32'3 CHRISTIAN MORALITY. The rules ofreligion do not'so restrain us from the common entertainments of life, as to render us melancholycreatures, and unfitfor company. There is no need to become mere mopes or hermits, or order tò be christians. The gospel does notdeprive us of sùchjoys as belong to our natures, but it refines andheightens our delights. It draws our souls farther away from mean and brutal pleasures, and raises them to manly satisfactions, to enter- tainments worthy of a rational nature, worthy of a creature that is made in the image of God. The innocent entertainments of life are not utterly forbiddento christians, but areregulatedby the gospel. Whenwehave considered and found them to be lawful, then they are to be regulated these two ways. l. All ourrecreations and divertisements must have some valuable end proposed. 2. We must distinguish the proper time and season of them, and confine our diversionsto that season. 1. They must always have some valuable end proposed, The chief and most useful design of them is to make us more chearful and fitter for some hours or days of service after- wards. Recreation must not be our trade or business, but merely used as a means to prepare us for,the valuable busi- sesses of life. The scripture indeed tells us, that 00 of every idle word that men shall .speak, there shall be an account given in thedey ofjudg- ment; Mat. xii. 36. And much more of idle hours and actions. But this doth not utterly exclude all manner of recreations, or all words of pleasantry, whichmaybe innocently and properly used upon some occasions ; but whatsoever words, whatsoever con- versation, whatsoever sort of pleasurable entertainments, we indulge ourselves in, which have no valuable end, no useful de- sign in them : These will bear but an ill aspect before thejudg- ment-seat of Christ. We shall not be able to give a tolerable account of such idle words or hours at that day ;- and it is the judge himself who tells us so, and adds his Amen to it. It is proper more especially for persons that are of a'melan- cholytemper, or that have perhaps been overwhelmedwith bodily diseases, or overloaded with some sorrows, or cares, or busi- nesses of life, to give themselves a little loose or diversion now and then in delightful conversation, or' other recreations and exercises. These may be as useful as a glass of wine to refresh nature, to make the heart glad, and the spirits lightsome ; for they tend to fit this annual body of ours for better service to the soul in future duties that God calls us to And so long as we confine our recreations to this design, and keep this end in view, our words of pleasantry in private conversation, and even our re- creations, and diversions that are more publics may be agreeable
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