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remiss, than in the unrestrained indulgence SERMON they give to fancy; and that too, for most part, without remorse. Since the time that Reason began to exert her powers, Thought, during our waking hours, has been active in every breast, without a moment's suspension or pause. The current of ideas has been always flowing. The wheels of the spiritual engine have circulated with perpetual motion. Let me ask, what has been the fruit of this incessant activity with the greatest part of mankind? Of the innumerable hours that have been employed in thought, how few are marked with any permanent or useful effect! How many have either passed away in idle dreams, or have been abandoned to anxious discontented musings; to unsocial and malignant passions, or to irregular and criminal desires! Had I power to lay open that store-house of iniquity, which the hearts of too many conceal; could I draw out and read to them a list of all the imaginations they have devised, and all the passions they have indulged in secret; what a picture of men would I present to themselves! What crimes would they appear to have perpetrated in fancy,

SERMON which to their most intimate companions they durst not reveal!

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Even when men imagine their thoughts to be innocently employed, they too commonly suffer them to run out into extravagant imaginations, and chimerical plans of what they could wish to attain, or choose to be, if they could frame the course of things according to their desire. Though such employments of fancy come not under the same description with those which are plainly criminal, yet wholly unblameable they seldom are, Besides the waste of time which they occasion, and the misapplication which they indicate of those intellectual powers that were given to us for much nobler purposes, such romantic speculation leads us always into the neighbourhood of forbidden regions. They place us on dangerous ground. They are for the most part connected with some one bad passion; and they always nourish a giddy and frivolous turn of thought. They unfit the mind for applying with vigour to rational pursuits, or for acquiescing in sober plans of conduct. From that ideal world in which it allows itself to dwell, it returns, to the commerce

of men, unbent and relaxed, sickly and SERMON tainted, averse from discharging the duties, and sometimes disqualified even for relishing the pleasures of ordinary life. O Jerusalem! wash thine heart from wickedness, How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee* ?—In order to guard against all such corruption and abuses of thought as I have mentioned, it may be profitable to attend to the following rules:

IN the first place, study to acquire the habit of attention to thought. No study is more important, for in proportion to the degree in which this habit is possessed, such commonly is the degree of intellectual improvement. It is the power of attention which in a great measure distinguishes the wise and the great from the vulgar and trifling herd of men. The latter are accustomed to think, or rather to dream, without knowing the subject of their thoughts. In their unconnected rovings, they pursue no end ; they follow no track. Every thing floats loose and disjointed on the surface of their mind;

SERMON like leaves scattered and blown about on the face of the waters.

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In order to lead your thoughts into any useful direction, your first care must be, to acquire the power of fixing them, and of restraining their irregular motions. Inure yourselves to form a plan of proper meditation; to pursue it steadily; and with severe authority to keep the door shut against intrusions of wandering fancy. Let your mind, for this purpose, become a frequent object to itself. Let your thoughts be made the subject of thought and review." To "what is my attention at present directed? "Could I disclose it without a blush to the "world? Were God instantly to call me "into judgment, what account could I give "of it to him? Shall I be the wiser or the "better for dwelling on such thoughts as now fill my mind? Are they entirely "consistent with my innocence, and with my present and future peace? If they "are not, to what purpose do I indulge "such unprofitable or dangerous musings?"? -By frequent exercise of this inward scrutiny, we might gradually bring imagination

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under discipline, and turn the powers of SERMON thought to their proper use as means of improvement, instead of suffering them to be only the instruments of vanity and guilt.

In the second place, in order to the government of thought, it is necessary to guard against idleness. Idleness is the great fomenter of all corruptions in the human heart. In particular, it is the parent of loose imaginations and inordinate desires. The ever active and restless power of thought, if not employed about what is good, will naturally and unavoidably engender evil. Imagine not that mere occupation, of whatever kind it be, will exempt you from the blame and danger of an idle life. Perhaps the worst species of idleness is a dissipated, though seemingly busy life, spent in the haunts of loose society, and in the chace of perpetual amusement. Hence a giddy mind, alternately elated and dejected with trifles, occupied with no recollection of the past but what is fruitless, and with no plans for the future but what are either frivolous or guilty.

As,