private Conceits, is privy to all our Wishes, Defires and Purposes, obferves and takes notice of all the Motions of our Minds, and that at the last Day he will bring every fecret thing into Judgment; are we not afham'd of fhewing in his fight fuch Folly, of committing fuch Wickedness in his Prefence? Should we blufh and be confounded to have but a mortal Man certainly know all the childish, vain, wanton, luftful Thoughts that poffefs our Minds; and is it nothing to us that the great God of Heaven and Earth beholds and fees them all? Confider this then, O vain Man, who pleasest thy felf in thy own foolish Conceits, with thinking how finely thou doft cheat the World, by a Mask of Religion and Godliness! Confider I say, that there is not an evil Thought that ever thou takest any pleasure and delight in, not an evil Device or Imagination of thy Heart, but what is perfectly naked and open to that God with whom we have to do: That he is with thee in the filent and dark night, when no other eye feeth thee, when thou thinkest thy felf fafe from all difcovery, and that thou mayst then fecurely indulge thy own wicked Appetites and corrupt Inclinations; for the Light and Darkness are both alike unto God, he compaffeth thy Path and thy Bed, he is ac quainted with all thy ways. And the frequent Confideration of these things would certainly produce a mighty Awe in us, and a futable Care not willingly to entertain or cherish any fuch Thoughts as we fhould be ashamed to

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have known to all the World, nor ever to fuffer any other Thoughts to take place or remain in our Minds, than fuch as we fhould not blush to have written in our Foreheads.

5. For the right Government of your Thoughts, let me recommend to you above all things, ferious Devotion, especially humble and hearty Prayer to God Almighty. Man is compounded of two Natures, a rational and fpiritual, and a bodily by our Bodies we are join'd to the vifible Corporeal World, by our Souls we are allied to the immaterial Invifible World. Now as by our outward Senfes the Intercourse and Correfpondence is maintained between us and the Corporeal World, fo by our Devotions chiefly our acquaintance is begot and kept up with the Spiritual World. When we lay afide all Thoughts of this lower World, and the Concerns of this Life, and apply our felves to the Father of Spirits, and make our humble Addreffes to him, we then more especially converfe with him as far as this State will admit; and the more frequently and conftantly we do this, the more we fhall abstract our Minds from these inferior Objects which are fo apt to entangle our Hearts, and take up all our Thoughts, and fhall make the things of the other World become more familiar to us: for when we betake our felves feriously to our Prayers, we do then bid adieu to all that is vifible and fublunary, and for that time endeavour to employ our Minds wholly on what relates to another Life; and

and therefore confequently the oftner we do this, and the more hearty and ferious we are in it, the more our Minds will be used and accuf tomed to divine Thoughts and pious Meditations, and weaned from prefent fenfible Objects. Every devout Exercife confcientiously performed will feafon our Spirits, and leave a good Tincture upon them, and difpofe us for worthy and excellent Thoughts; it is like keeping of good Company, a Man is by degrees moulded and fashioned into fome Likeness unto them: and on the other fide, the Intermiffion, Neglect, or formal and perfunctory Performance of our Devotion, will foon breed in us a Forgetfulness of God and heavenly Things; as omitting to speak of an absent or dead Friend, or neglecting to call him to our mind, by degrees wears him quite out of our Thoughts and Memory. So that you fee a due fenfe of God upon our Minds, and of those things that belong to our greatest Interests, is by nothing fo well maintain'd as by our conftant Devotion; this is like feeing our Friends often, or converfing with them every day; it preferves Acquaintance with them, it cherishes our Love and Kindness towards them. I end all with that excellent Collect of our Church:

Almighty God, unto whom all Hearts be open, all Defires known, and from whom no Secrets are hid; cleanfe the Thoughts of our Hearts by the infpiration of thy boly Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy Name, through Christ our Lord. Amen. K3

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SERMON

Preach'd at the

Anniversary Meeting

OF

The GENTLEMEN Educated at St. Paul's SCHOOL.

The SIXTH SERMON.

1 Cor. xiii. 4,5,6,7. Charity Suffereth long, and is kind; Charity envieth not; Charity vaunteth not it felf, is not puffed up, &c.

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HE chief and moft laudable Design of this and other the like Anniversary Meetings being to promote Love, Kindness and Friendship amongst Men, from the confideration of fome particular Relati

ons,

ons, by which (over and above what doth belong to us in common with all Men and Christians) we are more nearly united and linked one to the other; I thought I could not entertain you with any thing more proper to this Solemnity, than a Discourse upon these words: wherein I intend,

I. To defcribe unto you wherein this ami-
cable friendly Temper and mutual Love,
which we are to further among our
felves this day, doth confift. And,
II. To recommend it efpecially to your Care
and Practice, who have had the advantage
of a liberal and ingenuous Education.

I. To fhew you wherein true and undiffembled Love doth confift, which I fhall do only by paraphrafing or commenting as briefly as I can, upon this most excellent Description of Charity given us by St. Paul.

1. Charity fuffereth long; is not hafty to return any Evil or Injury we may have received from others; it makes a Man patient, forgetful of Wrongs, and flow to demand Satiffaction. He that is poffeffed with this excellent Grace of Charity, will defer righting himfelf when injured, and feem for a great while as if he did not at all observe or take notice of thofe Affronts and Trefpaffes, which the Furious and Wrathful would be fure straight to revenge. He doth not lie at catch, and prefently take all advantages against his Neighbour,

and

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