7. 8. Seventhly, the more ability to abflain from occafions andop- portunities of fatisfying a mans lulls, as 706, a man much mor- tified, made a covenant with his eyes not to behold a maid, and kept to it, lob 31.I . When a man hates the very garment fpotted with the fie/h, it is a figneof a ftrong hatred ; when a man cannot en- dure to come where one he loves not, is ; cannot endure the fight of him, any thing that may put him in mind of him, not fo much as to parley or to fpeak with him. Eighthly, when our hearts doe not linger after fuchobjeas as may fatisfie our lulls, when abfent ; but whenout offight, they are out ofmind, this is a good degreeofmortification. We may find it in our (elves, that when objects are not prefented; that yet tilt re is in our hearts oftentimes a lingring after them, and this from thcmfelves without any outward provocation that is far worfe ; many a man, when he fees meat, finds he bath a flomach to it, which he thought not till it was fet afore him;' but when a man longs after meat he fees not, it is a fgne he is very hungry ; as we fee againfl rainy weather, before the raine begins to fall, the flones will give, as we ufe to fay, and grow danke ; fo a man that obferves his heart, may find before ob- jects are prefented, or acluall thoughts arife, a giving ofhis heart to fuch and fuch a lull, an inclination, a darknefíe, a moiftnefe, a fympathizingwith fuch an objea, that is a fgne of unmorti- fiednefle. David was a3 a weaned child, he had no thoughts of the dug, no longings after it, I have no high thoughts after the Kingdome, fayes he, Pfal. 131. A child that begins to be wean- ed, it may be at firft cryes after the dug, thoughhe fees it not; but afterwards, though it maybe when he fees it he cryes after it, yet not when abfenr. Object s prefent have a far greater force to draw, when abfent leffe ; therefore this is a farther degree of mortification attainable : it was in 7ofeph, when his Mareffe tempted him from day today, opportunity was ready, the ob- jeaprefent, but he denyed her. So in Boaz, a woman lay at his feete all night. So in David, whenhe had .Saul in his lurch,might as eafily have cut off his head; as the lap ofhis garment ; and was egg'd on to doe it, but he was then weaned indeed, and did it not ; When a man can looke upon beauty, and preferment, and truly fay they are no temptations tome. It is a figne of anun- found
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=