“The vice of intemperance in eating, and drinking, is plain to every body,” they own. And, therefore, they give it up as an excess which cannot but tend to the impairing of health, and shortening of life: nay, it drowns the very relish of pleasure in actual eating and drinking. Hence will every refined debauchee exclaim against it with Dr. _Trapp_: “Be not over-much wicked: why shouldst thou destroy thyself?” Little sobriety, say they, is requisite to give a zest to luxury and worldly pleasures. But too much of it is too much, “to eat nothing but bread and herbs, and drink nothing but water, unless there be a particular reason for it (such perhaps as Doctor _Cheyne_ may assign) is folly at best, (that is, even though it be done for CHRIST’s sake) therefore no virtue:” “Be not then righteous over-much, why shouldst thou destroy thyself?” And if you should answer these carnally-minded men with the words of the apostle, _Romans_ viii. “We are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh: For if we live after the flesh, we shall die: but if we, through the spirit, do mortify the deeds of the flesh, we shall live.” If you answer them thus, they will tell you, “this is teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” And it will be to as little purpose to answer them, with what St. _Paul_ says elsewhere (_Romans_ xiv. 17.) “The kingdom of GOD is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost:” They will not blush to tell you, that “our blessed Saviour came eating and drinking, nay worked a miracle to make wine (at an entertainment) when it is plain there had been more drank than was necessary.” To such lengths does the love of the world hurry these self-fond, merry-making worldlings! Tell them of self-denial, they will not hear you, it is an encroachment upon the pleasures of life, and may shorten it of a few days, which you are never sure of possessing; it is being “righteous over-much: why shouldst thou destroy thyself?” JESUS, you will say, tells us (_John_ xii. 25.) “He that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that hateth his life in this world, shall keep it unto life eternal.” But this and the like, they will inform you, “are hyperbolical phrases.” Now what signifies minding JESUS, when he speaks hyperbolically, that is, speaks more than is strictly true. Yet, O LORD JESUS, grant us to mind thee, whatever these worldlings may say; remind us, that if any man will come after thee, he must deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow thee! O how enlarging is it to the soul, to take up the cross of CHRIST and follow him!
But you are charged, ye beloved lovers of perfect righteousness, with extravagances. You allow of “no sort of recreation or diversion; nothing but an universal mortification and self-denial; no pleasure but from religion only:” you teach “that the bodily appetites must not be in the least degree gratified, any farther than is absolutely necessary to keep body and soul together, and mankind in being: No allowances are to be made for melancholy misfortunes, or human infirmity; grief must be cured only by prayer;” (a horrid grievance this, to such as think prayer burdensome at best) “To divert it by worldly amusements is carnal.” A heavy charge this: but lest it should seem so only to those carnal persons, who are resolved to give way to their carnal appetites; what you look upon as advisable only, these perverters of truth insinuate to be looked upon by you as indispensable duties. And lest prevarication should fail, downright falshoods must be placed to your account, “so that to taste an agreeable fruit, or smell to a rose, must be unlawful with you,” however you disown it. But O, my beloved christians, be not discouraged from the pursuit of perfect righteousness by these or such vile misrepresentations. For “blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for the sake of CHRIST JESUS. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: For great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets who were before you.”