445 / 514
Iba%f.
x
vr.]
TEMPERANCE,.
&C.
¢3T
The
sense
of
this word
ayvx
in the greek,
is
extended
so
far
by
some critics, as to
include
temperance
in
eat
-
ing
and
drinking,
as well
as
chastity
and
modesty
in
all
our
words
and
behaviour; and
thus it
signifies
almost
the same
with
sobriety,
and
implies a
restraint
upon
all
the
excessive
and irregular appetites
that
human
nature
is
subject
to.
Under
these
two
heads
I shall
treat
of purity
briefly,
and
shew
under each of
them bow
the
light
of
nature,
and
how
the
gospel
of Christ requires
the
practice of
it.
I.
Temperance
in
eating and drinking
may
be
in-
cluded in
this command
of
purity, for
we
can hardly
suppose
the
apostle omitted
so
necessary a virtue,
and
it
is
not mentioned at
all,
if
it
be
not
implied here.
It
is
not
beneath the doctrine
of
christianity
to
condescend
to give
rules
about
the most common
affairs
of
human
life,
even food
and raiment.
It
is
a
piece
of
impurity
to
imi-
tate
the
swine,
and
to
gorge
ourselves
beyond
measure;
to
give
up ourselves to
fulfil
every
luscious
appetite, and
every
luxurious inclination of
the taste.
An indulgence
of
this
sort of
vice,
what
infinite dis-
orders
cloth
it bring upon' mankind
?
If
a
man
would
read the
character of
a
drunkard
painted in
very
bright
and
proper
colours,
and
receive the foulest ideas
of
it
in
the
fairest oratory,
he
cannot
find
a
better description
than Prov.
xxiii.
29
-32.
Who
bath
woe? Who
bath
sorrow?
Who
bath contentions?
Who
bath
babbling
?
Who
bath
wounds
without cause?
Who
hatla
redness
of
eyes?
They
that
tarry
long
at
the
wine,
they
that
go
to seek
mixed wine. Look
not therefore
upon
the
wine
when
it
is
red, when
it
giveth its
colour
in
the
cap, when
it
moveth
itself aright.
Some
men in
our
age well
un-
derstand
what Solomon here
means.
But
at
the
last
it
biteth
like
a
serpent,
and stingeth
like
an adder.
The
pleasure
will be
attended
with
intolerable
pain
and mor-
tal
injury, when
the
excess
of liquor
shall work like
so
much venom
poured
into the
veins,
and cast thee into
diseases
as
incurable
as
the biting
of
any
serpent;
it
will
do
thee more mischief than an
adder
with
all his
poison.
There are many
that
have felt the words
of
Solomon true,
when
their voluptuous
sins
have been dreadfully
recom-
pensed with
ruin
to
their
Jul
and
body.
But the inspired
writer
dwells
upon the
loz`lhfome
2F3