SERMON ,XXVI. 371 how we should behave ourselves in this point; Let us walk ho- nestlx/, as inn the day, not in rioting and drunkenness ; but put ye on. the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the ,flesh, to fulfil it in 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 im- purities of the animal nature : If you have put on the LordJe- sus Christ, andare his disciples indeed, then look like christians ; let the very life of Christ be manifest in your lives : Live above these animal desires, these lower designs of the flesh, which is not the chief natureof the man, much less should it be the chief end of christians to gratify it. II. Let christians consider, that theoriginal ruin of their na- tures, soul and body, arose from the indulgence of a foolish ap- petite. When our 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 tempted Adam to the sin that ruined him and all his offspring. When therefore a temptation to this sort of guilt appears, let us thinkof all the miseries of our fallen state, and not dare to repeat that crime, whichhad such dismal consequences. It brought iniquity, pain, and death into 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 appetitewhich ought always to bekept 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 under subjection, and endeavour to be tem- perate in all things, that running in the christian race, I may ob- tain the prize. It is the business of achristian lo eat anddrink in due season, for strength and refreshment, not for luxury and drunkenness, which Solomon forbids to princes ; Eccl. x. 17. It was an excellent saying of that holy man, Mr. Joseph Allein ; " I sitdown to my table not to please my appetite, or to pamper my flesh, but to maintain a servant of Jesus Christ, that hemay 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 : they drink of the pleasures that flow from God, and from hiscovenant; and therefore should not be over-solici- tous about pleasing their meaner appetites. Those that indulge themselves in carnal delicacies, and make enquiry for the plea, sures of the flesh, as the main business of life, what shall I eat, and what shall! drink ? Those that live in a round of sensuality, they debase their souls, make themselves unfit for the duties and sb3
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