SEAM. xxxIl.1 OR REMEDIES AGAINST. FEAR. 85 Thus, by keeping your soul in a ready preparation for the worst events that your fear can imagine, you over- come this tyrant of the soul, and triumph over this slavish passion. Thusyou transform your very terrors into joys and gather honey out of the lion, as Sampson did. The more fatal your dangers are, the nearer is your final de- liverance. Say to yourself, is my feeble flesh tottering into the grave ? Then my soul is so much nearer to the gates of glory. This is the holy skill of turning evil, into good. Such a faith kept in lively exercise can make roses spring out of the midst of thorns, and change the briars of the wilderness into the fruit-trees ofparadise. Owhat a_state of divine and sacred peace does that chris- tian enjoy, who can look stedfastly upon the face of dan- ger, in its most frightful forms, and say through grace, I am-prepared ! Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for my God is withme," and he will be with me' for ever. THE RECOLLECTION.. What progress hast thou made, Omy soul, in acquir- ing this sacred fortitude? The former discourse has taught thee the necessity of it, and the various occasions for the exercise of it in the course of the christian life. In this latter sermon thou hast .héard the motives , that should awaken all thy powers to obtain and practise it, and thou hast been informed what are some of the most sovereign remedies against thy foolish and sinfùl fears. Methinks I feel the want of this holy hardiness ,of soul, to walk through the midst of temptations unmoved, un- terrified, and undefiled. Myvirtue and my religion have too often suffered by the prevailing power of a slavish. fear : my conscience has lost its innocence and peaceby too many sinful compliances: What shall I do to harden my spirit all over, that temptation and slavish fear may mot find a place to enter? For this end I review the glorious motives set before ,me. For this end I look to the noble army ofmartyrs, to the blessed society of the apostles', to the cloud of wit - nesses which have trod the same path before me, who have borne an undaunted testimony to the same religion which I profess. I would chide and`shame myself out of my sinful cowardice, while I behold their illustrious ex- amples of zeal. D2
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=