442 CHRISTIAN MORALITY,VIZ. [SEAM. XXVIe, not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.". Put on the spirit, of the gospel, and the ornaments of christianity, and then you cannot for shame seek the pleasures of the brute, nor sink down into the., base iw purities of the animal nature : If you have put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and are his disciples indeed, then look like christians ; let the very life of Christ he mani- fest in your lives: Live above these animal desires, these lower designs of the flesh, which is not the chief nature of the man, much less should it be the chief end of chris- tians to gratify it. II. Let christians consider, that the original ruin of their natures, soul and body, arose from the indulgence ofa foolishappetite. Whenour mother Eve saw the fruit of the forbidden tree, she thought it was pleasant to the eye, and good for food: She tasted it herself, and tempt- edAdam to the sin that ruined him and all. his offspring. When therefore a temptation to this sort of guilt appears, let us think of all the miseries of our fallen state, and not dare to repeat that crime, which had -such dismal consequences. It brought iniquity, pain, and death in- to human nature, and begun all that dishonour to God, and all that mischief among men, that ever was found in this lower world. . III. Every saint ought to have a mortal quarrel with the flesh, because he.carries about the seeds of iniquity in it, and the springs of perverse appetites, which ought always to be kept under, lest our very spirits become carnal, and we lose our heavenly crown. Therefore saith the apostle, 1 Cor. ix. 27. I keep under my body,' and bring it intó subjection, and endeavour to be tem- perate in all things, that running in the christian race, I may obtain the prize. It is the business of a christian to eat and drink in due season, for strength and refresh- ment, not for luxury and drunkenness, which Solomon forbids to princes ; Eccles. x. 17. It was an excellent saying of that holy man, Mr: Joseph Allein, "I sit down to my table not to please my appetite, or to pamper my flesh, but to maintain a servant of Jesus Christ, that he may be fit for the Lord's work." IV. The saints should be pure and holy; even in the affairs of the natural life; for they have meat to eat, that the world knows not of; theydrink of the. pleasures
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