SEìtMON XXXI. d$ Let the men of this world that know not Christ, that are not acquainted with the gospel, and have not felt the powers of the world to come, let them fret and grow peevish at every disap- pointment that falls upon them in their earthly comforts, or when their flesh is visited with sore pains : But it does not become a a christian to be sour and fretful under the afflicting hand of God, for it is the hand of his heavenly Father. To be overwhelmed and almost distracted withthe crosses we meet within the world, is not becoming thecharacter of a child of God, one that is high born, that has his birth from heaven, and his family there ; it is a shame for him to grow wildwith impatience, or to run into des- perate courses for relief. This is not courage, but mere coward- ice of soul, to put an end to our own life in order to escape from our sorrows. The wisest among the heathens reproved it as a meanness of spirit ; and surely it is much more unbecoming the religion of Christ, and that divine fortitude that every christian should be endued with. We are not to be affrighted, though the mountains shouldbe turnedupside down, andcast intothe midstof the sea. The Lord of hosts is our shield and defence, he is a rock aboveall the waves, and if our feet are fixedupon this rock, what need have we for terror ? The name of the. God of Jacob, in the xlvi. Psalm, is a match for all our foes, and a sovereign remedy for all our fears. Christian courage appears also upon a bed of sickness, when, at the call of God, we look death in the face witha cheerful soul. When all our friends stand around us, and every one, by the la- mentable air that sits in their faces, gives us notice of our ap- proaching dissolution, then to look upon death with a serene countenance, and not be affrighted, but venture boldly into the invisible world ; this is a glorious fortitude derived from the grace of faith. H. Another instance of passive valour is, when we bear persecutions of all sorts from the hand of men with a holy cou- rage, for the sake of God. When we can be plunderedof our possessions in this world, and stripped of all our comforts, and yet be easy. Ye took jorlfúlly the spoiling of your goods,, says the apostle to the Hebrews ; chapter x. verses 33, 34. and ye endured thegreatfight of afflictions with chewyìriness, knowing that in hea- ven ye have abetter and snore enduring substance. In Heb. xi. verse 36. when the apostle speaks of the ancient Jewish saints, , they had trial of cruet mockings and scourgings, of bonds and im, prisonments, they werestoned, theyweresawn asunder, were tempted, wereslain with tIse sword: theywandered about in sheep-skins, and goat-skins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented : but they were men above this world, of rhont the world was not worthy: They liad a. rf3 J
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