444 CHRISTIAN MORALITY, vLZ. CMA-STITY, &C. DERM. RX1r. Au] I not made for nobler things ? Made to a cend on angels' wings? Viral] my best powers be thus debus'd, And part with heaven to please my taste Can I forget the fatal deed; Itow Eve brought death on all her seed, Sire tasted the forbidden tree, Auger d bey Crud,. and ruin'd me. Was life design'd alone to eat? What is the mouth, or what the meat ? Both from the groundderive their birth, ? And both shall mitt with common earth. reat God, new-mould my sensual mind, And let rey joys be more refin'd ; Ittaise me to dwell among the blest, And fit me for thy heavenly feast. SERMON' XXVII: CHRISTIAN MOIIALITY, viz. CHASTITY, &e. PHIL/P. iv. 8. Whatsoever things are pure, &c. think on these things. Oax ayvcf, &C. PURITY of heart and life, in the perfect beauty of it, belongs to no man since our original apostacy. That foul and shameful departure from God, has rendered us all unholy and unclean. But we are re- called to seek our ancient glory, by the messengers of heaven, and the ministry ofthe gospel. The apostle exhorts us to it in the text. If theword pure be taken in its largest extent, it may include in it temperance in meats and driliis, as well as chastity in behaviour. You have heard already a discourse of temperance, with so hateful an account of the crimes of gluttony and drunkenness, that I hope my hearers have conceived a sacred aversion to such sensua.lities. Let us now proceed to the second sense implied in the word, and that is, modesty and chastity of speech and behaviour. This is a most eminent, and most undenia- ble part of that purity, which St. Paul here requires; and this,, in many of his epistles-, he insists upon as ne- cessary, in order to make up the character of a christian, and render it honourable; and St. Peter recommends it to the pious women in his day, as a means of the con- version of their husbands, who were gentiles: That they who obeyed not the word of the gospel, might be won to agood esteemofchristianity, while they beheld the chaste t ouversation of their wives, 1 Pet. iii. 1, 2.
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