Twenty Re afons for denying Life. 2o3 'my under feet ? Do-you fight againft it as for the life of your fouls, and yet are you afraid left death should hurt it, or break it -down? Have you fought your felves friendswith it that you are fo tender of it ? when you are the greateli friends to it, it will be the molt dangerous enemy to you. And do not think that it is only fin, and not the body, that is the flefh,that is called your enemy in Scripture. For though it be not the Body as fuch, or as obedient to the foul, yet is it the Body as inclining to creatures, from which the sinful foul cannot reltrain it ; and it is the body as having an inordinate fenfitive appetite and imagination , and fo diftempered, as that it rebels against the Spirit, and cafteth off the rule of Reafon, and wouldnot becurbed of its defires, but have the rule of all it felf. Was it not the very flefh it felf that Paul faith he fought againft, and kept under, and brought into fubjedion, lett he should bea caft-away ? i Cor. 9. z6, 27. why fhould fin be called [F leA andBody] but that it is the Bodyor Flefh that is the principatfeat of thofe fins that are fo called. Ifyou live After the flefb, yefhall die. but ifye through the Spirit do mortifle the deed; of the Body, )e (hall live, Rom.8. 13. Ifye foW to the flefh, of the flefh ye reap corruption, Ga1.6. 8. That which is firft in Being,is firil in fin : But it is the Flefhor Embrio endued with fenfe that is firil in being. Be not there- fore too tender of that which corruption bath made your pri- fon and your enemy : Many a time youhave been put to refill it, and watch and drive againft it ; and when you havebeen at the beft,it hash been hinderingyou to be better ; and when the fpirit was wiliing,the flefh was weak : And quicklybath it caufed your cooling and declenfion. Many a bleffed hours communion betweenGod andyour fouls that flefh bath depri- ved you of. And therefore thoughRill you mull love it, yet you should the lefs grieve or be troubled at its fufferings, feing they are but the fruits of its fin , and a holy contendednefs- fhould poffefs your minds, that God should thus caftigatorily revengehis own andyour quarrel upon it: o. But yet confider, that were you never fo tender ofthe body it felf, yet faith and reafon thould perfwade you to be content 'For God is but preparing even for its felicity; His D d 2 undoing
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=