my goods on the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing, 1 Cor. xii. In which words he plainly fuppofes that many outward good works may be done, and yet the doers of them may want charity: Therefore when I fpeak of charity, I understand that divine accomplishment of the foul, which the fame apoftle defcribes in the following words, 1 Cor. xiii. 4. Charity fuffereth long, and is kind: Charity en vieth not: Charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up; doth not behave itself unfeemly; feeketh not her own; u not easily provoked; thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not it iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; bearing all things, believing all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. This is the compleat character of charity, and he that makes it good in his practice is a perfect chriftian: a believer is a believer in his true colours, a champion of the faith, an Ifraelite indeed, in whom there is no guile, a living ftone in the temple of God: He runs with patience the race that is fet before him; he practifes fobriety, righteousness, and godliness towards God and man, and himfelf:-His foul is the receptacle of goodness, the center 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 foul lives in heaven; he couches under the shadow of the trees of Paradife; he breathes immortal airs, and often takes of the fruits of the tree of life.

Now, to apply this to the fubject you have been handling, fay, that a man endued with this divine and fupernatural gift of charity, as he loves God above all things, fo he loves his neighbour as himself, and will in all thing fo comport himself, as to be void of offence both toward God and man. He will (in all things indifferent) comply with the prepoffeffions, prejudices, and cuftoms 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 Chrift) that he might gain them that are without 7: To the weak he will become as weak, that he the weak: He is made all things to all men, that ne he may fare. With them that cat flesh he

eat likewife, afking no queftions for confcience fake he earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof.) With

that abstain he will practice abftinence. Whether he r drink, or whatever he does, he does all to the glory od; but pleafing all men in all things, not feeking wn profit, but the profit of many that they may be

I Cor. x. 31, 32, 33. This is the practice of a & chriftian; this is the ultimate end of the commande, the non ultra of both the law and the gospel, and im of our statute of moderation in eating and drink.

o this difcourfe of Charity the whole company agreed, Tender-confcience exprefs'd a more than ordinary faAtion and complacency in her grave and moderate den of a controverfy that he had raifed. He had long disturbed in his mind about this point; but was now vinced of the truth, & gave them all most hearty thanks their edifying difcourfe, making a particular acknowment and addrefs to Charity for her evangelical conion.

Then the virgin Temperance, who began this difcourfe moderation in eating and drinking, and whofe proper ce it was to interpret and expound that ftatute, call'd two lamps, which were immediately brought by obedice, one of the waiters. Now one of the lamps gave but im fight, fo that you could hardly difcern whether it burning or no; on the contrary, the other fhined very ght and clear: Then faid Temperance, you fee the dif ence between these two lamps, how the one affords but weak, faint light, and the other fheds her beams round th great fplendor: The chrystals are both alike, but onone of them is fullied and furr'd (as it were) with finoke d vapours, and the other is tranfparent and clean; These e emblems of moderation and riot in eating and drinking. he foul of man is a lamp, which will burn and hine th great fplendor if the body be kept clean, and purified temperance, abftinence, and fafting: But if a man, by ceffive eating and drinking, does pollute and ftain his. ody, his fpirits (which are the chryftal of his foul) beme clouded and thickned with vapour and smoke, fo that e neither fhines in good works to others, nor has much.

light in himself; and if the light that is in him be dark Reis, how great must that darkness be!

Tender-com. Pray give me leave o trouble you with one question more about fafting, because I think you mention ed that juft now as one means to purify and cleanse the body, and render it more inftrumental to the operations of the foul, I defire to be informed what examples you have of fatting in fcripture, and whether it be now requifite and profitable for a christian to faft, and what are the proper effects of it?

Temperance. It will be no trouble to me, but a delight to fatisfy you in this point, according to my ability, as i is my office.

Know then that faftiog is a practice frequently recom mended in the book of God, and warranted by the examples of fundry good and holy men: We read that Mofes faited forty days and forty nights in the mountain; and tho' no mention be made of fasting before the flood, yet the lives of men in that infancy of the world, in all probabili ty, was a daily fast, or at leak a continual abstinence from flesh; fo that what feems now fo grievous and burdenfone a difcipline, was then, peradventure, efteemed but a nat ral and univerfal diet, obferved by all mankind, whereby they preferved their bodies in an inviolable health and vi gour, prolonging their days almost to a thousand years; but now in thefe latter ages of the word, the bodies of men are grown weaker, and men think it a heavy tak to fat once a month, nay, once a year feems too much for their delicate conftitutions.

There were several occafions of fasting among the people of God in old time, Lev. xxii. 27-32. There was a day of attonement commanded to be obferved by the Ifraelites throughout their generations for ever, in which they were to fall and afflict their fouls from even to even. This was an annual day of public humiliation, enjoined to the peo ple, for ever. It was cuftomary alfo to faft on any mourn ful cccafion, as David fafted when his child lay fick, 2 Sam. xii. 16, 17. And the men of Jabes Gilead fafted feven days when they buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan his fon under a tree at Jabesh, 1 Sam. xxxi. 13. And as foon as David heard the news of their death, both he, and all the men that were with him, took hold of their cloaths and

them; and they mourned and wept, and fafted until z, for Saul, and for Jonathan his fon, and for the peoof the Lord, and for the bonfe of Ifrael, 2 Sam. i. 11, Moreover the people of Ifrael used to faft in time of public calamity; and not only they but other nations as the inhabitants of the great city of Nineveh. When prophet Jonah foretold the deftruction of that stately would come to pafs in forty days, they proclaimed a and put on fackcloth from the greateft of them even he leaft; for word came unto the king of Nineveh, and ärofe from his throne, and laid his robe from him, and ered himself in fackloth, and fat in afhes; and he cauit to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh, by decree of the king and his nobles, faying, Let neither n nor beast, herd nor flock, tafte any thing, let them : feed nor drink water, Jonah iii. 5, 6.

But befides thefe folemn and public fafts, we read of fome vate men who practifed it; as the prophet Daniel, who ted full three weeks, in which time he eat no pleasant ad, neither came flesh nor wine within his mouth; And s faft of his was fo acceptable to God, that he fent one his holy angels to him, who faluted him with the title A man greatly beloved, bidding him not to fear or be abled; for, fays he, from the first day that thou didst thine heart to understand, and to chaften thyself before y God, thy words were heard, and I come for thy words. ow I am come to make thee understand what fhall beI thy people in the latter days, Dan. x 1,-15, And hen he had thus comforted and ftrengthened Daniel, he vealed many wonderful and fecret things that fhould come pafs in the world: So that by thefe great favors fhewn Daniel, we may plainly fee how acceptable religious faftg is to God.

Many more examples of this kind might be produced ut of the Old Teftament; but thefe may fuffice to fhew aat falling was a duty often practiced by the people of God, nd by holy men under the law of Mofes.

And the gofpel recommends it, from the beginning to he end, by the example of Chrift, and John the Baptift, of Peter, Paul, and the reft of the apostles, as well as by. heir counfels and exhortations; nothing more frequenty inculcated this duty of fatting throughout the writ

ings of the New Teftament; and, without all doubt, it i noa as requifite as ever it was, fince we are liable to the fame infirmities, expofed to the fame temptations, and be fet with the fame dangers as the former chriftians were, a gainft ali which evils fafting is the proper remedy. Fal ing mortifies the body, and tames concupifcence; it quench es luft, and kindles devotion; it is the handmaid of prayer, and the nurse of meditation; it refines the understanding fabdues the paffions, regulates the will, and fublimates whole man to a spiritual state of life: 'Tis the life of gels, the enamel of the foul, the great advantage of reli gion, the best opportunity for retirement of devotion While the fmoke of carnal appetite: is fuppreffed and ex tinguished, the heart breaks forth with holy fire till it be barning like the cherubim, and the most exalted order of pure and unpolluted fpirits. Thefe are the genuine and proper effects of religious and frequent fafting, as they can witness who make it their private practice.

Tender-com. You have made me in love with fafting, by giving fo fair an account of it, and difcovering its confe quences to the foul and body, and I am refolved to make trial of it myself hereafter; for in my opinion, as you de scribe it, it causes a man to draw nearer unto God, while his foul being, by abftinence and fafting, withdrawn, a were, from the body, and abstracted from all outward things retires into herself, and in the fecret tabernacle within the fits under the shadow of the divinity, and enjoys a inofe close communion and intimate union with God.

When Tender conscience bad made an end of these words he began to take his journey; and giving them all hit thanks for the kind entertainment he had met with in this place, and especially for their edifying difcourfe, he role up and took his leave: Then they rofe up with him, and accompanied him to the armoury which flood by the gate, and there they armed him all over with armour and wea pons of proof, as was the custom to de to all pilgrims, be caufe the reft of his journey was like to be more dangerons, the ways being infested with thieves and robbers, with fons of Belial, and murderers, alfo with fiends and devils: AlTo they gave him his pass, which he had delivered to them at his firt coming thither: Now they had all fet their hands to confirm and strengthen it the more, bidding him

bel