218 Self - government efential to LPifdom. S E R M. and valuable in many refpeEts, and yet to IX. be ignorant of hit-of-elf, and of the true prin. ciples and maxims by which he ought to condu ± his life and form the difpofitions of his mind, is to be wife in trifles, and foolifh in matters of the greateft moment. What- ever reputation may be acquired by íkill in thofe things which may be juftly called fo- reign, as having no relation to the principal ends of our being, fuch frill, when exer- cifed ultimately on objeCts of this fort, is but unprofitable, and indeed folly ; yet are many of mankind, even of thofe who are reputed wife, guilty of this folly ; for though the objet of religious wifdom be very near us, and our moft immediate concern, it is very often overlooked, the minds of men being too much engroffed by the objects of fenfe, or through a fecret unwillingnefs to enter into Rudy and difcipline. I will en- deavour, in this difcourfe, Firjl, To give you, at leaft, a general no- tion of what it is to have rule over our own fpirits ; and then you will fee the ufefulriefs of it, and the infeparable con- nection it hath with attaining to, and making progrefs in, wifdom. Firl,
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