respecting Moderation in Diet.

furnish them with emblems of virtue and vice, as some hold. There must be something in the natures of living creatures, some different qualities that occasioned one to be forbidden, another to be allowed; and though we are not obliged now to keep the law of Moses, yet I cannot find upon what grounds many Christians take the liberty to act contrary to the ordinances of the apostles of Christ, in eating blood and things strangled.

TENDER. I remember I have heard this point handled before by some disputants; and to this last part of your discourse it has been answered, that Jesus said, "Not that which goeth into a man, defileth him, but what cometh out." And Paul says, "To the pure all things are pure" and he calleth the doctrine of "Touch not, taste nor, handle not," a doctrine of worldly elements, and beggarly rudiments.

DISCRETION. But then, if that saying of Christ be taken literally, one may venture on all manner of venomous living creatures without danger or hurt. Without doubt there is a discreet choice to be made in our diet, as to the quality of the things we eat or drink, and every one in this is left to his own conduct; only this general rule ought to be observed, That we forbear eating and drinking such things as we find by experience, or know by common observation, to be prejudicial to health, impediments of virtue and devotion, spurs to vice and passion, by intoxicating the brain, heating the blood, disordering the spirit, or by any other ways being subservient to the works of the flesh or the temptations of the devil in so doing we shall do well.

3

PRUDENCE. As to that saying of Paul," To the pure all things are pure," it may well be retorted that which the same apostle said in another place, "All things are lawfull for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any thing," Cor. vi. 12. To which he immédiately subjoins these words, "Meat for the belly, and the belly for meats: but the Lord will destroy both it and them." Now by this coherency of the text fit is plain, that he spoke in reference to the liberty that is given to Christians in eating; shewing, that though they were freed from the strict and punctual observation of the Mosaical daw, according to the letter, yet nevertheless they were obliged by the law of prudence and Christian virtue, to make such an élection of meats as might neither offend charity, nor interfere with the b 15

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grand design of religion, which is to make us more holy and pure, not more licentious and profane.

CHARITY. Your mentiouing the offence which may be given to charity by a dissolute libertinism in eating, puts me in mind of another passage of the same apostle, where he says, “If meat make my brother to offend (or be scandalized) I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I give scandal to my brother," 1 Cor. viii. 13. Certainly charity is the very flower and quintessence of all Christian virtues, the particular glory of the Christian religion, and the fulfilling both the law and the prophets. He that pretends to Christianity, and has not charity, is an infidel in masquerade, a spy upon the faith, a religious juggler, a dead 'mimic of divine life; he runs with the hare, and holds with the hound; he mocks God, cheats man, and damns himself; he is the very sink of sin, for in him all the vices of the world disembogue themselves as in a common emunctory.

But lest I be mistaken by those that hear me give this character of a man that wants charity, I will explain myself more at large, and give you a particular description of this radical virtue. I do not mean by charity, only that branch of it which bears the fruit of material good works, in feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, visiting and redeeming prisoners and captives, harbouring those that want a place to lay their heads in, visiting and relieving, comforting and healing the sick, and the like acts of mercy; charity is of a larger and more spiritual extent than all those good works amount to; nay, some of them may be performed without charity, as good Paul witnesses, when he says, "Though I bestow all my goods on the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing," I Cor,xiii. 3. In which words he plainly supposes, that many outward good works may be done, and yet the doers of them may want charity: therefore when I speak of charity, I understand that divine accomplishment of the soul which the same apostle describes in the following words, 1 Cor. xiii. 4. 56 Charity suffereth long, and is kind: charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself; is not puffed up; doth not behave itself unseemly; seeketh not her own; is not easily provoked; thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things." This is the complete character of charity, and he that makes it good in his practice is a perfect Christian: a believer

respecting the Nature of true Charity,

is a believer in his true colours, a champion of the faith, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile, a living stone in the temple of God: he runs with patience the race that is set before him; he practises sobriety, righteousness, and godliness towards God, and man, and himself: his soul is the receptacle of goodness, the centre of piety, in which all virtues delight to inhabit in all things he has a holy tenderness, and acts even to the curiosity and niceness of divine love: though his body dwells on earth, his soul lives in heaven; he couches under the shadow of the trees of paradise; he breathes immortal air, and often tastes of the fruits of the tree of life.

Now to apply this to the subject you have been handling:1 say, that a man endued with this divine and supernatural gift of charity, as he loves God above all things, so he loves his neighbour as himself, and will in all things so comport himself, as to be void of himself both towards God and man. He will (in all things indifferent) comply with the prepossessions, prejudices, and customs of his weak brother: to the Jews he becomes as a Jew, that he may win the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law; to them that are without the law, as without the law (being not without the law to God, but under the law to Christ) that he might gain them that are without the law; to the weak he will become as weak, that he may gain the weak; he is made all things to all men, that by any means he may save some. With them that eat flesh he will eat likewise, asking no questions for conscience' sake (for the earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof.) With those that abstain he will practise abstinence. Whether he eat or drink, or whatever he does, he does all to the glory of God; but pleasing all men in all things, not seeking his own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved, 1 Cor. x. 31, 32, 33. This is the practice of a perfect Christian; this is the ultimate end of the commandments, the non ultra of both the law and the gospel, and the aim of our statute of moderation in eating and drinking,

To this discourse of Charity the whole company agreed, and Tender-Conscience expressed more than ordinary satisfaction and complacency in her grave and moderate decision of a con troversy that he had raised. He had long been disturbed in his mind about this point, but was now convinced of the truth; and gave them all most hearty thanks for their edifying dis course, making a particular acknowledgment and address to Charity for her evangelical conclusion.

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Then the virgin Temperance, who began this discourse of moderation in eating and drinking, and whose proper office it was to interpret and expound that statute, called for two lamps : which were immediately brought by Obedience, one of the waiters. Now one of the lamps gave but a dim light, so that you could hardly discern whether it were burning or no; on the contrary, the other shined very bright and clear: then said Temperance, You see the difference between these two lamps, how the one affords but a weak faint light, and the other sheds its beams round with great splendour; the crystals are both alike, but only one of them is sullied and furred, as it were, with smoke and vapours, and the other is transparent and clean; these are emblems of moderation, and riot in eating and drinking. The soul of man is a lamp, which will burn and shine with great splendour if the body be kept clean, and purified by temperance, abstinence, and fasting: but if a man, by excessive eating and drinking, does pollute and stain the body, his spirits (which are the crystal of his soul) become clouded and thickened with vapour and smoke, so that he neither shines in good works to others, nor has much light in himself; and if the light that is in him be darkness, how great must that darkness be!

TENDER. Pray give me leave to trouble you with one question more about fasting, because I think you mentioned that just now as one means to purify and cleanse the body, and render it more instrumental to the operations of the soul. I desire to be informed what examples you have of fasting in scripture, and whether it be now requisite and profitable for a Christian to fast, and what are the proper effects of it?

TEMPERANCE. It will be no trouble to me, but a delight, to satisfy you in this point, according to my ability, as it is my office.

Know then, that fasting is a practice frequently recommended in the Book of God, and warranted by the examples of sundry good and holy men: we read that Moses fasted forty days and forty nights in the mountain: and though no mention be made of fasting before the flood, yet the lives of men in that infancy of the world, in all probability, was a daily fast, or at least a continual abstinence from flesh; so that what seems now so grievous and burdensome a discipline, was then, peradventure, esteemed but a natural and universal diet, observed by all mankind, whereby they preserved their bodies in an inviolable health and vigour, prolonging their days almost to a thousand years:

respecting the Propriety of Fasting.

but now, in these latter ages of the world, the bodies of men are grown weaker, and men think it a heavy task to fast once a month, nay, once a year seems too much for some dainty constitutions.

There were several occasions of fasting among the people of God in old time, Lev. xxiii. 27-32. There was a day of atonement commanded to be yearly observed by the Israelites throughout their generations for ever, in which they were to fast and afflict their souls from even to even. This was an annual day of public humiliation, enjoined to the people for ever.-It was customary also to fast on any mournful occasions, as David fasted when his child lay sick, 2 Sam. xii. 16, 17. And the men of Jabesh Gilead fasted seven days when they buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son under a tree at Jabesh, 1 Sam. xxxi. 13. And as soon as David heard the news of their death, both he and all the men that were with him, took hold of their clothes, and rent them; and they mourned and wept, and fasted until even, for Saul and for Jonathan his son, and for the people of the Lord, and for the house of Israel, 2 Sam. i. 11, 12. Moreover, the people of Isruel used to fast in time of any public calamity; and not only they, but other nations also, as the inhabitants of the great city Nineveh. When the prophet Jonah foretold that the destruction of that stately city would come to pass in forty days, they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least; for word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and laid his robe from him, and covered himself in sackcloth, and sat in ashes; and he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh, by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing; let them not feed nor drink water, Jonah iii. 5, 6.

But besides these solemn and public fasts, we read of some private men who practised it; as the prophet Daniel, who fasted full three weeks, in which time he ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine within his mouth: and this fast of his was so acceptable to God, that he sent one of his holy angels to him, who saluted him with the title of "a man greatly beloved," bidding him not to fear or be troubled, "For (says he) from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were' heard, and I am come for thy words. Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befal thy people in the latter days,"