250 Of the proper Improvement S E R M. dom and virtue, which is the Third reafon X. enforcing the advice in the text. The heart of the will' is in the houfe of mourning, and by the fadnefs of the countenance the heart is made better. It is Rill to be remembred, that he doth not mean to recommend for - row merely for its own fake ; every one knows that it is a painful paflion, though at the fame time we know too that nature determines us ftrongly to it upon fome oc- cafions, fo that the mind even choofes it, and takes a kind of pleafure in affliHing it- felf : But fo far as reafon has any (hare in regulating our paffions, it is becoming us to confider the end of them, and by a re- gard to that, to govern ourfelves in enter- taining, or oppofing them. It is farther to be obferved, that as all our paffions are liable to excefl'es, fo is this in a remarkable manner. Grief is fometimes extreme, when the occa- fion is ever fo juft ; when the mind is over- whelmed and enfeebled by it, and fo rendered incapable of vigoroufly purfuing the proper remedy, which is the very defign of the grief itfelf. St. Paul, z Gor. ii. 7. was apprehen- five of this danger to the penitent offender, whofe grief was very juft under the cenfure which he fuffered for his fcandalous offence, and
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