Baxter - BJ1441 B3 1673

The Gowrnment of the Se»Jes. CHAP. VIII. 'DireElions for the Government of tiJe Senfes. PART I. Gmeral'Direaiom for tbe Gowmment of tiJe Senfes (by a Life oJFaitiJ ). 9· , THE moll wife and gracious God, having been pleafed to conflitutc us of foul and body 1 that our nobler part in its preparation and paffige to a nobler fiare,might Rave a compa– nion and infirument fuited to the lower place and employment, through which it is to pafs, hath appointed ourfenfes not only for the exercife, and helps ot life, and the management of our inferiour ad:ions,and the communication of his infcriour mercies,but alfo to be the common patTage to the fanufie, and fo to the mind, and to be ferviceable to our Rational powers, and help in tmr G:rvice of our Maker, and communion with him in his higher gifts. To thefe cr:~ds all our fenfer fuould be ufed; ·as being capable of being fanCl:itied and ferviceable to God. But Gn made· its entrance by them, and by fin they.are now corrupted and vitiated with the body, and are growri inordinate, violent and unruly in their appetite; and the rational powers having lofi and forfaken God, their proper End and chiefell 0bjed, have hired or captivated themfelves to the fenfitive appe– perite, to ferve its Ends. And fo the fenfitive appetite is become ' the ruling faculty in the unfancti..; tied, and the fenfes the common entrance of fin, and infiruments of Satan: And though the work of Grace be ptirparily in the Rational poWers, yet fecondarily the Jower powers themfelves alfo arc fan– Ctitied, and brought under the Government of a rtmwed Mind and JYiU, and fo rellored to their proper ufc. And though I cannot fay that Grace immediately maketh any alteration on the fmfh, • yet mediatrly it doth, by altering the mi;td, and fo the TVill, and then the imagination, and fo thefenfi~ tivt appcdte, and fo in cxcrcife, the fenfe it felf. We fee that Temperance and Chaf\ity do not only retl:ram, but take down the appetite from the rage and violence which before it had: Not the na.. tural appetite, but the {tu(ltive, fo far as it is finful. 9· 2. The SantrifyiHg and Government of the fenfes and their appetite, lyeth in two parts: Firll, In .~r~arding them againO: the entrance of fin: and Secondly, In ullng rhem to be the entran~e of gnod into the foul. But this latter is fo high a work that too few are skilled in it: and feW Can wdl perfmm the other. · § ~ 3. Direct. I· 1he principal part of the worJt Uabout tbe [upcriour facultiei, to get a weU inform· DirefJ. t! ~ cd jtedgemem, anda holy and confirmed wiU; dnd not tibuut tbe fenfe it {elf. • ReajUn is dethroned by fin : and the will is left ~nguided and unguarded to the rtipes of {(nfual violence. Reafon muU be refiored, before flnfe wtll be well governed; for what elfe muO: b: their irnmtdiateGoverno:tr l It is no fin in Brurcs to live by fenfl, becaufe they have not Reafim eo rule ic : And in man ic is ruled mol't or lrft, as reJ[on is more or lcfs rdlored: When Re,jim is only cleared about things tern- ... ~ poral ( as in men of worldly wifdom) there fenfe wilt be maltered and ruled as to (uch temporal entls, as far as they require ir. But where Reafm is [.m[Jified, there [wfe is rukd to the cnd1 or !3.n· dihcation, according to the meafure of grace. . 9· 4· Direct. 2· It is only the high eternal things of Gad and ~ur fjluation, objetiively [erled in tbe Dirc{l. 2• mi11d andwiU, and become as it were cmn.ztural to tbem, and made ottr lluli.nJ! E;ui a.~td intere]t tb.Jt can fuffice to a true and holy GJvcrnmem of the fenfu. Lower things m.1y muzzle: them, and make: m:n [ecm temper~te and fober as f.u as their b.maur, and wealth, and hea\rh 1 and 1~fc require it: But thiS IS but lloppmg ~ gap, while moll of the hedge lyeth open , and an engaging the fen[e to ~erve the Fl:f!'•. the IV8rld, and the Devil in ahanfomc, caln1 and 1efs di(honoured way) and not {d filthily and tunouOy as others. §. 5· DiteCl 3· 1he main part of tfJis Governme;it iit the exerci[c, ir in ta~in11 fpcci.Jl care that m 1 0 . {l ~ (c11jitive good be m.1de the ultimate End of ou: dcfire, nor [o~tght fvr it fllf, nor rt]fed in, uar delighted ut . ·,. l~ too much; .but to fle tba.t the foul ( bvmg firjf bablt~al7 fixed on its proper higbcr end a~td bo1p· pmcfs) dJ dtrell .aUtht alJ1ons t'f every fenfe ([o far as ll j aUJ ttnder rldiher.1tion and choiu, to Juvi i~. r~n~ately to tho(e_ holy end!• . For the fcnfe is not .fo~~~ified, if ic be not uG:d to a hnly end, and it~. o·'JC'' 1s nor fanetJtied to usJ tf tt be not made fcn'Jceable to more boly objc[if.. A t:neer i1eg1cive re• A a a 2 firaint

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