SEAM. XXX.] COURAGE AND HONOUR. 495 than my fathers have done. These are some instances wherein -we may perform actions of praise that are be- coming a man or a christian. II. It is a thing praise-worthy to improve all the sea- sons and occasions of extraordinary virtue, to seize on those special opportunities which providence now and then may give us to exert uncommon degrees ofwisdom or mercy, activity or courage. We are always required to be faithful to our rulers, and kind to-our neighbours and friends : But when our king or our country is in some imminent danger, when some threatening mischief bangs over a family, or a city, when our friend or brother, or even astranger, is in immediate peril of life, there may be a glorious occasion for some great and generous exercise of loyalty, fortitude, corn- passion, or love, to save a friend ora stranger, a prince or a nation. All the world shall agree to praise the man who performs that noble service. We are bound always to be liberal, and to give to the poor, but sometimes we have anopportunity to exercise that grace of liberality in a more ample and generous manner, so as to deserve and obtain an honourable name : As when a great number of distressed wretches come to the city or place where we dwell, or when some general calamity involves all our poor ,neighbours, and reduces them to great straits, then we should exercise bounty beyond the common measure : Thus a christian shall have the honour ofrelieving the poor more than hea- thens do, or those who make no profession of godliness. So in the practice ofcharity and forgiveness, Jesus our Lord requires us- to forgive -our enemies, and to do good to those that hate, and abuse, and persecute us : But when it lies in our power to do. a most considerable ser- vice to a person that has done us'the highest injury; then there is a special providence calling us to perform a glorious action ofpraise. Such was the character ofthat great and good man archbishop Cranmer, of whom it is said, if any man had done him an injury, he would ever afterward be his friend. In short, whensoever an occasion arises to give an eminent and glorious proof of generosity or compassion, of gratitude or goodness, Ofzeal for God, or love to men, it is the apostles advice, that a christian should seize the
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