will not be imputed to us as Sins;) Nay, not only fo, but we can refuse their breaking out, or fhewing themfelves in our Words, or our Actions: For the Motions of our outward Members are all at our Command, though the firft Motions of our Minds be not.

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Here therefore will lie a main Point in the Art of well governing our Minds and Thoughts. You cannot perhaps, for Inftance, prevent a fudden Paffion of Anger from rifing in your Minds upon Twenty Accidents; but as foon as you feel this Paffion, you can thus far ftifle it; you can feal up your Mouth, fo that the Paffion fhall not vent itfelf in unfeemly Words: And if you will withdraw that Fuel from the new-kindled Fire, it will be foon extinguished, and dic. Whereas if you fuffer it to break out in bitter Speeches and Expreffions, it will flame beyond measure.

Thus again, If any undecent, impure Fancies or Defires fhould be excited in you upon any Occafion; it was not, perhaps, in your Power to keep them from coming into your Minds: but it is in your Power to withdraw from the Temptation that caufed them; and to endeavour to direct your Thoughts to fome other Object; at leaft not to proceed one Step in any outward Action towards the accomplifhing of thofe Defires. If you take this Courfe, the Disturbance of your Mind will foon ccafe, and you will return presently to your ordinary Temper.

And let me tell you this farther: That by your being thus careful to refift and fmother the firft Beginnings of Sin, you will not only preferve,

preserve, in a greater measure, the Innocency of your Minds under the prefent Temptation; but you will alfo have this further Advantage, that by this means, you increafe your Power over your Thoughts, against the next Time that the Temptation returns. Every Check you give to the firft Motions of Sin, makes the next Affault of them the lefs furious. And if you do conftantly ufe yourselves, thus to Guard and Watch over your Hearts; you will, in time, obtain fuch a Command over them, that you will not be troubled with a quarter of thofe irregular Defires, and Paffions, which, heretofore, upon feveral Occafions, ufed to be kindled in you. By this Method you will strengthen your Faculties, and enlarge your Powers; and by degrees, bring yourfelves to that happy Temper of Soul, that there will be no great War between the Law of your Members, and the Law of your Minds: But the World and the Flef will be Crucified to you, as you are to them > that I may ufe St. Paul's Expreffions.

But then, Fourthly, That you may be able not only to keep bad Thoughts out of your Minds; but alfo to have a conftant Spring of good ones; there are fome particular Exercifes very proper for this Purpofe to be recommended. Such I mean as thefe, Converfe with dif creet and pious Perfons; Reading good Books, efpecially the Holy Scriptures; taking Times of Meditation and Recollection; and above all, fervent and conftant Prayer to God.

It is not to be told how every one of thefe Things doth help to infpire us with good Thoughts and Purposes.

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A little Paffage now and then, though but occafionally dropt in Converfation, that is to the Bufinefs of Vertue and Goodness, will fupply us fometimes with Matter for good Thoughts for a confiderable while after. What lafting Impreffions then, do you think, would be left upon our Minds, if we made it our conftant Exercife every Day, to read or hear something out of the Bible, or fome other good Book, with a Design to grow better thereby?

But above all Things, we must take Care to be diligent and ferious in our Applications to the Throne of Grace: It is the Hearty Prayer and Devotion, that, when all is done, will prove the most effectual Means, for the keeping our Hearts fteady to that which is Good, and fecuring them from the Pollutions of the fenfible Earthly Objects that do furround us.

O therefore let us be conftant in our Religious Offices. Nay, let us take every Opportunity that our Affairs will allow us, of raifing our Minds to God, and thanking him for his Infinite Love and Goodness to us; and imploring the continual Influences of his Grace and Holy Spirit, and reinforcing our Vows and Purposes of perfevering in his Service.

By this means we fhall come to lead Spiritual Lives indeed. Our Souls will be a perpetual Fountain of good Thoughts: And while we live here, our Converfation will be in Heaven: For God and Chrift, and the Things above will have our Hearts, though the World hath our Bodies.

But then, in the Fifth and laft Place, Notwithstanding what I have hitherto faid, concerning!

cerning the Diligence with which we are to keep our Hearts; yet this is always to be remenbred, That with our Diligence we must be careful to join Difcretion.

My Meaning is this, We muft have a Care not to intend our Thoughts immoderately, and more than our Tempers will bear, even to the best Things: But we must fo keep our Hearts, as at the fame Time to preferve our Healths, and keep up the Vigour of our Minds.

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And the way to do that, is, not to put them too much, or too long, upon the Stretch at any one time; but to relax them when there is Occafion, and to let them run out, and en tertain themselves upon any Thing that comes next to hand, fo long as it is innocent.

It is a vain Thing to imagine, that we can always be thinking of our great Business; or that we can always be a Praying, or Reading, or Meditating; or, that, as our Condition is in this World, even the greater Part of our Thoughts fhould be fuch as we call Devout and Religious Thoughts.

God hath provided a great deal of other Bufinefs for us to apply our Minds to, fo long as we live in this World; and by minding that diligently and confcientioufly, we do ferve God as acceptably, as if we were Reading or Praying.

Nay, even then, when we have no urgent Bufinefs upon our Hands to take up our Minds, it is not neceffary that we fhould be always thinking of Religion. Nor would I call every Thought, a vain, or an idle, or a finful Thought, that hath not God, or our Spiritual Concernments for its Object; even the most Spirituallyminded

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minded among us, muft oftentimes be content to be entertained with fuch Thoughts as our Company or our Temper, or the prefent Circumstances we are in, do fuggeft to us. And provided thofe Thoughts be innocent, and do not intrench upon the Laws of Piety,and Purity, and Charity, be they otherwife very trifling and impertinent: I fay, I would not look upon them as ill Thoughts, nor have any one angry at himself upon Account of them.

The Truth of it is, fo long as we confift of Bodies and Souls, we cannot always be thinking of ferious Things; they, indeed, are the wifeft that think of them moft, but it is even dangerous to attempt to think of them always. For, as most Mens Conftitutions are, that is the ready way to spoil the Habit of our Bodies, and by that means, to render our Minds perfectly unfit for thinking at all, to any good Purposes. Thus have I laid before you the main Things, wherein, as I do believe, the right Governing our Thoughts doth consist. And I doubt not

they are fo fafe, and fo effectual, that whofoever will fincerely practise them, as far as he can, will fo keep his Heart, that the Iues from thence in his Life and Converfation will be Happy and Profperous.

I conclude all with the Collect of this Day. Almighty God, who feeft that we have no Power of our felves to help ourselves; Keep us both outwardly in our Bodies, and inwardly in our Souls; that we may be defended from all Adverfities which may happen to the Body, and from all EVIL THOUGHTS, which may affault and hurt the Soul, thro' Jefus Christ our Lord.

SER