The divine life in three treatises

3. Nothing can be more Rational and Agreeable to Mans Nature, than that the superior faculties should govern the inferior, that the brutish part be subject to the Rational; and that the ends and objects of this higher faculty be preferred before the objects of the lower, that the objects of sense be made subservient to the objects of Reason. If this be not Natural and Rational, then it is natural to Man to be no Man, but a Beast, and Reasonable to be Unreasonable. Now it is evident that a Holy Living unto God, is but the improvement of true Reason, and its employment for and upon its noblest object, and its ultimate End: And that a sensual life is the exercise of the inferior brutish faculties, in predominancy above and before the rational: And therefore to question whether ⟨p. 238⟩God or the Creature should be first sought, and loved, and principally desired, and delighted in, and served, is but to question whether we should live like Men or like Beasts, and whether D•gs or wise men be fitter companions for us? and whether the Rider or the Horse should have the rule? whether the Rational or Sensitive Powers be superior and proper to the nature of a man?

3. Nothing can be more Rational and Agreeable to Mans Nature, than that the superiour faculties should govern the inferiour, that the brutish part be subject to the Rational; and that the ends and objects of this higher faculty be preferred before the objects of the lower, that the objects of sense be made subservient to the objects of Reason. If this be not Natural and Rational, then it is natural to Man to be no Man, but a Beast, and Reasonable to be Unreasonable. Now it is evident that a Holy Living unto God, is but the improvement of true Reason, and its imployment for and upon its noblest object, and its ultimate End: And that a sensual life is the exercise of the inferiour brutish faculties, in predominacy above and before the rational: And therefore to question whether ⟨p. 238⟩God or the Creature should be first sought, and loved, and principally desired, and delighted in, and served, is but to question whether we should live like Men or like Beasts, and whether D•gs or wise men be fitter companions for us? and whether the Rider or the Horse should have the rule? whether the Rational or Sensitive Powers be superiour and proper to the nature of a man?