188 Of Patience. SERM. article. Sometimes great calamities have been VII excellentlyfupported at the beginning, and yet `" V when lengthened out have produced impa- tience. What more glorious refignation could be expreffed by any man, than that which yob (hews in as difmal a conjuncture as we can well fuppofe, when all his children, and all his fubftance was deftroyed at once, Naked, fays * he, came I into the world, and naked I (hall go hence ; the Lord bath given, and the Lord bath taken away, bl jid be the name of the Lord. In all this he finned not, nor charged God foolifhly. Yet all his affliction continued, and new ingredients exafperated his pain, the frailty ofhuman nature difcovered itfelf in indecent expreffions, which after, wardswere the fubject of his deep regret. We ought, therefore, to be always upon our guard, always watchful over our own fpirits, and keep a Ready difcipline over our paflions, of forrow, fear, and anger, efpecially in of lic tions of long continuance, left they tranfgrefs the bounds which reafon and the laws of God have fet to them, and betray us into impa tience. In the lafi place, it is to be obferved, that as patience in common with all other religious. " Job i. zt. virtues,
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