plunged in unawares. So that there is no way to be fafe and innocent, but to keep an habitual guard and restraint upon the appetite. And, together with these confiderations, there must be frequent and earnest prayer to God, that he will preferve upon the mind a lively fenfe of them, and graciously afford fuch fupplies of grace and ftrength, as he fees needful, to prevent thofe evil habits, and to give an effectual check to all such acts of irregularity and excefs, as naturally lead to them.

V. When chriftians have taken all these methods to avoid

drink.

intemperance in meat and drink, they will be con- Seeming nevinced, that neither long custom nor engaging com- ceffity of pany will be able to refift the more powerful grace of God working in a repenting heart. Who would not refrain drinking by the advice of a phyfician, when he tells us it would endanger life? and can it be fuppofed that the dread of death eternal, pronounced against great drinkers, is not fufficient to reclaim them, that duly confider their great danger? for although perfons in this condition may be brought to acknowledge, that it had been happy for their body and foul, if they had fallen at first into a fober and regular course; yet now, as custom has made fuch indulgences neceffary, and nature can hardly fubfift without them, they think that they may innocently go on, and that to part with them is to part with life. To these I would obferve, that although custom is very powerful, yet it has not force enough to make that neceffary to nature, which of itself is deftructive to nature; as all excess most affuredly is, whether with or without cuftom. So that what they fay is neceffary to preserve life is in truth only neceffary to quiet a craving and inordinate appetite; the gratifying of which is at that very time the direct and immediate means of deftroying life. And as to the prefent uneasiness, it is no wonder that an appetite unaccustomed to denials, andwhich has long been gratified to the full, fhould be fo uneafy under the first check and restraint. But if there is steadiness and refolution enough to maintain the restraint for a little time, the appetite by degrees will grow more patient and quiet; and they will find far greater pleafure in governing, than ever they found in indulging it. 3

Whoever

The efficacy of thefe

Whoever fincerely thus applies his heart to forfake and avoid this fin, cannot fail of a conqueft. The impoffibility therefore of breaking off a long habit of drunkenness is no excufe, but a proof of a false heart, that rather chufes to continue in fin, than of the fin. to be at any pains to overcome it.

means, if

not hindered

by the love

SUNDAY XVI.

I. Of time, how to be spent. II. Of fleep, fhewing its end and rules; and the mischiefs of floth. III. Of recreations, how and when allowable; of religious chearfulness; the danger of melancholy; and of the fin and danger of common gaming. IV. Of temperance in apparel, fhewing the use of apparel, and the danger and folly of fashions. V. Of CHRISTIAN fortitude or patience; the comfort of a good confcience; and its neceffity and usefulness in all states and conditions of life. VI. Of felf-denial and mortification. VII. Of zeal both in a good and a bad fenfe, and how to be practifed.

TH

Of time.

HE time, which God has given us, for working out our falvation, is more valuable than can be expreffed; for on the spending thereof depends our happiness or mifery to all eternity: which confideration should put us upon all thofe methods, whereby we may employ it to the best advantage of our fouls. There is little of it at our difpofal; what is past is flipped from us: the future is uncertain; the prefent is all we can call our own, which is yet continually paffing away: in which tho' the season of working is so very short and uncertain, we have an affair of the greateft confequence to fecure, that requires the whole force and vigour of our minds, the labour and induftry of all our days, and not to be dispatched with any tolerable comfort upon a fick bed, nor in the evening of our lives, when our ftrength and our reafon are departing. Therefore, if we perfist in an obftinate neglect of all the repeated tenders of God's grace, the things that belong to our peace may be hid from our eyes; fo that all the time we can referve from the neceffities of nature, and our worldly affairs, which thofe neceffities engage us in, ought to be ap

plied

plied to the nobleft purpose, the glory of God and the good and falvation of mankind; affigning to all our actions their proper feafons, and fuch a portion of our time on- How to be ly as may be neceffary for them; whereby time pent. will never lie upon our hands, nor fting us with remorfe when it is gone. We are naturally active beings, that must be employed one way or other: we have a mind within us that will be always in motion; and this being the ftate of that active principle, that conftitutes us men, we had need take great care to keep it employed about what is honeft, juft, and good. The foul will find fomething or other to work upon, and, if it be not employed about what is honeft and lawful, it will quickly divert the current of its motion, and exert its activity upon difhoneft and unlawful things. Since the fall of man, God hath placed the generality of men in fuch circumftances, that fome honeft calling, with diligence and industry therein, is indifpenfably neceffary to their comfortable maintenance; and he hath fo taken care to intercept our minds that they may not fly off from the pure acts of religion into their contraries, and that, when they are not better, they may be innocently employed; and hath aken a wife courfe to confine and bound the foul from making incurfions into finful and prohibited actions: yet God des not not obliging us to be fo induftrious, as to deny our-day us refelves moderate refreshments or recreations, which frement. are not only useful, but fometimes neceffary to our fpirits, after they have been ftifled in a croud of bufiness. II. Therefore we fhall now confider the third TEMPERANCE, which is SLEEP. This is to be measured by the rule of God's ordinance, who offer. gave us fleep to refresh and fupport our minds and bodies, when wearied with toil and labour, to repair the decay, and to enable them the better to perform their religious duties.. So that it must be always remembered, that this gift of God is for us to profit thereby, and not to make us idle and flothful. Confequently,

part of

Of Леер.

Though it is not poffible to defcribe the limited time every perfon may fleep; becaufe, as meat and drink, fo fleep muit be proportioned to the conftitution of every body; yet

C c

let no

one

one fall into the crime of Solomon's fluggard, who after a seasonable refreshment cries, A little more rance there- fleep, a little more flumber, a little more folding of the hands to fleep. Because

And the rule of tempe

in.

The many

It draws us into feveral other fins, as wafte of time, filling the body with divers difeafes, and dulling the fafins that fol- culties of the foul; and fo croffes the end of our tranfgren creation, which is to ferve God in an active obedience, or a conftant difcharge of our duty in that ftate of life we are placed in by his providence. And,

low the

of it.

Befides the finfulness of floth, it will cover a man with Other mif- rags: let him be in what ftate of life foever, pochiefs of verty will overtake him, till he is deftitute of confloth. venient cloathing. And as fleep is a kind of death, he that indulges himself therein to excefs may properly be faid to lay violent hands on himself, and to anticipate God's appointed time. Thus alfo,

Of tempe

Cautions to

in them.

III. To what has been faid of fleep, we may add a fourth part of TEMPERANCE in RECREATIONS; for we rance in re- must not turn our phyfick into food, and make creations. that our business, which fhould be only our diverfion: For though a serious chriftian may fometimes, and at some seasons, ufe the common games, for the relaxation of his mind, and to oblige and divert his company; yet every fober man is to take care that this liberty does not exceed the bounds of an innocent recreation; for inftance, that he do not fet his affections too much be obferved upon it, or play, with fuch concern as to be put into a paffion at his bad fuccefs; that he fit not too long at it, nor come to it too frequently; that he always prefer his neceffary business before his diverfions; that he fo order his recreations of this kind, as that they render him the more fit to spend his other time the more ufefully; and laftly, that he play not for money, but for diverfion; at least for no more money than what he can very well lofe, without the leaft difcompofure of mind, and without the leaft prejudice to his family or eftate. Thus far, I fay, and with these restrictions, to use play is innocent enough. Our recreations also must be fhort, and refreshing, and must never

be permitted to steal away our minds from the duties of our calling and election in Chrift Jefus. For fo far as our sports exceed the measures neceffary and convenient for our bodies, they are unwarrantable incroachments upon our religion and calling. But

Here is the mifery: there is a fort of men who even make a trade of gaming, whenfoever they can find out The fin and company to their purpose; but whofoever makes danger of this his way of living has a fad account to make to common gaGod Almighty. Can there be a worse confump-ming. tion of our time, or a greater abuse of our talents, than to put both of them to no greater use than throwing a dye, or turning a pack of cards, efpecially when it is attended with indecent and impetuous paflions of all forts, execrable oaths, imprecations, lyes, cheats, cozenages, and brutish quarrels and contests? and, as if damning their fouls were not enough, How many thousand estates have been broken and ruined? How many families, wives and children, hath it reduced to the extremeft degree of poverty and contempt? nay, to an untimely end; whether by poison, or a quarrel, or the gallows? And here it may be obferved, that, of the feveral kinds of gaming, the lowest and most vulgar seems to be that of laying wagers; and it is not only low and vulgar, of laying but too frequently dirty and knavish. When a mat- wagers. ter of fact is difputed, laying a wager upon it may indeed ferve to make an impertinent man pay the penalty of his ignorance; but a generous good natured man (much more a chriflian) will always fcorn to take fuch an advantage. When neither party has any certainty of what they difpute about, then a wager is folly in both: and when it is about events that depend either on providence, or what is ignorantly called chance, it becomes a kind of prefumption bordering on madness.

And as we are not to propose any other end to our recreations, than a bare relaxation of our tired fpirits by Undue ends moderate refreshment; fo our great care in them of Sports. must be always to use them only at fuch times when they cannot properly be faid to fall in with any part of our duty to GOD, or our neighbour; because time is given us, in the first place, Cc 2

to