appetites, would be making fure of the deftruction of the body. The point we ought to have in view is, therefore, to conduct and regulate them fo, as beft to anfwer the wife ends, for which they were planted in

our nature.

That every living creature fhould have in its make a ftrong defire to preferve life, was neceffary. But in rational minds all natural inftincts are to be under the controul of reafon; the fuperior faculty to govern the inferior. It is evident, that there may be many cafes, in which rectitude and propriety may require us to get over the inflinctive love of life, as well as to conquer the influence of the other natural paflions. Whoever loves life more than virtue, religion, or his country, is guilty of a grofs abfurdity in prefering that, which is of lefs confequence, to that which is of greater. We are always to endeavour, as before obferved, to view things in the light, they may be fuppofed to appear into the All-comprehenfive Mind. But I cannot bring myfelf to believe, that my life appears to the Supreme Mind of fuch importance, that it ought to be preferved to the prejudice of facred and eternal truth; that it is better, the people fhould perifh for one man, than one man for the people.

If the heroes and fages among the Heathens, who had no fuch fure profpect of a future exiftence as we have, or may have; if they, whofe views of a life to come, were rather ftrong defires, than well established hopes; if they fhewed fuch a contempt of the present life, as to give it up with joy and triumph for the fervice of their country, and for the fake of truth; of which hiftory furnishes inftances almoft innumerable; it were to be expected, that we should, in the contempt of life, greatly exceed them; which, to our fhame, is far from being the cafe.

A competency of the good things of life being neceffary for the fupport of life, it is evident, that a reafonable degree of care, induftry, and frugality, is altogether proper; of which I have treated pretty copioufly in the firft part of this work. Whenever this care for the conyeniences of life proceeds fuch a length, as to produce

a love of riches for their own fake, it is then, that a man fhews himself bewildered and loft to all rational and judicious views, and enchanted with a mere imaginary object of no real value in itself. That a man thould bestow his whole labour in heaping up pieces of metal, or paper, and should make his very being wretched, because he cannot get together the quantity he aims at, which he does not need, nor would use, if he had them in his poffeffion; is much the fame wisdom, as if he fpent his life in filling his magazines with cockle-fhells, or pebbles. If it be likewife remembered, that every paffion indulged, becomes in time an unconquerable habit, and that a fixed love of fordid riches is altogether unfuitable to the spiritual immortal state, for which we were intended, where gold and filver will be of no value; if it be confidered, that a great degree of avarice is wholly inconftent with every generous fentiment, and even with common honefty; and that any conftant purfuit whatever, which engages the whole attention, and takes it off from thofe fublime views of futurity, and those preparations for immortality, which are abfolutely neceffary toward our being found fit for that final state, is highly criminal; if thele, and various other confiderations be allowed their due weight, it will appear, that covetousness is a vice altogether unfuitable to the dignity of our nature, and that the fafe fide to err on, with regard to riches, is, To be too indifferent, rather than too anxious about them.

If the fole defign of the appetite of hunger be, To oblige us mechanically, by means of pain, to take that due care of fupporting the body by proper nourishment, which we could not have been fo agreeably, and effectually brought to, by pure reafon; it is obvious, that the view we ought to have in eating, is the fupport of life. That kind of food, which is fittest for nourishing the body, and the leaft likely to breed diseases, is evidently the best. And if artificial dishes, unnatural mixtures, and high fauces, be the leaft proper for being affimilated into chyle and blood, and the most likely to produce humours unfriendly to the conftitution; what is commonly called rich feeding is, in truth, flow poison.

It

It is therefore very ftrange, that men fhould have fo little command of themselves, that, for the fake of the trifling pleasure of having their palates tickled with a favoury taste, they should venture the shortening of their days. At the fame time, that the enormous expence of a rich table might be spared, and the fame, or rather indeed a much higher pleasure, in eating, might be enjoyed, if people would but give themselves time and exercife to acquire a hearty appetite. But I really believe that is what fome have never experienced, and confequently have no conception of.

The vices we are in danger of running into, by which our table may become a fnare to us, are, beftowing too great expence, or too much time at our meals, over-gorging nature, or hurting our health by a wrong choice of food. Nothing feems more evident, than that to waste or íquander away the good gifts of Providence, especially in fo fordid a manner, as upon the materials of gluttony, is altogether unjustifiable. The only rational notion we can form of the defign of Providence in bestowing riches upon fome, and finking others in poverty, is, That men are placed in thofe different circumftances with a view to the trial and exercife of different virtues. So that riches are to be confidered as a stewardship, not to be lavished away in pampering our vices, and fupporting our vanity, but to be laid out in fuch a manner as we shall hereafter be able to answer for, to Him, who entrusted us with them. And whoever beftows yearly in gorging and gluttony, what might fupport a great many families in induftry and frugality, let him fee to the confequences.

Again, if we be really spirits, though at prefent embodied; it feems pretty plain, that the feeding of the body ought not to engross any very great proportion of our time. If indeed we look upon ourselves as more body than spirit, we ought then to bestow the principal attention upon the body. But this is what few will care to own in words; which makes their declaring it by their practice the more abfurd, and inconfiftent.

If it be our duty to preferve our health and life for usefulness in our ftation, it can never be innocent in us

to pervert the very means appointed for the fupport of the body, to the deftruction of the body. We are here upon duty, and are to keep upon our poft, till called off. And he who trifles with life, and lofes it upon any frivolous occafion, muft anfwer for it hereafter to the Author of Life.

Laftly, if it be certain, that in the future world of fpirits, to which we are all haftening, there will be no occafion for this appetite, nor any gratifying of appetites at all, nothing is more evident, than the abfurdity of indulging it in fuch an unbounded and licentious manner, as to give it an abfolute afcendant over us, and to work it into the very mind, fo as it fhall remain, when the body, for whofe fake it was given, has no farther occafion for it. The defign our Maker had in placing us in this state of difcipline, was to give us an oppor tunity of cultivating in ourfelves other forts of habits than thofe of gluttony and fenfuality.

Of the many fatal contrivances, which our fpecies, too fertile in invention, have hit upon for corrupting themselves, defacing the bleffed Maker's image upon the mind, and perverting the end of their creation; none would appear more unaccountable, if we were not too well accustomed to sce inftances of it, than the favage vice of drunkenness. That ever it should become a practice for rational beings to delight in overturning their reafon; that ever men fhould voluntarily choofe, by fwallowing a magical draught, to brutify themselves; nay, to fink themfelves below the level of the brutes; for drunkenness is peculiar to our fpecies; this madnes muft appear to other orders of being, wonderfully fhocking. No man can bear the leaft reflection upon his understanding, whatever he will upon his virtue. Yet men will indulge a practice, by which experience convinces them, they will effectually lofe their understanding, and become perfect idiots. Unthinking people are wont to look with great contempt upon natural fools. But in what light ought they to view a fool of his own making? What can be conceived more unfuitable to the Dignity of Human Nature, than the drunkard, with his eyes ftaring, his tongue ftammering, his lips quiver

ing, his hands trembling, his legs tottering, and his ftomach heaving. Decency will not fuffer me to pro. ceed in fo filthy a defcription. The fwine, wallowing in the mire is not fo loathfome an object as the drunkard; for nature in her meaneft drefs is always nature: but the drunkard is a monfter, out of nature. The only rational being upon earth reduced to abfolute incapacity of reafon, or fpeech! A being formed for immortality funk into filth and fenfuality! A creature endowed with capacities for being a companion of angels, and inhabiting the etherial regions, in a condition not fit to come into a clean room, among his fellow-creatures! The lord of this world funk below the vileft, of the brutes!

One would think all this was bad enough: but there is much worse to be faid against this moft abominable and fatal vice. For there is no other that fo effectually and fo fuddenly unhinges and overturns all virtues, and deftroys every thing valuable in the mind, as drunkennefs. For it takes off every reftraint, and opens the mind to every temptation. So that there is no fuch expeditious way for a perfon to corrupt and debauch himself, to turn himself from a man into a demon, as by intoxicating himself with ftrong liquor. Nor is there, perhaps, any other habit so bewitching, and which becomes fo foon unconquerable as drunkennefs. The reafon is plain. There is no vice which fo effectually deftroys reafon. And when the faculties of the mind are overturned, what means can the unhappy perfon ufe, or what courfe can another take with him, to fet him right? to attempt to reform a confirmed drunkard, is much the fame as preaching to a madman, or idiot. Reason, the helm of the mind, once deftroyed, there is nothing remaining wherewith to fteer it. It must then be left to run adrift.

It is deplorable to think of the miferable pretences made ufe of to apologize for this beaftly vice. One exufes himself by his being neceffarily obliged to keep company. But it is notorious that nothing more effectually difqualifies a man for company, than to have his tongue tied, and his brains ftupified with liquor. Be