Neither can this discipline of the thoughts be regarded with any colour of justice, as trivial, or inadequate to the efforts which has produced it; for I am not contending, that it is an useful" discipline; but that it is an indispensable discipline; not that it is an auxiliary to the highest virtues; but a necessary foundation for the lowest and the least

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it is not possible that that man should walk outwardly in the law of God, who is for ever feeding in imagination upon the pleasures of sin. The passions will at last act; the seed will break through the incumbent dis obstacle; the vice, which has been so often pictured, (because to draw such pictures is considered as compatible with innocence,) will be imitated to the life with fatal, and unerring precision.

Having thus touched upon the necessity of governing the heart, and handled a few superficial prejudices, which may render us less willing to submit to this invaluable discipline, I shall endeavor, with God's help, to lay down a few rules for its more easy attainment.

There is an old apophthegm, which says, reverence thyself, and in this saying, much sound wisdom is locked up. If we had half the reverence for ourselves that we have for the world, how upright, and how pure, would our conduct be; we should carry about with us an inward judge, whose vigilance we should fear; whose justice we should respect; and whose praise we should love; an awful judge; the man within the breast; whose tribunal would extend over the motives of actions, who would approve virtue, while it yet only glowed in the thoughts, and discover crime in the secret workings of the soul;-this principle of selflove would effectually banish from our minds every vicious indulgence of thought; and every low, ignominous feeling; we should no longer wear virtue as a mask, but all that we do now from conformity, and the fear of shame, we should do then from rooted principle, and passionate love of God,

Secondly, the heart is established by prayer, because prayer recalls to us the mercy. of God for our love, his justice for our terror,

and his perfections for our imitation; it

reminds

nds us of the frailty of man, and makes us rationally suspicious of ourselves;-it brings before us the crucified Saviour of mankind, and in his image, personifies every virtue ;—it turns our thoughts from men to angels; from frailty to perfection; from a few evil days to an happy eternity; from a jumble of sighs and joys, to a gladness that endureth for ever.

Again the heart is governed, by impressing on our recollection the intimate connexion between thought, and action; and by making the propriety of the one, the test of propriety in the other; if it is wrong to gratify revenge, it is wrong to dwell on it in imagination; if it is our duty to forgive outwardly, it is our duty to forgive from our inward hearts; if we are to withstand the allurements of pleasure, we must not contemplate them;-if we are to support painful duties, we must not magnify them in our thoughts;-whatever we are forbidden to do, we are forbidden to think whatever we are commanded to perform; we are commanded to love: there must be no discordance between the inward, and the

;

outward man; thought, word, and deed, must be constantly, and closely united together; there is, indeed, a purity in this doctrine, and a wisdom, which gives to the gospel one cause of its superiority over the spurious religions, which are so widely diffused over the world, that, whereas they look wholly to the mere overt act, like an human law, Christianity commences its empire from the first dawn of thought; and, by influencing the causes of actions, makes virtue more easy, and more permanent.si

The heart is governed by tracing up our pains, and pleasures, to their source; whenever we enjoy any pleasure unalloyed by dissatisfaction, it will be found, almost always, to proceed from the performance of duty; as our miseries will from the neglect of it; and the repetition of this exercise will insensibly impress upon our minds, the inseperable connexion between virtue and happiness there is nothing, for instance, so likely to cure us of selfishness, as the gloom, and uneasiness, with which it never fails to be attended, or so likely to reconcile us to the immediate efforts of the social

virtues; as the cheerfulness, and interest în common life, which they always communicate to their possessor: when we have traced up lassitude, and remorse, to the waste of time; we shall employ it with more economy, and vigor: when we have discovered, that we pay in languor of body, and loss of reputation, for the pleasures of excess, we shall be gradually reconciled to moderation; when we have found out in the heart, the springs of joy, and pain, we shall learn to keep them aright. 7 area temiz

Asteady employment of time, and a vigorous exercise of the intellectual faculties, are no meanauxiliaries to the government of the heart; for our minds, made to overcome difficulties either lose their powers entirely when they are without an object, or turn those powers inwardly to consume themselves: It is clear, that we have no power to summon up particular ideas at pleasure; and it is equally clear, if we cannot summon them up, their occurrence is involuntary, and free from guilt; but when ideas are present, it is in our power to decide whether we will dwell upon, and expand them; whether we will