duty, yet all, I believe, are more or less moved. It was very much the business of the prophets, and all of prophetick education; our Lord and his difciples practifed it frequently; it was ever a great part of religious joy, and one of the greateft pleafures of pious retirement: and I wifh from my heart the esteem of it were revived in our days; I perfwade myself it would add much to the warmth and pleafure of devotion; it would contribute to introduce religion into our families; and, for ought I know, into our very recreations and friendships. And this minds me, that as I have under every foregoing head taken notice of the advantages of converfation, fo Ifhould not forget it here. This has a lively influence upon our minds, and always kindles in the foul a gentle heat. And did we but accuftom our felves to entertain one another with difcourfe about another world; did we mingle the praises of God with the feafts and joys of life; did we retire to our country-boufes to contemplate the variety and riches of divine wisdom and bounty in those natural scenes of pleasure which the country affords, and did we now and then invite our friends to join with us in offering up Hallelujabs to God on this account, with brightness and ferenity, what calm and pleafure would this diffufe through all our fouls, through

all

all our days! to this that I have faid touching the exciting holy paffions, I will only add one obfervation, formed upon thofe words of the apostle, James v. 13. Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him fing Pfalms. That religion must be accommodated to nature, and that devout paffions will foon shoot up, when they are engrafted upon a natural ftock. With which I will join this other, that fince we are most affected by fuch truths as are moft particular, circumftantiated, and fenfible, and therefore imprint themselves more eafily and deeply on our imagination; for this reafon I fhould recommend the reading the lives of faints and excellent perfons, were they not generally writ fo, that we have reason to defire somewhat more of the fpirit of piety in the learned, and more of judgment in the pious, who have employed their pens on this argument.

§. 4. The immediate ends of difcipline are the fubduing the pride of the heart, and the reducing the appetites of the body: By difcipline, I here underftand whatever voluntary rigours we impofe upon our selves, or whatever voluntary restraints we lay upon our allowed enjoyments. And when I fay, that the bumiliation of the heart, and fubjection of the body are the

immediate ends of both, I do not exclude any other which may be involved in thefe, or refult from them. Nor, of what importance these two things are, I need not fhew. For fince all fin is diftinguished in fcripture into the filthinefs of the fpirit and the flesh, it is plain, that the pride of the heart, and the luft of the body, are the two great causes of all immorality and uncleannefs. And therefore these are the two great ends which the wife and good have ever had in their eye in all their acts of felf-denial and mortification. This is fufficiently attefted by the example of David, Pfal. cxxxi. Lord, I am not high-minded, I have no proud looks. I do not exercife mySelf in great matters, which are too high for me: But I refrain my foul, and keep it low, like as a child that is weaned from his mother; yea, my foul is even as a weaned child. And from that other of St. Paul, 1 Cor. ix. 25. 26, 27. And every one that ftriveth for the maftery, is temperate in all things: Now, they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore fo run, not as uncertainly; fo fight I, not as one that beateth the air: but I keep under my body, and bring it into fubjection; left that by any means when I have preached to others, I myself fhould be a caft-away. Whoever thus mortifies the pride of the heart, whoever thus brings under the body, will foon find him

felf

felf truly fet free, and master of himself and fortune: he will be able to run the way of God's commandments, and to advance on fwiftly towards Perfection, and the pleafure and happiness that attends it.

And to attain these bleffed ends, I do not think that we need enfnare our fouls in the perpetual bonds of monaftick vows; I do not think that we are to expose our selves by any ridiculous or fantastick obfervances: there is, I fay, no need of this; for we may, as oft as we fhall fee fit, retrench our pleasures, abate of the fhew and figure of life; we may renounce our own wills to comply with theirs who cannot fo well pretend either to authority or difcretion: and if these things cannot be done in fome cirumftances, without be coming fools for Chrift; that is, without that tameness, that condefcenfion, that diminution of our felves which will never comport with the humours and the fashions of the world; here is ftill the more room for mortification, and for a nearer and more eminent imitation of the bleffed Jefus : provided still we decline all affectation of fingularity; and when we practife any extraordinary inftance of felf-denial, we be ever able to justify it to religious and judicious perfons, by the propofal of fome excellent end. Fafting indeed is plainly de-. fcribed in fcripture; and tho' the obligation

to it, with respect to its frequency and measure, be not the fame on all, yet all should some time or other practise it, as far as the rules of Chriftian prudence will permit. And I have often thought, that fafting fhould generally confift, rather in abftinence from pleafing meats, than from all; not the food which nourishes our ftrength, but that which gratifies the palate, miniftring most directly to wantonnefs and luxury.

For the better regulating of voluntary difcipline, I propofe, by way of advice, three things. 1. I do not think it beft to bring our felves under any perpetual and unalterable ties in any inftance of felf-denial: there is a virtue in enjoying the world, as well as in renouncing it; and 'tis as great an excellence of religion to know how to abound, as how to fuffer want. Nay, what is more, all voluntary aufterities are in order to give us a power and dominion over our felves in the general course of a profperous life. And, laftly, I very much doubt, when once a man has long and conftantly accustomed himself to any rigour, whether it continue to have much of mortification in it, or whether it fo effectually tend to promote our fpiritual liberty, as it would if we did return to it but now and then, as we saw occafion. 2. We muft not multiply unnecessary severities;

and