O how greedily do our thoughts caress embrace and bid it ten thousand welcomes But when God or Religion or Death or Judgment or any such grave and serious Subject prossers it self to our Thoughts how apt are they to slink away hang back and be shy and after it may be a very short Enterview and a cold Entertainment dismiss those Objects make them stand by and give way to such as are more entertaining and diverting The one 's a wellcome Guest and old Acquaintance the other meets with the formal Reception of a Stranger or as of a Visitant that is not agreeable When we wind up our minds to the highest Pin of Meditation on these Subjects our Thoughts after a very little stay there presently fall down again we are impatient and uneasie under the Stretch and care not perhaps how soon Business or Company or the like step in and set us at Liberty so averse naturally are our Thoughts unless God has sanctified our Hearts to converse with holy Objects III. OUR Thoughts in regard of holy Duties are apt to mistime and misplace themselves when tho' they may be materially lawful and good in themselves yet they intrude impertinently at a time not proper for them when they are not call'd upon and have no business in the mind like an over officious friend who tho' he means well yet mars a matter through the unseasonableness of his interposal To every thing says Solomon there is time and season and 't is the right ordering of things as to time as well as place that renders them proper and decent and agreeable A Souldier may mean very well and do some acceptable Service by leaving his Rank or quitting the Post assign'd him and yet for all his Success he becomes a transgressor and may be call'd to an account for so doing And just so it is with our Thoughts I mean particularly in our religious Performances they may be truly good in themselves yet if they are forreign to the matter in hand step in unseasonably and break their Ranks they are Criminals So that when we are at our Devotions 't is not enough to bar out all sinful and worldly Conceits from crowding in upon us but we must stave off all other thoughts that relate not to the matter in hand for tho' a Thought for instance or purpose of doing some good Work be in it self Divine yet t is a question whether or no the Spirit that suggests it at that time be Divine because it tends then only to distract us and mar the performance we are about as colour misplaced in the face doth the beauty so then Gods worship must be performed not only externally but internally too in decency and order and we must not offer that great Majesty who made all things in weight and measure a tumultuary jumble of Thoughts in our homage to him But as in the words of the Apostle He that is ingaged in the Ministry must wait on his Ministring and he that teacheth on Teaching and he that Exhorteth on Exhortation c. So he that is at his Prayers must attend to his Prayers to the particular Petition before him he that is giving Thanks to his Thanksgiving he that is at Confession to his Confessing c. directing all his Thoughts streight upwards towards Heaven and he that is at Sermon ought for that time to apply his whole Thoughts to what is offer'd and if any other thoughts howsoever lawful and good pretend to interpose must bid them come another time for that he is now otherwise ingag'd and not at leisure IV 'T IS another sinful Infirmity in our thinking Power that tho we are willing to entertain pious Objects in our Hearts yet we care not to dwell long upon them so that they leave not those prints and impressions behind them that stick and abide by us persume not the heart with that due Fragrancy and Savour they ought to leave behind them when they are past and gone for tho we may not be so bad as those of whom it may be affirmed with the Psalmist that God is not in all their Thoughts yet of well disposed minds it may be said that he is not much at a time there 'T is long ere we can get sight of him through the optick glass of Contemplation and when we do our hands shake or somthing interposes so that ever and anon we lose sight of him again and this Levity of mind as it is seen in our Contemplations upon any Objects so more especially in the performance of holy Duties We set forth in Prayer it may be very well with a due Composure of mind and an humble Sense of our obligations to God and Dependance on Him but perhaps e're we are got half way on with our work our Thoughts which set out with our Lips have given them the slip and left them to go on by themselves whilst they in the interim have rambl'd perhaps from one corner of the Earth to another and made the grand Tour of the World When we should earnestly seek God by Prayer and our Souls and Spirits should ascend straight upwards in direct Bays of fervent devotion behold them tossed like a dried leaf before the wind or as an empty cask upon the waves for instead of good evil is present with us and we cannot do the things that we would but the World and the Devil knock at the Door of our hearts step in and desire to speak with our Thoughts divert them from their business and make a Man's heart go after his covetousness as the Prophet speaks after his pleasures his sins or his secular imployments any thing that was forgot before will be sure then to present it self to the mind and sue for Attendance Nay many times foreign Thoughts come about us like Bees as David speaks of his enemies in whole swarms together and with their humming noise distract our attention or like Abrahams Fowls in flocks to peck at and deform our Sacrifice And thus again it is in that other Branch of Religious duty hearing of the word for no doubt but any Man upon a just recollection of his Thoughts will find they were out of Church several times whilst his Person was there at home in the Shop or the Cosser or indeed any where but where they should have been in fine either out of Doors or at play perhaps within as much as the Children generally are without But then take any other sort of objects pleasurable or profitable or honourable and your Thoughts shall dwell and hover and brood over them all the day said I nay in the Night too disturb your repose and awake you for the abundance of the rich to use the wise Man's instance will not suffer him to sleep And so it is of any other worldly project gratifying Men's Lusts compassing a revenge or the like of the latter of which the same wise Man speaks they sleep not except they have done mischief and their
more They understood little or nothing beyond the political Covenant the terms whereof chiefly influenc'd their obedience and so took up with such a political righteousness as consisted in the obedience of the civil Laws of the Jewish Common-weal hence it is that Trypho the Jew disputing with Justin Martyr says that the Gospel Precepts meaning those that command the obedience of the heart and affections seem'd to him incapable of observance and that Josephus reprehends Polybius the Historian for ascribing the death of Antiochus to sacriledge intended tho' not committed by him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For as long saith he as he did not actually execute his intentions he deserv'd no punishment and that this was the old received notion of obedience appears plainly enough from our Saviours correcting this misprision in the 5th of St. Mat. ye have heard saith he ver 21. that it was said 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 eight Commandment as indeed he did as to the temporal penalty annex'd to the violation of it which was then principally regarded but our Lord tells them plainly Verse 22. that the guilt in this particular lies as deep as the very beginnings the first efforts and sallies of an angry mind towards a foolish quarrel that may end in blood in which sense St. John affirms that whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer is already so tho his sword be still unsheath'd and he has stab'd him only in effigie again says he to the same purpose at the 27th ver ye have heard that it was said by them of old time thou shalt not commit adultery if a man did but refrain from the actual embraces of a forbidden bed how keenly soever he debauch'd by the strength of an impure imagination yet he was for all that in their notion of obedience a chast and modest man still but our Saviour tells them a rape may be committed in the fancy and adultery by a wanton glance And that this Jewish notion of obedience is not yet altogether antiquated under Christianity seems but too evident from that trite proverbial saying amongst us that thoughts are free as if when men durst not let loose their hands or their tongues to work wickedness yet they might give their desires and imaginations their full swing and muse and wish and contrive and please themselves with the Invention and Images of those things which they think it not safe to put in execution whereas on the contrary the Laws of our Lord prescribe to our affections set bounds to our fancies regulate our desires direct our intentions govern our wishes strike at sin in embrio and check the first voluntary motions and tendencies of the mind to evil Voluntary I say because 't is hard to imagine that those motus primò primi as the Schools speak those first stirrings of Concupiscence which come not within the verge and compass of the Will should fall under the lash and censure of the Law a Souldier is not punished for having an enemy to encounter but for not doing his duty to repel his assaults if instead of watching and repressing his motions he rather entertains him then but not till then let the Law go upon him God will certainly punish no man for an imperfection that is not in his power to prevent and which he did not himself voluntarily contract will not call us to an account for being proper Subjects of the Operations of his Grace but for misusing it and will not require it at any mans hands that he has the Seeds of evil scatter'd in his composition but for suffering them to fructifie in the soil However it must still be own'd that as to all the irregular motions of the inner man that fall under the disposal of our Wills God hath concluded them all under sin that by the wicked man's forsaking his thoughts the numberless vain thoughts that fly up and down his mind he might the more abundantly pardon Is 55. v. 7. accordingly the same Prophet tells us of those that err Is 29. 24. in spirit Solomon of those that err in imagining evil Prov. 14. 22. and Micah denounces woe to the devisers 21. of iniquity Hence the same wise King of Israel tells us in one place that the thought of foolishness is sin Prov. 24. 9. Prov. 14. 22. Prov. 15. 26. in another place that they err who devise evil in a third that the thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord as his Father David had before observ'd of some that their inward parts were very wickedness Psal 5. 9. Psal 58. 2. and tells us of others that in their heart work wickedness hence again it is that St. Peter requires Simon Magus to repent of the thoughts of his Acts 8. 22. heart for what is the subject of our Repentance but our Sins that St. Paul requires us to bring into 2 Cor. 10. 4. captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ which supposes that of themselves they are naturally rebellious that our Saviour reprehends the Pharisees for thinking Matt. 9. 4. Matt. 15. 18 19. Matt. 5. evil and affirms of evil thoughts that they defile the man as well as when they shoot forth into the exterior actions of murder adultery c. The very intention and desire whereof he elsewhere equals with overt transgressions of the kind The reason of all is that God being the Father of the Spirits of all flesh and the Kingdom of his Son a spiritual Kingdom too 't is congruous both to the divine Nature and ours which is a stricture of his that his Laws bear sway in our spiritual part in our hearts and souls our wills and affections for would we have an infinitely glorious Spirit serv'd by dull flesh and blood only and not rather like himself in spirit and in truth with those prime productions those first born Sons of the immortal Nature in us Has God made us men and would we pay him but the spiritless homage of the animal part of us Has he implanted a noble and immortal principle of life and motion in us and shall it not share in our obedience to him and consequently in the guilt of the transgression of his Laws He is the natural Lord of both Soul and Body has bought them with a Price and therefore all the Reason in the World the Obedience we pay him should be commensurate to the extent of his Purchase so that if we have any just abhorrence of Sin in the true Latitude of the Divine construction of it we must govern our Thoughts as well as observe measures in our words and actions SECT 3. BUT I shall farther evince the obligations that lie upon us to order our Thoughts aright from such considerations as seem to enhance the guilt of mental sins above those of the outward Man For I. THO' it
Composition where tho the Spirit may be willing yet the flesh is weak will necessarily make our minds nod take them off their guard now and then and consequently give the Tempter an anavoidable advantage over us yet if these wandrings of our Spirits are grievous to our Minds upon recollection if we hence learn what unprofitable Servants we are even in our best Performances and humble our selves hereupon in the sight of God begging him to whip those Thieves that steal away our Thoughts out of the Temples of our Souls we shall not stand chargeable with the Robberies they commit upon us but as the motions of the good Spirit when rejected do so much the more inhaunce Men's guilt so will the injections of the evil One when guarded against as far as may be and resisted be sanctified through the divine Mercy to our greater advantage In fine this wandring of the mind in holy Duties tho in its best Construction 't is a great Unhappiness yet will be only so far imputed for Sin to us as it is voluntary in its Cause and in our own power to remedy and is in its Progress whence soever it derives indulged and complyed with SECT 5. WE proceed now to another more terrible sort of Thoughts wherewith the Minds of Men are many times unhappily infested For it is not unusual for some tempers especially to be assaulted with abundance of odd extravagant and horrid Thoughts breaking in upon them in spite of all Guard and Opposition Thus you shall have some those particularly of musing heads and melancholly Dispositions press'd upon now and then with Atheistical and Blasphemous Câ—gitations tempted either with David to deny God Ps 73. 2. from a consideration of the unequal Dispensation of his Providence in the World or some other such illogical Topick or else through the pressure of their Afflictions or the like to think hardly of him to deny him in his Attributes to charge him foolishly and to curse him and die Others you shall have possess'd with dismal 〈◊〉 of thâ—â—r having sinned the â—in againâ—â— the holy Ghost of their being Reprobates cast off of God without the verge of his Mercy and seal'd up for destruction Others Lastly there are hurried on in their minds to the commission of some great and crying Sins even against the bent of their own Propensions and that sometimes as far as self Murder it self c. NOW these Thoughts being all of 'em a kin and of the self same Family I shall not go about to treat of them severally and apart but together and in the following Method I. I shall endeavour to shew that there is some difficulty in stateing their proper Rise and Origine But that II. 'T IS of great use to know it and therefore III. IN order thereunto I shall assign some Marks and Characteristies whereby it may be known when they are of their Father the Devil IV. I shall shew that howsoever troublesom and afflicting they are they do not affect nor endanger our main State V. and Lastly I shall endeavour to prescribe the regulation of them I. IT must be owned there is some difficulty in the enquiry into the rise and origine of these horrid Thoughts and 't is hard to know many times whether they are the genuine Issue of our own corrupt Nature or spurious Brats falsly father'd on us by the Devil For he can inject as much and more than our Corruptions can suggest and yet possihly on the other hand they are able of themselves to carry us on to those excesses that look diabolical and when they joyn hand in hand 't is hard to know whether of the two first made the Motions or proves the abler Solicitor of their common cause of Sin Out of the Heart says our Saviour proceed evil Thoughts Murders Adulteries c. there they are conceived whosoever begets them And St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans resolves Rom. 1. 24. some of those black Crimes for which he brands the heathen World into the Lusts of their own Hearts and yet at the same time 〈…〉 to understand that the Pâ—ince of the power of the Air wrought in all such Children of Disobedience And indeed as the Doctrine Eph. 2. 2. of divine and humane Concurrence in the progress of true Piety is very plain and legible in the Scriptures so as that we are said for instance to be washed and sanctified by the Spirit of God and 1 Cor. 6. 11. yet are required to cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the Flesh and Spirit So are the same sins in 2 Cor. 7. 1. different places charged upon the Devil and our own Hearts too As David's numbring the people 1 Chron. 21. 1. v. 8. is ascribed to Satan and yet the King takes it to himself Just as it is said of Ananias lying to the holy Ghost that Satan put him on it and yet that he conceived it in his Acts. 5. 3 4. Heart NOW tho it be somwhat difficult as we have seen to know the true Parent of these hideous Thoughts we speak of yet II. IT is of no small use and concernment to meet with some satisfaction in the Matter for the sad Experience I believe of many especially hypocondraick Persons tells us the darkness of whose humor is best fitted to receive such black Impressions how apt the grand Enemy of our peace is to throw these fiery Darts into our Hearts and then to accuse us of their burning within us to commit a rape upon our Spirits and then lay the Child at our Doors whereby he many times creates such infinite Disquiet of Thought Horror of Conscience and Astonishment of all the Powers and Faculties of tendor Minds that they are apt to look upon themselves as rejected of God deliver'd up to Satan and in such a desperate and forlorn Condition that the violent hand perhaps is sometimes thought of to put a Period to the comfortless and wretched Life and therefore I say it may be of excellent Use on this Argument for the Support and Encouragement of these unhappy Persons to point out such criterious and characteristies whereby the buffetings of Satan as we render it 2 Cor. 12 7. may be in some measure distinguished from the genuine productions of our own Minds and those generally assign'd by Divines are such as follow I. THEY are the Devil's Thoughts not ours when the matter of them surpasses the suggestions of our natural Corruption for Nature her self unless turn'd perfectly Diabolical shrinks and gives back at those outragiously wicked Motions that pass now and then in some Men's Minds and there to be sure they are the assaults of the Devil upon them to Vex Disquiet and Confuse their Spirits tho he chance to prove unable to prevail with them An evil Heart 't is true may through its own inherent Wickedness conjure up those frightful Spectres of Thoughts that would scare and amaze other Persons but that
Parade which the Pharisaic Votaries so much affected but no doubt to better the Performance by withdrawing as much as may be from those Impressions of worldly Objects that are wont so fatally to persecute and distract us Any thing that requires application of Mind carries the necessity of Retirement along with it How much more that Performance to the full discharge whereof the utmost Stretch of our humane Capacities is inadequate All which is by no means to be understood in prejudice to the Publick Prayers of Religious Assemblies where the regular Gravity and Decorum of the Worship the united Zeal and Devotion of the Worshippers the Sacredness of the Word that is read the Importance of the Duty the Dreadfulness of the Place c. all conspire to wing the Devout Soul with divine Elevations to fix it upon God and give it a Solitude in the great Congregation AND thus much for those remedies that may be proper to cure the Distraction and Flatness of our Thoughts in Gods Service SECT 3. WE are now arrived at the last division of our Subject which is to direct to such means as may be proper for the government of our Thoughts in general i. e. on whatsoever Subject they are exercised AND here not to insist upon that Catholicon of Prayer we have already mentioned that which being a Soveraign and Universal Remedy against all the Evils we labour under must consequently be of excellent Use against the exorbitancies of our Thoughts I would advise in the I. PLACE to open the Scene of the Day with good and savory Thoughts in the Morning To make the strength and first born of our Conceptions every day holy to the Lord when I awake says holy David I am present with thee God ever took place in his thoughts and was the earliest Theme of his Meditations For in the Morning says he in another place I will direct my Prayer unto thee and will look up we must like him if we would with him learn to hate vain thoughts consecrate our most sprightly and sparkling Meditations to him who giveth his beloved sleep and yet himself neither slumbrs nor sleeps For there is no doubt to be made but that a Mind well seasoned and tinctured with good Thoughts in the Morning will with ordinary care retain its Smack and Fragrancy all the day but if we let the World or the Devil in first 't is great odds but they keep possession all the day come home too and go to bed with us in the Evening II. SINCE so much of the vanity of our Thoughts is owing to the Imagination as we have seen before at large it will be highly proper to restrain that extravagant Power within its due bounds to confine it home and not suffer it to run out ramble and gad so far abroad amongst variety of Objects that we cannot at our pleasure call it back again to take care however that it make not false Reports of things and impose upon our Reason with fictitious and Romantic exaggerations of them to draw out our Thoughts in the dance after it but that we learn judiciously to distinguish betwixt the intrinsic value of things and the extravagant Representations of a lying Imagination III. SINCE our Minds receive the Ideas and Images of most things originally from our Senses since it is by these avenues that outward objects make their way to our Hearts our Ears being as it were the gates by which the objects from without desire to speak with our Thoughts and our Eyes as windows to our Minds through which they gaze upon them It concerns us to set Waiters at these Cinque Ports of our Senses to seize upon all contraband Goods and scarch all Comers as the Governour of a Fortress will take care to guard its Avenues and examine Passengers especially strange Faces least it be insensibly betrayed or surprised into the hands of an Enemy under the appearance and vizor of a Friend not that the senses are of themselves any way criminal for they discharge but their respective Offices according to the Laws of their Creation Nor that all or most of the Images of things they let in are noxious and sinful for what harm had the wedge of Gold or Babylonish Garment in them when Achan look'd upon them coveted and took them and is not the fair Face drawn and melodious Voice tun'd by the finger of God who can do no Evil But they become an occasion of Sin by the doteing of the Heart upon them and therefore it is we must guard our Senses to deprive that of the matter of its Crimes and let its foolish Fire go out for want of fuel fit to keep it in And yet how contrary to this is the practice of the World where our Eyes are every day expos'd to the infection of wanton Pictures light Dresses natural and artificial Beauties to the redness of the Wine when it gives its colour in the glass and to a thousand criminal Examples and our Ears stand all the day open to amorous Romantic Stories obscene Jests Back-bitings and Revilings and most times to flat and insipid Discourses that neither minister Morality nor Grace nor Reason to the Hearers so that our Souls return home at night infected with the vain Air of the courses of the day and full charged with toys and ten thousand Amusemnets which leave such sensible Impressions behind them that we are still hankering after those Objects that gave us so agreeable a Diversion our Minds become unwilling Inhabitants of their tenements of Clay and little better perhaps than Captives taken by Satan at his Will The Tree was pleasant to the Eye and then the poor Woman inveigled by her Sense could not forbear to take and eat of the Fruit So that we had need go and learn what that means touch not taste not handle not had need not gaze on a Maid in the advice of the wise Son of Syrach least we fall by those things that are precious in her and our Eyes be full of Adultery had need in this Sense too take heed how we hear and turn in Solomons advice from the presence of a foolish Man when we perceive not in him the Prov. 14. 7. lips of Knowledge or wise and profitable Discourse Had the Royal David with Job made a covenant with his Eyes both he and Bathsheba had preserv'd their Innocence and Vriah his Life but Alas the King kept no Life-guard there as I may properly call it where it seems it was most needful and so the Man after God's Heart suffered his own to walk in Jobs Expression after his Eyes his steps turn'd out of the Way and he was deceiv'd by a Woman And therefore if we would take one primary Step towards the government and good discipline of our Thoughts we must as far as we are able amidst that variety of objects that perpetuelly surround us turn away our Eyes from beholding Vanity and our Ears from hearkening unto Folly must
his Fingers the Moon and the Stars which he hath ordained Those Immense fire Works whose motion is as regular Ps 8. 3. as rapid and are but as the twilight of the everlasting Day and of that Light which is inaccessible Read him further yet in the amazing Instance of his Grace when he reconciled the World to himself in Christ let the Mystery of Godliness be ever present to thy Mind God manifest in 1 Tim. 3. 16. the Flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels preach'd unto the Gentiles believed on in the World received up into Glory But it cannot be imagin'd that I should enter into the detail of those innumerous Objects that afford proper Matter for the Contemplation and Improvement of our Thoughts and therefore the succinct Advice of the Apostle will appositely take place here Whatsoever things are true whatsoever are honest whatsoever things are iust whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report If there be any Virtue or if there be any Praise think on these Things For the Truth and Reason of all is the Spirit of a Man is an active restless Principle of internal Motion that will not be wholly idle but will be doing tho it be nothing to the purpose rather than do just nothing at all And therefore unless you furnish it with good stuff to work upon it will take up with that which is next at hand at all adventures so that if we would bring forth good things in our Saviours Language we must with his good Man have a good treasure in our Hearts How precious are thy Thoughts to me O God says holy David how great is the sum of them not Ps 139. 17. a small inconsiderable Stock of Piety and Knowledge but a Treasure a good Fond or Bank for our Thoughts to trade with and then we shall increase with the increase of God King Solomon requiring us to bind the divine Law continually upon our Hearts adds that when we go it shall lead us When we sleep Prov. 6. 22. it shall keep us and when we awake it shall talk with us i. e. It will entertain our Thoughts and bear them Company when we are alone or as it 's said upon the same Occasion when we walk by the way Deut. 6. 7. when we lie down and when we rise up Times generally of the greatest Retirement But now without this good Society at Home our Thoughts will certainly seek out for new Acquaintance gad abroad for fellowship with some other Objects and ten to one in their jant fall into bad Company Associate with the Lusts of the Flesh the Lust of the Eye or the Pride of Life and get those ill haunts that our Minds perhaps may never after have the power to abandon BUT because neither Nature nor Education has furnish'd all Men with equal matter for their Thoughts and there are different sizes in Understanding as well as in Stature therefore VII ONE would advise to a more comprehensive Expedient for the government of Thoughts which every one is capable of using and that is for Men to be diligent and industrious in that Calling or Station wherein Providence has placed them to do as the wise King advises with all their might what their hands find to do For this confines the stream of our Thoughts to their proper Channel and hinders them from overflowing their Bank this hedges in the ramblers and keeps them to their own Inclosure who if left unconfined would like Jeremy's wild Ass snuff up the Wind and observe no measures God who is the Father of the Spirits of all Flesh knew that he had made them active restless things and therefore to imploy and find them work to keep them doing as they ought when they are not immediately ingaged in his Service he design'd Men their respective Callings and Professions and six parts of time in seven for them to take up their Thoughts and imploy them and if they are not thus ingaged about their own Business 't is odds but that like St. Paul's busie Bodies they wander from House to House mind other Men's and meddle with many Matters which may in time cause as great Combustions without as they do disorder the Head within Let our Thoughts then keep within their own lines and make no incroachments hitherto within the circle of our own proper business and Station let their proud waves go and no farther Let his Thoughts who is appointed to the Ministry wait on his Ministring his who is to teach on teaching c. VIII IT were advisable for Men's better ordering their Thoughts to make choice as far as they can of such imployments and course of life as is most suitable to their genius and abilities of Mind for that always sits the easiest on them and their Thoughts more Naturally fall in with their business and abide by it Whereas if Men's imploys lie cross the grain of their inclinations their Thoughts will be perpetually running after something else at which they are not so awkard or if they aspire at things to which their strength bears no proportion matters too high for them and above the sphere of their activity the weight of the burden will render them painful and uneasie make them stagger too and fro like a drunken Man and bring them to their wits end besides the damage they may occasion to the publick as Phaeton endeavouring to mount his Fathers Chariot the management whereof he did not understand was thereby thrown out of Heaven and had like to have set the World on fire IX NEXT to this it may be proper to subjoyn the advice of endeavouring to contract rather then enlarge our secular affairs instead of spreading them wider to reduce them to as tight and narrow a compass as we can that we may the better attend to the improvement of our own Minds an acquisition infinitely beyond the most pompous temporal attainment For what are honours riches pleasures all the World to a brave refined and accomplished Mind Now multiplicity of business is a mighty obstruction to this mental improvement He that thinks of many things thinks of nothing as he that would go several ways stands still it distracts and divides our Thoughts like water mixt with wine debilitates and dilutes them that River will neither be so deep nor so serviceable for Trade that is divided into a great many little channels as that which flows altogether in its own natural bed Thus it is with our Thoughts if we let them out at every little chink which the concerns of the World make in them they 'l be but shallow Thoughts and mar the improvement of our Minds A Ray collected into a point is far more intense than one variously refracted As God do's not love idle so neither over busie people Martha's fault was not that she was imployed in ill but in many things which justled for that time the good part out of