t on so laudable a pursuit, I have resolved to treat of that
method, in order to be of service not only to them, but to all
those who may be willing to peruse this discourse. I shall,
therefore, give my reasons for renouncing intemperance, and
betaking myself to a sober course of life; declare freely the
method pursued by me for that purpose; and then set forth the
effects of so good an habit upon me; whence it may be clearly
gathered, how easy it is to remove the abuse of intemperance.
I shall conclude, by shewing how many conveniencies and
blessings are the consequences of a sober life.

I say then, that the heavy train of infirmities, which had not
only invaded, but even made great inroads in my constitution,
were my motives for renouncing intemperance, to which I had been
greatly addicted; so that, in consequence of it, and the badness
of my constitution, my stomach being exceedingly cold and moist,
I was fallen into different kinds of disorders, such as pains in
my stomach, and often stitches, and spices of the gout; attended
by, what was still worse, an almost continual slow fever, a
stomach generally out of order, and a perpetual thirst. From
these natural and acquired disorders the best delivery I had to
hope for, was death, to put an end to the pains and miseries of
life; a period very remote in the regular course of nature,
though I had hastened it by my irregular manner of living.
Finding myself, therefore, in such unhappy circumstances between
my thirty-fifth and fortieth year, every thing that could be
thought of having been tried to no purpose to relieve me, the
physicians gave me to understand, that there was but one method
left to get the better of my complaints, provided I would resolve
to use it, and patiently persevere in it. This was a sober and
regular life, which the assured me would be still of the greatest
service to me, and would be as powerful in its effects, as the
intemperance and irregular one had been, in reducing me to the
present low condition: and that I might be fully satisfied of its
salutary effects, for though by my irregularities I was become
infirm, I was not reduced so low, but that a temperate life, the
opposite in every respect to an intemperate one, might still
entirely recover me. And besides, it in fact appears, such a
regular life, whilst observed, preserves men of a bad constitution,
and far gone in years, just as a contrary course has the power
to destroy those of t