tice of virtue, do advance themselves, and improve their naturals, and render themselves ten times more than other men are, nor they themselves were born to, fo there are others, that by mifgovernment of themfelves, by excess and intemperance, fpoil the parts of their minds anima ficca eft anima prudens: wildom is conjoined with temperance.

Now for a man, as the apoftle phrafes it, to make provifion for the flesh to fatisfy its lufts, Rom. xiii. 14. to make it his business, the employment of mind and understanding, to cater for the body, to fatisfy the defires of the flesh; for one that is invested with intellectual nature, to take care how to fare fumptuously every day, Luke xvi. 14. or how to have ground to bring forth plentifully, or to provide capacious barns, Luke xii. 20. Did God light his candle in man, for fuch mean and ordinary purposes as these are the fowls of the air, fifh of the fea, beafts of the field, they have no fuch follicitous cares as these men have; yet they are accommodated, nature's neceffities are fupplied, and they live as well as we. But what faith the parable? Thou fool! this night thy foul fball be required. It faftens the ftile of fool upon him; folly has no difcerning of things; fools do not diftinguish the difference of things. For what a difference is there between time and eternity, between bodily conveniencies and the accomplishments of the mind, the drudgery of the world, and attendance upon God!

The fenfualift becomes brutish; by fottishness and carnality, we render ourselves utterly uncapable of and unfit for heavenly contemplation, for converse with God, which is our proper employment. IntelVOL. IV. D d

lectus

lectus eft propter Deum: mind and understanding are for God. There is not a greater propriety of faculty and object, between our seeing faculty and light, between our hearing faculty and founds; not a greater fuitableness and proportion, not a greater proprie❤ ty, than between our minds and God. It had been better that we had been lefs, if we had not liberty of accefs and approach to God. For mind and underftanding hath no fatisfaction in any other employment, but in attendance upon God. God made our fouls for himself, and they are unfatisfied if alienated from him. To fpirituality and heavenly-mindednefs we may not indifpofe ourfelves, by any use of our faculties. This is an infcription God hath written upon our high and noble faculties; they are not to be indifpofed by any worldly drudgery or concerns of the body, or to be diverted from that which is their proper quality, to receive from God and make returns upon him; these are the appropriate and reserv ed acts of mind and understanding. For it is a

candle lighted by God and fet up by him to direct man to God. Therefore we cannot alienate our rational faculties from God, without the guilt of facriledge and robbing of God. For fo fays the prophet, he who fails in his fervice and attendance, robs God, Mal. iii. 8. He understands himself very little, forgets that in his make he bears the image of God; who gives up himself to any fin, who gratifies any of his appetites to the indisposing of his higher faculties for the vital acts of reafon and of virtue. I fay, vital acts; because these are the acts of man as he is a man; for his other acts are belonging to him in

common

common with beasts; but man is in fpecie per animam, man is in kind by his foul. For mind is the man, animus cujufque eft quifque. The excellency of the bo dy is, that it is the foul's inftrument; mens fana in corpore fano, a mind in its perfection, in a body well compofed and fitted for the foul.

I fhall not take upon me to determine the measure of eating and drinking, which make the fins of intemperance where they exceed. It is a bufinefs of great accuracy, to affign the exact bounds of good and evil, of lawful and unlawful in any forts of things. It is as accurate a bufinefs, as it is for a man to affign which is the last moment of day, and the first moment of the night. For there is twilight, which is fully neither one nor the other, but partaker of both fo in things that are materially lawful, and are good and ill by their exceeding, it is as great fkill to determine what is good and evil. Therefore we say we are most in danger in things that are lawful in their nature and matter, and yet become evil if out of season.

:

The cafuifts talk of eating and drinking.

1. Ad neceffitatem naturæ, to supply nature's necef fity, to abate hunger and thirft, to maintain and uphold the fabrick of the body. This is unavoidable, this is of neceffity, this we muft do; for otherwise we kill ourselves, and violate the fixth command+

ment.

2. Ad hilaritatem mentis, for chearfulnefs, for reviving. This, cafuifts fay, is warrantable upon oc cafions; but not fo ordinary in this as in our daily food.

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3. Ad

3. Ad ftuporem mentis, eft turpe & indecorum, to ftupify our minds, abuse our faculties, here is turpitude and undecency. For we are to use measure and feafon in things materially lawful. In the cafe before us, temperance is not only a lovely virtue, but also falutary and fovereign: whence we fay, cibo modicus, fibi medicus; men fhall feldom need a phyfician, if they do but govern themselves well in refpect of eating and drinking. Now in this case, the phyfician prescribes to the body, the divine to the foul; the phyfician, he confiders only the bodily estate, for the health of the body; but the divine chiefly looks at the security of the mind. The physician faith, not one meal upon another, till nature hath done with the former; and the English proverb, the fecond meal makes the glutton but the divine faith, things of the body are to be ordered fo, as that there be no annoyance to the mind, or as little as may be. For I remember what Erasmus fays; poft cibum omnes minores fumus; after eating and drinking we are for a while but half ourselves. This we say of men that use temperance: a man is not fo apt for contemplation, or bufinefs, or reafon, immediately after he hath dined; he muft vacare, and give his foul time to act as a principle of life; and must abate the ufe of it, as it is a principle of intelligence: this is the neceffity of our nature.

I find St. Auftin, that great father, was mighty folicitous in this point of eating and drinking. I will fatisfy myself in this point of curiofity, with this rule; nec contra fenfum naturæ, nec ordinem rationis; let nothing be done against the fenfe of nature, nor against the order of reason. And before abuse of ourselves

by

by accustomed excess, nature's fenfe is a good guide, till we have abused ourselves by ill custom, use and practice. Miscarriage in this kind, is for the most part occafioned by the humour of compliance; when men exceed, to comply one with another; go beyond what is their choice, to what is their ufe ; abuse themselves, to keep fair and comply. We need not for eating and drinking, any other foreign inducement; for nature craves enough ufque ad fatietatem, to abate hunger and thirst.

An offence in this kind, is fibi ipfi pœna, a punishment to itself. For intemperance ends in the fottishness of the mind, and bodily diseases. But for measure and season, every fober perfon gives himself law; and it must be every body must be left to himfelf; because there will be a variation. No body can affign either the measure or quantity; because there will be a variation upon account of the age of the person, and the season of the year, from the different. climate wherein men are, from the very bodies of men, their weakness and ftrength, mens labour and employment; and this latitude, all within the compass of fobriety and temperance. So that for particular circumstances, I must leave it to men themselves, as the apostle, 1 Cor. x. 15. I speak as unto wife men; and as the apostle in another cafe, I Cor. xi. 13. Judge in your felves, is it comely? Let us therefore carefully observe this general rule; observe decency, comeliness, what becomes so excellent a creature, which may not difparage, human nature, not unqualify or difable for the highest acts of intelligence, for application to God. A man would be unwilling

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