6 'HOLY FORTITUDE, rS&RM. XX%i, ture, in opposition to all the inventions and traditions of men ? Would your heart be strong to persist in your peculiar practices of religion, in the most scriptural forms of it, in an hour of persecution and danger'? Bless- ed be God for a .protestant king on the throne, and a glorious.race of protestant princes to succeed him. May the blessings of heaven from above descend on them all, and render them in their successions an everlasting bless- ing to Great Britain and all the protestant churches !. But a christian indeed should be so formed, and so fur- nished, as to be ready to profess andpractise his religion} in every nation, and in every age, in the midst of storms. as well as under the shining sun. III. When we are called to practise an unfashionable virtue, or to refuse compliancewith any fashionable vice, This is another occasion that demands the exercise of Christian fortitude. . Let us survey a few instances of this kind. It is an unfashionable thing now-a-days to introduce a vvord of practical godliness into company:. The polite world will tell us, it spoils conversation: Mark, what a silence is spread over the room, when any person dares to begin so disagreeable a subject; there is none to se- cond him, he may preach alone, and it is well if he escapes a profane scoff. This is a very true, but a very shameful account of things, according to the present mode. Any thingbut religion is thought fit to entertain a friend. Evenwhere persons of piety meet together in their.visits, this sort of language is banished from com- pany and the parlour, and it is confined only to God and the closet. Alas ! we are ashamed to, appear truly reli- gieus ; but if we had holy courage enough, one person would' not be afraid to begin, nor another to carry on such divine discourse. There are surely some happy moments wherein an useful word may be introduced with prudence and decency, to warm each other's hearts, and to rekindle the holy fire of love and devotion that is ala 'most expiring. Again, perhaps we may be much engaged in theworld among persons that make no conscience of speaking truth: But if we would be Christians indeed, we must have courage enough always to spew a hatred of false- hood, and.. keep up a tenderness of spirit, lest we be
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