are so dangerous to your soul as these; because there are so many different species of them, and the individual acts are innumerable in thought, word, deed, desire; this vice infects the memory, understanding, fancy, all the faculties of the soul, and all the senses. As now these sins are so very pernicious and common to corrupt nature, and the flesh is ever in rebellion against the spirit, what have we to do, but to seek a remedy; and first to practise that divine lesson, If any one will come after me, let him deny himself, in order to mortify and keep under this unruly passion; which, without self-denial, can never be effected. And since we are so weak and frail of ourselves, we must seek grace to support us; and this by constant and devout prayer: while the mind is on God, the soul is safe upon earth. To remedy these sins of the flesh, we must resist the first motions of them, and put a stop to the beginning; if we come to parley, we are upon the brink of yielding; there is no overcoming them but by flying, and great care must be taken to avoid what encourages and foments them; as idleness, high feeding, lascivious objects, lewd company, books, which are either obscene, or filled with amorous subjects, that help to soften and effeminate the soul. O! how many are now wallowing in hell, and will be there for all eternity, for this momentary delight? What are, alas ! all the delights of the earth to those of heaven? What are those of the body to those of the mind? The one are false, deceitful, perplexing; the other true, substantial, lasting, attended with tranquillity and a sweetness; nor do they ever desert him that possesses them. The way to this divine pleasure, is to renounce all carnal pleasure; to contemn this pleasure, is the greatest pleasure chastity and purity are the virtues of saints and angels, who are wholly absorbed in him who is all purity.

WHAT

of Gluttony.

HAT is gluttony? A. It is an inordinate desire of meat and drink. Q. What are the bad effects of gluttony and drunkenness ? A. Foolish mirth, scurrilous talk, impurity and beastliness, noisy dis

course, stupefaction of the understanding. Q. What virtue is opposite to gluttony? A. Temperance.

INSTRUC. Gluttony then is an irregular appetite to, and excess in the use of meat or drink. God has given both for the use of man; and when they are used to satisfy nature and preserve health, to eat and drink is reasonable and necessary: but when they are carried to excess, and beyond the bounds of necessity and reason, all such excess is gluttony, in a lesser or greater degree, as the excess is. It is an excess in eating, when we covet it merely to please our palates and indulge our appetites: when we eat at unseasonable times, as very often between meals; or at forbidden times, on days commanded to be kept fasts; or when we eat to an immoderate degree; or we are greedy for rarities: gluttony may be in quality as well as quantity. Is it not a shameful thing that sea and land must be ransacked to furnish dainties for the rich glutton's table, while the poor starve for want of bread? It is an excess in drinking or drunkenness, when you drink till by the fumes of liquor you have lost the use of reason, drowned your understanding, and rendered yourself unfit for duty, unfit for any business that requires reason and judgment. These are the effects of gluttony and drunkenness; foolish mirth, half-witted jokes, playing the fool, dirty discourse and actions, all kinds of uncleanness of body and soul, vomitings, nocturnal pollutions, &c. noisy impertinent talk, stupefaction, drowning of reason and good parts. To eat and drink your fill, for mere pleasure, is a sin of gluttony: what must it be to do this every day? To be clothed in purple and fine linen, to feast every day splendidly, and neglect the poor, was the life of Dives: He died, and was buried in hell; the hell of the damned ; no other sin was laid to his charge: Remember, son, thou didst receive good things in thy lifetime, and Lazarus evil; for this reason he is rewarded, but thou art tormented, Luke xvi. 25. He was a glutton, and that was enough; he made a God of his belly, as all such do, of whom St. Paul says, They who do such things, shall not obtain the kingdom of God, Gal. v.

Gluttony, both in eating and drinking in particular, excites the passions to all impurities and uncleanness ; as in the Sodomites, who glutted themselves with immoderate plenty, and hence came their other sins and disorders; so the prophet testifies, This was the iniquity of Sodom, Ezech, xvi. Against both St. Paul exhorts. us to live soberly, not in gluttony and drunkenness, Rom. xiii. 13. And our Saviour, Take heed lest your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, Luke xxi. 34. By eating Adam lost paradise, and Esau his birth right.

To remedy this evil, learn to fast and mortify. Pleasure exercises a dreadful tyranny over man's soul, almost all are led by it; and this mortification destroys, and teaches you to find a greater pleasure in abstaining from those pleasures, than following them: This preserves temperance, which is soon lost without it; prolongs life, and saves the soul.

EXHOR.-You see, O christian, what disorders gluttony and drunkenness create in mankind; what mischiefs to body and soul. Excess of meat and drink are the food of almost all diseases of the body, as well as the soul; other accidents may threaten, but this destroys; gluttony kills more than the sword, more than the plague. Use then the blessings of God according to his order, and do not bring death by that which was made to preserve life remember the maxim, We do not live to eat and drink, but eat and drink to live. Eat then to support nature, to preserve health, to prolong life, not to destroy it. Drink to quench your thirst, not to drown reason. Exceed not the bounds of temperance, either in meat or drink, the best things may be abused; let temperance and sobriety guide you, and these will keep you from degenerating into a beast; it is the life of a christian to live soberly, as well as justly and piously.As we have infernal enemies hourly seeking our ruin, sobriety, at all times, is necessary to be upon our guard against their attacks, according to that of St. Paul, Brethren, be sober and watchful: the Devil never takes more advantage than when we are under this excess in eating and drinking. O! what is more infamous than to be a slave to the belly, the sensual appetite, the body which is soon

to be the food of worms? What more disgraceful, than for the soul, the image of God, to be absorbed in gluttony and drunkenness? What shame for the reason and the understanding, to be so eclipsed by excess, that it cannot do its duty to God nor man? But what more contrary to christianity, than that body to be pampered with all the delights of sea and land, which we are commanded to mortify and punish for sin? That flesh upheld, which should be subdued? Those passions encouraged, which should be curbed? Corrupt nature made to command, which ought to serve and obey; and thus the first christian precept, self-denial, laid aside ?

:

As the remedy to every vice is the practice of the opposite virtue, so temperance is the remedy to this pernicious vice, gluttony: it is a rare virtue, which but few have in practice; some also are temperate rather for long life here, than for eternal life; temperance conduces to both, but is most essential to the latter to preserve this virtue, self-denial is requisite, and none preserve it long, who have not learned christian mortification why are the fasts and abstinence commanded, but to promote this virtue, and subdue the vice of gluttony ? O christian, take them as from God, not only as a preservative from excess, but as an atonement for past excesses committed; repent of all past disorders, and remember the kingdom of God, is not meat and drink, but justice and peace in the Holy Ghost.

Q.WH

Of Anger.

HAT is anger ? A. An inordinate desire of revenge. Q. What are the bad effects of anger? A. Fury and indignation, swelling with revenge, clamour, affronting language, threats, quarrelling, fighting, murder, cursing, swearing and blasphemy. Q. What virtue is opposite to anger? Q. Mildness.

INSTRUC.-When anger is not an irregular passion, but only a just displeasure at some ill thing done, for which we desire the offender may be brought to just punishment, by a lawful authority, this is called zeal against those who do evil, or hinder good: in this zeal our Saviour drove the buyers and sellers out of the tem

ple; which was a commendable anger: but great prudence and science is requisite to govern this zeal, which may otherwise be productive of great mischief.Anger, as a vice, is an irregular passion of the soul, which carries us with a violence to resist whatever displeases our pride and self love, or contradicts our pleasure, interest and humour; it is then evil, and lays us under condemnation: Whosoever shall be angry at his brother, shall be guilty of judgment, and he who calls his brother fool, in violent anger, shall be guilty of hell fire, Matt. v. 22. This sin is mortal, when it goes so far as to destroy charity, that is, to injure our neighbour in any great degree, either in thought, word or action it is only venial, when it is but a light and passing offence against him, which does not extinguish charity, and is easily forgiven by the party offended.

Against the vice of anger, we are admonished by St. James: Be slow to anger, for the wrath of man doth not work the righteousness of God, James i. 19, 20. but carries us with a kind of violence to many grievous sins and disorders; as divisions, animosities, contentions, injuries, desires of revenge, enmities, hatred, fighting, murder, &c. against which St. Paul pronounces that they who do such things shall not possess the kingdom of God, Gal. v. 20. Is it not hence generally proceed the most dreadful oaths, cursing and blasphemy? There is no passion by which we oftener offend God, both in thought, word and deed; nor by which we oftener injure our neighbour, by speaking and acting against charity, justice, truth, patience, reason, mildness, prudence, and other christian virtues: with good reason then the apostle exhorts all christians against it: Let all bitterness, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be removed from you, with all malice, Ephes. iv. 3.

As anger generally arises from the pride and corruption of the heart, which hates any contradiction or opposition; to remedy this evil, our Saviour has taught us to be meek and humble of heart, and in much patience to possess our souls: these are the virtues that are contrary to anger, and its proper remedy, patience and mildness; without which we can neither have peace with our neighbour, nor happiness in our mind, nor bliss in heaven.