499 / 514
SEI
MVI.
XXX.
COURAGE AND HONOUR, &C.
01,
And for
the
same
reason
the
word
virtue
in
my
text
cannot
signify
the
whole system
of
moral
duties,
because
St.
Paulin
the same verse had
been recommending
truth,
justice, and purity, or temperance,
which
are
so
many
pieces
of
morality
;
and it
is
not reasonable
to
imagine
that
he brings in a
general name
that
comprehends them
all
in
the
midst
of
so
many
particulars,
which
is
contrary
to the use
of
all writers,
and
to
his own
custom
too.
I
confess
if
he
had
said,
if
there
be
any
other
virtue, as he
does in
the like
case, Rom. xiii. 9. when
he
had omitted
any particular,
we
might then
have
understood virtue in
the general
sense
but
now
it
is
evident;
that
he
means
a
particular
excellency,
distinct
from
those before-men-
tioned
:
and the word
itself requires
us
to
understand a
brave, bold, and generous
spirit
and practice.
He re-
commends to them
a great
and excellent behaviour;
wherein
their
holy
courage
may
appear,
when
the
call
of
providence
gives
a
just
occasion.
Courage
is
a
virtue
which
stands
in
opposition both to
fear and
shame
;
and
it
guards the
mind
of
man from
the
evil influence
of
both those passions.
The man' of cou-
rage
has
not
such
a
feeling
fondness
for
his flesh
nor
his
estate,
as to
be
afraid to profess
his
sentiments,
or
to
ful-
fil
his
duty
at
every
call
of
providence, though
his
estate
may
suffer
damage
by it,
or
his flesh be
exposed
to
pain
:
Nor
has he such
a
tenderness for
his
honour,
as
to secure
it
with the
loss
of
his
innocence.
He
is
not
ashamed to
appear
for
virtue
in
an age
of
vice and
scandal
:
He
stands up boldly for the
honour
of
his
God, and ventures
a
thousand
perils
rather than
wound
his
conscience,
or
betray
his
trust
:
He dares
profess and practice
temper-
ance among an herd
of
drunkards, and purity
in
the midst
of
the
lewd
and unclean
:
The
man
of
courage can de-
spise
the
threatenings of
the great,
and
the
scoffs
of
the
witty, conscious
of
his
own
integrity and truth:
He can
face and oppose the world
with all
its
terrors, and travel
onwards
in
the paths
of
piety
without
fear.
"
The righ-
teous man
is
bold
as
a
lion." Prow.
xxviü.
1.
Now
-it
is
the apostle's advice
to
the
Phillippian
con
-
verts,
that
whensoever
there
is
any
just
occasion
given
to
exert their
fortitude, whether it
be
in
the defence
of
the
'rights
of
mankind,
and
the liberties
of
their country, or
in
vindication
of
the cause
of
God
or virtue,
let
the chris-