or whatsoever share mere animal nature has in these actions or affections of the man, can have no moral good or evil in them, considered apart from the soul; nor are they properly called lawful or sinful in themselves; for they are the pure operations of brutal matter, till the soul or the will indulges them, or approves them, commands them, or complies with them. Yet if the objects of these fleshly motions be forbidden by the laws of God, or if the degree be excessive, or the time or place unlawful, then these motoins and ferments of the flesh may be called sinful; not formally

in themselves, but occasionally; because the soul so often complies with them, and becomes guilty; and thus these operations of the flesh are sad occasions of sin.

Now in this present fallen state, wherein all the children of Adam are found, these sinful motions and ferments, appetites, and passions abound in our flesh and blood; partly as we derive too much of them from our sinful parents, and partly as we have too much encouraged and strengthened them ourselves, by frequent practice and indulgence. It is evident also, that the greatest part of the actions of our lives are ready to be influenced by appetite or affection; and it is plain, that the outward senses of the body, or the inward ferments, motions, and impressions of flesh and blood have so large a share in them, that they are called the deeds of the body, the desires, lusts, and affections of the flesh, in many places of scripture; thence it comes to pass that our flesh becomes the chief cause and occasion of sin to the soul.

Now though it be difficult, as I have hinted, in many particular actions, to determine precisely how far the influence of the flesh reaches, and how far it is the act of the mind or spirit, yet it is of great use in the christian life to search into these matters, in order to find how far our actions are criminal and guilty, that we may abase our souls before God, and take shame to ourselves so far as we are culpable; and on the other hand, that from a melancholy or superstitious mistake, we may not charge ourselves with more guilt than God charges us with, or lay heavier loads upon our own consciences than the divine law lays

upon us.

We shall find these enquiries also of excellent use to lead us to proper methods for the mortification of sin, and to shew us the justice and wisdom of divine conduct, and the holiness and beauty of the providence of God, in appointing our present state of trial, in order to a futuré judgment.

I. The first thing I shall discourse on here, is the unhappy influence that our flesh or animal nature, has to tempt us to sin. And then II. I shall shew what powers the soul is furnished with to resist the sinful motions of the flesh, and to maintain the sacred warfare.

This is the proposition therefore that I shall first lay down. in my discourse; viz. That the principles, springs, and occasions of our sinful actions lie very much in the flesh; and these have a fatal and unhappy influence to lead the soul or spirit into sin. I shall make this evident from the word of God, especially from the writings of the blessed apostles; and shall confirm it by many common observations and an easy train of reasoning.

When those sacred writers have occasion to describe sin, in its principles or operations, they use the words flesh, fieshly, or

carnal, the body, or the members, with much freedom and frequency. St. Peter speaks of walking after the flesh; 2 Pet. ii. 20. of alluring men by the lusts of the flesh; 2 Pet. ii. 12. of fleshly lusts that war against the soul; 1 Pet. ii. 11. St Paul bids us mortify the deeds of the body; Rom. viii. 12. and he calls the principle of sin the body of death; Rom. vii. 24. He speaks of sin reigning in our mortal bodies; Rom. vi. 12. He places the sinful principles, which he calls the law of sin, in our very members; Rom. vii. 23. And particular sins he calls our members; Col. iii. 5. And in correspondence with him the apostle James speaks of lusts that war in our members; James iv. 1. And John and Jude make mention of the lusts of the flesh, and garments spotted with the flesh. And there are few words more frequent on St. Paul's tongue than the word flesh, when he would signify sin; the mortification whereof he calls crucifying the flesh, with its affections and lusts; Gal. v. 24. He names adultery, forniation, idolatry, hatred, envy, murder, drunkenness, revellings, and such like, the works of the flesh; Gal. v. 19. Persons in a sinful state are said to be in the flesh; Rom. viii. 8, 9. A course of sinning is called sowing to the flesh, living after the flesh, minding the things of the flesh, walking after the flesh, fulfilling the desires and lusts of the flesh, in several parts of his epistles.

But in sanctified and unsanctified persons, sin, in the judg ment of St. Paul, lies very much in the flesh, as to the springs, principles and occasions of it. See Rom. vii. 5. compared with the 18th and 25th verses. In Rom. vii. 5. St. Paul speaks concerning the natural and unregenerate state: When we were in the flesh, that is, all flesh, no spirit, that is, no spiritual life, then the motions of sin did work in our members, to bring forth fruit unto death. And when he speaks concerning himself in a regenerate state, at the end of that chapter he describes sin still as having its occasion and cause much seated in the flesh. See verses 18, and 25. I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing; I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind. With my mind I serve the law of God, but with my flesh the law of sin. So that, considering himself either in a natural or in a regenerate state, still he supposes the great occasion of sinful actions to proceed from the flesh.

I confess that in some places of the New Testament, and perhaps in several of these which I have now cited, the word flesh may be used something figuratively, to signify all the principles of sin that are in human nature, whether they immediately reside in the mind, or in the body, as the subject; but the figure itself seems to be borrowed from this very sentiment, that the flesh, with its affections and appetites towards fleshly objects, is the chief spring and occasion of sin.

I might add also, that there are some other places of scrip

thre, where the word flesh must necessarily be taken in a literal and proper sense, denoting the body to be the seat or spring of many sinful affections; as Eph. ii. 3. where the desires of the flesh are distinguished from the sinful desires of the mind. And 2 Cor. vii. I. where both the filthiness of flesh and spirit is mentioned; and there are very few places which will not allow us to understand it in a literal sense. And it is evident to any one who compares the various parts of the writings of this apostle, that he speaks ten times of the body, the flesh, or the members, as the springs of sin, where he once mentions the lusts of the mind; intimating, that the far greatest part of the sins of men, are derived from their flesh, and are owing to their compliance with the sinful desires or affections of the body.

I would not be mistaken here, as if I supposed the flesh to be the only immediate spring of all our sins; though perhaps, it is the original, and remote spring of all, as I shall shew presently: But the soul of man, being once depraved, has many sinful qualities in it; the understanding, and the will, the very mind and conscience are defiled; Tit. i. 15. The soul itself has some propensities to things that are forbidden, as well as sinful aversions to God, and things holy and heavenly. There are the lusts of the mind as well as lusts of the flesh. There is a filthiness both of flesh and spirit. The devils, who have no flesh and blood belonging to them, are vile sinners; these are called spiritual wickednesses in high places; Eph. vi. 12. or, as it may be translated, wicked spirits in heavenlies; that is, in the airy regions: So the spirit of man has sins of its own, that it borrows not immediately from the flesh: There is a pride in the mind, arising from learning, and intellectual powers, and accomplishments; there are vain and excessive desires of human knowledge; there is a sinful curiosity, prying into secret futurities; there is a glorying in self, a vanity of mind, and self-confidence, instead of trusting in God, and giving him the glory of all: There is, indeed, a secret dislike and aversion to God and holiness, in the soul of every unsanctified sinner; these are more spiritual iniquities.

I might add also, that there are several of those sins which, in some appearances of them, are numbered among the works of the flesh, because they are often excited, and almost always increased, by the humours and feriments of the body; which yet, in s me other operations and appearances, begin in the spirit, belong chiefly to the soul, and must be called spiritual sins, or lusts of the mind; such as malice and envy, self-conceit, emulation, hatred of good men, &c. which are doubtless found in the fallen angels, those evil spirits, who have no flesh about them. Now as an unsanctified soul may be sometimes guilty of these when in the body, so, when it is dismissed from flesh, we must grant, that it would be filled with all these iniquities, these spiritual lusts, for ever,

VOL. II.

X

though none of the carnal sins, no appetites to fleshly objects, should follow it into the separate state.

But the point which I propose to prove is this, that though there may be several sins that arise chiefly from the mind, yet there are multitudes of disorderly appetites, sinful inclinations and aversions, as well as violent immoderate tendencies towards lawful objects, seated in our animal nature, in our flesh and blood, in this mortal part of our frame and composition, wherein we are a-kin to the beasts that perish; and it is by the senses, by these sensitive motions and ferments of flesh and blood, that the human soul is most frequently led into temptation and sín: And more especially I may venture to say, that the soul of a true christian, which is sanctified by the Spirit of God, and has a new and heavenly temper and bias, and a divine nature given it, owes most of its actual transgressions to the flesh, and the lusts thereof, to which it is united in the present state.

There is one objection that seems necessary to be answered; and that is drawn from the words of our Saviour; Mark vii. 21, 23. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, &c. All these evil things come from within, and defile the man. Now some person may say, it is evident, that by the heart he did not mean that inward bowel so called, but the soul itself; because, according to the vulgar philosophy, and common sentiments of the Jews, the soul of man had its chief residence in the heart; and upon this account they attributed to the heart the several affections and inward operations of the soul, whether they were sinful or holy; and in this sense our Saviour may be supposed to attribute to the soul, or spirit in man, all these wickednesses. But it is easy to solve this difficulty two ways.

1. That neither the philosophy of the Jews, nor the common language which our Saviour used, did make any nice distinction in those principles of human actions what share the spirit had in them and what the flesh; but they used the word heart, for all those inward powers of the man whence outward actions proceeded; and this because the springs and motions of the blood and life, as well as the ferments of several passions, were found there: So that our Saviour using the common language of the people, does by no means exclude the inward ferments of the flesh from their share in these sinful actions; but rather includes them in the word heart.

2. If we could suppose the word heart in this place to signify merely the soul or spirit, yet it would by no means exclude the inward ferments of the flesh from being the first springs and occasions of many of these sinful practices; for they do not be come sins till the soul has consented to them; nor can they break forth into outward acts without the command, or, at least, the sin