Purity from fleshly lust. In men it is termed continence.
See CONTINENCE.
There is a chastity of speech, behaviour, and imagination, as well as of body. Grove gives us the following rules for the conservation of chastity.
1. To keep ourselves fully employed in labours either of the body or the mind: idleness is frequently the introduction to sensuality.
2. To guard the senses, and avoid every thing which may be an incentive to lust. Does the free use of some meats and drinks make the body ungovernable? Does reading certain books debauch the imagination and inflame the passions? Do temptations often enter by the sight? Have public plays, dancings, effeminate music, idle songs, loose habits, and the like, the same effect? He who resolves upon chastity cannot be ignorant what his duty is in all these and such like cases.
3. to implore the Divine Spirit, which is a spirit of purity; and by the utmost regard to his presence and operations to endeavour to retain him with us. Grove's Moral Philos. p. 2. sec. 6.
Despite a stated reliance on the plain meaning of the Bible and the dictates of common sense, Buck's Theological Dictionary, first published in London in 1802, seeks to provide a textual basis for the evangelical community. By combining brief essays on orthodox belief and practice with historical entries on various denominations, Buck provided an interpretive lens that allowed antebellum Protestants to see Christianity's almost two millennia as their own history.Wikipedia
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