A39678:290
The reasonableness of personal reformation, and the necessity of conversion
The reasonableness of personal reformation, and the necessity of conversion; the true methods of making all men happy in this world, and in the world to come Seasonably discoursed, and earnestly pressed upon this licentious age. By J.F. a sincere lover of his native country, and the souls of men.The reasonableness of personal reformation, and the necessity of conversion; the true methods of making all men happy in this world, and in the world to come Seasonably discoursed, and earnestly pressed upon this licentious age. By J.F. a sincere lover of his native countrey, and the souls of men.
London: printed for Thomas Cockerill, 1691
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
For temperate drinking refreshes the Body, and no way burdens it, as excessive drinking doth. And that which burdens Nature can never be equally pleasant with that, which yields nothing but due refreshment. Temperance doth not vitiate, but raiseth the pure and ordinate Appetite of Nature to its just pitch and height; in which temper, and at which height, it is most capable of the sweetest pleasure from the Creature. As the Strings of a Lute give us the sweetest and most delicious Notes when they are not let down too low, but are all fixed at their due height.
For temperate drinking refreshes the Body, and no way burthens it, as excessive drinking doth. And that which burthens Nature can never be equally pleasant with that, which yields nothing but due refreshment. Temperance doth not vitiate, but raiseth the pure and ordinate Appetite of Nature to its just pitch and height; in which temper, and at which height, it is most capable of the sweetest pleasure from the Creature. As the Strings of a Lute give us the sweetest and most delicious Notes when they are not let down too low, but are all sixed at their due height.
Temperance gives us the most pleasing Enjoyment of the good things of this Life, still leaving the Mind free and fit for the more Spiritual and sweet Enjoyments of a better and more excellent Life; which Excess never did, nor can do.
Moreover, Temperance maintains the manly grace and majesty of the Countenance, but Excess totally disguises it. It draws the lines of Drunkards faces into a form much like those ridiculous Dutch Pictures, which some set upon their Chimney-pieces, to move laughter in those that behold them.