Self -government efential to Wpm. 23 i Fear is, by the wife and good Creator, SE x wry placed in our nature for its prefervation, IX. that being apprifed of danger, we fhould arm againfl it, and take all necefiary pre- cautions for our fafety; but very often it hath the contrary effeé , it fo difpiriteth and enfeebleth a man, as to .render him quite uncapable of doing any thing for his own defence, which is a great inf}ance of weak - nefs and want of due government over our own fpirits ; but it might be fuccefsfully oppofed by reafon and vigorous refolution, though reafon and confcience have, perhaps, as hard a talk in conquering fear as any in- firmity of the human nature. But it is not neceßàry to go through all the paffions and infirmities of the human mind, which ought to be kept under difcipline, the examples I have mentioned will be fufficient to anfwer the defign I propofed, that is, to give you a general notion of what it is to have rule over our own fpirits. I come, in the Second place, To confider the reafonable- nefs and ufefulnefs of it, and the connection it hath with attaining to, and making pro - grefs in, wifdom. The true end of felf- government is, that the fuperior powers of the mind may be preferved in their due ex- Q.r . ercife,
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