butchering one another, are but faint emblems of it. The torment of the mind, under fuch an infurrection and ravage of the paffions, is not eafy to be conceived: the most revengeful man cannot wish his enemy a greater.

Of what vast importance then is it for a man to watch over his thoughts, in order to a right government of them! to confider what kind of thoughts find the eafieft admiffion, in what manner they infinuate themselves, and upon what occafions!

It was an excellent rule which a wife Heathen prescribed to himself, in his private meditations; manage all your actions and thoughts in fuch a manner, as if you were just going out of the world (t). Again, (faith he,) a man is feldom, if ever, unhappy for not knowing the thoughts of others; but he that does not attend to the motions of his own, is certainly miferable (u).

K 2

(t) Marc. Anton. Medit. lib. 2.
(u) Idem, § 8.

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§ 11.

It

Nothing can be more unhappy than that man, 'who ranges every where, ransacks every thing, digs into the bowels of the earth, dives into other men's bofoms, but does not confider all the while that his own mind will afford him fufficient fcope for enquiry and entertainment, and that the care and improvement of himself will give him business enough. Id, lib. 2. § 13.

Your

It may be worth our while then to discuss this matter a little more precisely; and confider (1.) what kind of thoughts are to be excluded or rejected. And (2.) what ought to be indulged and entertained.

I. Some thoughts ought to be immediately banifhed, as foon as they have found entrance.—If we are often troubled with them, the safest way will be to keep a good guard on the avenues of the mind by which they enter, and to avoid thofe occafions which commonly excite them; for fometimes it is much easier to prevent a bad thought entering the mind, than to banish it when it is entered.-More particularly,

(1.) Watch against all fretful and difcontented thoughts, which do but chafe and corrode the mind to no purpose; to harbour thefe is to do yourself more injury than it is in the power of your greatest enemy to do you: it is equally a Chriftian's intereft and duty to learn, in whatever flate he is, therewith to be content *.

(2.) Harbour

Your difpofition will be fuitable to that which you most frequently think on; for the foul is, as it were, tinged with the colour and complexion of its own thoughts.' Id. lib. 5. § 16.

* Phil. iv. 11.

(2.) Harbour not too anxious and apprehenfive thoughts, by giving way to tormenting fears, fufpicions of fome approaching danger or troublesome event, whereby we not only anticipate, but double the misfortune we fear; and undergo much more from the apprehenfion before it comes, than from the whole weight of it when present. This is a great, but common weakness; which a man,fhould endeavour to arm himfelf against by fuch kind of reflections as thefe; are not all thefe events under the ' certain direction of a wife Providence ? If they befal me, they are then that share of fuffering which Gon hath appointed me; and which he expects I fhould bear as a Chriftian: how often hath my too ⚫ timorous heart magnified former trials? which I found to be lefs in reality than they appeared upon their approach. Perhaps the formidable afpect they put on, is only a ftratagem of the great enemy of my ⚫ best interest, designed on purpose to divert me from fome point of duty, or to draw me into fome fin, to avoid them. However, why fhould I torment myself to no purpose ? The pain and affliction the • dreaded evil will give me when it comes, is of God's fending: the pain I feel in the apprehenfion of it before it comes, is

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of my own procuring. Whereby I often • make my fufferings more than double; for this overplus of them, which I bring upon "myself, is often greater than that measure of them which the hand of Providence immediately brings upon me.'

(3.) Difmifs, as foon as may be, all angry and wrathful thoughts; thefe will but corrode the mind, and dispose it to the worst temper in the world, viz. that of fixed malice and revenge; anger may fteal into the heart of a wife man, but it refts only in the bofom of fools *. Make all the most candid

allowances for the offender: confider his natural temper; turn your anger into pity; repeat 1 Cor. xiii. Think of the patience and meekness of CHRIST, and the petition in the Lord's Prayer; and how much you ftand in need of forgiveness yourself, both from GoD and man; how fruitlefs, how foolish is indulged refentment; how tormenting to yourself? You have too much good-nature willingly to give others fo much torment; and why fhould you give it yourfelf? you are commanded to love your neighbour as yourfelf, but not forbidden to love yourself as much: and why should you do yourself

* Ecclef. vii. 9.

yourself that injury, which your enemy would be glad to do you * ?

Above all, be fure to fet a guard on the tongue, whilft the fretful mood is upon you: the least spark may break out into a conflagration, when cherished by a refentful heart, and fanned by the wind of an angry breath. Aggravating expreffions, at such a time, are like oil thrown upon flames, which always makes them rage the more (w). Efpecially,

(4.) Banish all malignant and revengeful thoughts: a fpirit of revenge is the very fpirit of the devil, than which nothing makes a man more like him; and nothing can be more opposite to the temper which Christianity was defigned to promote. If your revenge be not satisfied, it will give

you

* The Christian precept in this cafe is, let not the fun go down upon your wrath, Eph. iv. 26. And this precept Plutarch tells us the Pythagoreans practifed in a literal fense: Who, if at any time, in a paffi

on, they broke out into opprobrious language, 'before fun-fet gave one another their hands, and, ⚫ with them, a discharge from all injuries; and fo with a mutual reconciliation parted friends.' Plut. Mor. Vol. iii. Pag. 89.

(ω) Αγαθον μένεςι εν πυρείω, δε εν οργη την γλωτταν απάλην έχειν και λειαν. Plut. de Irá Cohiben. It is good in a fever, much better in anger, to have the tongue kept clean and smooth.