A27004:687
The reasons of the Christian religion the first part, of godliness, proving by natural…
The reasons of the Christian religion the first part, of godliness, proving by natural evidence the being of God ... : the second part, of Christianity, proving by evidence supernatural and natural, the certain truth of the Christian belief ... / by Richard Baxter ... ; also an appendix defending the soul's immortality against the Somatists or Epicureans and other pseudo-philosophers.
London: printed by R. White for Fran. Titon, 1667
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.
§. 8. Therefore no man can live to God according to his certain duty, who will not deny the desires of his flesh, and bring it into subjection, and live in vigilancy and daily conflict against its lusts.
Obj. But the appetite of meat, and drink, and sleep, and ease, and venery, and sport, and pleasure, and gain, and honour, is natural to us: and that which is natural is no vice, nor to be denied or destroyed.
Answ. It is natural to have the appetite, but it is the disease of nature that this appetite is inordinate, and no otherwise natural than the Leprosy is to those to whom it is propagated by their Parents. But is it natural to you to have lust and appetite, and is it not natural to you to have Reason to moderate and rule them? If not, it is natural to you to be Brutes, and not natural to you to be men: What is more natural to Man than to be Rational? is it not his essential form? And whether is Reason or Appetite, think you, naturally made to be the predominant faculty? Should the Horse rule the Rider, or the Rider the Horse? The Soul and Body are much like the Rider and the Horse; bethink you which should naturally rule.
Answ. It is natural to have the appetite, but it is the disease of nature that this appetite is inordinate, and no otherwise natural than the Leprosie is to those to whom it is propagated by their Parents. But is it natural to you to have lust and appetite, and is it not natural to you to have Reason to moderate and rule them? If not, it is natural to you to be Bruits, and not natural to you to be men: What is more natural to Man than to be Rational? is it not his essential form? And whether is Reason or Appetite, think you, naturally made to be the predominant faculty? Should the Horse rule the Rider, or the Rider the Horse? The Soul and Body are much like the Rider and the Horse; bethink you which should naturally rule.