Baxter - HP BV4647 .S4 B39 1660

Root. But the fitit temptation did entice him to adhere to an inferi- our good, for the pleating ofhisfiefh, and the advancement of bimfelf to a carnal kindof felicity in himfelf, that he might be as God in knowing good and evil..And thus man was fuddenly taken with the creature as a means to the pleating of his carnal and fo did depart fromGod his true ,felicity ; and retired into himfilfin his abandon, affeetion, and intention and de . livered up his Reafon in fubj.;dion to his fealuality , and made hirnfelf his Ultimate End. With this finfull inclination are we ail born into the world; fo that every man according to his corrupted nature doth termi. nate all his defires in himfelf : and what ever he may notionally be couvinced or to the contrary, yet pranicaily he makes his earthly life and the adVancement and pleafure which he cape- deth therein, to be his, felicity and end. Self- denyalnow is the cure of this : It carryeth, a man from himfelfagAinond fneweth him that he was never made to be his own felicity or end ; and that the flefh was noarnaile to be pleat- ed before God. and that it is fo poor, and low, and {port a fe- licity, as indeed is but a name and fhadow of felicity , and when it pretends to that, a meer deceit. It fheweth him how unreafonable, how impious and unjuf1 it is, that a creature and fuch a creature, Mould terminate his deares and intentions in himfilf : And this is the principal pare offelfdenyal. 2. As God was mans ultimate End in his flare of innocency , fo accordingly man was appointed to ufe all creatures in order to God,for his Pleafure and GloryaSo that it was the workof man to do hisMakers wil,&he was to ufe nothing but with this intention. But when man was fain fromGod to himfelf he afterwards, ufed all things for himfelf, even his carnal fell; and all that he poffeired was become the provifion and fuel of his lulls ; and fo the whole creation which he was capable of Wing, was abu- fed by him to this low and felfifh end, as if all things had been, made but for his delight and will. But when man is brought to Deny him , he is brought to feif, .zegere the Creatures to theirformer Hie, and not to facrifice thee. to, his flefhly mind ; fo that all that he bath and ufeth in the world:,. iaufed to another end ( fo far as he denyeth himfelf ) then

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