A10659:161
Three treatises of the vanity of the creature. The sinfulness of sin. The life…Three treatises of the vanity of the creature. The sinfulnesse of sinne. The life…
Three treatises of the vanity of the creature. The sinfulness of sin. The life of Christ. Being the substance of several sermons preached at Lincolns Inn: by Edward Reynolds, preacher to that honourable society, and late fellow of Merton College in Oxford.Three treatises of the vanity of the creature. The sinfulnesse of sinne. The life of Christ. Being the substance of severall sermons preached at Lincolns Inne: by Edward Reynoldes, preacher to that honourable society, and late fellow of Merton Colledge in Oxford.
London: printed by Felix Kyngston for Robert Bostocke, 1631
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Secondly, because the strength of every man is his spirit; Mens cujusque is est quisque. Now if the Creature seize on a mans strength, it serves him as Delilah did Sampson, it will quickly let in the Philistines to vex him. Strength hath Two parts or offices, Passive in undergoing and withstanding evil, and Active in doing that which belongs to a man to do. Now when the heart and spirit of a man is set upon any Creature, it is weakened in both these respects.
Secondly, because the strength of every man is his spirit; Mens cujusque is est quisque. Now if the Creature seize on a mans strength, it serues him as Dalilah did Sampson, it will quickely let in the Philistines to vexe him. Strength hath Two parts or offices, Passive in undergoing and withstanding evill, and Active in doing that which belongs to a man to doe. Now when the heart and spirit of a man is set upon any Creature, it is weakned in both these respects.
First, it is disabled from bearing or withstanding evil. We will consider it, First in temptations; Secondly in afflictions. First, A man who hath set his heart inordinately upon any Creature is altogether unfit to withstand any temptation. In the Law when a man had new married a wife, he was not to go to war that1 year, but to rejoice with his wife. One reason whereof I suppose was this, because when the mind is strongly set upon any one object, till the strength of that desire be abated, a man will be utterly unfit to deal with an enemy: so is it with any lust to which a man weds himself, it altogether disables him to resist any enemy: after Hannibals army had melted themselves at Capua with sensuality and luxury, they were quite strangers to hard service and rigid discipline, when they were again reduced unto it.
First, it is disabled from bearing or withstanding evill. We will consider it, First in temptations; Secondly in afflictions. First, A man who hath set his heart inordinately upon any Creature is altogether unfit to withstand any temptation. In the Law when a man had new married a wife, he was not to goe to warre that