hand, there are, then, many confirmed opinions, and inveterate aversions, to guard us from its influence: he, who has cautiously excluded from his mind, pictures of vicious gratification, and considered a bad life, rather with respect to the permanent evil it inflicts, than the transient pleasure it affords, will be more likely to see, in real vice, horror, than allurement;-he will dwell, rather, on the rewards, than the difficulties of virtue; if he has spurned, even in thought, that worldly good which is purchased by sin, he will, in action, trample it beneath his feet;-if he has enjoyed in fancy, the sweet security of an irreproachable life, he will not yield it up to the gold of Ophir; if he has taught himself to shudder at the thought, even of disguised crimes, he will throw open the gates of his soul, and defy the keenest inquisition of the human race; his deeds will be pure as the heavens, lofty as the hills, and clear as the light. On the contrary, most men give the full rein to their thoughts; and, as long as they abstain from the action, liberally indulge in the notion; they never think of stopping till they have inflamed themselves,

with every possible incentive to advance; or, of abstaining till their appetite is sharpened to the keenest edge; they make a perpetual variance between deeds, and desires, aggravate the horror of what must be done, and magnify the importance of what cannot be obtained; and this, not to increase, but to diminish the evils of life; it is done to indemnify ourselves by the luxurious enjoyments of the imagination, for the obstacles opposed to our pleasures, as if those obstacles which cannot, and which ought not, to be overcome, are not much more intolerable, from their imaginary removal, than they would be from a cheerful acquiescence in the purposes for which they were created; and submission to the wisdom which gave them birth.

There seems to be, in the apprehension of some men, a sort of cruelty, in extending. the empire of religion over the thoughts ;—it wears the appearance of vexatious inquisition, which disturbs harmless enjoyment, and punishes the appearance of happiness

wherever it can be discovered: the fact is so VOL. I.

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much the reverse, that if the idea of duty is to be admitted at all; if the gospel of Christ is to establish a bad, and a good, in human actions; it could have suggested no other method so effectual, to enforce obedience to its precepts, as the government of the thoughts; because it employs the power of virtue, at a time when opposition to vice is not arduous, or difficult; when temptation is without form, and void; before the dangerous eloquence of the senses has roused the bad passions instead of creating an additional call and labour of man, the upon energy, it fixes upon him a much lighter burthen, and binds him to a much easier yoke; it opposes him not to vivid perceptions, but to faint anticipations; it arrays him not against the real presence; but the ghost, and shadow of sin; while it gives to virtue inward peace, and outward respect: softening its privations, diminishing its sufferings; and forgetting its toils.-Such are the results of that discipline which we deem oppressive. tyranny over the thoughts; such are the salutary pictures, which our natural love of virtue, sheltered from actual temptation, will soon enable us to draw.

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: 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 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