342 CHRIS?IAN MORALITY, VIZ. DERM. XX. such a simile well applied, the man is far from that fair character of truth and constancy 'which the gospel re- commends. 2. A true christian is the same in all conditions of life. Let the favours or the frowns of men attend him, or the awful providence ofGod make a surprizing change in his affairs, still he ceases not to look and live, to speak and act like a christian. Is it not a very honourable account that you have heard sometimes given of a person in the height ofprosperity, and in the depth of afflictive cir- cumstances, that he is still the same man? That he maintains his probity and his integrity, and every virtue, in the midst of all the revolutions of providence ! Se- rene and chearful, calm, peaceful and heavenly, holy and humble amidst them all ! St. Paul was eminent for this grace. I know, saith he, how to be abased and how to abound, to be full and to be hungry; I have learned to be content in whatsoever state I am, and to appear a christian under everychange of circumstances, Philip. iv. 11, 12. The man of truth and, constancy, when he is exalted, and walks upon themountains of prosperity and honour, is notvain and haughty in his treatment of inferiors, nor does he look askew upon his former friends, nor cast his eye down with contempt on his meaner brethren. When his mountain shakes and falls, he descends calmly into the valley; but he is not of a mean, abject and de- sponding spirit: Ever mindful of his high birth as a christian, and of his heavenly home, he bears up with a sacred constancy of soul, with a generous contempt of this world, and all the vanishing honours and the uncer- tain possessions of it. His behaviour is ever true to his holy profession, and to his sublimest hope. Is not this a character which each of us wish our own ? Is it not worthyof our aim and ambition, our daily pursuit and labour to obtain? There are some christians that know not how to bear the smiles of providence : and some who are as much untaught to bear the frowns' of it: For their piety is ever - changing, as their circumstances are. The first sort are they who are never very serious and devout but when they lie under the chastisements of
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