2dly. You must use them with Piety. God must not be banished from our Delights and Refreshments; we must receive them from God, enjoy them in God, and refer them to God. We must receive them from God, who is the Author, the Giver, the Allower, and the Sanctifier of them. You must take all your Comforts out of God's Hands with Thanksgiving, then your Table will not so easily be made a Snare. How sweet is this, when you can say in good Conscience, Lord! thou hast provided this for me, this is the Comfort thou hast allowed me. The Apostle saith, 1 Tim. 4.5, 6. Every Creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with Thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the Word of God and Prayer. In the Word God hath declared the Use to be lawful; there we understand our Liberty and Right by Christ; and in Prayer we ask God's Leave and Blessing, that so we may act Faith upon his Providence; for Man doth not live by Bread alone, he must receive his Strength and Nourishment from God. All the Creatures since the Fall are armed with a Curse, and therefore we had need take them as Blessings ⟨p. 75⟩out of God's Hand in and through Jesus Christ. And we must enjoy them in God, God must not be forgotten when he remembers us: as you refresh the Body with Food, let the Soul be refreshed too by Meditation, that's the Soul's Refreshment. Consider his Liberality; how many things doth God give at a Feast? It is God that gives Wealth to furnish our Table, Health to use them, Peace to meet together; and Christ hath purchased Liberty that we may make use of all these Blessings. The Soul must have its Refreshment. And so may we meditate upon Christ's Sweetness, the Fatness of God's House. In Luke 14. when Christ was eating Bread in the Pharisee's House, then he discoursed of the spiritual Wedding-Supper, and of eating Bread in his Father's Kingdom. Then you must use them to God, as the End and Scope; 1 Cor. 10.31. Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the Glory of God. No Pleasure should be its own End. The immediate End is the Sustentation of the Body, but the remote End should be Service, and God's Glory. We do not eat to eat, but eat to live. Pleasure is the Handmaid of Nature, but not the Guide. The End of Eating is to repair the Strength which hath been weakened in Duty, and fit us to attend upon Duty again; Eccles. 10.17.
2dly. You must use them with Piety. God must not be banished from our Delights and Refreshments; we must receive them from God, enjoy them in God, and refer them to God. We must receive them from God, who is the Author, the Giver, the Allower, and the Sanctifier of them. You must take all your Comforts out of God's Hands with Thanksgiving, then your Table will not so easily be made a Snare. How sweet is this, when you can say in good Conscience, Lord! thou hast provided this for me, this is the Comfort thou hast allowed me. The Apostle saith, 1 Tim. 4.5, 6. Every Creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with Thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the Word of God and Prayer. In the Word God hath declared the Use to be lawful; there we understand our Liberty and Right by Christ; and in Prayer we ask God's Leave and Blessing, that so we may act Faith upon his Providence; for Man doth not live by Bread alone, he must receive his Strength and Nourishment from God. All the Creatures since the Fall are armed with a Curse, and therefore we had need take them as Blessings ⟨p. 75⟩out of God's Hand in and through Jesus Christ. And we must enjoy them in God, God must not be forgotten when he remembers us: as you refresh the Body with Food, let the Soul be refreshed too by Meditation, that's the Soul's Refreshment. Consider his Liberality; how many things doth God give at a Feast? It is God that gives Wealth to furnish our Table, Health to use them, Peace to meet together; and Christ hath purchased Liberty that we may make use of all these Blessings. The Soul must have its Refreshment. And so may we meditate upon Christ's Sweetness, the Fatness of God's House. In Luke 14. when Christ was eating Bread in the Pharisee's House, then he discoursed of the spiritual Wedding-Supper, and of eating Bread in his Father's Kingdom. Then you must use them to God, as the End and Scope; 1 Cor. 10.31. Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the Glory of God. No Pleasure should be its own End. The immediate End is the Sustentation of the Body, but the remote End should be Service, and God's Glory. We do not eat to eat, but eat to live. Pleasure is the Handmaid of Nature, but not the Guide. The End of Eating is to repair the Strength which hath been weakned in Duty, and fit us to attend upon Duty again; Eccles. 10.17.
