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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
of
God
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
of
prosperity, 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
every
change
of
circumstances,
Philip.
iv.
11,
12.
The
man
of
truth
and,
constancy, when
he
is
exalted,
and
walks
upon
the
mountains
of
prosperity and honour,
is
not
vain 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
worthy
of 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