The opinion of Christ and the apostle Paul.

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 not, handle not,' a doctrine of worldly elements and beggarly rudi

ments.

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.

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 lawful 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," 1 Cor. iv. 12. To which he immediately subjoins these words, "Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats; but the Lord will destroy both it and them." Now by this coherency of the text it 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

Charity the principal of Christian virtues.

of the Mosaical law, according to the letter, yet nevertheless they were obliged by the law of prudence and Christian virtue, to make such an election of meats as might neither offend charity, nor interfere with the grand design of religion, which is to make us more holy and pure, not more licentious and profane.

Charity. Your mentioning 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 quintescence of alt 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 in 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 explaim 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

True charity distinguished from mere acts of mercy.

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." 1 Cor. xiii. 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. " 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 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: I say, that a man endued with this divine and supernatural gift of charity, as he loves

The practice of a real Christian.

God above all things, so he loves his neighbour as himself, and will in all things so comport himself, as to be void in himself both towards God and man. He will (in all things indifferent) comply with the prepossesions, 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 of 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 has 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 practice 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 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 controversy 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 discourse, making a particular acknowledgment and address to Charity for her evangelical conclusion.

The practice of fasting.

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 his 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