CHAPTER XVIII – Inordinate appetite to be denied
sports and pleasures, and another man's upon his honour and reputation with men! They feed the imaginations of their mind upon almost nothing but selfish things; sometimes delighting themselves with the very thoughts of men's esteem of them, or of their worldly plenty, or of their sinful lusts and pleasures; and sometimes troubling themselves with the thoughts of their wants, or low condition, or crosses, or injuries from men; sometimes contriving how they may attain their desires, and carking and caring for accomplishing their selfish ends: morning and evening, at home or abroad, as the thoughts of the sanctified are on God, and heaven, and the way thereto, so the thoughts of the unsanctified are all upon self, and the interest of self, and the means thereto. O cleanse your minds, sirs, of this great self-pollution; keep them more clean and chaste to God. Deny self this room in your imaginations, and waste not thoughts and precious time, on such unjust and unprofitable employment. It is an impertinency, to be so much solicitous about the charge of God, and to care so much when he hath bid us "be careful for nothing." It is a debasing of our minds to feed them so long on so low an object, when they might be taken up with God.
Care not therefore what you shall eat or drink, or wherewith you shall be clothed; for after all these things do the selfish unsanctified
Gentiles seek; and our Father knoweth that we have need of all these things: but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you; Matt. 6:31–33. Self doth but rob you of the fruit of your thoughts which you might reap by feeding them on God.
CHAPTER XVIII
Inordinate Appetite to be Denied 7. THE last part of self to be denied, is your inordinate appetites, excited by the senses, commonly called the sensitive appetite. These are not to be themselves destroyed; for the appetite is natural and necessary to our welfare: but the inordinate desire is to be denied, and the appetite restrained, and no further satisfied than is allowed by the word of God; and by this means the inordinacy of it may come to be mortified. Though selfishness hath defiled the whole man, yet sensual pleasure is the chief part of its interest, and therefore by the senses it commonly works, and these are the doors and windows by which iniquity entereth into the soul. And therefore a principal part of self-denial consisteth in denying the sensitive appetite.
Quest. 'But how far is this appetite to be denied?'
Answ. 1. Whenever it craveth any thing that is forbidden: this is past doubt. It must not be pleased to the disobeying of God. 2. When it enticeth us towards that which is forbidden, and would be feeding on the baits and occasions of sin; unless the thing desired be necessary, it is here to be denied. For sin and hell are dangers that no wise man will draw too near to. 3. Whenever the pleasing of the sense conduceth not to God's service, and doth not fit or furnish us for our duty, it is unlawful.
Quest. 'But may not the creatures be received for delight as well as for necessity?'
Answ. It is an ill-expressed question; as if delight itself were never necessary. Necessity is either absolute, as of those things without which we cannot be saved; or it is only to our bettering and the
greater securing of our salvation; and so it is taken for that which is any way useful and profitable to it; directly and indirectly. We may and must make use of the creatures, 1. Not only for our own necessity, but principally for the service and glory of God; 1 Cor.
10:31. And 2. Not only for our absolute necessity, but also when they in any measure further us in or to the service of God; so be it they be not on any other account unlawful. 3. We may use the creatures for delight, when that delight itself is a means to fit us for the work of God, and is sincerely sought for with that intent. But we may not use them for any other delight, but that which itself is necessary or useful to God's service. Reasons are evident. (1.) Because we should else make that delight our ultimate end, which is as bad as brutish; for either it must be an end, or means. If it be not used as a means to God as our ultimate end, it must be our ultimate end in itself, which is no better than to take his place. (2.) That action is idle, and consequently a sinful misemploying of our faculties, which doth not conduce to the end that we were made for, and live for. (3.) It is a misemploying of God's creatures, and a sinful casting them away for any end which is not itself a means to the great end of our lives. All is lost that is no way useful to God and our salvation. It is contrary to the end of their creation and ours. (4.) It is a sinful robbing God of the use of his talents, if we use them for any end that is not subservient to himself as the chief end. For certainly he made all things for himself, and that which is not employed for him, is taken from him injuriously. All men must answer for the mercies which they have received; whether they have so used them for God, as that they can give him his own with the improvement. (5.) The sensitive appetite by reason of its inordinacy, is grown a rebel against God and reason; and an enemy to him and to ourselves. And no man should
unnecessarily please or feed so dangerous an enemy. Sin doth most make its entrance this way; and most men lie in sin before our eyes, by pleasing their senses: and shall we run ourselves on such a great and visible danger, against the warning of so many experiences? Yea, we know that we have been often this way overtaken ourselves, and that abundance of sin hath crept in at these passages; and yet shall we plead for liberty to undo ourselves? The godly are so conscious of their weakness or proneness to sin, that they are jealous of themselves; and therefore it beseemeth not such to do any thing needlessly that may tempt them to it, and is so likely to prove a snare. If Paul must beat and tame his body to bring it into subjection, lest when he had preached to others, he should be cast away himself
(1 Cor. 9:27.), much more have we need to be watchful that are more weak. We are commanded expressly to make no provision for the flesh, to satisfy the lusts (or desires) thereof (Rom. 13:14.); and therefore they that eat, or drink, or do any thing else for the mere satisfaction of the desires of the flesh, and for its delight, do break this express command of God. And how is it said, that they that are
Christ's have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts, or desires thereof, if they may use the creatures merely to delight and please the flesh? this is not crucifying its affections and desires; Gal.
5:24.
Job's covenant with the eyes that they gaze not on alluring objects (Job 31:1.), was an act of self-denial that others need as well as Job.
Such a covenant with our taste, and with our ears, and with every sense, that they move not but by the consent of God and reason, and let not in any sin into the soul, is a most eminent part of this necessary duty. David's adultery and murder did first make its entrance at the eye. Had Noah more jealously watched his appetite,
he had not by drunkenness been a warning to posterity. It was Achan's eyes that betrayed his heart to gold, and silver, and rich attire, though an accursed thing; Josh. 7:20, 21. What sin almost doth not enter at some of these ports?
Be sure therefore that no sin be without its guard: accustom yourselves to deny them, and the conquest will be easy. It is not to deny them any thing that is useful to you for God's service, and a true means to your holy ends, that I advise you to; but only that which would betray you by delighting in them. It is not to destroy the body, but to tame it, keep it under, and bring it into subjection: and this must be done. To move to this, consider yet further these three or four things more distinctly.
1. It is for want of this part of self-denial that the world is so full of scandals, and the consciences of men so full of wounds, and professors walk so unevenly with God, and seem to be but as other men. Here one drops into tippling, if not stark drunkenness; and there another into wantonness, if not fornication; and many live in gluttony, and never see it nor repent of it; and many are drowned in covetous desires and practices; and some give up themselves to sensual pastimes; and all because they do not make this covenant with their senses, nor have ever yet learned to deny themselves; but because it pleaseth them, they think it is not displeasing to God; and that it is no sin, but a part of their Chistian liberty: yea, many of them think that by this doctrine of self-denial, we would deny them the use of the mercies of God, and consequently hinder them from thankfulness for them: and thus they make a religion of pleasing the flesh, which is the deadly enemy to God and religion. They imagine a liberty purchased them to please it, and fulfil its desires; and they
measure out mercies as they please it, and they would return God a fleshly thanks for these mercies, and offer him a sacrifice as the heathens did to Ceres and Bacchus; whereas the Gospel knoweth no mercy, but either eternal mercy, or that which is a means to it; nor will it call that a mercy which hath not a tendency to God; nor did
Christ purchase us any liberty, but what is from sin or punishment, and is for his service: he did not suffer in the flesh to procure us liberty unprofitably to indulge and please the flesh, and to strengthen our enemy, and by use to give it the mastery, when this mastery is the damnation of most of the world. If Christians had learned more to deny their senses, they would walk more blamelessly and inoffensively in the world: if they would keep at a distance from the bait, and when they can not do so, yet shut up these doors, that it may be at a distance from their minds, how safely would they walk that now are stumbling at every creature that is given for their relief!
The objects of sense are these lower things, so contrary to the objects of faith, that the more we love one of them, the less we shall regard the other; and therefore these are always working against each other.
And as the objects of faith are then most sweet and powerful with us, when faith is set most fully upon them; so the objects of sense are then most powerful to draw us from God, when the doors of sense are set wide open, and the appetite let loose upon them.
2. And you may further observe, that almost all the grossest sins in the world, do begin with some little liberty of the senses, which at first we take for a lawful or indifferent thing. The filthiest whoredoms do usually begin in lustful looks, and thoughts, and speeches, and so proceed to lascivious behaviour, and so to filthiness itself. And the glutton and the drunkard are first ensnared by the eye, and then by tasting, and so proceed by little and little to excess: see
therefore that you keep as far from the baits of sensuality as you can: and lay a command upon your senses to forbear: if you look upon it, you are next to touching it, and if you touch it, you are next to tasting it, and if you taste it, you are like to let it down, and if you let it down, you are like to venture again, and let down more; and all must up again, or you are lost. And therefore keep out the first beginnings, and think with yourselves, 'If sin be the poison of my soul, the digesting of it will be my ruin: and if I cannot digest it, why should I let it down? And if I may not let it down, what reason have I to be tasting it? and if I should not taste it, why should I touch it or be meddling with it? and if I may not meddle with it, why should I look upon it or hearken to them that would entice me to it?' So that the denying of your senses and your appetite, is the sure and easy way to prevent those dreadful gripes that else may follow.
3. Moreover, if you deny not your sensitive appetites, you will never be acquainted with heavenly delights. The soul cannot move two contrary ways at once, towards earth and towards heaven. When you gaze upon this world and feed your appetites with fleshly delights, you have no heart or mind to the delights above. It is the soul that retires from creature, and sensual objects, that is free for God, and ready to entertain the motions of grace. Not that I would have you turn hermits and monks, and forsake the company of men and all worldly business; no, it is a higher and nobler course that I propound to you: even in the midst of the world to live as without the world, and as if there were nothing before you for sensuality to feed upon: to live so fully to God in the world, that you may see God in all the creatures, and converse with him in those same objects, by which the sensual are turned from him: and to live in the greatest fulness of all things, as if there were nothing but penury to your flesh, and seeing
God in all, and using all for God, and denying self, where you have opportunity to please it; this is the most noble life on earth. But if you find that you cannot attain to this, and that you cannot deny yourselves the delights of earth, unless you withdraw from the sight of the objects; do so and spare not, so far as may consist with your serviceableness to God and human society: but still you shall find that whether earthly delights are present or absent, your minds must retire from that which doth allure and gratify the flesh, if ever you would enjoy communion with God, and taste of the delights of an heavenly conversation.
4. And by pleasing your senses, you will increase their vicious, inordinate desires. The more you gratify them, the more they will crave: you feed the disease by yielding to such desires; but never think to quiet it by contenting it. The more the flesh hath, the more it would have. The only way to abate the rage of sensual desire, is to deny them, and use them constantly to that denial. The safest food and raiment is that which best strengtheneth and furnisheth us for God's service, with the least consent and pleasure to our sensual appetites and desires. And the same I must say of house, and lands, and labours, and friends, and all the creatures; that is the best state of life in which God is served and pleased best, with the least content and pleasure to the flesh. Carnal delights and spiritual are so contrary; the one so drossy and sordid, and the other so sublime and pure, that they will not well consist together; but the delights of the flesh do corrupt or weaken the spiritual delights.
5. Lastly consider, what a base unmanly thing it is for man to be a slave to his sensitive appetite. As truly as the horse was made to be ruled by the rider, and all the brutes to be under man, so was the
appetite and all the senses made to be ruled by reason; and no sense should be pleased till reason do consent: a beast has no rule for his eating and drinking but his appetite; and therefore man's reason is to moderate him: but a man hath a better guide than appetite or sense to follow: you should not eat a bit or drink a drop merely because the appetite would have it, but reason must be advised with, and God must give advice to reason. A swine that will drink whey till he burst his belly, is blameless, because he knew not the danger, and had not reason to restrain him: but a man that hath reason, and yet will eat, and drink, and sleep, and use the creatures merely to please the appetite of his flesh, is utterly inexcusable. What must the light of reason be put out, or put under the cover of sensual concupiscence?
Must a nature that is kin to angels, be enslaved to that which is kin to beasts? Unworthy is he of the honour or glory of a saint, that casteth away the honour of his manhood, and makes himself a very beast.
What else doth that wretch, that when he seeth a dish before him that he loves, doth never ask whether it be wholesome or unwholesome, but eats it as a horse doth his provender, merely because his appetite would have it; yea, perhaps though he know, or be told that it is unwholesome, yet as long as it pleases his taste, he cares not? And what else doth that wretch, that when he sees the cup, must needs be tasting? he loves it, and that is reason enough with him. What a base unmanly thing is it (much more unchristian), to be a slave to a fleshly appetite! Would one of these gentlemen-gluttons, drunkards, or whoremongers, or any of our voluptuous epicures, that must needs have that they love, be contented to become a servant to a beast? Would you take a dog or a swine for your master, and serve them, and obey them, and do what your brutish master would have you? Why, what is the matter that many of our worshipful and