It is surely high time then to recollect ourselves, that we may no longer eat and drink like brute beasts which have no understanding, but may rather assert the noble privilege we enjoy, as men, and especially as Christians, of regarding an eternal end in all that we think and do. It is time, I say, to take away our reproach, by acting up to the sacred name and character which belong to us; and with this view, by taking into serious consideration both the ends of our daily eating and drinking, and also the means by which that end is every day promoted.
And first, in respect to the ends of eating and drinking.
These ends may be regarded in a threefold point of view, viz. as proximate, more remote, and ultimate; and therefore it will be necessary to consider each of these ends separately, before we can acquire a clear and full idea of the grand and comprehensive design and purpose of the bodily acts of eating and drinking.
Allow me then to call your attention to each of these ends; and first, to what may be called the proximate end.
This end has manifest relation to the health of the body, which, it is evident, cannot be preserved without a due measure of meat and drink; and which, of
