and his sons, saying unto them, "Be fruitful, and multiply and replenish the earth; and the fear of you, and the dread of you, shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon the fishes of the sea; into your hands are they delivered. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things; but flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall you not eat."

2

So that you may see, even in this first licence to eat flesh, that man was restrained from eating flesh with the blood; which restraint was more particularly confirmed in the law of Moses, when the fat was also forbidden to be eaten, in these words; "Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, ye shall eat no manner of fat of ox, of sheep, or of goat," &c. which prohibition must needs have regard to the quality of fat. And in a little afterward, there is a separation made between the meats that were to be eaten, and those that were not; between the clean and unclean beasts, birds, and fishes; which law was strictly observed by the children of Israel throughout their generations; and so it is to this day. Now, without doubt, it was on account of the different good or ill qualities that resided in the flesh of these creatures, that some were forbidden, and others allowed; and though this law was abolished by the coming of Christ, yet we find the apostles, in their council at Jerusalem, forbade the eating of things strangled, and commanded the Christians to abstain from blood.3 And in the lives of the apostles it is recorded, that some of them abstained from all flesh during their lives and not only the apostles, but other Christians, were abstemious, living chiefly upon herbs, or the like sustenance, as Paul witnesseth in his epistle to the Corinthians.

:

Upon the whole matter we may conclude, that all this caution and care about the difference of meats, from the beginning of the world to the flood, and from the flood to the giving of the Mosaic law, and from thence to the time of the apostles of Jesus Christ, would not have been, had there not been some greater reason for it, than barely

1 Lev. vii. 23. 2 Lev. xi. 3 Acts xv, 19, 20,

to try men's obedience, or to 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 sort to be forbidden, and 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 ordinance 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 that which 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 rudiments.

Discr. But then, if that saying of Christ be taken lite-rally, 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 qualities of the things we eat and 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 spirits, 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.

Prud. As to that saying of Paul, "To the pure, all things are pure," it may well be retorted, that the same

*

We are not obliged now to keep the law of Moses.] The authorin this passage evidently alludes to the Ceremonial law, which was in force under the Mosaic dispensation only, and not to the law of ten commandments, as delivered to Moses upon Mount Sinai.---A particular sect of Christians (Antinomians) have however presumed to think, and arrogantly assert, that the whole is abolished by the coming of the gospel of Christ. Reader, beware of such!

GG 3

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;" 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 coherence of the text, it is plain that he spoke in reference to the liberty that was given to Christians in eating; shewing, that though they were freed from the strict and punctual observation of the Mosaical law, according to the letter, yet that, nevertheless, they were obliged, by the law of prudence and Christian virtue, to make such an election of meats, as might neither offend charity or interfere with the grand design of religion, which is to make us more holy and pure, not more licentious and profane.

Char. Your mentioning the offences which may be given to charity, by a dissolute libertinism in eating, puts me in mind of another passage of the apostle, where he says, "If meat make my brother to offend (or he scandalized), I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I give scandal to my brother." 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 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 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 a far larger and more spiritual extent than all those good works amount to; nay, some of them may be performed without charity, as 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," 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 in the following words, describes; "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 airs, and often tastes of the fruit of the tree of life.

Now, to apply this to the subject, you have been handling, I say, that a man endowed 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 offence, both towards God and man. He will, in all things indifferent, comply with the prepossessions, prejudices, and

1 1st Cor. xiii. 3.

2 1st Cor. xiii. 4.

customs of his weak brother: "To the Jews he becomes 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 were 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 eats or drinks, or whatever he does, he does all to the glory of God giving none offence, neither to the Jew nor to the Gentile, nor to the church of God; but pleasing all men in all things; not seeking his own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved." 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 state of moderation in eating and drinking.

To this discourse of Charity the whole company agreed, and Tender-conscience expressed a 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.

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 was burning or not: 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 and dim light, and the other sheds 1 1st Cor. x. 31---33.