himself how to efcape the danger, that threatens him.

NOR can it poffibly, in the third place, be expected, that I fhould treat of Thoughts in this limitted acceptation of them, according to the vaft variety of objects, that are their fubject matter; for thefe were an argument, in the language of the Book of Job, as high as heaven, what canft thou do? deeper than Hell, what canft thou know? The meafure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the fea. Neither God, nor the whole frame, and economy of nature terminate the horizon, or bound the ramble, and excurfion of our Thoughts, which extend themselves even to things that are not, that have no other being but what they borrow from a confufed imagination; for our fancies, by a tumultuary compounding of ideas, inftead of real, can create fictitious objects for their entertainment; and divert themfelves as well with a chimæra of their own manufacture, as with the moft real and fubftantial being.

It will be fufficient therefore, and indeed all that can well be performed on this argu

Chap. 11. v. 8, 9.

ment

ment, is to draw the great and general lines of feveral of those excentric motions incident to our thoughts, and to endeavour to prefcribe the regulation of them.

BUT to recommend a defign of this nature to the minds of men with better fuccefs, it will be requifite, in the first place, to premise fome of thofe many obligations. that lie upon us to govern our Thoughts, as well as our exterior words and actions..

SECT. II..

AND firft, we are obliged to this go

vernment of thoughts, because we may tranfgrefs the divine law by them, as well as by the tranfactions of the outward man. 'Twas a fundamental flaw in the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharifees, and indeed of the generality of the whole Jewish nation, that they thought an external obedience to the law, which exempted them from all temporal penalties due to the violation of it, was fufficient to denominate them righteous, without any regard had to the innocency of their hearts and affections. 'Tis no ftrange thing indeed that the heathens generally, who were left to discover

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discover the divine nature with the naked eye of their own faculties, fhould content themselves with fuch an external righteousness, or obedience as this, which reached the outward man only; but 'tis a very furprizing confideration that the Jews -themselves fhould take up with it, who knew their law to have been enacted by a God, that is a fearcher of hearts, who requires the fervice of the fpirit, and will be lov'd and obey'd with all the powers and faculties of the mind. But yet thus it was with that flow and carnal people: they had very little concern upon them for the obfervance of the precepts, that related to the regulating the motions of the inward man; for there being no penalties exprefly annexed to them, they looked on them as *advice rather than precept, or at worst, that the guilt, contracted by their mental fins, was so done away by their facrifices, that God would remember them no more. They understood little or nothing beyond the political covenant, the terms whereof chiefly influenced their obedience, and fo took up with fuch a political righteousness, as confifted in the obedience of the civil laws of the Jewish common weal: hence it is that Trypho the Jew, difputing with Juftin Martyr, fays,

* Grot. in Matth. 25.

that

that the gospel precepts, meaning those that command the obedience of the heart and affections, feem'd to him incapable of obfervance; and that Jofephus reprehends Polybius the hiftorian, for afcribing the death of Antiochus to facriledge; intended, tho' not committed by him. For, as long, faith he, as he did not actually execute his intentions, he deferved no punishment;' and that this was the old received notion of obedience, appears plainly enough from our Saviour's correcting this mifprifion, in the 5th of St. Mat. ye have heard, faith he, ver. 21. that it was faid by them of old time, thou shalt not kill; if a man did not actually murder another, he was thought to have kept within the bounds of the fixth Commandment, as indeed he did, as to the temporal penalty annexed to the violation of it, which was then principally regarded; but our Lord tells them plainly, ver. 22, that the guilt in this particular, lies as deep as the very beginnings, the firft efforts and fallies of an angry mind towards a foolish quarrel that may end in blood; in which fenfe St. John affirms, that whofoever hateth his brother is a murderer, is already so, tho' his fword be ftill unfheathed, and he has ftabbed him only in effige. Again, fays he

to

to the fame purpofe, at the 27th ver. ye have heard that it was faid by them of old time, thou fhalt not commit adultery; if a man did but refrain from the actual embraces of a forbidden bed, how keenly foever he debauched by the ftrength of an impure imagination; yet he was, for all that in their notion of obedience, a chaste and modest man ftill; but our Saviour tells them a rape may be com mitted in the fancy, and adultery by a wanton glance. And that the Jewish notion of obedience, is not yet altogether antiquated under chriftianity, feems but too evident from that trite proverbial faying amongst us; that thoughts are free; as if when men durft not let loose their hands, or their tongues, to work wickedness, yet they might give their defires and imaginations their full swing; and muse, and wish, and contrive, and please themselves with the invention and images of thofe things which they think it not fafe to put in execution; whereas, on the contrary, the laws of our Lord prescribe to our affections, fet bounds to our fancies, regulate our defires, direct our intentions, govern our wifhes, strike at fin in the embrio, and check the firft voluntary motions and tendencies of the mind to evil. Voluntary, I fay, becaufe 'tis hard to ima

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