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HOLY
FORTITUDE,
[S
E
RM.
XXXI.
to
give us
direction
in
this
difficult duty,
and
encourage
to perform
it
!
VI.
Reformation
of
all kinds,
whether
in families
or
churches,
in
cities, or nations, demands
a
good
degree
of
resolution and courage.
It
is
a brave
and
daring
enterprize, to
stem
the
torrent
of
the
age
we
live in,
and to
attempt to
change the
vici-
ous customs
of
a
city
or nation. We must
have a soul
inspired
with zeal
for piety and
goodness,
if
we
would
contest the point
with
the
guilty,
and
cover them
with
deserved
shame,
or bring
them to deserved
punishment.
Blessed
be
God, there are
societies formed in
our
age
for
this glorious purpose
!
May everlasting
success
attend
their
zeal,
and
may
their
heads be covered with divine
protection
in every
hour
of
danger!
We
have need
of
courage
to
stand
up for
truth and
purity
in
the
church
of
Christ,
when
it
is
over
-run
with
corrupt
doctrines,
wicked heresies,
superstitions, and
false worship. We must
use our
endeavour
to
root out
these
evil weeds
by
all
the sacred
influences
of
reason
and
scripture;
not
by
rage
and
violence,
not
by
fraud
and
falsehood,
not
by
slander and scandalous
language,
not
by calling
in the power
of
the magistrate and the sword
of
the state
to assist
us; Christ
hath
not
allowed
his
fol-
lowers
such
weapons
as
these against
superstition and
heresy:
"
The
sword
of
the Spirit
is
the word
of God,"
Eph.
vi. 17.
"
The
weapons
of our warfare
are not
carnal,"
2
Cor.
x.
4.
And when
we
have
endeavoured
to reform
the
offen-
ders
by all
christian methods, and
find
no
success,
we
must dare
to
separate
ourselves from the many and the
mighty, who
will
not
be
reformed. This
was
the
glori-
ous
practice of our
fathers, the protestants and the puri-
tans,
in
the several
seasons
of their reformation,
when
they were called
to
oppose the
greater
or
the lesser cor-
ruptions of
the christian church.
If
our kindred or
families
are
fallen
into
any
foolish,
vain, or
sinful
practices,or
any
civil
society
to
which
we
belong bath departed
from the rules
of
justice or
truth, it
belongs
to
a christian
to become a
public
good,
by
using
his
influence, as
far
as
it
goes,
toward
the
rectifying
of
every
disorder.
He
should
put
on
a
divine fortitude,
whensoever
providence
calls
him
to
attempt
a
reforma-
tion amongst them.