The four last things viz. death, judgment, heaven, hell, practically considered and applied in…

3. The sensual Affections are so numerous and clamorous, so vehement and hasty, that if they are admitted to counsel and give the decisive Vote, the Voice of Conscience will not be heard or regarded. In concernments of a lower Nature, 'tis constantly seen, that nothing more disturbs Reason, and makes Men improvident & precipitant in their Determinations, than a disordered Passion. From hence, 'tis a prudent Rule, That as 'tis not fit to eat in the height of a Fever, because the Meat feeds the Disease, by increasing the feverish, not the vital heat: so 'tis not good to deliberate in the heat of any ⟨p. 430⟩Affection. For then the Thoughts strongly blow up the Passion, and smother Reason, and the Mind is rather a Party than a Judg: but after the declination of that Fever in the Soul, in a quiet interval, 'tis seasonable to consider. Now if any simple Passion when moved, transports and confounds the Mind, and makes it uncapable of judging aright, much more the love of the World, an universal Passion that reigns in Men, and has so many swarming desires answerable to the variety of sensible things, and therefore is more unruly, lasting and dangerous than any particular Passion. In short, sensual Affections captivate the Mind, and hinder its due considering the folly and obliquity of the carnal choice, and when incensed (as distracted Persons whose Strength grows with their Fury) violently break all the restraints the understanding can apply from reason and revelation.

3. The sensual Affections are so numerous and clamorous, so vehement and hasty, that if they are admitted to counsel and give the decisive Vote, the Voice of Conscience will not be heard or regarded. In concernments of a lower Nature, 'tis constantly seen, that nothing more disturbs Reason, and makes Men improvident & precipitant in their Determinations, than a disordered Passion. From hence, 'tis a prudent Rule, That as 'tis not fit to eat in the height of a Fever, because the Meat feeds the Disease, by increasing the feverish, not the vital heat: so 'tis not good to deliberate in the heat of any ⟨p. 430⟩Affection. For then the Thoughts strongly blow up the Passion, and smother Reason, and the Mind is rather a Party than a Judg: but after the declination of that Fever in the Soul, in a quiet interval, 'tis seasonable to consider. Now if any simple Passion when moved, transports and confounds the Mind, and makes it uncapable of judging aright, much more the love of the World, an universal Passion that reigns in Men, and has so many swarming desires answerable to the variety of sensible things, and therefore is more unruly, lasting and dangerous than any particular Passion. In short, sensual Affections captivate the Mind, and hinder its due considering the folly and obliquity of the carnal choice, and when incens'd (as distracted Persons whose Strength grows with their Fury) violently break all the restraints the understanding can apply from reason and revelation.