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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.
Thus
you
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
of
paradise.
O
what
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
with
me,"
and
he will be
with
me'
for
ever.
THE
RECOLLECTION..
What
progress hast thou made, O
my 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. My
virtue and
my
religion have
too often suffered
by the
prevailing
power of
a
slavish.
fear
:
my
conscience
has
lost
its
innocence and peace
by
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
of
martyrs, 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