A25478:1289
A supplement to The Morning-exercise at Cripple-Gate, or, Several more cases of conscience practically…
A supplement to The Morning-exercise at Cripple-Gate, or, Several more cases of conscience practically resolved by sundry ministers
London: printed for Thomas Cockerill, 1676
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.
1. That hereby the soul may be more fit for its operations;1 the pampering and feeding the body is usually injurious to the free exercise of the soul. And therefore the chastening it with due fasting may befriend the soul therein, especially in such exercises wherein the soul is to have least communion with the body.
- 1Jejunium purgat mentem, s•blevat sensum, carnem spiritui subjicit, concupiscentiae nebulas dispergit; as Austin speaks of it. Tom. 10. Ser. 230. de Temp.
As the body ought not to be robbed for the serving of God of that which is necessary for it; for God hates robbery for sacrifice, so by undue providing for it, we may rob the soul, and rob God of that service which it ought to perform unto him.
The body is called by Philosophers [Greek or Hebrew], or bruta pars hominis, the brute part of man. And a brute is not so fit for man's service, if he be kept either at too high or too low a rate, nec suprà negotium, nec infrâ negotium, sed par negotio, is a good rule for the body to be treated by; and as Aquinas speaks, abstinence from food upon a solemn fast is requisite ob elevationem mentis, for the elevation of the mind, that it may get loose from the sensitive part, and so more freely ascend to things above. As the Apostle kept ⟨p. 262⟩his body in subjection, that he might with more freedom run the race to obtain the Crown that is incorruptible,