S72 CHRISTIAN MORALITY. pleasures of . achristian, unfit for divine communications, for holy fellowship, heavenlymeditation, and lively exercises offaith,upon unseen things.; they damp their zeal for God, blunt their relish for religious delights, and are perpetually defiling their own con- sciences.. These are they that make their God their belly, while they profess tobe christians. But the apostle, in Phil. iii. 18,19. tells us, "whatsoever they profess, they are enemies ofthecross of Christ, and I cannot speak of it, says he, without weeping." Now if there be any such sinners amongst us, such slaves to a paltry appetite, that make it a business of too solemn and so- licitous enquiry, " How we shall regale the palate, and gratify the taste :" If there are any of us that know not how to forbid ourselves a savoury or luscious dish, even though we know or ex- pect it will discompose the fleshor the mind : If wehave not tem- perance enough to deny, the superfluous or excessive glass, when it comes to our turn, nor virtue nor courage enough to refuse it, let us take our share in the reproofs of this discourse ; and let us remember that we have had fair warning this day from the word of God, that wemay not drown our souls in sensual indulgences, and make ourselves unfitfor the duties of life, or for the business or the joy of heaven. HYMN FOR SERMON XXVI. Christian Morality, viz. Temperance. IS it a man's divinest good, To make his soul a slave to food ? Vile as the beast, whose spirit dies, Andbas no hopeabove'the skies ? Can meats or choicest wines procure Delights that ever shall endure, Was not I born above the swine, And shall Imake their pleasures mine? Am I not made for nobler things? Made to ascendon angel's wings? Shall my best powers be thus debas'd Andpast with heaven toplease my taste? Can I forget the fatal deed, How Eve brought death onall her seed, She tasted the fprbidden tree, Anger'd her God, and ruin'd me. Was life designed alone to eat? What is the mouth, or what the meat? Bothfrom the ground derive their birth, And both shall mix with commonearth. Great God new-mould my sensualmind And let my joys be more refin'd Raise me to dwell among the blest, And fit me for thy heavenly feast,
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