156 Of Temperance. SERM. upon a deliberate comparifon, not to acknow_ VI. ledge in his heart, that the lober man is more """excellent than his neighbour who is intempe- rate ? that it is a more lovely character and more worthy of the human nature to have the rule over one's own fpirit, to keep a Ready difci- pline over the appetites and paffions, and have them in due fubjetion, which fpreads a de- cency and regularity over the whole behaviour, and preferves a man always in a preparation for the moil important affairs, and all the proper offices of a religious, virtuous, and fo- dal life; that this, I fay, is a more lovely cha- rafter than to live in luxury and carnal plea- fures, and fo to be dead while one lives, as the apoflle fpeaks. We look down with contempt on the brutal kinds which have no higher principles of aftion than appetites, and there- fore indulge them without any reproach. But is it not melancholy to fee men voluntarily turn themfelves into natural brute beafls, ac- cording to St. 7ude's exprefiion, to fee the glory of humanity fo difmally reverfed, that the beat rules over the man, and the under- ftanding no otherwife ufed than if it was made for no other purpofe than to be a llave to the appetites and paffions, and to ferve them ? One would think that a jufl refent- ment
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