The conflict between the flesh and the spirit. Or the last part of The…The conflict betvveene the flesh and the spirit. Or the last part of The…

¹Secondly, though the prime and principal, the radical and fundamental graces which are essential to the life and being of a Christian cannot be lost, as faith, hope, charity, affiance and the true fear of God, without which a Christian ceaseth to be a Christ an and of the child of God becometh the child of the devil, for the just shall ever live by their own faith; yet other graces which are secondary fruits springing from them, and necessary to the well-being of a Christian, as fullness of persuasion, peace of conscience, zeal of Gods glory, the sense and feeling of Gods love & favour, the comforts of the spirit, familiar acquaintance with God, and joy in the holy Ghost, which are the life of our life, may for a time through the assaults of the flesh and violence of temptations be much blunted and deadened, yea, in respect of present apprehension, quite lost and extinguished, as we see in the example of Job, who sometimes conceived of God, as of his enemy, and in David who complaineth that he was rejected and forsaken, ²and that the terrors of God did fight against him, and prayeth that God would create in him a clean heart and and renew a right spirit in him, that he would make him to hear joy and gladness, and restore him to the joy of his salvation. Implying by these phrases that these graces were so utterly lost in his sense and feeling, that being quite abolished and annihilated, there needed not only a renovation and repairing but a new making and creation. Even as a man by sickness may loose his beauty and complexion, his flesh ⟨p. 313⟩strength and the kindly motion of his pulse and vital spirits, his memory and discourse of understanding, and with them all the pleasure and comfort of his life, and yet remain a man, because these are not essential to his human nature and being. And when these are gone for a time the chief principles of nature, the radical heat and moisture, the breath, life and reasonable soul may still continue, though much weakened in their functions and operations, and within a while recover and restore him to all which was lost in as great perfection as ever they were before.

¹Secondly, though the prime and principall, the radicall and fundamentall graces which are essentiall to the life and being of a Christian cannot be lost, as faith, hope, charitie, affiance and the true feare of God, without which a Christian ceaseth to be a Christ an and of the childe of God becommeth the childe of the diuell, for the iust shall euer liue by their owne faith; yet other graces which are secundary fruites springing from them, and necessary to the wel-being of a Christian, as fulnesse of perswasion, peace of conscience, zeale of Gods glory, the sense and feeling of Gods loue & fauour, the comforts of the spirit, familiar acquaintance with God, and ioy in the holy Ghost, which are the life of our life, may for a time through the assaults of the flesh and violence of temptations be much blunted and deaded, yea, in respect of present apprehension, quite lost and extinguished, as we see in the example of Iob, who sometimes conceiued of God, as of his enemy, and in Dauid who complaineth that hee was reiected and forsaken,