3. “Those that are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.” Ps. 92:13. What are these courts? They are the internal and spiritual sabbaths of the heart; which, as Lebanon in the desert, flourish best in a retirement of mind, and abstraction of spirit. Labor to attain this solitude of soul, and thou shalt become fit to search thine own heart, and to contemplate that variety of wonders and mercies which God has bestowed upon us. 4. Nor are we to imitate those who admire subtle disputes and inventions, who take pleasure in reading fine, pleasant, and witty productions; which, if rightly considered, deprave, rather than improve the mind of the reader. Whatever does not promote the repose of the heart, and the continual renovation of the mind, should neither be heard, spoken, read, nor even be entertained in thought, by a disciple of Jesus. True Christians are like the trees of God, which should daily grow stronger, and take deeper root _in Christ_. St. Paul testifies of himself, that besides “Christ and him crucified,” he desired to know nothing. 1 Cor. 2:2. And this has been the practice of all the saints of God, who have endeavored, to the utmost of their power, by carefully cherishing this blessed tranquillity of heart, to approach nearer and nearer to a life raised above the world, and to emulate those elevated minds that entirely rest in God, as the centre of all their happiness. One of them once said: “As often as I converse with men, I return less a man in some part or other.” For since the dignity of human nature principally consists in the similitude of God, and therefore God hath described man to be the image and likeness of himself (Gen. 1:26); it follows, that the more unlike any man is to God, the less a man he is: and the more closely he unites himself to God, the more conformed to HIM does he become. None can, however, turn himself to God, who does not first withdraw himself from the world. It is the nature of every seed, to bring forth a plant of its own kind; so if the seed of God, the Holy Spirit and Word, be in thee, thou shalt become a “tree of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.” Isa. 61:3. 5. Nothing is more common, than that some word or other is dropped in the conversation of men, which being idle and vain, grievously wounds and pollutes the soul. No man, therefore, has more security and peace, than he who keeps at home, in the house of his heart, and restrains his thoughts, his words, and his senses, from straying beyond their bounds.