The divine life in three treatises

3. Walking with God doth mortify the flesh, and allay the affections and lusts thereof: The soul that is taken up with higher matters, and daily seeth things more excellent, becometh as dead to the things below: And thus it weaneth us from all that is in the world which seemeth most desirable to carnal men. And when the flesh is mortified, and the world is nothing to us, or but as a dead and loathsome carcass, what is there left to be very troublesome in any suffering from the world? or to make us loth by death to leave it? It is men that know not God, that overvalue the profits and honours of the world; and men that never felt the comforts of Communion with God, that set too much by the pleasures of the flesh: And it is men that set too much by these, that make so great a matter of suffering. It is he that basely overvalueth wealth, that whineth and repineth when he comes to poverty: It is he that set too much by his honour, and being befooled by his pride, doth greatly esteem the thoughts or applauding words of men, that swelleth against those that disesteem him, and breaketh his heart when he falleth into disgrace. He that is cheated out of his wits by the pomps and splendour of a high and prosperous estate, doth think he is undone when he is brought low. But it is not so with him that walks with God: For being taken up with far higher things, he knoweth the vanity of these: As ⟨p. 272⟩he seeth not in them any thing that is worthy of his strong desires, so neither any thing that is worthy of much lamentation when they are gone. He never thought that a shadow or feather, or a blast of wind could make him happy: And he cannot think that the loss of these can make him miserable. He that is taken up with God, hath a higher interest and business, and findeth not himself so much concerned in the storms or calms that are here below, as others are, who know no better, and never minded higher things.

3. Walking with God doth mortifie the flesh, and allay the affections and lusts thereof: The soul that is taken up with higher matters, and daily seeth things more excellent, becometh as dead to the things below: And thus it weaneth us from all that is in the world which seemeth most desirable to carnal men. And when the flesh is mortified, and the world is nothing to us, or but as a dead and loathsome carkass, what is there left to be very troublesome in any suffering from the world? or to make us loth by death to leave it? It is men that know not God, that overvalue the profits and honours of the world; and men that never felt the comforts of Communion with God, that set too much by the pleasures of the flesh: And it is men that set too much by these, that make so great a matter of suffering. It is he that basely overvalueth wealth, that whineth and repineth when he comes to poverty: It is he that set too much by his honour, and being befooled by his pride, doth greatly esteem the thoughts or applauding words of men, that swelleth against those that disesteem him, and breaketh his heart when he falleth into disgrace. He that is cheated out of his wits by the pomps and splendour of a high and prosperous estate, doth think he is undone when he is brought low. But it is not so with him that walks with God: For being taken up with far higher things, he knoweth the vanity of these: As