honest endeavours; and all things about him move forward in a constant, steady way, as the heavenly bodies do in their proper spheres, without crossing and interfering with each other, so that all is bright and harmonious, and of good influence, as under the blessing and direction of God's good providence. And how great must this man's peace and satisfaction be, and that of all his house, in such a regular, still way of life as this, attended with as much prosperity as a good Christian can reasonably desire, and as is consistent with the uncertainty of these lower goods; and his quiet better fixed than to be much disordered by those disappointments which every one must sometimes expect to meet with here!

But the idle busybody, as St. Paul describes him, whose business lies only in other men's matters, his success is really in doing mischief both at home and abroad; ruining his family, embroiling himself, plaguing his neighbours, sowing schism in the church, and sedition in the state; a hellish employment, that can have no real comfort, no good hopes in the doing and what dire reflections will all this cause at last! The soul of such a wicked man must needs be like a troubled sea, and an utter stranger to peace, both now and to all eternity.

For as there will certainly be a great day of reckoning, when every man shall give account of his proceedings to God; so what, think we, will be the inquiries that shall then be made? the scripture says plainly, that we shall all give account of our own works, be answerable for our own talents, and

1 Rom. xiv. 12; Luke xvi. 2; Matt. xxv. 14.

be punished or rewarded as we have performed or neglected our own duty in the station wherein God hath placed us here. And therefore this will then be one inquiry, Have you studied to be quiet, and to do your own business? This or that was your proper business, in such and such a capacity wherein God's providence did put you, that you might do him service in it, and promote the good and welfare of society, and your own in the conclusion; and how have you discharged these obligations? Now how confounded will the man of business be, (as once he would be thought,) who has little or nothing to say as to the doing of his own duty, the improvement of what God particularly committed to his own trust; only can talk much of other men's affairs, and appear to have been very diligent in what did not at all concern him? What excuse can then be pleaded for such busy idleness, and which too, upon all accounts, has been of such mischievous consequence? How justly may God say to him, as he once did to his disobedient people, who, though they made a great deal of bustle in his service, yet neglected the main thing; Who hath required this at your hands m? Take therefore the unprofitably busy servant, and bind him hand and foot, and cast him into outer darkness: where shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth for ever. And how tormenting will the thoughts of his intrigues then be, when he shall find by his own sad experience that they all tended to that dismal centre of misery! that all the pains he took, all the perplexities he endured, all the time he spent in his

foreign pursuits, and which ruined his fortune and reputation, and his quiet in this life, were but as so many sad presages of what he must then for ever feel in hell!

How infinitely happy might I now have been, will he then say, in the anguish of his soul, had my study been to lead a quiet and peaceable life, in all godliness and honest industry in my own proper calling; performing the works of it with diligence and faithfulness, and intermeddling no further with other men's affairs than charity and duty did require me how then would the joyful sound have ravished my glad heart, Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord! But now, alas! what shall I say?-It cannot be expressed.

SECT. II.

That we shall find the study of regulating our passions to be a full employment for our utmost diligence.

HAVING shewn what it is to study the regulation of our passions, and how much it concerns us to be good proficients in it, that we may learn the most excellent art of tranquillity and quietness of mind, I shall now shew that this alone will be a sufficient employment for us, and such as requires our most serious application and utmost diligence, that we may do it throughly and to good effect.

Thus, to instance only in the passions of anger and sorrow, and our behaving ourselves peaceably in society and conversation. And first, as to the regulation of the fierce and unruly passion of anger, together with all the little furies that attend it; to study this is to learn to be of a meek and peaceable

spirit, to pass by a transgresssion, to hope the best of a doubtful action, to forget and forgive a real injury; and in those cases where it is fit we should be angry, to be so in due proportion and degree, and utterly to mortify all desires of revenge, even upon the greatest provocations that can be given. Now, here is work enough cut out already for great diligence and long labour, to do it as it should be.

For, considering the natural heat of most people's temper, and the many provocations that we daily meet with, and that sometimes from those that are nearest to us, and whose duty and gratitude should oblige them to a more inoffensive behaviour at least, if not to a more affectionate and endearing one, it will be no easy matter for even the best of us to preserve his soul in tranquillity and peace. He must be very circumspect, and constantly upon his guard, and very resolute in his good purposes, and ply himself with argument upon argument, reason upon reason, and back all this with frequent, earnest prayer to God too, for his divine assistance, that will go thus far; and after all, will find too great remainders and new strugglings of that stubborn passion, and which will again put him upon renewing his endeavours, and that more or less to the end of his days, or else all his former pains will be lost and to no purpose. For he that swims against the tide must be always moving onward, and making his way, though by never so little and little, or else the stream will soon bear him down with it, and perhaps beyond his recovery.

And as for the passion of sorrow, it will be no easy task to vanquish that, which assaults us some

times with almost irresistible force, and has nature so much of its side, and such a strong and treacherous party for it within our own breasts, as very often wins the day, and keeps the field, notwithstanding all the succours both of reason and religion.

It is really amazing to see how perversely witty people in trouble are in their contrivances how to increase and lengthen out their misery; how shy they are of admitting any thing that would help them to overcome their grief, and how dexterous to give it a turn to defeat the good meaning and intention of it, and turn it into an aggravation b. Just as the wretched spirits in hell are for ever heightening their torment by their own most dismal and desperate reflections.

Now this must needs make it very difficult so to govern this sullen, gloomy passion amidst the many crosses and disappointments and losses that are apt to excite it, and which cannot be avoided here, as to keep a tolerable calm within our breasts, and quiet the storms that are raised there, though it be some considerable time after. Indeed, it cannot be done till we are got so much above the present world, and have so clear a prospect of the enravishing happiness of the next, as to have mean thoughts of every thing here below in comparison, and have worked ourselves up by assiduous prayer and meditation, into an indifference to these flitting, momentary things, entirely giving up our whole selves to God's all-wise and good providence, in full persuasion that every thing here is ordered by him, as he sees most conducive to our future happiness;

b Ferox enim et adversus omne remedium contumax, dolor. Sen.