inducements to sin, our Lord hath, by his example, taught us to treat in this manner. *

These then are the thoughts we should carefully guard against. And as they will, especially some of them, be frequently insinuating themselves into the heart, remember to set reason at the door of it to guard the passage, and bar their entrance, or drive them out forthwith when entered; not only as impertinent, but mischievous intruders.

But, II. There are other kinds of thoughts which we ought to indulge, and with great care and diligence retain and improve.

Whatever thoughts give the mind a rational or religious pleasure, and tend to improve the heart and understanding, are to be favoured, often recalled, and carefully cultivated. Nor should we dismiss them, till they have made some impressions on the mind, which are like to abide there.

And to bring the mind, into a habit of recovering, retaining, and improving such thoughts, two things are necessary.

1. To habituate ourselves to a close and rational way of thinking. And, 2, To moral reflections, and religious contemplations.

1. To prepare and dispose the mind for the entertainment of good and useful thoughts, we must take care to accustom it to a close and rational way of thinking.

* Matt. iv. 10.

When you have started a good thought, pursue it; do not presently lose sight of it, or suf. fer any trifling suggestion that may intervene, to divert you from it. Dismiss it not till you have sifted and exhausted it; and well considered the several consequences and inferences that result from it. However, retain not the subject any longer than you find your thoughts run freely upon it; for to confine them to it when it is quite worn out, is to give them an unnatural bent, without sufficient employment; which will make them flag, or be more apt to run off to something else.

And to keep the mind intent on the subject you think of, you must be at some pains to recal and refix your desultory and rambling thoughts. Lay open the subject in as many lights and views as it is capable of being represented in. Clothe your best ideas in pertinent and well chosen words, deliberately pronounced; or commit them to writing.

Whatever be the subject, admit of no inferences from it, but what you see plain and natural. This is the way to furnish the mind with true and solid knowledge. As, on the contrary, false knowledge proceeds from not understand. ing the subject, or drawing inferences from it which are forced and unnatural; and allowing to those precarious inferences, or consequences drawn from them, the same degree of credibility as to the most rational and best established principles.

Beware of a superficial, slight, or confused view of things. Go to the bottom of them, and examine the foundation; and be satisfied with none but clear and distinct ideas, when they can be had, in every thing you read, hear, or think of. For resting in imperfect and obscure ideas, is the source of much confusion and mis. take.

Accustom yourself to speak naturally, pertinently, and rationally, on all subjects, and you will soon learn to think so on the best; especially if you often converse with those persons that speak, and those authors that write in that manner.

Such a regulation and right management of your thoughts and rational powers, will be of great and general advantage to you, in the pursuit of youthful knowledge, and a good guard against the levities and frantic sallies of the imagination. Nor will you be sensible of any disadvantage attending it, excepting one, viz. its making you more sensible of the weakness and ignorance of others, who are often talking in a random, inconsequential manner; and whom it may oftentimes be more prudent to bear with, than contradict. But the vast benefit this meth. od will be of in tracing out truth, and detecting error, and the satisfaction it will give you in the cool and regular exercises of self employment, and in the retaining, pursuing, and im proving good and useful thoughts, will more than compensate that petty disadvantage.

2. If we would have the mind furnished and entertained with good thoughts, we must inure it to religious and moral subjects.

It is certain the mind cannot be more nobly and usefully employed than in such kind of contemplations. Because the knowledge it thereby acquires, is of all others the most excellent knowledge; and that both in regard of its object and its end; the object of it being Gon, and the end of it eternal happiness.

The great end of religion is to make us like GoD, and to conduct us to the enjoyment of him. And whatever hath not this plain tendency, and especially if it have the contrary, men may call religion, if they please, but they cannot call it more out of its name. And whatever is called religious knowledge, if it does not direct us in the way to this end, is not religious knowledge; but something else falsely so called. And some are unhappily accustomed to such an abuse of words and understanding, as not only to call, but to think those things religion, which are quite the reverse of it, and those notions religious knowledge, which lead them the farthest from it.

The sincerity of a true religious principle, cannot be better known, than by the readiness with which the thoughts advert to God, and the pleasure with which they are employed in de vout exercises. And though a person may not always be so well pleased with hearing religious things talked of by others, whose different taste, sentiments, or manner of expression may have

something disagreeable; yet if he have no in clination to think of them himself, or to converse with himself about them, he hath great reason to suspect that his heart is not right with GOD. But if he frequently and delightfully exercise his mind in divine contemplations, it will not only be a good mark of his sincerity, but will habitually dispose it for the reception of the best and most useful thoughts, and fit it for the noblest entertainments.

Bad

Upon the whole then, it is of as great importance for a man to take heed what thoughts he entertains, as what company he keeps; for they have the same effect upon the mind. thoughts are as infectious as bad company; and good thoughts solace, instruct, and entertain the mind, like good company. And this is one great advantage of retirement; that a man may choose what company he pleases from within himself.

As in the world we oftener light into bad company than good, so in solitude we are oftener troubled with impertinent and unprofitable thoughts, than entertained with agreeable and useful ones. And a man that hath so far lost the command of himself, as to lie at the mercy of every foolish or vexing thought, is much in the same situation as a host, whose house is open to all comers; whom, though ever so noisy, rude, and troublesome, he cannot get rid of; but with this difference, that the latter hath some recompense for his trouble, the former none at all ; but is robbed of his peace and quiet for nothing.