RESOLUTION IV.

I am resolved, by the grace of God, to be always exercising my thoughts upon good objects, that the devil may not exercise them upon bad.

THE soul being a spiritual substance, is always in action, and its proper and immediate act is thinking, which is as natural and proper to the soul, as extension is to the body: it is that upon which all the other actings of the soul are grounded; so that neither our apprehensions of, nor affections to, any object can be acted without it. And hence it is, that I think the soul is very properly defined, substantia cogitans, a thinking substance; for there is nothing else but a spirit can think, and there is no spirit but always doth think. And this I find by experience to be so true and certain, that if at any time I have endeavoured to think of nothing (as I have oftentimes done) I have spent all the time in thinking upon that very thought.

How much, therefore, doth it concern me to keep my soul in continual exercise upon what is good; for be sure, if I do not set it on work, the devil will; and if it do not work for God, it will work for him; I know sinful objects arc more agreeable to a sinful soul; but I am sure, holy thoughts are more conformable to a holy God. Why, therefore, should I spend and revel out my thoughts upon that which will destroy my soul? No, no; I shall henceforth endeavour always to be employing my thoughts upon something that is good: and, therefore, to have good subjects constantly at hand to 134think upon, as the attributes of God, the glory of heaven, the misery of hell, the merits of Christ, the corruption of my nature, the sinfulness of sin, the beauty of holiness, the vanity of the world, the immortality of the soul, and the like; and likewise to take occasion from the objects I meet or converse with in the world, to make such remarks and reflections as may be for my advantage or improvement in my spiritual affairs. For, there is nothing in the world, though it be never so bad, but that I may exercise good thoughts upon; and my neglect in this kind has been the real occasion of all those vain thoughts that have hitherto possessed my soul. I have not kept them close to their work, to think upon what is good, and therefore, they have run out into those extravagancies, which, by the blessing of God in the performance of these resolutions, I shall endeavour to avoid.

It is, indeed, a singular advantage of that high and heavenly calling, in which the Most High, of his wisdom and goodness, has been pleased to place me, that all the objects we converse with, and all the subjects we exercise our thoughts upon, are either God and heaven, or something relating to them. So that we need not go out of our common road to meet with this heavenly company, good thoughts. But then, I do not account every thought of God, or heaven, which only swims in my brain, to be a good and holy thought, unless it sinks down into my heart and affections, e. unless to my meditations of God, and another world, I join a longing for him, a rejoicing in him, and a solacing myself in the hopes of a future enjoyment of him. Neither will this be any hinderance, but a furtherance to my studies; for, as I know no divine truths 135as I ought, unless I know them practically and experimentally; so I never think I have any clear apprehensions of God, till I find my affections are inflamed towards him; or that ever I understand any divine truth aright, till my heart be brought into subjection to it.

This resolution, therefore, extends itself, not only to the subject-matter of my thoughts, but also to the quality of them, with regard to practice, that they may influence my life and conversation, that whether I speak, or write, or eat, or drink, or whatsoever I do, I may still season all, even my commonest actions, with heavenly meditations; there being nothing I can set my hand to, but I may likewise set my heart a working upon it. Which, accordingly I shall endeavour, by the blessing of God, to do. And, for the better ordering of my thoughts,