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Fear is, by the wife and good Creator, SER M. placed in our nature for its prefervation, IX. that being apprifed of danger, we should arm against it, and take all neceffary precautions for our fafety; but very often it hath the contrary effect, it fo difpiriteth and enfeebleth a man, as to render him quite. uncapable of doing any thing for his own defence, which is a great inftance of weaknefs and want of due government over our own spirits; but it might be fuccessfully opposed by reason and vigorous refolution, though reason and confcience have, perhaps, as hard a task in conquering fear as any infirmity of the human nature. But it is not neceffary to go through all the paffions and infirmities of the human mind, which ought to be kept under difcipline, the examples I have mentioned will be fufficient to anfwer the defign I proposed, that is, to give you a general notion of what it is to have rule over our own spirits. I come, in the

Second place, To confider the reafonableness and usefulness of it, and the connection it hath with attaining to, and making progrefs in, wisdom. The true end of felfgovernment is, that the fuperior powers of the mind may be preserved in their due exQ4 ercife,

SERM. ercife, and that the nobler affections of our IX. nature may have their full force. Any one

who but a little reflecteth on the frame of men, will see that the understanding is a high faculty, by which we all suppose ourfelves distinguished from the inferior kinds of animals; we value ourselves upon it; its capacity is large, reaching to a vast variety of objects; its exercises are various, and we have strong perceptions of pleasure arifing from them. Should we not then exert our utmoft power to preserve it free and undifturbed, and to enjoy the use and improvement of it to the highest degree of perfection we are capable of? But the irregularities mentioned in the lower parts of our nature, the vanities and errors of the imagination, and the extravagancies of the pasfions, tend to darken the understanding and marr its free exercise, as every one's experience will fatisfy him who doth at all attend to what paffeth in his own mind; and therefore, certainly, we should with our utmost power oppose those disorders which obfcure that which is a principal glory of our frame.

Again; the self-determining power is an excellent one, and a high prerogative of our nature. We cannot, I think, but be fenfi

ble

ble that there is a great dignity and pleasure SERM. in the exercise of true liberty, or of acting. IX.

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freely according to the best judgment we can make of things; and that it is an abject and a painful state of mind, to be driven and hurried blindly, without feeing the grounds we go upon. Now, a confufed imagination and tumultuous paffions tend to destroy freedom; the foul, through their influence, is cramped and ftraitened, nay, becometh impotent, and fo is deprived of the true and fubftantial pleasures of liberty. This is a just reason for refifting vigorously the tyranny of luft and paffion. Why do we fo highly refent the incroachment made upon our freedom by others, and tenaciously affert the right of judging for ourselves, and acting according to the best judgment we can make, if we will meanly give up that right to an ufurping tyrant within, which equally taketh away the privilege, namely, liberty in acting according to the approbation of the understanding upon a deliberate inquiry, which they who are conducted wholly by their imaginations and paffions cannot boast of. It is true fuch men boast of liberty, which they place in cafting off the restraints of reafon and confcience, but, indeed, are under the baseft and moft wretched fervi

tude,

SERM. tude, while as St. Peter obferveth, 2 epift. IX. ii. 19. They are the fervants of corruption, →for of whom a man is overcome, of the fame is he brought into bondage.

Befides, as man was not made wholly for the bufinefs and ends of the animal life, like the beafts which perish, he hath fome affections which carry him to higher ends. Every man who is arrived to the exercise of understanding, hath fome fenfe of duty to the Deity, and benevolence to his fellowcreatures; in thefe we cannot but approve ourfelves, and they yield the highest fatisfaction, though in many men fuch fentiments and affections are weak and ineffectual; but, why? Certainly, because they are overborne by the exceffes of other affections, because the lufts of the flesh, the luft of the eyes, and the pride of life, are strong, therefore the love of God and man is weak; the generous fentiments of piety and charity almoft ftifled. Now, is it not a deplorable condition men are in, when the inferior,' the brutal defires, are overgrown, tyrannizing in the heart without controul, while the nobler affections, which are the glory of the human nature, and carry it to its highest ends, are almost extinguished. This fhould inspire us with refolution to restore

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the fovereignty of reason, and recover the SER M. rule over our own spirits.

And, now, is it not apparent that this is the most important concern of ours? That this liberty, confifting in the freedom of the mind from the power of its own infirmities, and efpecially corrupt appetites and paffions, is worth the contending for with the warmest zeal, feeing it is fo neceffary to all the great purposes of reasonable natures, all that ought to be dear and valuable to us as men, of which belongeth to the dignity of our be ing, and the place we hold in the univerfal fyftem? What man is there whofe indignation would not rife against the thought of degrading himself into the condition of inanimate things, or of brutes? Doth it not appear, even to our firft thoughts, much more worthy, that confcious of the excellence of our nature we fhould aspire to its true perfection, and maintain its dignity, which is then only done when we are governed by understanding and confcience. The text reprefenteth the condition of the man who hath no rule over his own spirit, as very deplorable; he is like a city that is broken down, and without walls; the image of a weak and a defpicable state. Such a city is exposed to the affaults of its enemies,

without

IX.

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