A10659:277
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.
Tenthly, consider the Indefatigableness of this sin, how unwearied it is in all the mischiefs that it is bent upon. It is said of Satan that he goes about seeking whom he 1may devour, as it was of Christ▪ That he went about doing good; I think we shall never in the Scripture find the Devil at a pause, or sitting still like one that were spent and tired. But yet I find that for a season he hath departed, 2when he had such a terrible foil as put him out of all hope of victory; I find that he may be driven away and put to flight. Resist the Devil and he 3shall fly from you. But now the fleshly heart of a man will never be made sound a retreat, but sets on indefatigably upon the spiritual part: It is (as I said) like the Thief, when it is nailed and crucified it will still revile, like a wounded wolf it runs about to do mischief, or as a tired Ox it treads with more weight upon the4 soul. As the Historian said of Carthage that Rome was more troubled with it when it was half destroyed, then when it remained whole and entire: so the man that hath in some measure overcome his lusts, will be far more sensible of their stirrings and strugglings, then another in whom they rule without disturbance. We may observe in some froward men when their causes are tried ⟨p. 186⟩and prove desperate in right, they will yet still create perverse matters to molest their neighbours, and the more they sink in the main, the more clamorous they will be to proceed; as eager gamesters the more they loose, the deeper game they play, and the harder they set to it; so is it with the lusts of men, the more they are subdued, the more rebellious and headstrong will they be so far as their power goes against the spirit of Christ. Lime is kindled by that which quencheth all other fires, and surely Grace which […] other temptations, or at least abateth them doth occasionally, and by antiperistasis enrage the flesh, though in regard of exercise and actual power it dye daily.