IS 2 Of Temperance. SERM. they cannot be eafy, nor enjoy themfelves VI. without the ufual entertainment at the re- "--v--"turning feafon, even though the interefts of virtue and religion, or the moft important affairs of life call them to be otherwife em- ploy'd ? nay, and the health, as well as the heart, is overcharged with furfeiting, the pow.. ers of nature are overloaded with fenfual en- joyments, and indifpofed. for their proper funtions, which certainly is the effeft and fign of intemperance ; an offence againft na- ture, which wifely appointed nourifhment to repair the daily walks of the body, and pre - ferve its organs in an aptnefs to minifter to the proper offices of life. To eat and drink ha- bitually without a view and fubordination to the proper ends, is to be guilty of intempe- rance. It is not to eat and drink, as the apoftle directs, to the glory of God, that is, to the purpofes of religion and virtue. Solomon pro- nounces a land happy, when princes eat in due feafon for flrength, and not for drunken - nefs or luxury *; and the virtue is the fame in all Rations of life but it is yet more cri- minal to eat and drink, or indulge any fen - fual appetite, fo as to impair health, to ren- der the body dull and inative, inftead of pre- * Ecclef. x. 17. ferving
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