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therefore dread a relapfe, and guard DISC. against it.

For this purpose, let us be constantly employed in fome good work, and much of the danger will be removed; fince liftleffness in the mind, like a lethargy in the body, is beft cured by motion and exercise; and when temptations are creeping upon us, there is no better method of baffling and putting them to flight, than by forcing ourselves to read, or pray, or perform fome other work of piety to God, or charity to our neighbour. Above all things, let us beware, that furfeiting and excess do not opprefs and weigh down the heart, inducing fleep upon the foul, as well as the body. Let us be temperate, let us be fober, walking evermore as children of the light, not in rioting and drunkennefs, not in chambering and wantonnefs, not in ftrife and envying; for all thefe are the works of darknefs: but that darkness is paft, and the true light now fhineth. Thus fhall we be qualified to

fet

II.

II.

Disc. fet and keep that constant watch, which is abfolutely neceffary to perceive and repel the enemy, at his first approach. "What "I fay unto you (faith Christ to his disci"ples) I fay unto all-WATCH." This if we do, we shall spend our day, as it ought to be spent, in working out our falvation, and not dream away, in vanity and folly, the precious and fleeting hours allowed us for that purpose. And happy, thrice happy the man, who, in the evening of life, taking a furvey of what is past, shall be able to fay, with an humble confidence, to his bleffed Mafter, as that Master, in the days of his flesh, said to the Father; "I have glorified thee on "the earth, I have finished the work "which thou gavest me to do." His body shall lie down in the duft in perfect peace, and rest in hope, till the dawning of the great day; when that likewise thall receive it's fummons from heaven, by the voice of the archangel; "Awake, thou "that fleepest, and arife from the dead, " and Christ shall give thee light."

DISCOURSE III.

THE NOBLE CONVERT.

ACTS VIII. 34, 35.

And the eunuch anfwered Philip, and faid, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this; of himfelf, or of fome other man? Then Philip opened bis mouth, and began at the fame Scripture, and preached unto him JESUS.

WE

E are now drawing towards the DISC. clofe of that penitential feafon, fet III. apart by the wisdom of the church for retirement and recollection, confeffion and humiliation, mortification and felf-denial, meditation and devotion; to the end that, having discovered and caft out our sins, having fubdued pride, and extinguished concupifcence,

III.

DISC. cupifcence, having brought the body into fubjection, and rendered the fpirit tender, and humble, and holy, we might be prepared to attend our bleffed Redeemer, at the celebration of his last paffover; to accompany him from the garden to the high priest's palace, from thence to the prætorium, and from thence to mount Calvary; there to take our ftation, with the virgin mother, and the beloved difciple, at the foot of the crofs, and "look on him "whom we have pierced." The history therefore of the Ethiopian nobleman's converfion, effected by St. Philip's expounding to him the liii chapter of Ifaiah, feemeth no improper fubject whereon to employ our thoughts, at a time when the church is inforcing on us the duties of repentance and faith, by the fame argument which first produced them in the heart of that illustrious perfon; namely, the unexampled forrows and sufferings of the Son of God for the fins of the world; to the contemplation of which is dedicated the great and holy week upon which we this

day

III.

day enter; a week, fpent in fuch a man- DISC. ner by them of old time, as made it evident to every beholder, that these were "the days in which the bridegroom was "taken away." For now (as the antient canons and conftitutions inform us) men gave over all worldly employments, and, making the happy exchange of earth for heaven, betook themselves wholly to devotion, heightened and improved by those religious exercises, which the experience of pious men in all ages hath evinced to be conducive to that end. Difmiffing therefore from our thoughts the cares and pleafures of a vain and tranfitory world, every thing that perplexeth, and every thing that defileth, let us take a view of the no lefs engaging than interesting circumstances of the history before us.

St. Philip, commonly ftyled the Evangelift, one of the feven deacons, and next in order to St. Stephen, being driven from Jerufalem by the perfecution which arose at the time of the protomartyr's death,

went

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