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

But then, what is this inordinate Desire, this intemperate Use, this undue Liberty? How shall we trace and find out the Sin? Different Natures and Tempers make Rules uncertain; but the two general Bounds which God hath set to our Liberty in this kind, are the Health of our Body, and the Welfare of the Soul: But when bodily Health is overturned, and the Soul clogged and perverted, then your Lusts have carried you too far.

1. When bodily Health is overturned. Too much care for the Body, destroys it. As the Romans were wont to have their Funerals at the Gates of Venus's Temple, to show that Lusts shorten Life. When Health is destroyed, or the Vigour of Nature is abated, (as too much Oil puts out the Lamp) then you sin. Hos. 4.11. it is said, Whoredom, and Wine, and new Wine, take away the Heart: The Heart, (that is) the generousness and sprightliness of Man. When gallant and active Spirits are effeminated, and brave Hopes are drowned and quenched in excess of Pleasures, and we lose our masculine Agility and Vivacity, all is melted away; then we sin against the Bounds and Limits God hath set us. Thus there is a Restraint that ariseth from the Body.

1. When bodily Health is overturned. Too much care for the Body, destroys it. As the Romans were wont to have their Funerals at the Gates of Venus's Temple, to shew that Lusts shorten Life. When Health is destroyed, or the Vigour of Nature is abated, (as too much Oil puts out the Lamp) then you sin. Hos. 4.11. it is said, Whoredom, and Wine, and new Wine, take away the Heart: The Heart, (that is) the generousness and sprightliness of Man. When gallant and active Spirits are effeminated, and brave Hopes are drowned and quenched in excess of Pleasures, and we lose our masculine Agility and Vivacity, all is melted away; then we sin against the Bounds and Limits God hath set us. Thus there is a Restraint that ariseth from the Body.