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THUS much of the second part of our Subject, the Defects, Failures, and Infirmities incident to our Thoughts. We are now arriv'd at the third and last, which is to prescribe some rules for the Government and Manage of them. And thus I will endeavour to do.
I. WITH Relation particular∣ly to these horrid Thoughts we have just now treated of.
II. WITH Relation to the sinful infirmities of our Thoughts in religious Duties.
III. AND Lastly, I shall lay down such Rules as concern the go∣vernment of our Thoughts in general.
First, I shall endeavour to shew, how we are to behave our selves with particular relation to these horrid Thoughts we have just now treated of. And,
1. THERE is no doubt to be made, but that Prayer, which is so proper a means to the attainment of every good and perfect Gift, and so powerful an Amulet against all the Evils we labour under, will be of special Use in the case be∣fore us, Is any among you afflicted, says St. James, let him pray, and what greater affliction, and conse∣quently, more pressing occasion to Prayer than those Perplexities of Mind we speak of; for when can it be more opportune to call in
the Aid of Heaven, than when we are thus immediately assaulted by Hell? What fitter to quench these fiery Darts of the Wicked than the Shield of Faith in God express'd * 1.1 by our importunate Applications to him for Relief? For then must it be more especially acceptable to God, to testifie an entire Depen∣dance on, and Confidence in him, when he seems most of all to hide his Face from us in Displeasure. For if we thus pour out our Sup∣plications before him, hungring and thirsting after the Assistances of his Spirit, and the Testimony of our Consciences, to support us in these spiritual Conflicts, he has pro∣mised, and therefore no doubt but in his own good time, he will shine upon us with the Light of his Countenance, and yeild us Re∣freshment: Will put his hook in∣to the Nose, and his bridle into the Lips of the Tempter, turn him back, by the way by which he came, and give Ease to those who have suffered so much in them∣selves,
for fear only of having of∣fended him.
II. ANOTHER proper reme∣dy in this case, is to avoid idleness and solitary retirements; it must indeed be own'd, in my opinion, that Solitude is a mighty help to elevation of Mind, application of Thought, recollection of Spirit, and consequently to true private Devotion; which might be the Reason, I presume, why our Lord himself, on this occasion, added somtimes even the darkness of the Night, to the retirement of the Mountains. But yet, in this case, when the mind, left to it self is apt continually to dwell upon one's own supposed desperate Condition, and be perpetually haunted with the Ghosts it has conjur'd up, tis far more adviseable to repair to the City than to the Desart, and to chuse Company before a Retreat: The one will help to lay the e∣vil Spirit, the other as certainly improves its Terrors. If one fall
in Society, another may lift him up again, but in Privacy, a Man must stand upon his own bottom; and be in some measure self suffici∣ent to encounter with the Temp∣ter, and that in circumstances most advantagious to his Design upon us; for the temptations of Solitude are, I verily believe, more dange∣rous than those to be met with upon the stage of Action, because it lays us more especially open to the assaults of the Tempter, for which reason 'tis rationally presumed he made choice of the Wilderness, when he encountred with our Lord and Saviour; and both Reason, and the experience of several, of Ignatius particularly, that famous Founder of the Jesuit's Order, and eminent Instance of the Truth, assures us, that they who give themselves much up to Solitude, are infinitely ob∣noxious to Satanical Illusions: If therefore we would divert and break the force of these frightful Thoughts and Suggestions, we would do well to keep our Minds
imployed, either in innocent and agreeable Conversation, or when out of that, in our own and pro∣per Imployments; for idleness is a sort of Solitude of the Mind, even in places of the greatest Con∣course, and gives the Devil as great an Advantage against us, as the other Solitude of the Desert or the Cloister.
III. 'TIS advised by Divines in these cases, rather to slight than to struggle and contest with the Temptor; not to argue the case or enter into parley with him about one's Condition, (for the conflict will gall and chafe our Minds the more) but, as far as we are able, to let his Hellish Injections go as they come, and be no more con∣cern'd for his blaspheming within us, than for the Curses and Impri∣cations of any other lewd Compa∣ny that we cannot get rid of. For Opposition do's but perpetuate the Fray, and make the Battle the hotter: A wild Beast, if you violently stop
its Passage, may chance to run o∣ver you; let it alone, t'will go the gentlier by you: The way then in this case is, not to resist the Devil, otherwise than by Prayer, but to let him spend his Fury, and bear his Shocks with a severe Contempt of them, with a resolv'd firmness of Mind, and sedateness of Temper, till his force dissipates and wasts a∣way of it self.
IV. AND Lastly, a constant prosecution of one's Duty, howso∣ever irksom and uncomfortable it may appear, will certainly in time give the Mind Ease, and set it at Li∣berty from these Hellish Thoughts: The Clouds that darken the Mind now will by perseverance in Du∣ty be succeeded by a perfect Day, a Day of Glory and eternal Bright∣ness. For God will judge no Man for what he cannot help nor hinder, but will certainly reward him who do's him the best Service he is able, and is grieved only he can do him no better. For 'tis true in this case
too, that if there be a willing Mind it is accepted according to what a Man has, and not according to what he has not.
PROCEED we now to such Considerations as may be pro∣per to govern, and fix our Thoughts during our attendance upon religious Duties.
AND here we cannot more profitably commence this important Work, than by the same measure we at first prescribed on the last part of this Subject; that is, by address∣sing to God for his Aid and Assi∣ance in the Matter, that not onely the Words of our Mouth, but the Me∣ditations if our Heart (especially in our immediate approaches to Him) may be always acceptable in the sight of the Lord our God and our Re∣deemer. For Prayer it self will faci∣litate that application of Mind which
is necessary to a due performance of it, in as much as it purifies the Heart, sublimates the Spirit, and exalts it above its natural Pitch and Level: For by often returning to God, and carefully renewing our commerce with Heaven, we shake off our criminal Dispositions; and what was at first irksom and wea∣risomness to the flesh becomes at length an easie and a pleasurable Ex∣ercise. He will never be able to arrive to any tolerable degree of Perfection in any Attainment, whose desires do not first carry him on to∣wards it with some Eagerness and Impatience; and Prayer is nothing but putting our desires into Suit. He is certainly a very temerarious Person, who commences any Un∣dertakeing, without invokeing first the divine Favour and Assistance: The only proper Foundation Stone whereon to build our hopes of Suc∣cess in any of our Enterprises, and judged as such even by the Heathen World it self, who generally com∣menc'd their Works with appreca∣tion
of good Success from the great Author of it. Cesar, being to enter the Senate, sacrificed first, and Prayer among them was a con∣stant Attendance upon that Perfor∣mance, and Appian particularly speaks of that Act, not as of an ex∣traordinary, but as of a customary thing. And if this piece of ho∣mage be so highly our Duty in enterprising things that do not, I may say, so nearly regard him, how much more will it be so in our endeavours to attain that grace which flows directly from him, immediately concerns his Honour and is terminated in him, as its fi∣nal and onely proper Object?
II. ANOTHER proper re∣medy for the government of our Thoughts in religious Duties, is to qualifie and prepare our Hearts be∣fore hand for the performance: To discharge all Thoughts of the World for that time from their attendance, to require them to stand by, to carry here or there, whilst we go and
Pray yonder. 'Tis true indeed that the Loins of a Mind, throughly principled with the Love and Fear of the divine Majesty, are always ready girt about for the Sacrifice, such Persons liveing under a con∣stant sense and practice of it, but we address not here to the whole, who have no need of a spiritual Physi∣tian, but to those who are sick of their Duty; who come to it with ten thousand foreign and im∣proper Ideas; with the Images of an Estate, a Purchase, a Family, a Trade, a Ball, a Consort of Mu∣sick, or perhaps last nights De∣bauch about them: To these one would prescribe some preparatory Physick, some sequestring of the Mind from these ingageing Objects before they enter upon conversing with God, and corresponding with Heaven, least the Thoughts that possess'd them this hour or this day, keep their haunt the next, and mar the performance. We are not wont to rush into the presence of a Prince without premeditation,
and some previous care of our Mien and Deportment, and how comes it then to pass that we dare presume to address the Living God so familiar∣ly, and so rudely. Before thou Pray∣est, says the wise Son of Syrach, pre∣pare thy self and be not as one that tempteth the Lord. i. e. I conceive, * 1.2 to be angry with thee, and to curse rather then to bless thee, Twas one of the good things found in Jehoshaphat, that he had prepared his Heart to seek God: And no Man * 1.3 pretends to good Musick, before he has put his Instrument in tune; when our Hearts are fixed, O God, when our Hearts are fixed, then shall we best sing and give Praise. Now by preparation here I do not mean those succinct Applica∣tions we are wont to make to God upon our entering on his Service in houses set a part to that propose, but the revolving in our Minds such previous reflections as these. are,
1. THE Weight and Impor∣tance
of the duty we are about, which is the onely proper Con∣veyancer of the divine Blessings, and that by divine Appointment, and is of no less consequence to us than the Supply of our wants both Spiritual and Temporal, the pro∣mises of this Life, and of that which is to come; tis, in a word, a transaction whereon depends the concern of Life and Death, and what is more, of Eternal Life, and Eternal Death; and will a Man slubber over such a Business as this, will he plead his Cause so supinely as if he were bribed against himself, when so vast an Estate as the everlasting Inheritance, depends upon the Issue of the Tryal? Moses exhorts the Jews to hearken unto the Words of the Law, because, * 1.4 says he, it is your Life. Prayers and Praises are the spiritual Life of a Christian, and therefore when any forreign Thoughts assail it, either by force or fraud, we must take up Nehemiahs answer to his Ene∣mies, I am doing a great Work so that * 1.5
I cannot come down, why should the work cease whilst I leave it and come down to you. A
2. PREPARATORY will be best placed upon the dread Majesty of him we address to, and his more immediate Presence in places set apart for his Service; for God himself alledgeth the great∣ness * 1.6 of his Majesty to caution Men against offering him any mean and contemptible Sacrifices: Cursed be the Deceiver, says he, which hath in his flock a Male, and voweth and sa∣crificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing: For I am a Great King, says the Lord of Hosts, and my Name is dreadful among the Heathen; and the wise Man urgeth the distance be∣twixt the great Creator and his Creatures, as an argument of that Sobriety and exactness of Utter∣ance and Affection that becomes his Presence: Be not rash with thy mouth, says he, and let not thine heart be ha∣sty to utter any thing before God: for God is in Heaven, and thou upon earth.
AY, 'tis certainly the want of a due consideration of the terrible name of the great and living God, who is infinitely exalted above our most elevated Conceptions of him, that makes us so often present him with the Sacrifice of Fools, that Excors Sa∣crificium, which the Heathen World look'd upon as so prodigious a thing. It requires indeed a genious, wide, and Philosophical, the portion of but a few, to take in a full draught of Contemplation of the Great and In∣visible Being; and tho it must be own'd, that the most refined Capa∣city cannot now behold him as he is, shining in his full Orb of Glory (for the Contemplation of his Essence is an Abyss, which im∣mediately devours and swallows up a dark and broken Understanding, it being a sort of endeavour to look God in the Face, which no Man can do and Live) yet he has not lest us without witnesses of his Ma∣jesty, in the convulsion of the Mountain, and the Agony of Na∣ture at the promulgation of the
Law, in the losty, but yet infinite∣ly inadequate Descriptions that the Prophets give of him: In his works, of spreading out the Heavens, and treading upon the waves of the Sea, &c. In those frightful and amazing Accounts the Scripture give us, of the transactions of the last Day, &c. And certainly did we but en∣deavour to possess our Souls with tolerable Conceptions, of this great and dreadful Being, from these im∣perfect Notices we have of him; we could not but be induced to take some tolerable care, how and what we say, when we are speaking unto God, for the Angels them∣selves, the ten thousand times ten thousand that stand before him, do not more truly minister in his Presence, than we do in our ad∣dresses to Him. And Oh! that we had but a glimps of him that is Invisible, that the God of Heaven would but irradiate our dark ca∣pacity, with some beam of his Ma∣jesty, with what Reverence, what Fear and Trembling, should we come
before him? And this more espe∣cially, in places consecrate and set apart for the payment of our ho∣mage to him, where he vouch∣safes his more immediate and more special Presence. Not indeed after any gross and local manner, as the Gentiles conceiv'd of their fictitious Deities in their Temples, in which sense it is said of the most High that he dwelleth not in Temples * 1.7 made with hands; but by the re∣tinue of his Angels, which give their more immediate Attendance there, as in their Masters house, by his Word and Sacraments, and by his peculiar readiness to hear, and bless those that devoutly call * 1.8 upon his Name there; for which reason, as one well observes, the Tabernacle of the Lord was call'd 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the Tabernacle of meet∣ing; not of Mens meeting to∣gether, as is commonly suppos'd, when we translate it, Tabernacle of the Congregation; but of God's meeting there with Men, his poor humble Supplican••s? For so he * 1.9
himself gives the reason of the Name: And thou shalt lay them up says God to Moses, speaking of the Rods of the Tribes, in the Tabernacle of the * 1.10 Congregation, before the Testimony; where I will meet with you. And there I will meet with thee and com∣mune with thee. And what else can be the true and unstrained meaning of that Passage of our Sa∣viour's in the Gospel, where he promises, that where two or three are gathered together in his Name, he is there in the midst of them? For, whatever may be particularly affir∣med of the Temple, a greater than * 1.11 Solomon is here, even God wonder∣ful in his holy Places; sure these are no other than the Houses of God, these are the Gates of Hea∣ven.
AND therefore we would do well to take care how we make Iniquity, even the solemn Meeting; by affronting God with our lip Services, and that so immediately to his Face; For can any any Man
in his wits but think, that the great God, to whom the profound∣est homage of the Soul is due, is much more affronted than he is ho∣noured, by the dull spiritless mutter∣ing a few Pater nosters, or any other Prayers, by the bare telling over, as the manner of some is, and string∣ing up their Petitions? We durst not thus mock our Prince to his Face, we would hardly do it to our Equals, and whence then is it, but through want of preparing our Hearts with due Conceptions of his Awful and Majestick Presence in his own House, that we make thus bold with our Maker?
3. IT might be a proper pre∣paratory reflection to consider the Fruits and Consequences of ap∣proaching God in so careless and so incogitant a Manner. I shall not go about to shew at large, how severe God has formerly been upon all dis∣orders and irregularities committed about holy Things and Duties, as in the Case of Aarons Sons, of Ʋzzah; of * 1.12
the Bethshemites; and of the Church * 1.13 of Corinth; nor how he threatn'd that for this very thing; because his People drew near to him with their Lips, but had removed their Heart far from him, he would therefore * 1.14 proceed to do a marvellous Work a∣mong them, even a marvellous Work and a Wonder: Which was no less than to confound the wisdom of the wise, and the understanding of the prudent Men amongst them; I shall not, I say, insist on these Conside∣rations now, because it has seem'd good to the infinite Wisdom, to alter the nature of his Inflictions, and for neglects of this kind espe∣cially to change them from tem∣poral into spiritual, which, tho they do not so immediately affect the Body as the others did; yet en∣danger the Soul and take away the spiritual Life of a Christian. For tho, he do's not now smite Men with Death, for their unsanctified Approaches to him, yet he smites them with Deadness, with Coldness and Indifferency in the cause of
Religion, suffers them to grow listless, reasty, and awkard at their Devotions, and ten to one to lapse at long run into open Atheism and Prophaneness. For we certainly lose ground by every spiritless Pray∣er we advance, grow from bad to worse, from worse to stark nought, and past feeling. For every such formal performance grieves the Spirit, cloggs the Conscience, har∣dens the Heart, and gives the De∣vil an occasion to draw us off from our Neutrality, and to make us at last declare for his Party; whence it is not improbable, that, when we have once contracted such a vitious habit and crasis of Soul in Devotion, he himself many times sends us to our Prayers, adding that he may add to our Disease, and turn the best Antidote we have against him into so much stronger Poison to our selves. And therefore we would do well to season and prepare our Hearts beforehand, with these, and the like Considerations, that by a just Reslection upon the Im∣portance
of the Duty, the Supream Majesty to whom we pay it, and the fatal Consequences of a per∣functory Performance of it, we may attend upon the Lord without Di∣straction.
III. ANOTHER proper means, to fix our Thoughts in the Service of God, is to Love him with all our Hearts, with all the Powers, and Capacities of our Souls; did we Delight to have our Con∣versation with Him, our Hearts would keep our Minds close to their Work, and not suffer them to loi∣ter or to ramble; for our Affections have an immediate Influence upon our Thoughts, and our Hearts ge∣nerally sets our Mind the Theme of its Contemplations; Love par∣ticularly is a commanding and im∣perial Passion, that bids us go, and and we go; come, and we come; do this, and we do it, a passion that ingrosses all our Powers, binds us fast to, and runs our Thoughts so deep into its Object, that we have
neither Leisure, nor Patience, hard∣ly Power, to attend to any others. O how I love thy Law! says holy David, and then it follows, both in him, and in the nature of the things, it is my Meditation all the * 1.15 Day; and the first part of his Cha∣racter of a good Man is, that his Delight is in the Law of the Lord; and the second is the natural Re∣sult of the first, that in his Law doth he meditate Day and Night. * 1.16 For a Man cannot but pore and muse on the thing he delights in; and therefore were our Hearts ra∣vished with the Love of God, from just and retired Reflections upon the benefits of Creation, Preserva∣tion, Redemption, and the Glory that hereafter shall be Revealed, did we but kindle this holy Flame in us by frequent Considerations of his patience, forgiveness, for∣bearance, the Abyss of his Love, and the great depths of his infinite beneficence: things that must needs render the Deity amiable and lovely to us in our Conceptions of him: all
our motions would tend Heaven wards, when once invigorated with impressions from that celestial Fire, we should not be at leisure to ad∣mit any Rival of God in our Thoughts, and to attend to those little idle Toys and Fancies, that have the impudence to step into our Closets, and distract us.
IV. MEDITATION is a∣nother proper Remedy of the wan∣dring of our Thoughts in Prayer. The Hill of Meditation is indeed of difficult, but yet of noble As∣cent, that lifts us up so far above our natural Level, that we look down upon the World, and all its Enjoyments, which so frequently interrupt our Devotions, as a very little Thing. 'Tis an heroic and abstracted Operation of the Soul, that lets us into the very secrets of the Objects we Contemplate; that makes every day fresh Disco∣veries, and gives us both deep and diffused Prospects of things other∣wise invisible: the Telescope of the
Mind, whereby we descry new Worlds, a new Heaven, and a new Earth, the Terra incognita of Nature and Grace; and see things at an immense distance from us: It opens to us the Scene of Paradise it self, makes a sort of indistance betwixt God and our own Souls, takes us out, or, at least, makes us forget that we are Flesh, fills our head with those elevated Conceptions, and warms our Heart with those Ra∣vishments of Joy, that we can feel indeed but cannot utter or express them. And he who has never yet been experimentally sensible of this Truth, never yet rightly enjoyed either God, or himself, has the most exquisite Pleasure of this Life yet to come, and wants the preparato∣ry Foretaste of the enjoyments of the other. Meditation in a word, I mean where God is the Object, both quickens and fixes our Devo∣tion, which embraces not its Object but in proportion as Meditation gives it Entrance.
V. AND Lastly Solitude gives a mighty fixation of Thought, in private, and Religious Assemblies in publick Devotion; for a Retreat naturally tends to Recollection of the Spirit and Communion with God, it helps to center all the Ema∣nations of our Souls upon him, and gives us more pure and perfect Pro∣spects; and therefore, when thou prayest, says he, who taught us to pray, enter into thy Closet, not on∣ly to avoid that vain Pomp and Parade, which the Pharisaic Vota∣ries so much affected, but no doubt to better the Performance, by with∣drawing, as much as may be, from those Impressions of worldly Ob∣jects, that are wont so fatally to persecute and distract us. Any thing that requires application of Mind carries the necessity of Retirement along with it: How much more that Performance, to the full dis∣charge whereof the utmost Stretch of our humane Capacities is ina∣dequate: All which is by no means to be understood in prejudice to the
Publick Prayers of Religious Assem∣blies; where the regular Gravity and Decorum of the Worship, the united Zeal and Devotion of the Worshippers, the Sacredness of the Word that is read, the Importance of the Duty, the Dreadfulness of the Place, &c. all conspire to wing the Devout Soul with divine Ele∣vations, to fix it upon God, and give it a Solitude in the great Con∣gregation.
AND thus much for those re∣medies that may be proper to cure the Distraction and Flatness of our Thoughts in Gods Service.
WE are now arrived at the last division of our Sub∣ject, which is to direct to such means, as may be proper for the government of our Thoughts in ge∣neral. i. e. on whatsoever Subject they are exercised.
AND here not to insist upon that Catholicon of Prayer we have already mentioned, that which being a Soveraign and Universal Remedy against all the Evils we labour under, must consequently be of excellent Use against the exorbitancies of our Thoughts; I would advise, in the
I. PLACE, to open the Scene of the Day with good and savory Thoughts in the Morning: To make the strength and first born of our Conceptions every day holy to the Lord; when I awake, says holy David, I am present with thee; God ever took place in his thoughts, and was the earliest Theme of his Meditations. For, in the Morning, says he, in another place, I will di∣rect my Prayer unto thee, and will look up; we must, like him, if we would with him, learn to hate vain thoughts, consecrate our most spright∣ly and sparkling Meditations to him, who giveth his beloved sleep, and yet himself neither slumbrs nor sleeps. For there is no doubt to be made, but
that a Mind well seasoned and tin∣ctured with good Thoughts in the Morning, will, with ordinary care, retain its Smack and Fragrancy all the day; but if we let the World or the Devil in first, 'tis great odds but they keep possession all the day, come home too, and go to bed with us in the Evening.
II. SINCE so much of the va∣nity of our Thoughts is owing to the Imagination, as we have seen before at large, it will be highly proper to restrain that extravagant Power with∣in its due bounds, to confine it home, and not suffer it to run out, ramble, and gad so far abroad amongst variety of Objects, that we cannot at our pleasure call it back again; to take care however that it make not false Reports of things, and im∣pose upon our Reason with fictitious and Romantic exaggerations of them, to draw out our Thoughts in the dance after it, but that we learn ju∣diciously to distinguish betwixt the intrinsic value of things, and the
extravagant Representations of a ly∣ing Imagination.
III. SINCE our Minds receive the Ideas and Images of most things originally from our Senses; since it is by these avenues that outward ob∣jects make their way to our Hearts, our Ears being, as it were, the gates by which the objects from without desire to speak with our Thoughts, and our Eyes as windows to our Minds, through which they gaze upon them: It concerns us to set Waiters at these Cinque Ports of our Senses, to seize upon all contraband Goods, and scarch all Comers, as the Governour of a Fortress will take care to guard its Avenues, and exa∣mine Passengers, especially strange Faces, least it be insensibly betray∣ed, or surprised into the hands of an Enemy, under the appearance and vizor of a Friend: not that the senses are of themselves any way criminal, for they discharge but their respective Offices, according to the Laws of their Creation: Nor that
all, or most of the Images of things, they let in, are noxious and sinful, (for what harm had the wedge of Gold or Babylonish Garment in them, when Achan look'd upon them, coveted, and took them; and is not the fair Face drawn, and melodious Voice tun'd by the finger of God, who can do no Evil?) But they become an occasion of Sin by the doteing of the Heart upon them; and there∣fore it is we must guard our Senses, to deprive that of the matter of its Crimes, and let its foolish Fire go out for want of fuel fit to keep it in. And yet how contrary to this is the practice of the World, where our Eyes are every day expos'd to the infection of wanton Pictures, light Dresses, natural and artificial Beau∣ties, to the redness of the Wine when it gives its colour in the glass, and to a thousand criminal Examples, and our Ears stand all the day open to amorous Romantic Stories, ob∣scene Jests, Back-bitings, and Re∣vilings, and most times to flat and insipid Discourses, that neither mi∣nister
Morality, nor Grace, nor Rea∣son to the Hearers, so that our Souls return home at night infected with the vain Air of the courses of the day, and full charged with toys and ten thousand Amusemnets, which leave such sensible Impressions be∣hind them, that we are still hanker∣ing after those Objects, that gave us so agreeable a Diversion, our Minds become unwilling Inhabitants of their tenements of Clay, and little better perhaps than Captives taken by Satan at his Will. The Tree was pleasant to the Eye, and then the poor Woman inveigled by her Sense, could not forbear to take and eat of the Fruit: So that we had need go and learn what that means, touch not, taste not, handle not; had need not gaze on a Maid, in the advice of the wise Son of Syrach, least we fall by those things that are precious in her, and our Eyes be full of Adultery; had need, in this Sense too, take heed how we hear, and turn (in Solomons advice) from the presence of a foolish Man, when we perceive not in him the * 1.17
lips of Knowledge, or wise and profi∣table Discourse. Had, the Royal David, with Job, made a covenant with his Eyes, both he and Bathsheba had preserv'd their Innocence, and Ʋriah his Life; but Alas! the King kept no Life-guard there (as I may properly call it) where it seems it was most needful, and so the Man after God's Heart, suffered his own to walk, in Jobs Expression, after his Eyes, his steps turn'd out of the Way, and he was deceiv'd by a Wo∣man. And therefore if we would take one primary Step towards the government and good discipline of our Thoughts, we must, as far as we are able amidst that variety of objects that perpetuelly surround us, turn away our Eyes from beholding Vanity, and our Ears from hearken∣ing unto Folly, must shut the gates against the Enemies of our Peace, and not enter into parley with them, least they beck and smile upon our Thoughts, give them good Words, call them out, and they, and our affections, that are consequent
upon them, tempt us to yeild and surrender our Innocence.
IV. THEREFORE, in con∣sequence of this, it will be necessa∣ry to make a right choice of the company we keep; which has ma∣ny times, so unreasonable an Awe o∣ver the modesty of humane Na∣ture in its propensions towards Good▪ that like St. Paul's Person, in the 7th. to the Romans, by reason of it, the good that we would, we do not. For 'tis a hardy well resolv'd Piety, that ventures to exert in bad Con∣versation, but the evil which we would not, that we do: For the byas of our own propensions natural∣ly inclines us to follow criminal before good Examples. And there∣fore if we would effectually preserve our Innocence, we must not only let no profane or lewd Conversati∣on proceed out of our own Mouths, but must be deaf to all that's vented by others. For, believe me, there's a strange malignity in bad converse to poyson and infect even the best
Dispositions: A sort of effluvia, as a learned Person of our own speaks, from the Spirits of Men as well as from their Bodies; with the Clean thou shalt be Clean, and with the Fro∣ward thou shalt learn Frowardness, for Lewdness has but a short and ea∣sie Passage from the Ear to the Heart. And therefore what King Solomon advises in relation to the angry and furious Man, that we make no friendship with him, least we * 1.18 learn his ways, and get a snare to our Soul, is equally applicable to any o∣ther instance of bad Acquaintance; for he that touches pitch shall be defi∣led therewith, says the Son of Sy∣rach; and can a Man, says the wise King, take fire in his Bosom, and his cloaths not be burnt, can he go upon hot Coals, and his feet not be burnt? Will evil Communication let your Manners go as good as it found them? Or, is it not rather verified by the experience of every ordina∣ry observer of himself, that when we meet with an agreeable, how∣soever dangerous or destructive Con∣versation,
we carry it home along with us, suck it in, and our Thoughts chew the cud so long upon it, ma∣ny times in our most private Retire∣ments, that we assimilate the vici∣ous nutriment into a part, as it were, of our very Composition. And therefore the best way to secure our Thoughts from Infection, is, to practise with the Adder, to shut our Ears against the voice of such Char∣mers, charm they never so agreea∣bly to our own corrupt Inclinations. To accept no Person against our own Soul, and not let the Reverence of any Man cause us to fall, but to exchange * 1.19 the Communion of Devils for that of Saints; whose Examples and sa∣lutarie Discourses may season our Minds, and, as Iron sharpens Iron, rub off the rust we have contracted, and give an edge to our Spirits.
V. AND as Men should be thus choice in their company in order to the preservation of their Thoughts, so likewise the same care would be had of those Books, upon which they
now and then imploy their vacant hours. It will not be a vanity to affirm that no Nation in the World ex∣ceeds our own for variety of good Books, publish'd in our own Language, and adapted to all Capacities; and yet, so far of late Years have we suckt in the French Air, that, as some have laboured the Introduction of their Government amongst us, tho the most uneasie and tyrannical in Christendom, so others have as greedily imitated them in their Vi∣ces, and made their Vanities classi∣cal and authentick: I mean particu∣larly their Plays, Operas, Farces, Romances, and other such like curi∣ous Cobweb Work of idle Brains; in so much that a Man may say on this Occasion, with King Solomon; the Heart of him that hath Ʋnderstan∣ding seeketh Knowledge, but the mouth of Fools feeds on Foolishness. Such Fools amuse and please themselves with the remembrance of idle and fictitious Stories, with the amours of one Romantic Hero, and the brave imaginary Exploits of another: And
thus the head is fill'd with Froth in∣stead of Brains, and the Thoughts, Camelion-like, live on the Air, on that indeed which is not, as having no other Being but what a fruitful In∣vention, and a roving Fancy gives it. I say then, that for the better or∣dering Men's Thoughts, it will be requisite that they lay out their vacant hours to better purpose, particularly on those infallible Re∣cords of eternal Wisdom that are able to make them wise unto Salvation, and endeavour to fraight their heads with Piety, and Sense, instead of Fumes and Feathers. For what Men read, if it fall in with their own foolish and corrupt Inclinations, leaves lasting Impressions behind it, and, generally, the worst thing that passes in Conversation, either with the Living or the Dead, sticks the longest by us, and affords most food for the Thoughts to feed upon, and 'tis well, after all, if such Persons proceed yet no farther, and turn not the well told legendarie Tales that they Read, into true and
real History by their Practice.
VI. THEN since the Vanity of Thoughts is so much owing to the ill Supplies they meet with, partly from idle Books, partly from as idle Conversation, it will be further re∣quisite to furnish the mind with good materials, for it to exert and descant on. Since the crudities of the Soul like those of the Stomach proceed so much from those ill Juices which have vitiated its tone and digestion; we must provide it better food and more wholesom diet, to recover its taste, its due crassis, and constitu∣tion; for the Soul as well as the Body is apt to participate of the Na∣ture of that which affords it its u∣sual Nourishment. And, here we have as large a Table spread for our mental Repast, as the wonders con∣tain'd in God, in Nature, and in Grace can furnish. View the first of these in his Almighty Power, where∣by, as he spake the World out of Nothing, so he can, not only think, but return it into Nothing again:
In his Immensity, whereby he fills all Places, and is contained of None: In the Unity and Simplicity of his Nature, a whole without parts: In his Understanding to which the Truth of all things before they had a Being, was as broad noon day to him, or rather he to them, their Essences being all displayed in, and derived from his own: In his Will, the immediate Efflux or first Born of his Understanding, and yet co-evous with its Parent: View him in the Justice of his Judgments, in the Wis∣dom of his Providence, and in his Goodness towards the Children of Men. Whoso is wise will consider these * 1.20 things, and they shall understand the lov∣ing kindness of the Lord: Or look over, in the next place, the Book of Na∣ture, the Heaven's the work of his Fin∣gers, the Moon and the Stars which he hath ordained: Those Immense fire Works, whose motion is as regular * 1.21 as rapid, and are but as the twilight of the everlasting Day, and of that Light which is inaccessible: Read him further yet in the amazing In∣stance
of his Grace, when he recon∣ciled the World to himself in Christ, let the Mystery of Godliness be ever present to thy Mind; God manifest in * 1.22 the Flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of Angels, preach'd unto the Gentiles, believed on in the World, received up into Glory. But it cannot be ima∣gin'd that I should enter into the de∣tail of those innumerous Objects that afford proper Matter for the Con∣templation and Improvement of our Thoughts; and therefore the suc∣cinct Advice of the Apostle will ap∣positely take place here: Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever are honest, whatsoever things are iust, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report,: If there be any Vir∣tue or if there be any Praise think on these Things. For, the Truth and Reason of all is, the Spirit of a Man is an active restless Principle of in∣ternal Motion, that will not be wholly idle, but will be doing, tho it be nothing to the purpose, rather than do just nothing at all. And
therefore unless you furnish it with good stuff to work upon, it will take up with that which is next at hand at all adventures; so that if we would bring forth good things, in our Saviours Language, we must, with his good Man, have a good treasure in our Hearts: (How precious are thy Thoughts to me, O God, says holy Da∣vid, how great is the sum of them) not * 1.23 a small inconsiderable Stock of Pie∣ty and Knowledge, but a Treasure, a good Fond, or Bank, for our Thoughts to trade with, and then we shall increase with the increase of God. King Solomon requiring us to bind the divine Law continually upon our Hearts, adds, that when we go it shall lead us: When we sleep * 1.24 it shall keep us, and when we awake it shall talk with us. i. e. It will entertain our Thoughts, and bear them Company, when we are a∣lone, or, as it's said upon the same Occasion, when we walk by the way, * 1.25 when we lie down, and when we rise up: Times generally of the great∣est Retirement. But now without
this good Society at Home, our Thoughts will certainly seek out for new Acquaintance; gad abroad for fellowship with some other Objects; and ten to one in their jant fall into bad Company: Associate with the Lusts of the Flesh, the Lust of the Eye, or the Pride of Life; and get those ill haunts that our Minds per∣haps may never after have the pow∣er to abandon,
BUT because neither Nature nor Education has furnish'd all Men with equal matter for their Thoughts, and there are different sizes in Un∣derstanding as well as in Stature, therefore
VII. ONE would advise to a more comprehensive Expedient for the government of Thoughts which every one is capable of using, and that is for Men to be diligent and in∣dustrious in that Calling or Station wherein Providence has placed them; to do, as the wise King advises, with all their might what their hands find to
do. For this confines the stream of our Thoughts to their proper Chan∣nel, and hinders them from over∣flowing their Bank; this hedges in the ramblers, and keeps them to their own Inclosure, who, if left unconfi∣ned, would, like Jeremy's wild Ass snuff up the Wind, and observe no measures. God who is the Father of the Spirits of all Flesh, knew that he had made them active restless things, and therefore to imploy and find them work, to keep them do∣ing as they ought, when they are not immediately ingaged in his Ser∣vice, he design'd Men their respect∣ive Callings and Professions, and six parts of time in seven for them to take up their Thoughts and imploy them, and if they are not thus in∣gaged about their own Business, 'tis odds, but that like St. Paul's busie Bodies, they wander from House to House, mind other Men's, and med∣dle with many Matters; which may in time cause as great Combustions without, as they do disorder the Head within. Let our Thoughts
then keep within their own lines, and make no incroachments hitherto, within the circle of our own pro∣per business and Station, let their proud waves go, and no farther. Let his Thoughts who is appointed to the Ministry wait on his Mini∣string, his, who is to teach, on teach∣ing, &c.
VIII. IT were advisable for Men's better ordering their Thoughts, to make choice, as far as they can, of such imployments and course of life, as is most suitable to their genius, and abilities of Mind, for that always sits the easiest on them, and their Thoughts more Naturally fall in with their business and abide by it; Whereas if Men's imploys lie cross the grain of their inclina∣tions, their Thoughts will be per∣petually running after something else, at which they are not so awkard, or if they aspire at things to which their strength bears no proportion; matters too high for them, and above the sphere of their activity; the
weight of the burden will render them painful and uneasie; make them stagger too and fro like a drun∣ken Man, and bring them to their wits end, besides the damage they may occasion to the publick; as Phaeton endeavouring to mount his Fathers Chariot, the manage∣ment whereof he did not under∣stand, was thereby thrown out of Heaven, and had like to have set the World on fire.
IX. NEXT to this it may be pro∣per to subjoyn the advice of endea∣vouring to contract rather then en∣large our secular affairs, instead of spreading them wider, to reduce them to as tight and narrow a compass as we can, that we may the better attend to the improvement of our own Minds; an acquisition infi∣nitely beyond the most pompous temporal attainment. For what are honours, riches, pleasures, all the World, to a brave refined and accom∣plished Mind? Now multiplicity of business is a mighty obstruction
to this mental improvement. He that thinks of many things thinks of nothing, as he that would go several ways stands still; it distracts and divides our Thoughts, like water mixt with wine, debilitates and di∣lutes them; that River will neither be so deep, nor so serviceable for Trade, that is divided into a great many little channels, as that which flows altogether in its own natural bed. Thus it is with our Thoughts, if we let them out at every little chink, which the concerns of the World, make in them, they'l be but shallow Thoughts, and mar the improvement of our Minds. A Ray collected into a point is far more intense than one variously refracted. As God do's not love idle, so neither over busie people: Martha's fault was not that she was imployed in ill but in many things, which justled for that time the good part out of her Mind. Cares intangle and perplex the Thoughts, and too much World∣ly business limes and clings the wings of our Mind so fast that it cannot take its due and natural slight. Va∣riety
of objects ever weakens and distracts the force of our faculties, which are so stinted in their opera∣tion, that they cannot with any tollerable vigor direct to more than one mark at once, and therefore if we would bear a due regard to the truest improvement of our Minds, and management of our Thoughts, we must narrow our secular affairs as much as we can; lest the multi∣tude of business, which Solomon says, occasions dreams in sleep, make our Thoughts to be little better in the day time. And therefore in order to take off our Minds from a too greedy pursuit of secular concernments, that we may be thereby the better inabled to at∣tend upon God and our own Souls without distraction, let us
X. IN the next place, frequent∣ly set before us the vanity of the World, and the emptiness of all its injoyments. Remembring that that was the result of Solomon's vast experience in this kind. Vanity was the Motto he inscribed on all things under the Sun: for even when he gave
his heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly, to seek and to search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under Heaven, even this also, this noble imployment of his vast capacities, he pronoun∣ces no better than vexation of Spirit: for in much wisdom, says he, is much grief, and he that increaseth knowledge (it self) do's but increase his sorrow. And if this great Master of experience and skillful observer of things met with so very little satisfaction, even in the pursuit of knowledge, and re∣solves the conclusion of the whole matter. as he speaks, into the fearing of God and keeping his commandments, we may safely conclude, that there is nothing here below adequate to the large Soul of Man, worthy to en∣gage his affections, and ingross his powers, and if we can but thus wean our Thoughts from the World and its allurements, we shall then be at liberty to lay them out elswhere to better purpose, and to our own greater and more lasting satisfaction.
NOT that what I have said on
these two last heads, is to be under∣stood, as if I would have all Men devote themselves to Contemplati∣on, to quit the World and their or∣dinary Imployments, and meddle with no business; for I prescribe it.
XI. IN the next place, as an ex∣cellent remedy against evil Thoughts to avoid Idleness, which in common experience ever gives the Devil an advantage against us; when David coming from lolling on his Bed wal∣ked idly, it should seem, on the Roof of his House, he immedi∣ately * 1.26 presented Bathsheba to his Thoughts and soon prevailed with him to accept of the Proffer. For when we are the idlest he is the bu∣siest; when we do the least he do's the most with us: If our Minds sleep, he'l sow his Tares the faster, and if we let them lie fallow, Weeds will be the natural Product of the neglected Soil. Standing Minds, like standing Waters, puddle and corrupt, and become the proper E∣lement of Vermin.
XII. AGAIN, it will be our Wisdom, for the better management of our Thoughts, now and then to review them, to call them together to the Muster, and examine the state and plight of our Minds, to encourage good Motions, and dis∣countenance Bad, and to let them know we have set a spie upon them, and that they come not there with∣out our Observation. And because every Man has his blind Side, and the Sin of his Bosom, and conse∣quently our Thoughts run further into some sort of Objects than o∣thers, we must take particular care, and after such review shall be better inabled, to guard there most, where our Thoughts ply the most, where their haunts are, and the company they most delight in; as he who commands in chief in a Siege will place the strongest Guard there, where the Walls or other Fortifica∣tions of the Town are the weakest. So, if you find that lust, for instance, has stollen in at the Windows of your eyes, and got the greatest ascendant over you, watch your Thoughts
on that side, for there they'l be sure to hanker; So, again, if you observe your self the weakest on the side of provocations, and Anger be your infirmity, take care to have your Reason within call, and take off your Thoughts betimes from resent∣ments, and meditating revenge, for that's the subject they'l be sure most of all to dwell on, &c. And thus by reveiwing our Thoughts we shall both acquire power, and learn how to manage them, and be able to coun∣termine the Devil, who knowing our strong and feeble part, better many times than we do our selves, always layes his train there where 'tis most likely to take fire, and to blow up our Hearts, the strong Fort of our innocence.
XIII. SINCE, as has been before observ'd, our Thoughts are generally too much at the command of our passions, so that look what sort of affections bear the sway in a Man's heart, that way his Thoughts will take their course, therefore is it highly advisable, again, to ride
this brutal part of us with a strait rein, to raise and spiritualize our affections by setting them on things a∣bove, and not letting them run so madly as they do on things that are upon the earth. For tho Thoughts give the first being to affections, as no Man can love or hate a thing be∣fore he thinks on't, yet when they are once placed upon their objects they make our Thoughts dance after them at their pleasure. As if fear has seiz'd us, it calls in all our Thoughts to view the frightful object, disor∣ders our powers, and makes the mind paint the bugbear with unjust dimensions, perhaps, and unnatural colours; so if desire carry us abroad amongst variety of objects, our Thoughts must keep it company and lie under that infinite perplexity and distraction that naturally attends its extravagance, and therefore if we would command our Thoughts, we must first learn to command our passions.
XIV. HE that would have the company of good Thoughts must
entertain them kindly, and give them a friendly reception when they come and visit him. If you receive them coldly, and with an Air of in∣differency, they'l be as shie to you in time, as you can be to them; for the Divine Spirit, the great Author of them, will not always strive with Men, but will take wing, fly away, and desert you, for they are nim∣ble movers, and are sent upon an errand that is your own truest inte∣rest, and therefore if you have not yet learnt to be wise to your selves, by closing with their proposals, co-operating with them, and work∣ing out your own Salvation, they have no Commission to force or drive you on to happiness, like an horse or mule that have no understanding, but will leave you not only where, but worse than they found you.
XV. SINCE few Men are of that strong and athletick temper of Soul, as to be able to bear the shocks of adversity, but that it generally ruf∣fles and discomposes their Thoughts, and, like the desperate pushes of
an enemy, breaks their ranks, and puts them in disorder, it would be therefore of excellent and common use for the management of our Thoughts in those exigences, to be verst in the Theory of the Divine dispensations, to bring our selves to a recumbency upon God, and commit our cares to him who careth for us, that we may thereby maintain an evenness of temper amidst the roughest emergencies; and enjoy a calm of mind within, amidst the loudest storms without.
XVI. AGAIN, since, notwith∣standing the immaterial and spiri∣tual nature of the Soul, it is capable of being wrought upon, and affected by the body during their union; for when once link'd and wedded toge∣ther, there ariseth a mutual sympa∣thy betwixt the unequal couple, and that thence doubtless proceed many foolish, wandering, and impure co∣gitations, it would be advisable to tame the one by the macerations of the other, to mortifie the flesh, to keep our bodies under, and not cram
and indulge them, till the Beast rides the Man, till they grow too hard for our reason, throw off its govern∣ment, and draw even it in too, to se∣cond the motions and solicitations of the flesh. For the flames of lust quench the spirit, as the scorching Sun beams put out the gentler heat of the fire. Foul weather in the lower Region sends up nought but filthy Streams and vapours. The pure in Heart only shall see God here, as well as hereafter; and thence be furnished with just and elevated con∣ceptions: for he will not accept pol∣luted Bread upon his Altar: Nor will * 1.27 admit an unclean sacrifice. If there∣fore we would be Masters of our own Thoughts, we must first be Masters of our Appetites, and not pamper and indulge our Carkasses, but wise∣ly avoiding all excesses of this kind, must endeavour by a Substraction of unnecessary fuel from the Body to let the fire thereby kindled in our Thoughts go out.
XVII. LASTLY, it will high∣ly conduce to the ordering of our
Thoughts aright, to live, as much as possibly we can, under this Ap∣prehension, that Almighty God is present with them, see's, knows, reads, and scans their subtlest Mo∣tions and darkest Intrigues, better than the Eyes and Ears of Men hear or see them in their fruits of Words and Actions. For lo there is not a Thought in our Heart, but he knoweth it altogether, and afar off, for I know their Imagination, says God, concer∣ning his People, which they go about * 1.28 even now, before I have brought them into the land which I swear; For He, even He only, knows all the Hearts of * 1.29 the Children of Men; and, as Job says, * 1.30 no Thought can be witholden from him: Hell and Destruction are before him, * 1.31 how much more then the Hearts of the Children of Men? For shall not the Almighty Artificer, who made the Heart, know all the wheels, the springs ••nd movements that are in it? Go then, and ascend up into Hea∣ven, in the Psalmist's Rethorick on this occasion, make thy bed in Hell, take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the Sea, go
whither, do what thou wilt, there's an Ear to over-hear thee, an Eye to over-look thee, and an invisible hand to transcribe and register the closest transactions of thy Mind: We find the Royal David had such a conti∣nual lively Sense of this matter on * 1.32 him, that he tells us, when he awaked God was ever present with him, oc∣cur'd immediately to his Mind; as those objects generally do at our wakening, which most of all engross our Thoughts. And could we but learn to live under the same quick Apprehension, would we walk less by Sense and more by Faith, and look through at those things that lie within the Vail, it would be a mighty use to us in the management of this hidden and unseen part of us. For since our Sins in embrio at their first concep∣tion in the Soul, are as loathsom in Gods Eyes, as they are in their Birth and Production shameful in the eyes of Men: Since the remarks of those who are of like Infirmities with our selves are powerful enough to per∣swade us, to the regulation of our outward Behaviour, and we should
really be in confusion, to have any grave sober Friend, whose e∣steem we value, and whose judgment we revere, privy to all the foolish and unhallowed Thoughts of our Souls; how much rather should the consideration of Gods all-seeing Eye lay a restraint upon our internal Fol∣lies? For what absurdity is this to be ashamed of what passes in our Thoughts, could Men pry into those recesses, and yet to let God look on without the least Emotion? What inadvertancy, or Atheism rather is it, to be ashamed or afraid of an o∣vert act of wickedness, least Men should find us out, and yet at the same time riot in our Hearts, and debauch in our Thoughts, when God all the while stands by a Spe∣ctator, and if he pleas'd himself, a just Avenger of all such impious Trans∣actions? Since then God certainly knows all that passes in our Hearts, sees and observes who comes in, and who goes out, is intimate to every unclean, or otherwise sinful Thought, to every unlawful Desire, to every malicious and revengeful Wish; to
whatsoever, in a word, is transacted in that Cabinet Councel; let us en∣deavour after such an habituated Thought of God, as may mix him, not in our actions onely, but in all the movements of our Minds: Let the consideration of his Presence ingage us to keep strict Discipline there, to Order, and Govern, and Manage our Thoughts aright; as what are all open and naked in his Sight, for surely the Lord is with them, tho perhaps we are not aware of it.
I shall shut up the whole with the excellent Collect of our Church rela∣ting to this Purpose.
ALMIGHTY GOD, unto whom all Hearts be open, all Desires known, and from whom no Secrets are hid; cleanse the Thoughts of our Hearts by the Inspiration of thy Holy Spirit; that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnifie thy Holy Name, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Eph. 6. 16.
Ecclesiasticus. 18. 23.
2 Chron. 19. 3.
Deut. 32 40.
Nebem: 6. 3.
Malac. 1. 14.
Acts. 7.
Exod. 20 24.
N••mb. 17 4.
Ezod. 25. 22.
Isal. 85. 35.
Lev. 10. 2. 2 Sam. 6. 6.
1 Sam. 6. 19. 1 C••r. 11. 30.
Isa. 29. 13, 14.
Ps. 119. 97.
Ps. 1. 2.
Prov. 14. 7.
Prov. 22. 23 24.
Eccl. 4. 22.
Ps. 107. 13.
Ps. 8. 3.
1 Tim. 3. 16.
Ps. 139. 17.
Prov. 6. 22.
Deut. 6. 7.
2 Sam. 11.
Mal. 1. 7.
Deut. 31. 21.
1 Kings 8. 39.
Job. 4••. 2.
Prov. 15. 11.
Ps. 139.