3. The manner of enjoying the creature ; it must be with caution and with piety.
[1] With caution. Job sacrificed while his sons feasted, Job i. 5. We are apt to forget God most when he is best to us ; and when our hearts are warmed and inflamed with high and good cheer, we are apt to sin ; therefore your heart should not be let loose to the fruition of outward comforts. It is ill to trust appetite without a guard, as it is to trust a child among a company of poisons : Prov. xxiii. 1, 2, ' When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is be- fore thee ; and put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite ; ' that is Solomon's advice ; ' And rejoice as if you rejoiced not,' 1 Cor. vii. 31. Consider you are in the midst of dangers and tempta- tions. When these baits are before you, self-denial is put to the exer- cise ; and here you are tried to see what command you have over your- selves. Men lay aside all care when they go to festival meetings. It were well to lay aside worldly cares, that you might not eat the bread of sorrow ; but take heed of a secret snare ; you should not lay aside spiritual care.
[2.] You must use them with piety. God must not be banished from our delights and refreshments ; we must receive them from God, enjoy them in God, and refer them to God. We must receive them from God, who is the author, the giver, the allower, and the sanctifier of them. You must take all your comforts out of God's hands with thanksgiving, then your table will not so easily be made a snare. How sweet is this when you can say in good conscience, Lord, thou hast provided this for me, this is the comfort thou hast allowed me. The apostle saith, 1 Tim. iv. 4, 5, ' Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.' In the word God hath declared the use to be lawful ; there we understand our liberty and right by Christ ; and in prayer we ask
134 SERMONS UPON TITUS II. 11-14. [SeR. VIII.
God's leave and blessing, that so we may act faith upon his providence ; for njan doth not live by bread alone, he must receive his strength and nourishment from God. All the creatures since the fall are armed with a curse, and therefore we had need take them as blessings out of God's hand in and through Jesus Christ ; and we must enjoy them in God ; God must not be forgotten when he remembers us. As you refresh the body with food, let the soul be refreshed too by meditation ; that is the soul's refreshment. Consider his liberality ; how many things doth God give at a feast ? It is God that gives wealth to furnish our table, health to use them, peace to meet together ; and Christ hath purchased liberty that we may make use of all these bless- ings. The soul must have its refreshment ; and so may we meditate upon Christ's sweetness, the fatness of God's house. In Luke xiv., when Christ was eating bread in the pharisee's house, then he discoursed of the spii'itual wedding supper, and of eating bread in his Father's king- dom. Then you must use them to God, as the end and scope : 1 Cor. X. 31, ' Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatever ye do, do all to the glory of God.' No pleasure should be its own end. The immediate end is the sustentation of the body, but the remote end should be service and God's glory. We do not eat to eat, but eat to live. Pleasure is the handmaid of nature, but not the guide. The end of eating is to repair the strength which hath been weakened in duty, and fit us to attend upon duty again : Eccles. x. 17, ' Thy princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness ; ' not for mere delight, but for service. Thus you see what it is to be sober in the use of meats and drinks.
Third branch, sobriety in apparel.
The third branch of sobriety is in apparel. That this is a part of sobriety appears by that scripture, 1 Tim. ii. 9, ' That women adorn themselves in modest ap23arel, with shamefacedness and sobriety.' We must be moderate as to apparel, as well as to other delights and com- forts of life.
In managing this part of the discourse, I shall first give you some rules, and then some helps.
First, For the rules. The work of sobriety is to moderate the affec- tion, and then the use.
1. To moderate the affection to vain and immodest apparel ; there the disease begins: Col. iii. 5, ' Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection.' There may be even in those that are poor a desire and an envy at the bravery of others (which is grievous to the Spirit of God) when we want it ourselves. Pride in apparel is not only seen in the wearing, but in the desire of it, when we can no sooner see a vain fashion but we are taken with it, as Ahaz was taken with the altar at Damascus, and we must have another of the like fashion. It is the duty of christians ' to consider one another, to provoke to love and to good works,' Heb. x. 24, who should be most sober, most modest in their apparel ; but we often provoke one another to excess and pomp, and strive who shall excel ; therefore this desire, when we are taken with vain fashions, is sinful. And if our hand will not reach to it, then we envy and speak against others, not out of zeal, but emulation, because we cannot attain to the like ourselves . as Diogenes trode on Plato's rich