Human nature in its fourfold state ... In several practical discourses

3dly, It may be a mighty check upon sensuality and fleshly lusts, 1 Pet. ii. 11. I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul. It is hard to cause wet wood take fire; and when the fire doth take hold of it, it is soon extinguished. Sensuality makes men most unfit for divine communications, and is an effectual means to quench the Spirit. Intemperance in eating and drinking, carries on the ruin of soul and body at once; and hastens death, while it makes the man most unmeet for it. Therefore, take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and so that day come upon you unawares, Luke xxi. 34. But O, how often is the soul struck through with a dart, in gratifying the senses! At these doors destruction enters in. Therefore Joh made a covenant with his eyes, chap xxxi. 1. The mouth of a strange woman is a deep pity he that is abhorred of the Lord, shall fall therein, Prov. xxii. 14▪ "Let him that standeth, take heed lest he fall." Beware of lasciviousness; study modesty in your apparel, words and actions. The ravens of the valley of death will at length pick out the wanton ey•• The obscene filthy tongue will at length be quiet, in the land of silence! and grim death embracing the body in its cold arms, will effectually allay the heat of all fleshly lusts.

Lastly, In a word, it may check our earthly mindedness; and at once knock down the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and ••e pride of life. Ah! if we must die, why are we thus? Why so fond of temporal things; so anxious to get them, so eager in the embraces of them, so mightily touched with the loss of them? Let me▪ upon a view of the house appointed for all living, bespeak the worldling in the words of Solomon,