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

2. It is the first thing you must do, if you mean to do any thing in Religion, to renounce Pleasure; and therefore it is put in the first place, the Lusts of the Flesh. It is below Reason to live in Pleasure; therefore much more below Grace. Alas, you will do nothing if this be not done, but will lie open to every Temptation. If a carnal Motion arise, that bids you neglect Duty, or practise Sin, you lie open to it; therefore it is said, Prov. 25.28. He that hath no rule over his own Spirit, is like a City that is broken down, and without Walls. He that bridles not his Appetite, is like a City whose Wall is broken down. When a Town is dismantled, it lies open for ever Comer; so where the Appetite is unruly, there is no room for the Spirit, but for every Temptation. Ezek. 47.11. But the miry Places thereof, and the Marishes thereof shall not be healed, they shall be given to Salt. The Waters of the Sanctuary could not heal the miry Places; which is an Emblem of a sensual Heart. Pleasure brings a Brawn and Deadness upon the Conscience, a Cloud upon the Understanding, and a Damp upon the Affections. Daniel, that had the high Visions of God, lived by Pulse, he was a Man temperate. Those that mortify Pleasure, are of the clearest Understanding. And John the Baptist, which had most eminent Revelations of the Mysteries of the Gospel, (of all the Prophets, there was not a greater than John the Baptist) he was fed with Locusts and wild Honey; therefore mortify Pleasure.

2. It is the first thing you must do, if you mean to do any thing in Religion, to renounce Pleasure; and therefore it is put in the first place, the Lusts of the Flesh. It is below Reason to live in Pleasure; therefore much more below Grace. Alas, you will do nothing if this be not done, but will lie open to every Temptation. If a carnal Motion arise, that bids you neglect Duty, or practise Sin, you lie open to it; therefore it is said, Prov. 25.28. He that hath no rule over his own Spirit, is like a City that is broken down, and without Walls. He that bridles not his Appetite, is like a City whose Wall is broken down. When a Town is dismantled, it lies open for ever Comer; so where the Appetite is unruly, there is no room for the Spirit, but for every Temptation.