explained and recommended. 3 89 temper and practice ; for they do not ope -'S E R M rate like the ideas of fenfible objeas, which XV. immediately and neceffarily excite delire, and `-Y' prompt to action, but by calm and attentive. reflection they enter into the heart, and cap- tivate the affeEtions.. Experience fheweth, that the molt important truths, even known and believed, often lie dormant in the mind like points of ufelefs fpeculation, without producing any fuch difpofitions, or fuch a çonverfation as they tend to ; which is the cafe of the mofl: abandoned and profligate iïciners, whofe crimes are highly aggravated by their being committed againít conviction. One caufe of this furprizing appearance,. fo difagreeable one would think to the confli- tutio,n of the. human nature, is ftupid inat> tention, which in many cafes, and particu- larly in religion, bath the fame effect that ignorance bath. As there can be no affect tion to that which is altogether unknown, and confequently it cannot ing?ge us in any profecution ; the object which is not attended to is in this refpect as if it were unknown;, no delires ate excited, the Mind feeth no importance in it, feeleth no attractive force. This feemeth to be the cafe of the unfruit- ful hearers of the gofpel, defcribed by our Saviour in his parable of the Power : They C c 3 her
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