In your eating and drinking, be not void of thinking, lest you swallow the bait of Satan, and thereby be hurled headlong down to hell.

He that is given to please his senses, and delighteth in the excess of eating, may be called an animal, for he is unworthy of the name of a man; for wherein can a man more resemble a brute, and degenerate from his angelical being, than to serve his belly and his senses?

He that lives in the gratification of his lust, and knowingly breaks the laws of God and man, is riding post to hell.

Sinful gratifications are of all things most blameworthy; for they destroy the happiness of the immortal soul, for the pleasures of a transient duration. He that lives to his own lust, shall not partake of God's glory.

Those that live in carnal rest here, shall not have everlasting rest hereafter.

In vain do we hope to share in the blessedness above, if we strive to enjoy all the sensual gratifications below: there must be a meetness for heaven before there can be a fitness for it.

Be wise, O man, and tread the road to glory,

And sacrifice thy soul not unto sin.

Remember, time does no proportion bear

To an eternity; and he that serves his lusts, and not his God, Will be more wretched than the beasts that perish.

They at their death for ever cease to live,

But men at death for ever cease to die:
They must exist in happiness or pain,
As long as long eternity endures.

Preposterous folly this, and height of madness,

To gratify the sense to lose the soul:

Its worth is infinite; and if enslav'd to sin,

Ten thousand worlds cannot procure its ransom;

And if once lost, it must be lost for ever.

What must be done to save thy precious soul,
That it may ever rest where Jesus reigns?
Walk but in virtue's paths, believe in him,
Who hung upon the tree, and died for thee;
His blood, his precious and atoning blood
Will expiate thy sin, will make thee clean,
And fit thee for the New Jerusalem.

ON HOLINESS AND VIRTUE.

THE first step towards virtue, is to abstain from vice.

Virtue is the only way that leads to happiness: it opens the gate of heaven.

Virtue needs no outward pomp; her very countenance is full of majesty, that the proudest pay her respect, and the profanest are awed by her pre

sence.

Virtue has flourished above 4000 years, and is not grown old; her beauty remains even to this day, and she will be admired as long as time endures; eternity itself will only perfect the same.

She is empress of the universe, and would have altars in every part, if men were not dupes to their passions; for the enjoyment of her is the perfection of happiness.

Virtue commands good men's respect, and all men's honour, and banishes every kind of deformity from the persons in whom it resides.

Holiness and virtue make the poor rich, and the rich honourable.

He who adds faith to virtue, is building his house upon a rock.

Virtue is the beauty, vice the deformity of the soul.

Virtue is made for difficulties, and grows stronger and brighter by trials.

A man who is truly virtuous, can never be really wretched; he finds in himself those rich resources, which even princes are unable to bestow.

Every virtue gives a man a degree of felicity: poverty, a good report; justice, estimation; prudence, respect; courtesy and liberality, affection; temperance, health; and fortitude, a mind not to be moved by adversity.

Every good action is the seed of joy, and every sinful action the seed of anguish and sorrow.

Virtue produceth its own reward; but indulgence in vice brings a million of mischiefs.

Two things make a good Christian, good actions and good aims.

A heart full of goodness is worth many heads full of knowledge.

Virtue is the greatest ornament, and good sense the best equipage.

A man is always acting amiss, when he is not

virtuous.

While we practise virtue, we belong, as it were, to heaven.

The observance of our duty unites us with good men; the love of vice throws us into the company of the wicked.

Holiness and virtue clothe those who are possessed of them with a dignity to which every one pays a veneration.

Virtue is the highest exercise and improvement of reason; it is the health, strength, and beauty of the mind.

Virtue is necessary to the young, to the aged comfortable, to the poor serviceable, to the rich an ornament, to the fortunate an honour, and to the

unfortunate a support; in short, it ennobles the slave, and even exalts nobility itself.

A soul in which virtue resides is the nearest representation of heaven itself: all is serenity, and light, and joy; the troubles of the world cannot interrupt its repose, the cloud of passions cannot diminish its brightness.

Virtue is a blessing which man alone possesses, and no other creature has any title to it but himself.—All is nothing without her, and she alone is all;-she is the soul of the soul, the life of life, and crown of all perfections.

Good and virtuous Christians are courtiers of heaven; they wait upon Christ in his privy chamber.-Honour, riches, &c. may keep them at a distance here, but the palace of the King of glory will be their inheritance for ever.

Virtue makes the Christian shine,
It proves a temper all divine,
And fits him for the joys on high,
Where he shall live eternally.

ON TEMPERANCE.

TEMPERANCE is the mother of health, but excess the ruin of the constitution.

Temperance is a mark of Christianity, for the true Christian is temperate in all things.

The temperate man's pleasures are durable, because they are regular; and his life is calm and serene, because innocent.

If we be not temperate and moderate in the gratification of flesh and sense, we resemble beasts

more than men; for they live according to instinct, but we contrary to our reason and understanding.

Temperance is so absolutely necessary for a Christian, that it is impossible to be happy either here or hereafter without it.

Christ has set us a pattern, and if we tread not in his steps, we shall never partake of his glory. He that has not his lusts and passions in subjection, is fitter for the company of devils than the presence of God.

Be ye temperate, and mortify the lusts of the flesh, and ye will be heirs to a crown of life.

Let but this virtue reign,

And health it will procure;
Our appetites it will restrain,
Though masterless before.

It will adorn the man,

And make the Christian shine; 'Twill fit him for the joys above, Eternal and divine.

ON PLEASURE.

PLEASURE is the death of reason.

Pleasure, as pleasure, is not to be condemned, but only sinful pleasure; such as injures another is unjust, such as hurts ourselves is imprudent.

Pleasure is a boundless ocean, calm and smooth near the shore, but at a distance ever agitated with outrageous storms. He that keeps within sight of