is vain and impertinent but when it is intended and directed to the instructing of our selves for our own good Behaviour in those Circumstances when they are such as we are in or are likely to come into Or when our Neighbour whom we censure is such an one as we may be supposed able to advise and direct him and whom it is not a thing above us to pretend to direct him as it is certainly above the Subject to direct and dictate to his Governours in Church or State Further the Thoughts that are unseasonable and do interrupt us in our present Duty whatever it is are in that respect vain Thoughts and these proceed from the Vanity of the Mind these are commonly at that time unconsidered and unchosen and such as the roving of the Mind accidentally falls upon But if they are chosen and designed at such an unseasonable time yet are they vain and fruitless because they divert a Man from that which is his present Duty they either hinder him from doing it at all or from doing it well Such are the Thoughts of wordly Affairs and Businesses which may be lawful enough and fitting at another time when we are or should be engaged in the worship of God and in Exercises of Devotion and doubtless such may also be those that are upon Divine and Religious Matters when Men are in the Affairs of an honest Calling as when they intrude and mingle themselves so with a mans Business as to disturb his mind to beat him off from or hinder the due performance of it We are not bound to be actually thinking of God and Heaven or the Day of Judgment at all times or to have our Discourse when we are in Company always taken up with Speculations in Religion which some unjustly appropriate the name of good Discourse to It is good discourse to direct and advise and assist one another in our Duty of any kind and then it is good Discourse which does direct or encourage a Neighbour in his worldly Business and Calling in its proper Season They have a wrong Notion of Religion and it is just such an one as that of the Papists when they call a Monkish Life by way of Eminence a Religious one who think no Thoughts or Discourse good or religious but when the Mysteries of our Religion or our future hopes and passages of Scripture are the Subject of them A man may be religious in the Actions and so in the Thoughts about the meanest Trade because he may do all that he does to the Glory of God and he does in his worldly Business that which God has commanded and set him to do accordingly the Thoughts about those things so far as they are necessary and in their season are dutiful obedient and religious Ones they are such as Religion does allow and indeed oblige a man to have He that should neglect his Trade tho it was the meanest Handicraft to meditate on Divine things or that should do his work ill by reason of having his mind unseasonably employed and taken up with these things would transgress as truly as he that should neglect the due acknowledgment of God to apply himself to his worldly Business or should perform the worship of God slightly by reason of having his mind wandering from that to his worldly Business In a word those Thoughts which are loose and undirected which do no way concern our Duty or which do impertinently divert us from present Duty they come under the name of Vain Thoughts And these were they which David hated together with by consequence that vain roving inconsiderate Disposition of Mind which produces them Thus much may suffice to shew distinctly what it is the Psalmist speaks of The next part of our Business is to justifie this good Man's Hatred of this unhappy Disposition of Mind and these Exercises of it The reason of which his hatred of them he intimates to be their contrariety to the due observance of the Law of God And that this is the mischievous Nature of them will fully appear in short by these two things 1. They are a mighty hinderance of doing good 2. They greatly expose and commonly betray a Man into the doing of Evil. 1. This Disposition of Mind must needs be a great hinderance of all good and worthy Actions Some are so foolish as even to affect this Disposition to endeavour cherish and indulge a roving unfixed Thought they allow and follow all the wild Freaks of the Imagination and this is the admir'd Wit of our Times But the Imagination is the wildest and most ungovernable and dangerous Faculty in the Mind of Man and it cannot chuse but be very unhappy for any man to indulge it and give himself up to follow it Such as do so are commonly Lawless in their Opinions and Manners they are not capable of any fixed Principles or of a steady Course of Actions and by consequence they cannot set themselves to any useful or creditable way of living Hence we often see the great Wits of the Times good for nothing they can squander away their Time their Health or an Estate but cannot get any good or do any and doubtless to be thus a Wit is to be a Fool. The inconsiderate and wandering Disposition of Mind is a great hinderance of all the Improvement of the Mind and of furnishing it for honourable and good Actions A man under the power of this can never study his Duty carefully cannot learn or understand the Laws and Rules of the several Vertues therefore he knows not how or what it is to do well He can never seriously ponder and deliberately consider the motives and inducements to do well and therefore these have no force upon him and then he must needs live a wild and ungovern'd Life he cannot be vertuous and good unless he could be so by chance and indeed an House may be regularly built by chance or an excellent Discourse be composed accidentally by the throwing of the Letters carelesly together as well as Man can live a wise and well-composed and good Life without consideration And herein lies I doubt not one ground of the common differences between man and man especially between those who have equal advantages for Improvement One man steadily fixes and applies his mind to some good Purpose to serve God and Man in some particular way of living and he is of some use in the World Another applies his mind to no one thing and he is good for nothing So when several men enjoy the same means of Grace and Goodness one becomes good and religious and another receives no Benefit at all by them The reason is because the one uses them with design to improve by them and with careful application of his mind to the obtaining this end the other has no care or endeavours about this matter His roving and vain Imaginations leave no room for better Thoughts they do not give him leave to attend to and consider
said on this Subject 1. Let us with great Thankfulness acknowledge to the Creatour what he has made us and praise him for his Bounty towards us Let us consider and own it is God that hath made us and not we our selves It is one part of thankfulness to acknowledge the Benefits we have received Let us own this and endeavour to render to God all that which is due from us for it To shew forth his praise not only with our lips but in our lives by giving up our selves to his service Let each of us heartily say within himself Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me bless his Holy Name Bless the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his Benefits We may hereupon very justly thus expostulate with and admonish our selves Have I a power to think and shall my Thoughts neglect the excellent Being that gave it me Should he be seldom in my Thoughts by whom I constantly think How base and ungrateful a Character of a man is this That God is not in all his thoughts Am I capable of Knowledge and shall it not be my greatest Ambition to know him that made me so to know the most excellent of all Beings that I might thereby be inabled to render him the Homage that belongs to him Have I a Will to chuse good and shall I fix my choice on any thing before him Shall I not cleave to him by it who is the chiefest Good and who gave me this power for that Purpose Should I not always say it to him as the full Sense of my Soul Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none on Earth that I can desire besides thee Shall I not pay him the Homage of my Affections from whom I have them and the reason that I have wherewith to guide them I ought to love him above all things to fear him alone to entettain my Hope with the pleasing expectations of enjoying him I should be angry only with that which provokes his Anger and hate what he hates and forbids Thus ought we to admonish our selves upon this Foundation and to resolve accordingly Thus should we endeavour to honour him who hath crowned us with such Dignity and Honour 2. What has been said concerning the Excellency of our Souls should make all men prefer them before their Bodies and chiefly regard them The Soul of Man is plainly the chief and most important part of him as it is a Spirit and Immortal This ought then to have the chief Dominion in us All the Appetites and Passions of the Inferior Body ought to be subject to the Faculties of the Mind We should not suffer our Senses or the desires of the Flesh to force Objects and Thoughts upon the Mind but make it rather to chuse its own employment upon consideration and advice of our Judgment and Reason How much Folly and Sin would such a Course prevent And it highly becomes and concerns us to give this as absolute a Dominion in us as we can that it may not be clogg'd or biassed by particular Temper or Constitution The Obedience to Temper is a most effectual Hinderance both of Wisdom and Religion No man can govern himself well that does not set his Reason above his Constitution and make his Temper subject to the Rules of that and of Religion I confess that in some cases some severity towards the Body may be necessary to this purpose and a great deal of Self-denial and Mortification may be requisite to the bringing our selves to this But let us observe what our Saviour says to this Case If thy right hand says he offend thee cut it off and cast it from thee for it is better for thee to enter into life maimed than having two hands to be cast into Hell Fire We were better wrong the Flesh if that must be than to endanger the Spirit and a little hurt the Body than damn the Soul To bring our selves to this State of the Bodies absolute and compleat subjection to the Mind is of so great use and advantage as that 't is worth all that it can cost us For so we shall become free and easy in all our Actions We shall possess and enjoy our own Souls we shall will to do what we should and shall do it the more readily and do it the better and the more perfectly Thus shall a man have the greatest Comfort in his Actions He shall exercise the brighter vertues and obtain by them the more praise and favour with God and Man Let us prefer our Souls above our Bodies and chiefly mind the Interests of them We should make the Interests of the Body stand by when they come into competition with those of the Soul We should govern our selves in all things as far as this can be done with a chief regard of these It were but just and fitting and due to our selves that we govern our selves so in what we chuse to love or hate in what we pursue or avoid and that it be the grand business of our Lives to promote the advantage of our Immortal Souls 3. Let us be greatly ambitious of those Divine and high Qualifications that we have been made capable to possess since we may be wise and holy just and good faithful and prudent let us earnestly endeavour to be so To be endowed with these Vertues is to put on the greatest excellency and worth The Scripture very justly says The righteous is more excellent than his Neighbour These Vertues in truth are the greatest and the most becoming Ornaments These make the brightest and most lasting Beauty such as Angels love and God himself takes delight in These will encrease and not fade or decay with Time and will last to Eternity These are the truest and the most useful Riches they do in a sense deliver the Soul from Hell and entitle it to everlasting Blessedness These are not uncertain Riches but are such a sure and durable Possession as Moth and Rust cannot corrupt nor can Thieves break through to and steal them These in the Exercises of them in good Works do lay up a treasure in Heaven Let it be consider'd that as we are capable of these Vertues we are also capable of being the Subjects of the contrary Vices And that if we are not vertuous and holy we must needs be vicious and impious He that is not just and true in his dealings must be unjust and persidious He that is not merciful and good must be hard-hearted and cruel And as we are acceptable and lovely to God by those Vertues in us so we are odious and detestable with these Vices The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord but he loveth him that followeth after Righteousness The pure Angels abhor Sinners and do not care to be near them to see what is so odious and offensive as the sins of men are to them As Holiness and Vertue do exalt and honour and become us so does
depart and to be with Christ Which does most plainly shew he expected to Be still and to be more happy after Death than he was here Again this is also plainly suggested by our Saviour in the Parable of the Rich man and Lazarus Luke 16. 19 Verse to the End The Soul of Man then is at his Death disposed to such Abodes as it deserves and is suited to till the time of the General Resurrection of the Bodies of Men and then it shall be united to its own Body again and live with it for ever in a State of endless Happiness or endless Misery Thus much may suffice to shew the Excellency of the Soul of Man from its Nature The Second Head of Proof of this which I shall now speak to is the Capacities of the Soul arising from its Nature It will give us a further apprehension of its Excellency to consider what great and honourable things it is capable of And these I shall speak of under three Heads It is capable of Knowledge of Moral Qualifications and of a most sublime and elevated kind of Happiness 1. It is capable of Knowledge It can know the Creatures about us which are the Objects of our Senses can understand their Nature and Use by vertue of which it has and exercises a Dominion over these things It knows how to apply them to the serving our Necessity and Delight By vertue of this it can make those things which have no use of reason themselves to serve for rational and wise Purposes It can tame the wild and correct the hurtful Creatures It can govern the Strong and by artful application give strength to the weak Ones It often fetches wholesome Food or very effectual Physick out of mortal Poysons The Soul of Man is capable of knowing himself To understand his own Nature in the principles and end of it To know his Ornaments and Disparagements the causes and means of his Happiness or Misery and wherein these do truly consist and lie Man is capable to understand and know very much of the Ever-blessed God the Highest Being to apprehend and meditate upon the most glorious and delightful Perfections of his Infinite Nature He can see the Marks and Characters of these perfections upon the sensible things which is the most excellent Knowledge and the best use of them as the Apostle suggests Rom. 1. 20. The Invisible things of God are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal Power and Godhead The Soul of Man renders him capable of knowing the Rules of true Wisdom of that Wisdom which is from above Those Rules which direct us to render our selves acceptable and amiable to God and one another to Become and Honour our selves Those Rules by which the Wise and Holy Angels govern their behaviour and those by which the most Holy God tho in an Infinite Eminency above all his Creatures governs his And surely this Capacity of Knowledge may be lookt upon as a great and honourable Advantage especially that of such a Knowledge as hath been mentioned Knowledge finds the mind of man pleasant and useful Employment which as it is an active and busie thing must have such employment or 't is uneasy and unhappy Knowledge presents us with the Objects of our Happiness and inables us to enjoy them This is the light and brightness and beauty of the Mind Ignorance is dark and deform'd and leaves the Soul unpolisht and ugly Ignorance like darkness is uncomfortable and sad Knowledge like the light is chearing and delightful This improves and raises the activity and freedom of the Mind but ignorance is clogg'd and wretchedly confin'd Of Knowledge then it may be said It is more to be desired than Gold yea than much fine Gold But especially is that true of that Knowledge which the Psalmist speaks it of even that which presents to us the Rules of good living Of which also Solomon speaks thus Happy is the man that findeth wisdom and the man that getteth understanding For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of Silver and the gain thereof than fine Gold She is more precious than Rubies and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared to her Prov. 3. 13 14 15. 2. Another Capacity which greatly recommends the Soul of Man is That it is capable of Moral Qualifications By which word I mean the glorious Vertues of Holiness and Justice Goodness and Mercy Faithfulness and Prudence It is not only capable of knowing the Rules of these Vertues but also of possessing the Vertues themselves and of expressing them in our Actions Our behaviour towards God may be adorn'd with the bright Rays of Faith and Love of Piety and Devotion of Reverence and Humility Our behaviour towards men may all be regulated and adorned with Justice and Charity Meekness and Sincerity Goodness and Mercy None of the other Creatures about us can be possest of such Qualifications A Stone or a Beast cannot be just or good or faithful A Beast does not know what its self does it has not freedom of will does not chuse any of its actions therefore cannot be vertuous or vicious The Soul of Man has in this the Advantage of all the visible World and when 't is endowed with these Vertues at least it is brighter and more glorious than the Sun or Stars These render us like to God himself in the highest manner that a Creature is capable of In these things consisted the best part of the Divine Image in man before the unhappy Fall of our Nature in our first Parents and tho we then lost the things themselves yet we did not lose the capacity of receiving them again And when the Scripture speaks of the renewing or restoring that Image in us again this is said to be done by enduing us with Righteousness and true Holiness These are Excellencies which God ascribes to himself which he glories in and therefore it must be our greatest Advancement and Honour to be partakers of them and it must be accounted an argument of great worth in the Soul of Man to be capable of such Honourable Ornaments 3. It is another Argument of this that the Soul of Man is capable of enjoying a very high and honourable kind of Happiness even the best that any creatures can attain to When the Manna which the Children of Israel were fed with in the Wilderness is called Angel's Food it is intimated that this wonderful Provision did as a figure represent that Mankind are capable of the same Happiness with the glorious Angels and all holy and devoted Souls do in some measure partake of it in this Life By vertue of his Soul is every man even from the Prince to the Beggar capable of a Spiritual and Eternal Felicity As this is a Spirit it has a very high sense of things and a very lively perception of Pleasure or Pain No meer Body or Matter however 't is refin'd or made up into
an Animal can have so great a sense of Pleasure or Happiness as a Spirit may if it be proper to say that it has any at all Matter the best of it is dull in comparison to a Spirit and must be moved but a Spirit is active and moves its self and what is most capable of Action is most capable of Happiness for all fruition consists in Action Further The Objects of our Happiness are all spiritual things By vertue of this Spirit in us we can delight in and enjoy such which are the noblest and most excellent things in themselves and are able to afford the greatest Pleasure Sensible Objects have not that force with them nor that Power to please which spiritual things have that are the delights and blissful enjoyments of wise and refined Spirits Hence it must be said that Mankind cannot fall into a greater or more unhappy mistake than to think that there is no pleasure but in gratifying the Senses and Appetites of their Bodies with sensual Enjoyments or that this is the greatest pleasure of any This in truth is not worthy the Name of Pleasure if it be compared with the delight which a rectified mind can take in spiritual Objects and Enjoyments Further it is doubtless the greatest thing in Happiness and that which adds much to it still how great soever it was before That the Being which enjoys it can reflect upon it and so can consider and know its self happy This the Soul of Man can do and none but a rational and spiritual Nature can do this But since I have spoken of spiritual Things as the chief Object of our Happiness I shall particularly mention some of them The Soul of Man can please its self highly in good and vertuous Actions In those which we do our selves and in those we see done by others It is incomparably pleasant to view and consider the reasonableness and the fitness of these to see how necessary and just they are to consider how much Gratitude towards God and the Obligations we have received from him do require them of Mankind to consider the wisdom and vast advantages of them Hence did a good man acknowledge to God Thy Law is sweet to my taste yea sweeter than hony to my mouth There is not any thing among men so pleasant and charming to a rectified Soul as are the vertuous and pious Actions and Behaviour of good Men while the sensual Minds of others dote on a fair outside and sine cloaths he sees and takes a more just and true delight in the glory that dwells within and darts out its rays in Religious and good Actions The Soul of Man can take delight in the converse of holy and wise and kind Angels those glorious Creatures that are the Beauty and Flower as we may say of the Creation It can delight in what they are in what they say and in what they do when it shall be admitted into their Society And it is mentioned in Scripture as a part of that Felicity to which our conformity to the Laws of the Gospel does intitle and will bring us That we shall enjoy hereafter the Society of an innumerable company of Angels as well as that of the spirits of just men made perfect and of God the judge of all Heb. 12. 22. And very delightful it must needs be to good men in this Life to consider these noble Creatures and to know that they are Ministring spirits upon all occasions sent forth to minister for the good of the Elect To consider that whilst he is holy and vertuous he is a delight to them they love to be about him and they have the charge of him to keep him in all his ways and he is accordingly the object of their continual Care and they are most willing to do for him all the Offices of kindness that he has occasion for Further the Soul can enjoy after a very pleasing and satisfying manner the ever-blessed God who is an infinite unmeasurable Good a boundless Ocean of Excellencies and Perfections It can delight in all the discover'd Glories of this Incomprehensible Being and in considering him it is transported with pleasure while it finds it self in the utmost stretch of its Faculties lost in the Infinite Incomprehensible Object And this Happiness the Enjoyment of God may in some measure begin in this Life A most ravishing Pleasure the Soul can take to consider what this Excellent Being has said of himself in Holy Scripture and what discoveries he daily makes of himself in his Works When it can view in some of these his wonderful Wisdom and Power in others large and bounteous Goodness in others awful and bright Justice and Righteousness And when to these Meditations it can add the sweet thought that this God is reconciled that it is a Favourite of Heaven then it must needs be as the Psalmist said My Meditation of him shall be sweet I will be glad in the Lord. And then if to all this we add that this great Object of the Soul's Happiness will endure for ever and so will also the lesser ones that have been mentioned that being spiritual in their Nature they are all of them Eternal and Unchangeable they will never cease to Be nor cease to be delightful and pleasing If we consider that the Soul its self by its Immortal Nature is capable to be for ever blest with the Enjoyment of these Objects we shall from hence see that we are capable of an Everlasting Happiness of that which shall never be interrupted never decay nor diminish never come to an end We are capable of living beyond all reach of Thought beyond all measure of duration amidst unfading Pleasures unspeakable Joys and a pure unmix'd and perfect Felicity Oh that Men were so wise as to consider these things Thus much and more than we can now conceive our Souls are made capable to enjoy And these things all of them together at least I think do sufficiently prove the great Worth and Excellency of the Soul of Man Application And certainly if the things which have been now said were duly considered if they had their just and due Influence upon Mankind they would exceedingly alter and amend the lives and actions of a great many Men. They would make us act more suitable to the dignity and worth of our Souls and with more regard to their Interests and Happiness than we commonly do And in particular these things following the Influence of them upon us would effect and cause They would make us very Pious towards God and thankful for what he has made us they would make us prefer our Souls before our Bodies and ambitious of attaining those Divine and honourable Accomplishments which we are in our Nature capable of they would make us very Industrious to gain that Happiness which we were Originally and in our Nature designed for In these things I shall set before you the due Use and Improvement of what has been
the Precepts and Rules of Religion and Vertue till his mind is formed by them These things have their Influence upon us by our serious and deliberate Meditation upon them 'T is true the Spirit of God is the efficient Cause of all that is good in us but in grown Persons he does this in and by the exercise of their own Thoughts upon the Rules and the Motives of Vertue and Religion and we must be our selves the Instruments as well as the Subjects of his Operations in us It is therefore that God has appointed the preaching of his Word to be the ordinary means of making men religious and vertuous that thereby those things which may direct and perswade them to be so may be proposed and set before them with strong Reason and earnest Exhortation Thus then is the Vanity or Inconsiderateness of the Mind a mischievous Quality and worthy the Hatred of him who desires to be good as it hinders men from being good and by consequence from doing well 2. It is very mischievous too as it does exceedingly expose men to do Evil and often betrays them into Sin And this Effect it has by these two ways 1. As this Vanity of Mind abandons a man to his Inclinations 2. As it exposes us to the Influence of Temptations 1. This inconsiderate Vanity of the Mind abandons a man to his Inclinations it makes him follow these instead of leading them and to obey what he should govern whatever the Inclinations of a man are the Vanity of the Mind carries him after them and they are mostly to Evil. The ungoverned thoughts are usually employed by the reigning Sin and the Man shall be musing on that and be guilty of it in his Heart when he has not opportunity of committing in overt Acts. The covetous Man's idle Thoughts are all upon Gain and good Bargains or great Losses The proud Man's ungovern'd Thoughts are extolling himself magnifying every good Quality in him if he has any into a Mountains Bulk and diminishing his most enormous Faults they are despising others and preferring him above them Thus do these Thoughts usually actuate and exercise in the Mind the prevailing Vice and so our Thoughts become sinful when they are inconsiderate they will not be only so but will be angry proud prophane unclean or any thing else according to the inward Character or Tincture of the Mind and then such Thoughts as these do cherish and strengthen these Inclinations which ought to be mortified and subdued they make them the less governable and ready and apt to break out into suitable Actions when temptation and opportunity are offer'd 2. This State of Mind mightily exposes a man to the Influence of Temptations for it renders him always ready to receive them He that hath no Rule over his Spirit says Solomon Is like a City that is broken down and without Walls Prov. 25. 28. The Enemy of our Souls will easily send in his black Troops of wicked Suggestions if we are not continually well guarded against him And what shall hinder an inconsiderate Man from receiving any manner of Temptations The Adversary has not so little craft as to awaken him to consider what he does by tempting to the most enormous kinds or degrees of wickedness at first No he draws the careless Sinner on to these by the Steps of lesser Sins He watches to do mischief and goes about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour and the vain ungovern'd Mind is a ready Prey to him If we will not govern our selves well we leave our selves to him and he will govern us ill and unless God's restraining Grace prevent he will lead us captive at his will This Enemy of our Souls will sow his Tares there while we sleep and are careless He perfectly knows our Inclinations too and what to suggest that shall most effectually prevail with us and so does the more certainly draw us into Sin and Wickedness Thus we are in continual Danger from intestine and external Foes and therefore we cannot be careless of our selves but they will prevail over us and draw us into Sin And these Thoughts which men are apt to think very innocent ones and to neglect as not worth their minding we may see do expose and betray us into such Thoughts and by consequence dispose us for such Actions as are sinful And that Temper of Mind which some affect and are proud of as being called Wit does prove but Madness and Folly it is not only unprofitable but also very hurtful And thus much may suffice to the Second Part of this Discourse which was to shew the mischief of allowing and entertaining Vain Thoughts I shall now in the last place propose the proper Remedies of this Vanity and Inconsiderateness of Mind And let none think that to do so is an impertinent or vain Task for as the mischief and danger of it is great so the disease is common As the Imagination is a faculty natural to the Mind of Man so all men are more or less subject to the giddiness of it and liable to be diverted from any good design or to be disturbed and hindered in the prosecution of it thereby This Vanity of the Mind is a distemper common to the corrupted Nature Now to remedy this then we must observe these things following as absolutely necessary 1. A Man must needs set himself some task and employment With an idle Life it is cherisht and will reign and throw a man into a thousand Enormities Something to do and a diligent application of the Mind to it tames the unruly Thought uses it to government and makes it obedient and useful Business mightily helps consideration by exercise of thinking steadily to some one Purpose designed and chosen a Man becomes habituated to the doing so and is the more capable of fixing his Mind to any thing besides that This evidently appears in the great and extensive Knowledge in all Matters which we find in some Persons that were bred to a Trade and in the capacity which we see in many such to apply their thoughts to any thing and to learn and make a good Judgment of all Matters Those that have been so unhappy as to be taught nothing in their younger Years who rather diverted themselves with the Teachers of some Trifles than learnt any thing have the more to learn now and the more to do when they can be convinced of the danger the guilt the contemptibleness of an idle Life And how many wise and great Ladies have employed their Time and their Hands in working for the Poor to their own immortal Honour with God and Man Together with these employments such may very well mingle a set Task of publick and private Devotion and so keep the Mind well exercised as much as it needs to be But this leads me to another Remedy of this Distemper 2. We must endeavour to furnish our Minds with good store of Sacred Knowledge Ignorance and Vanity as well