of our time: and, by being thus profitably bufied, we shall leave no room for the unclean fpirit to enter into our foul, and temptus. The men of pleasure are in the number of those who know not how to spend their days; and chastity can feldom maintain its ground in an idle foil, but is facrificed to an enemy always within us, and ready to betray us.

How to a

Many men have been ruined by prefuming upon their own In case of ftrength; by running themselves into temptations, temptation. which they had the confidence to think they could eafily mafter; and fad experience has convinced them of their error; and want of caution has made work for repentance, and petition for greater strength. That man is happy who feareth always, but confidence is the portion of fools. Natural corruption is great, and the violence of our appetites is ftrong: fo that, if we give them all the liberty we lawfully may, they will quickly mafter us, and fnatch at such pleafures as are unlawful. Therefore from a fenfe of our own weakness, and of the power of temptation, keep void lewd at a distance from all fuch circumstances that may ness. poffibly corrupt innocence; truft not thyself in reading books that are framed to raise thy paflions; to gaze upon pictures that move thy defires; to converfe with company that delight to fhew their wit in obfcene difcourfe. Of all paffions, love is the moft dangerous, because the hardest to be conquered. Therefore all kind of intimacies which may fire our paffions are to be avoided, because they infenfibly engage our affections; and when they are firmly bent to an object, they seek to gratify themselves by the enjoyment of that object. Nay friendship, when founded purely upon virtue and merit, and the leaft fupported by fenfe, may in the iffue prove fatal and dangerous: for, though at first we are only charmed with the beauties of the mind, entertained with a good understanding, edified by a modeft and virtuous behaviour; ; yet, by degrees, our admiration and delight in thefe accomplishments extends itself to the whole perfon, and the talents of the mind render the body more pleafing and agreeable; fo that what begins in the fpirit, without care and Ufe frequent the grace of God, may end in the flesh and the luft thereof. Therefore use frequent and fervent

prayer,

prayer,

prayer. This is the way to procure that grace of God which is neceflary to preferve us from failing, or to recover us, if we fall. Its frequency will fix our minds upon fpiritual objects, and fill us with a fenfe of God's being prefent everywhere; an impreffion, which is proper to keep our appetites under government: and its fervour will make worldly pleafures of less esteem in our affections. Therefore we must beg of God, that he would create in us a perfect abhorrence of all impurity; that he would cleanfe us from all filthiness of flesh and fpirit; that he would fet a ftrict guard on the fenfes, turn away our eyes, ftop our ears, bridle our tongue, and reftrain our hands from all uncleannefs; that he would give us grace to fly all temptations or opportunities of corrupting our neighbour or ourselves. When impure thoughts are the remains of a bad life, and the punishment of evil habits we formerly contracted, we must endeavour to quench this fire with the tears of repentance for what is paft: we must confefs before God the impurity of our former lives, and abhor ourfelves for those follies whereby we have offended him: we must beg him to ftrengthen our refolutions, and in his good time to caft out the remains of the unclean spirit: we must look upon them as a juft correction of our former diforders, and submit with patience and humility; faying with Jofeph's brethren, We have deferved these things, because we have finned: and we must the rather apply ourselves to this remedy of prayer, because through its power and ftrength all other means become fuccefsful and effectual.*

* See the duty of prayer, and its efficacy, in Sunday 7.

SUNDAY XV.

I. Of temperance in eating, with its end and rules. II. Of temperance in drinking, with its proper ends and rules. III. Of intemperance, and the falfe ends of drinking. IV. Of drinking fpirituous liquors, including the degrees of the fin of drunkenness, the great guilt of the strong drinker, the great mifchiefs attending it, and the neceffity and difficulty

B b

of

L

of forfaking it, with a caution to young people. V. The excufes made by drunkards are no reason to continue in their fin.

Of tempe

rance.

Τι

HE fecond virtue that refpects the right government of the body is TEMPERANCE in eating, drinking, fleep, recreation, and apparel; of which feveral branches of temperance I fhall difcourfe in order. And, First, of EATING: We must never indulge our appetites

by eating beyond what God and nature has intendIn eating. ed for the being and well-being of our bodies; becaufe life and health are the foundation of all other enjoyments; and are therefore of greater value than all other poffeffions put together, because they are neceffary in order to the enjoyment of thofe poffeffions.

Ends of

The principal point of wisdom therefore in the conduct of human life is fo to use the enjoyments of this eating. prefent world, as that they may not themselves fhorten that period wherein it is allowed us to enjoy them. And if any part of knowledge deferves a steadier attention than another, and has of all others the jufteft pretence to be efteemed invaluable; it is unquestionably that knowledge by which, as the wife man expreffes it, our days may be multiplied, and the years of our life may be increased. Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die, was the reasoning of the Epicure; but it was very falfe reafoning, to make the melancholy confideration of the fhortness of life an argument for debauchery, when that very debauchery is evidently the cause of making man's life ftill fhorter. Temperance and fobriety, the regular government of our appetites and paffions, and promoting peace and good order in the world, are, even without regard to any arguments of religion, the greatest inftances of human wisdom; because they are the most effectual means of preserving our being and well-being in the world, and of prolonging the period, and inlarging the comforts and enjoyments of life.

As to the prefervation of life; it is certain no man can Preferving live without eating: for, as phyfick is neceffary to reftore us to our former health, fo eating is the pro

of life.

per

per means to cure that hunger which is natural to man, and, if not prevented, muft prove his mortal disease. Thus

Eating, you have read, is neceffary to preferve our bodily health; and therefore whatever eating is agreeable to these ends of health and welfare of our bodies, of health. is alfo lawful: but whoever eats with the fole view to please his taste, or, what is more finful, to excite luft in his own body, he not only acts against his present but future interest: for by furfeiting and drunkennefs many fall into divers difeafes, and are brought to untimely deaths.

Rules of

Therefore, let nobody ingorge himself so as to hurt his health; nor muft he indulge his appetite with nicenefs and luxury; for whoever inflaves himself temperance to his palate must be fure to do himself hurt by in eating. that which God gives him for his good. Confequently, whatever we find hurtful to our health, or that is found commonly to make our bodies heavy, is to be avoided: for that is fit to nourish fome conftitutions, which is hurtful to others; and fome require fuch a quantity to preferve their bodies in a regular ftate, which would draw others from their duty; but moft people may judge of this for themselves: temperance obliges every man ordinarily to abftain from thofe fupports of life, for quality, or quantity, which hurt his conftitution. And

They that indulge themselves either in the daintiness or plenty of provifions above their condition and flate, The danger are guilty of intemperance, though it may not be of high liv. fo accounted in thofe that can afford it. Who hathing. woe? faith Solomon, who hath forrow? who hath contentions; who hath babblings? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to feek mixed wine. What sickness and diseases have fome brought upon themselves, merely by their exceffes and debaucheries; Difeafes, which have not terminated with their own lives, but have been intailed upon their unhappy pofterity! for if men will run into thofe exceffes, which inflame and corrupt their blood, it is no wonder, if a fever or dropfy, or fome more fatal diftemper, proceed from fuch a diforder.

How unreasonable then is it to rifque the good of the whole man, body and foul, to please the palate? They Means of it. fuffer by diseases and anxieties here; and, without timely repentance, must be punished hereafter for their intemperance. The unreasonablenefs of this fin appears again, if we confider that its fhort pleasure is nothing in comparison of its eternal punishment. Is it not then most shameful, that fuch as call themselves chriftians, fhould ever be overtaken with this vice, which levels them to beasts here, and torments them with devils hereafter? Therefore, when you eat, take heed to yourselves, that your hearts be not overcharged with furfeiting; and remember that we all stand obliged, by the general precept, not to make provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lufts thereof: confequently, fuch ftudied and cuftomary pleafing of the appetite as fettles the spirit in a sensual frame or a ftrong turn toward bodily fatisfactions, are not blameless. Frequent and high feafting is dangerous for most people : and, though I do not fay, that all feafting is unlawful, yet I doubt there are few who, like the rich man in the parable, fare fumptuoufly almost every day, but muft confefs they put their minds out of frame, give too strong a bent to sensual good, andabate their delight of fpiritual comforts. And what Thall fuch unthinking people expect better than, as he did, to want a drop of water to cool their tongues in the next world, II. We are in the next place to avoid all intemperance in

Of temperance in drinking.

DRINKING: for, as the end of eating is the being and well-being of life, fo drinking has the fame end, the prefervation of life, the repairing of the fpirits, when wafted with thought or labour, and the fitting and preparing men to go thro' the bufinefs of the ftation in which providence has placed them: therefore whoever drinks fo as to fruftrate any of thefe ends, is guilty of intemperance. Yet it must be obferved in general, that the conftitutions, ages, and other circumstances among mankind, being fo different from one another; nay, the fame conftitution being so different from itself, according to different times and feafons; there can be no one fixed rule or measure in this point; because the fame proportion which to one perfon is not fufficient nourishment may to another be excefs. So that, what proportion is

neceflary