io6 Inordinate Appetite to be denied. were nothing but penury to your flefh, and teeing God in all,and tifing all for God, and denying Self, where you have ofportu-, nit, to pleafe it ; this is the molt noble life on earth. But if you find that you cannot attain to this, and that you cannot deny your felves the delights of earth, unlefs you withdraw from the fight of the objets ; do fo and fpare not, fo far asmay confifi with your ferviceablenefs to God and humane Society : But ftill you (hall find that whether earthly delights are prefent or ablenr, your minds mull retire from that which cloth allure and gratifie the flefh, if ever you would enjoy Communion with God, and tafie of the delights of an heavenly converfa- tion. 4. And by pleafing your fenfes, you will increafe their vi.. tious inordinate defires. The more you gratifie them, the more they'! crave : you feed your difeafe by yielding to fuch defires ; but never think to quiet it by contenting it. Themore the flefh bath, the more it would have. The oncly way to abate the rage of fenfual defires, is to deny them,and ufe them conflantly, to that denyal. The fafej food and raiment o that which firengtheneth and furnifheth ub for Gods fervice, with the leaft content and pleafure to our fenfual appetites and defires. And the fame I muff fay of houfe,and lands, and labours, and friends, and all the Creatures ; that's the belt Rate of life in which God is ferved and pleafed heft, with the leaft content and pleafure to the flefh. Carnal delights and fpiritual are fo contrary ; the one fo droffie and fordid, and the other fo fublime and pure, that they will not well confift together ; but the delights of the flefh do corrupt or weaken the fpiritual delights. 5. Lafily Confider, what a bale unmanly thing it is for a man to be a flave to his fenfitive appetite As truly as the boric was made to be ruled by the rider, and all the bruits to be un- der man ; fo was the appetite and all the fenfes made to be ru- led by Reafon ; and no fenfc flaould be pleafed till Reafon do content : a beaft bath no rule for hiseating and drinking but his appetite ; and therefore mans reafen is to moderate him : But a matt hash a better guide then appetite or fenfe to follow : you lbould not eat a bit or drink a drop ,neerly becaufe the appetite would have it, but Bofors muff be advifed with, arid God mutt give
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=