A fourth volume containing one hundred and fifty sermons on several texts of Scripture…

1st. They are Lusts; and therefore Lust should be checked, because it is Lust. That we may see what Victory we have over our selves, it is a fit occasion to express our Self-denial, and to show what we can do for God. There can be no considerable Self-denial there but where the Lust is great; and there we show how we can renounce our Bosom-desires for God's sake. Mat. 7.13. it is said, Strait is the Gate, and narrow the Way that leads to Life. If we desire to go to Heaven, we must look to cross our selves in those things we most affect and desire, and pass through a strait Gate; and therefore if you let Lust have its scope, you mistake the way: Without Self-denial there can be no good done in Religion. Again, Lust is the Disease of the Soul. Natural Desire is like the Calor vitalis, the vital Heat which preserves Nature; but Lust is like the feverish Heat that oppresseth Nature: We should get rid of our immoderate Desire, as we would of a Disease. Nature's Desires are temperate, and soon satisfied; but Lust's are immoderate and ravenous. Contentation is the Soul's Health, as Lust is her Sickness. If after much eating and drinking a Man is unsatisfied, it is a sign he is sick, and hath more need of Physic than of Meat and Drink, and to be purged rather than filled: So when we are not contented with God's Allowance in a moderate supply of Nature, we need to be cured rather than satisfied. Drink is sweet to a Man in a feverish Distemper, but it is better ⟨p. 54⟩to be without the Appetite, than to enjoy the pleasure of Satisfaction. Who would desire a burning Fever to relish his Drink? Better mortify the Lust than satisfy it, in the issue it will be sweeter: for it is the Disease of the Soul, though it seem sweet. I am sure the Pains of Mortification will not be half so bitter as the Horrors of everlasting Darkness. And Lust let alone, begins our Hell; it is the burning Heat that at length breaks out into an everlasting Flame. Again, Lust is the Disorder of Nature: and Reason, that should be Monarch and King in the Soul, is enslaved, and under a base Bondage by strength of Desires: and it is the greatest Slavery for a Man to be a Slave to his own Desires, and the truest Freedom to command them. Consider what an odd sight it were, if the Feet should be there where the Head is, and Earth there where Heaven should be:

1st. They are Lusts; and therefore Lust should be checked, because it is Lust. That we may see what Victory we have over our selves, it is a fit occasion to express our Self-denial, and to shew what we can do for God. There can be no considerable Self-denial there but where the Lust is great; and there we shew how we can renounce our Bosom-desires for God's sake.