SERMON XV. ON THE GOVERNMENT OF THE PROVERBS XXV. 28. He that hath no rule over his own fpirit, is like a city that is broken down, and without walls. Y the word Spirit is here meant what BY we commonly call the paffions; and the plain lesson, which Solomon gives us, is—that we ought to govern our paffions. This leffon he enforces by pointing at the diforder, to which we are expofed by not governing them. Indeed, almost all the mifchiefs we fee in the world arife from this cause; and therefore the government of our paffions is a duty, which common prudence fhould prompt us to obferve, if we desire to live quietly and safely but we have a higher motive to this duty, and a higher end propofed to it, from the holy religion we profess; it is the command of Chrift's gofpel, that denying worldly lufts, and mortifying our corrupt affections, we should live foberly and godly in this present world. The paffions are a useful part of our nature; for certainly God had never endued us with them if they were to ferve to no purpose, or only to a bad one. God hath fo made, and fo placed us here, that our present welfare depends on the things about us; but if we had no paffions, if we were not at all moved or affected with these things, we should take no manner of care about them. But though the paffions are a useful part of our nature, yet they are but a part of it; there is another, and that a fuperior part of us, which is our reafon. This is a faculty, which God hath given us, by which we are capable of distinguishing the good and evil arifing from the things about us-and not only of diftinguishing the one from the other—but of comparing the feveral degrees of both with one another, and, in confequence of fuch comparison, of forming a judgment upon the whole, by which we may direct our actions. This This rational faculty, befides furnishing us with a judgment of the good and evil about us, leads us to religion, to a knowledge. of God, and of our duty to him. It shews us what natural religion requires of us, and enables us to understand what revealed religion hath set before us; and from a survey of both it fhews us the rules, which God hath given us for the conduct of our lives, and which it is our duty to follow, if we mean to be happy in his favour. As There is no room to deliberate, which of these two parts of our nature, our paffions or our reason, is the more worthy, whether that which urges us on to what appears to be good, or that which enables us to distinguish what is really fo; whether that which urges us through the gratification of appetite to a tranfient pleasure, or that which leads us through a discharge of duty to durable happiness. little room is there to deliberate, which of thefe two parts of our nature, the more or the lefs worthy, fhould govern the other; whether, as mere animals only, we should be governed by the paffions, or whether, as we are made rational and religious creatures, it is not naturally fit, that we fhould be governed by reafon and religion. Two Two great inftances of mifconduct, arising from the paffions, are-when they fhew themfelves on wrong occafions and, when they arise above duty on any occafions; and the general work of reafon and religion, in governing the paffions, is to confine them to proper occafions, and within a right measure. Now, the first question which arifes, upon the propofal of any work, is this - Is it practicable? in We should take great care, not to entertain the notion, that the reftraint of our paffions any instance is impracticable: we are very apt indeed to fay fo on many occafions, but whoever really thinks fo, is not likely to mend his behaviour, but is in a fure way to make it worse. Such a notion obftructs all means of amendment; for he will never try to fubdue a paffion, who is perfuaded, that it is not to be fubdued. But this is not all; for, as he who will not try to fubdue a paffion, of course indulges it, fo the perfuafion that it is impracticable to fubdue it, produces a perfuafion that he is excufable in indulging it; frequent claims of excufe on fuch occafions will produce à perfuafion that there wants none, and men will at last think it right to follow what at first they thought it impracticable to oppose. Thus, Thus, by not laying a reftraint upon wrong actions, men fall into a wrong and corrupt judgment-which establishes wickedness in their own hearts, and too frequently promotes it in the hearts of others, who readily take fuch doctrine and example as an excuse for not controlling their paffions, and as a call to a free indulgence of them. But the government of the paflions is a practicable work-there are examples of thofe who are masters over thofe paffions, to which others are flaves. Some, indeed, affect to depreciate fuch examples-we plainly fee why becaufe fuch examples, by fhewing the duty to be practicable, reproach them for not performing it. Hence it is, that those who shew fuch examples are judged to be eitheir ftupid creatures or hypocrites, as not having paffions, or as fecretly indulging them; but this judgment, as it is only a proof, that they who make it are flaves to their paffions, will have no weight with fober men; with wicked men it may have weight, who have a fort of interest in such judgment, fuch fort of intereft as the devil acts by, who is for making as many like himfelf as poffible-corrupts all he can, and those he cannot corrupt, he blackens. But |