The Communicant's Companion
of that country, and feed his swine no longer, feed upon his husks no more, that we may return to our father's house, where there is bread enough and to spare. We must renounce the treacherous conduct of the evil spirit, that we may put ourselves under the guidance of the holy and good Spirit. All that turn to God, must turn from the power of Satan: for what communion has Christ with Belial? Our covenant with God engages us in a war with Satan; for the controversy between them is such as will by no means allow us to stand neutral.
2. We must renounce all compliance with the wills and interests of the flesh. The body, though near and dear to the soul, yet must not be allowed to have dominion over it. The liberty, sovereignty, and honor of the immortal spirit, by which we are allied to the upper world, that world of spirits, must be asserted, vindicated, and maintained against the usurpation and encroachments of the body, which is of the earth earthly, and by which we are allied to the beasts that perish. The elder too long has served the younger, the nobler has served the baser; it is time that the yoke should be broken from off its neck, and that that part of the man should rule under Christ, whose right it is. The servants on horseback must be dismounted, the lusts of the flesh denied, and its will no longer admitted to give law to the man: and the princes, who have walked like servants upon the earth, must be raised from the dunghill, and made to inherit the throne of glory; the dictates, I mean, of right reason, guided by revelation, and consulting the true interests of the better part, must have the commanding sway and empire in us. We must never more make it our chief good to have the flesh pleased, and the desires of it gratified, nor ever make it our chief business to make provision for the flesh, that we may fulfil the lusts of it. Away with them, away with them; crucify them, crucify them; for, like Barabbas, they