434 HOLY IORTITI;OE. practise to secure a good bargain to themselves, and sometimes, they supporttheir dyingcredit in the world at the expence and loss of their innocent neighbour ! Theyborrow what they know they are not able to pay : They draw up false accounts of their own estate : They impose upon the credulous with words of a double meaning, orwith downright lies : They almost forgetthey are christians, for fear lest they should be undone, and practise the things at which an heathen would have blushed and started, because they have not courage enough to be honest and poor. VIII. Christians haveneed of holy fortitude, to venture their Ivesat the demand of providence, and expose themselvesto vio- lence, and to a bloody death. Sometimes they arecalled to this glorious service in the cause of God and his church : So were many of the prophets, the apostles, and primitive christians, as well as the martyrs of later ages. Sometimes in the cause of our country, divine providence calls us to expose our blood, and to assist or guard the nation against invasions from abroad, or tu- mults at home, and to quell the rage ofa brutal multitude. In a. just and necessary war for our country, or in a defence of our natural or religious rights, we may fight with christian courage, when we have well surveyed the justice of our cause, and find it approved of God. And there are seasons when we may be called toventure our lives for our christian brethren ; 1 John iii. 15. But perhaps some of these things may come as naturally also under the head of passive valour and courage : And indeed themost active valour of the greatest heroes is built upon that which ispassive. It is on thisaccount they dare venture to expose their flesh towounds, their names to reproach, or their bodies to death, because they can bear thewounds, the reproaches, or death itself with a noble serenity and fortitude of soul. All the active boldness in the world isbut rashness and folly where such a har- diness and patienceare utterly wanting. Of this passive valour I shall mention but two particular cases wherein christians must exert themselves. I. When we are called to bearsickness, pain, shame, losses, disappointments, all the sorrowful changes of life, or death itself from themere hand of God. This is to be done with a steadi-, ness of spirit, with a firmness of soul, with christian fortitude,, with a sacred and serene calm upon all our powers and passions; without frettingor vexing, or inward disquietude. It is a sign of a weak mind to be overset with every blast of wind. If thou faintest in the day of adversity, thy strength is but small; Provt xxiv.10. We must not indeed despise the chastening of the Al mighty, nor must we faint when we are rebuked of him ;_Hob. XI J.
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