: language of our hearts immediately to God himfelf: and it is ill to ufe ourselves to fpeak or write thefe, but when our hearts indeed go along with them, and have intercourfe with God. But it is hard to fuppofe, when we use them too frequently, our hearts can always go along with them and this gives matter of offence to good people, and is a prejudice to ourselves; for if we ufe to speak fuch words as ought to be fpoke only to God himself, without speaking • them indeed to him with our hearts, it will certainly indifpofe our hearts to speak to • him in those words when we would, Be cause we fhall get a way of fpeaking fuch" things by rote, and not be able to difcern, when indeed we speak to God, and when • we do not. My converfing with you, has put me upon fpeaking and writing more things of this fort than I did before, except in my clofet, or in my private papers; in which I feldom allowed my felf to ufe any expreffion, but what proceeded immediately from my heart; or to fay, my God, instead of God, unless my heart boiled with a fulness to exprefs itself in those terms; fo that I truft thofe papers are the tranfcript of my heart. But I cannot fay fo of all I have writ to you: indeed I cannot tax myself with any thing in particular to the contrary; but having writ fo much, I have a fear upon me, that fomething may have been faid • rather • rather to the occafion, than from the prefent • fenfe or feeling of my mind. Though I do not cenfure you for this language, believing it to proceed from your zeal, and the lively fenfe you have of God; yet this caution againft it will not be amifs in the • courfe of your life.' It were easy to add other inftances of Mr. Bonnell's piety, and to enlarge upon thefe: but I must proceed to confider him with respect to the duties we owe to ourfelves, and our neighbour, as well as those we owe to God. How he performed the duties we owe to ourfelves. As to the duties we owe to ourfelves, I have showed how he difcharged fome of them, by what I have faid of his humility and meeknefs, mortification and felf-denial. These being duties, which, in many instances of action, have an immediate reference to ourselves; as in others, they have to God and our neighbour. But the general duty which we are to perform to ourselves, and which comprehends all others under it, is a due regulation and government of our paffions and affections; and none could keep a ftricter watch over these than Mr. Bonnell did: he confidered human nature with great application, and particularly, how our paffions act within us, what feeds and inflames them; and how they are to be checked and fubdued, made governable and calm. To this purpose he speaks in one place. Paffions x 5 Paffions of the mind, are like a running gout; it is the fame morbific matter that thews itself fometimes in the knee, then in the elbow; that caufes giddinefs in the head, fickness in the ftomach, and colics in the bowels: it is the fame morbific matter in the foul, (irregular paffions, and unmortified affections) that fhews itself fometimes in love, fometimes in averfion; then in · envy, then in ambition; fometimes it is love of esteem, fometimes of beauty; • fometimes of riches and grandeur, and • abundance of like variety. Seldom above ⚫ one of these is predominant at a time, and then the party is free from others; and all commonly is as the bodily temper varies. These come and go by fits unaccountably; " but while the root of the matter lives in our hearts, we are ftill under the power of the difeafe; which we nourish by things that are pleafing; as we do the gout or fcurvy, by meats that please our palate. We feldom contract or increase thefe dif tempers by eating of rhubarb or aloes: but by high fauces and delicious meats. We indulge our pleafing paffions, and they bring · us under the fmart of the more painful ones. "Ceafe to defire," fays Seneca, "and you will cease to fear. Who fhall deliver us from the body of this death?" Thy crofs, O bleffed Saviour, is a fufficient remedy to all: for who can allow themfelves to love, or be overmuch pleafed with ⚫ their fellow-creatures, who ftand under the 'fhadow fhadow of this direful tree? Had not the bleffed Virgin, and the beloved Difciple, fomething else to think of while they ftood there, than gratifying their minds in worldly amours?" But we are not always to stand there; it is not required of us." Yes, while we are in this world, in which our • Lord fuffered, we are always to be there more or lefs; because we are always to be free from the flavery of thofe affections, for which he died to fet us free: and to ⚫ be most there, when we find ourselves in moft danger of being pleafed. For if we 'keep ourselves from being pleased, God hath commanded nature to keep us from being difpleafed. If we mortify for his fake, thofe affections which are pleasing to us, he will certainly deliver us from those that only bring torment. "And they that are Chrift's, have crucified the flesh, with • its affections and lufts." To the fame purpose, in another place, he expreffes himself thus. What a round do paffions make in our • miferable fouls; we fight against a defultory enemy, which fhifts and changes as often as ⚫ we aggrefs it. As the humours of the body circulate about, fo paffions circulate with them. It is with us as with perfons in a ' rheumatism, when the pain is in their 'fhoulders, they prepare their applications; but before they can well apply them, the pain is moved down to their knees, and K 6 .. thence ⚫ thence again to their hands. When we get free from luft, the humour fettles in our heart, and turns to love; if we get respite from this, it flies into our head, and perplexes us with vanity, conceit of ourselves, and love of esteem of others. Perhaps thence it turns to pride and fouring, with the mixture of other humours, becomes anger, peevish nefs, envy, revenge, or malice, till at laft it comes back where it began. Thus while we feek to apply remedies to paffion, the humour circulates, and the paffion travels along with it, and starts up in a new place, and in a new guife. O Lord, who haft inftructed us to ftrike ' at the root of all, by a true mortification of ourfelves; help me to watch the motions of this fabtle enemy, and to declare war againft it wherever it appears. Help me to 6 give it no reft, as it gives me little. Strengthen my will, that it may be proof to its folicitations in every fhape, faithful " to thy love in all encounters, and victorious through thy grace under all oppofitions. If I converfe with politicians, and men of business, it makes me worldly; if with men of learning and wit, it makes me vain ; if with fair perfons, I am in danger of being fenfual; if with great ones, of being proud. O my God, how many fares are fcattered in all my ways? What need have I to take care of myself within, fince it is impoffible to prevent occafions of evil with • out ? |