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The grace of temperance may be here diversely understood.

I. FOR SUCH A DISCRETION AS MAY SEASON ALL THESE GRACES; So taken it is the salt of every virtue. Devotion without discretion is like a hasty servant that runs away without his errand. Profession of faith without temperance is turned into hypocrisy or preposterous zeal; virtue without it is folly. Patience without discretion wrongs a good cause. Godliness without temperance is devotion out of its wits. Brotherly kindness without temperance is brotherly dotage. Charity without temperance is prodigality; it gives with an open hand and shut eye.

II. FOR SUCH A DISCRETION AS MAY MODERATE KNOWLEDGE, and qualify that heat to which it is addicted (1 Corinthians 8:1). Temperance is not so much a virtue itself as a marshal or moderator of virtues. It is not enough to do a good work unless the due place, fit manner, and convenient time be observed.

III. FOR SUCH A MODERATION OF THE MIND WHEREBY WE SO DEMEAN OURSELVES AS NEITHER TO SURFEIT ON FULNESS, NOR TO DESPAIR ON WANT.

IV. FOR A MODERATE USE OF OUTWARD THINGS. There is intemperance —

1. In lust; so it is called incontinence. This may be avoided —

(1) By subduing the body to the soul (1 Corinthians 9:27).

(2) By debarring the flesh all lust-provoking meats and drinks, High diet is adultery's nurse.

(3) By avoiding temptations (1 Corinthians 6:18).

(4) By meditating on the punishment. What men think most pleasing is most plaguing; to have their lusts granted (Psalm 81:12).

2. In apparel. Christ says the body is more worth than raiment; but some strive to make their raiment more worth than their bodies; like birds of paradise, their feathers are better than their carcases.

3. In meats.

(1) For the manner; this is merely circumstantial, and may thus he expressed: too Soon, too late, too daintily, too fast, too much, is gluttony.

(2) For the measure: it is an insatiate desire of delicacies (Luke 12:19; Philippians 3:19). As too much rain drowns the fields which moderate showers would make fruitful; so this plethory of diet, instead of conserving nature, confounds it.

(3) For the matter: it is great feasting.

(4) The effects are manifold and manifest.

(a)  Grossness.

(b)  Macilency of grace.

(c)  Consumption of estate.

(d)  Sickness of body.

(3)  Rottenness and death. The finest food shall make no better dust.

(i)  Abstinence is man's rising, as intemperance was his

(ii)  It is God's blessing that makes fat, and not meat.

4. In drinks.

(1)  It makes room for the devil.

(2)  It overturns the estate.

(3)  It poisons the tongue.

(4)  It woe to itself (Proverbs 23:29).Learn we how to avoid it —

(a)  Because we are men. While the wine is in thy hand, thou art a man; when it is in thy head, thou art become a beast.

(b)  Because we are citizens, and therefore should lead civil lives; drunkenness is an uncivil exorbitance.

(c)  Because we are Christians (1 Timothy 6:11; Titus 2:11, 12; Luke 21:34).

(Thomas Adams.)

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KJV: And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;

WEB: Yes, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence; and in moral excellence, knowledge;