duced them for sin: even heathens were persuaded that ideas of horror might be raised in the mind, for punishment, by tormenting Furies. In all such extreme cases as these, the person is mad; his imagination is under no more controul when he is awake, than that of rational men when they are asleep; whence it is plain, the humiliating distemper of madness, the most deplorable evil of man's life, is seated in the ima gination, where sin first began. And if it be considered, that there is no man, who at all times has the perfect command of his imagination, what can we say, but that all minds are subject to a sort of weakness, which may pass for a degree of insanity? The imaginations of some ingenious persons, particularly those of a poetical turn, work so freely and so violently, that they are nearer to madness than other men; and sometimes actually fall into it. If so, it seems as if what we call genius, may, in certain cases, be infirmity like the beautiful variegations of a flower; which are known to proceed from the weakness of the plant.

It is scarcely credible, how much the evils of life are magnified, multiplied, and even created, as the imagination happens to be affected: which can strike with such force upon the passions, that sudden fear and terror, or even joy and surprize, have been followed by instant death. Persons of lively imaginations have irritable nerves; they suffer more from pain and grief of every kind; and pay a severe tax for their boasted sensibility. They that use but little air and exercise, and accustom themselves to an indolent delicate way of life, grow lax and soft and effeminate, and suffer more on every occasion, than those that rise early, and fare hardly, and preserve a firmness of habit and constitution. Too many there

are, who by giving themselves up to the luxury of the imagination, become totally worthless and useless in their minds; never acting from reason and duty, but always from the impulses of fancy, which is no reasoning faculty. Many are taken off from the necessary employments of life, and fall into poverty and contempt, because truly, their imagination will allow them no time to work. Instead of feeding upon their labour, they are starving upon their thoughts. In every station of life, the indolent never fail to be tormented with imaginary evils: they contradict the great and universal law of God; who hath ordained, that man shall eat his bread, not in the fancies of his brain, but in the sweatings of his brow. Let it also be observed, that for want of useful employment, the mind wears and preys upon itself, like a mill, when it is not supplied with corn to work upon. We are all rightly informed, and, I believe, most of us convinced by experience, that man's life is a struggle, a warfare, a passage over a dangerous sea: but none can understand to what degree, and in what extent it is such, till they have reviewed the errors, and dangers, and sufferings of the imagination.

It is therefore our duty, and will be our wisdom, to consider how we may best secure ourselves against these evils.

First then, that the imagination may not be dangerously employed, let it be turned to its proper use. The word of God presents no images to the mind, but to lead us into truth: that word ought therefore to be the daily object of our attention. To set a mistaken value upon things, and make false estimates; to take little things for great, and great for little, is the worst misfortune that can befal the mind of man: his whole

life is hereby thrown out of its due course; he becomes useless to others, and unhappy in himself. On the contrary, the Scripture gives us a sure rule for finding the weight and measure of every thing: and with the use of it, let us beseech God to deliver us from the wandering of our thoughts; by which we are so apt to be disturbed in our meditations and devotions. Every serious Christian must have found, how troublesome and impertinent the imagination is, when the soul should be given up to its prayers; by which all our sacrifices are so interrupted, and rendered so inperfect, that another prayer is commonly necessary at last, for forgiveness upon all the prayers that have gone before.

2. If we know the true excellence of the Scripture in furnishing the mind with images, we shall of course, avoid all such reading as only fills the head with empty visions; which is too often the only excellence that can be found in works of genius. In a corrupt age, the vanity of invention abounds: idle novels arise, to feed upon public folly; as worms breed in putrid flesh, and then live upon it. Those fashionable productions, whose object is only to amuse, are the ruin of thousands; who collect from thence false ideas of themselves and of the world, which betray them into fatal mistakes, and render them totally unfit for the business of life. Nor is this the worst; the disappointed mind, with vanity to inflate it, and nothing solid to support it, is driven to the agonies of despair, and to the last miserable refuge of despair-God send better things to every Christian soul in which there is a spark of grace!

3. Many strange doctrines, with a colouring of religion upon them, have been propagated of late years, nearly allied to the old heathen magic; which lead

people into a new land of shadows and dreams, and have been known to produce such an effect upon the imagination, that it sees spectres at noon day, and is under the delusions of sleep while it is wide awake. If such reports are true, they should teach Christian people to beware how they listen to miraculous novelties in religion or pharmacy.

4. He that would be sober-minded must also learn to regulate his bodily appetites. Experience must have taught us all, what an effect our diet has upon our dreams: and it must, in its degree, have a like effect upon our waking thoughts. How differently do the same things appear according to the different states of the body! When the blood is inflamed, the mind falls into a delirium and it is worthy of consideration, whether there be not persons, who, though not accounted insane, are yet never so perfectly in their senses, as they might be, if they would but do justice to their own understandings, by keeping themselves cool, and practising a little reasonable self-denial: for thus did the saints of God in the best ages preserve their minds pure, patient, humble, wise, and devout; and why should not the rule succeed as well now, when there is a natural reason for it?

and the best for the some useful object

5. Business is another remedy; purpose is business with some aiu, in view; to keep the thoughts at work in a right line, and prevent wanderings. Labour of some kind is the lot of man, to keep his restless mind out of mischief: and the careful mind, even though it be anxious, is always, preferable to the empty: it is delivered from itself: it no longer looks inward on that gloomy vacuity, which it is impossible to survey without being dispirited. The labouring part of mankind are seldom tormented with the evils of the imagination; and in

this respect they have an advantage over the rich, the learned, and the delicate who will never be cured of their weakness but by that which preserves the strength of the poor; and the labours of the field or the garden are always open to the wealthy; and will be productive of pleasure to the mind, as well as health and soundness to the senses. The Christian should carry it a little farther; and learn, as the apostle advises, to endure hardness, like a soldier, to keep afar off that effeminate tenderness of the frame, which induces a weakness of the imagination: and hardness of life will have the same effect upon the Christian, as it hath upon the soldier; it will lessen the fear of death, that greatest of all terrors; from which none can escape, and for which all must prepare.

"fear.

6. To sum up all my rules in a few words, God and keep his Commandments, for this is the whole of man" with this, man is every thing he should be; and without it he is nothing. His security can be found only in that, with which all wisdom should begin and end, Religion: I mean the religion of faith, hope, and charity. The first conflict in Paradise was between faith and imagination; and it is continued, under the original form, at this day. Imaginations and thoughts, according to the language of the text, are the ruin of man: faith is the victory that overcomes them both. What imagination raises, however high and strong, faith throws down; and brings every thought into captivity: and having no dependence on man or itself, but only on God's truth, it is steadfast and unmoveable against all the changeable forms of human wisdom. Hope, like the sunshine that gilds all objects, improves every innocent enjoyment, and makes every state of life supportable. Charity, delivered from the tormenting selfishness of nature, is