VI. SERM. already mentioned, fays thus of himself, I fo run, not as uncertainly, and fo fight, not as one that beats the air; but I keep under my body and bring it into fubjection; I exercise fuch a difcipline over my appetites as to establish the dominion of my mind, and to be always in a difpofition for the works of virtue and charity. Nay, it is plain, from the account he gives in that chapter and elsewhere, that he laid restraints upon himself in the use even of things lawful, that he might fo exercise his liberty, as to do what appeared most expedient, that is, what, all circumstances confidered, might contribute most to promote the honour and intereft of religion, and the good of his fellow-chriftians. I am afraid the precedent may be thought improper when men have got into a taste of life very different from his; and falfe notions of grandeur, politenefs, and even decency, have fo heightened the defire of delicacy in living, that it is look'd upon as a high pitch of virtue, to keep within the bounds of lawfulness it self. But, at least it will be allowed, fuch generous self-denial was highly commendable, and then it may be hoped that fome chriftians will be inclined to imitate it by a re folved denying of their own inclinations, even SERM. in things not abfolutely finful, which if prac- VI. ticed, not fuperftitiously, but purely for the purposes of virtue, would produce happy effects in the confirmed freedom and tranquility of their own minds, and a readiness for every good work. SER SERMON VII of Patience. SERM. 2 Pet. i. 6. —And to Temperance, Patience. T HE condition of the chriftian Jews to whom this epiftle is directed, scattered abroad, and under perfecution, made it very neceffary they should be inftructed in the virtue of patience, or of bearing affiction with equanimity and refignation to the will of God: The apoftle therefore, in this abridgment of practical christianity, does not omit that most important part, which tho, their circumstances particularly required it yet is of general ufe in the chriftian life. For this is a state of difcipline, and God has given to all men fome measure of travel and grief, as their portion under the fun. Fob pronounces univerfally concerning men that afflictions are natural to them, man is of few days VII. days and full of trouble, he is born to it as the SERM. Sparks fly upward; we meet with it every day, and almost in every circumftance of life, though upon a general eftimate of our condition, it is overbalanced with good; and we are not left without many undeniable witneffes of the divine mercy, yet our trials are various, and the preffure of them fo great, that any religious inftitution might well be reckoned defective, if it did not teach us how to bear them. The apostle very properly adds patience to temperance, which is the foundation of it. It is the prevalence of carnal appetites and worldly affections that makes affliction fo painful to us. It is on these affections that the calamities of life bear fo hard, and upon them they make fo fenfible and deep impreffions. Poverty and reproach, and hard labour and disappointments, would not be fo galling and fo uneafy as they are, were it not for the excefs of our defires (which temperance ought to correct) to riches, honour, eafe, and other prefent enjoyments. Therefore, the man who has learned to live foberly, to moderate his appetites and paffions, to contain them within due bounds, to think meanly of the objects of them, and treat them with in SERM. indifference and neglect, has made good adVII. vances towards patience, and it will naturally be added to his temperance. Let me obferve this farther by way of introduction, that the virtue which is the fubject of my present discourse, is very much celebrated by the facred writers of the New Teftament, fcarcely will we meet with any description of the effence of chriftianity, or the neceffary preparation for heaven, which doth not exprefifly take it in, as it is always understood. *That ye be not flothful, but followers of them, who through faith and patience inherit the promises; where you fee it is joined with faith, as of equal neceffity, and declared to be the way by which the faints attain to the inheritance of the promises; + St. John defcribes himself as the brother of chriftians, to whom he writes, and their companion in· tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jefus Chrift, which fhews that patience is a neceffary qualification of Chrift's faithful fubjects, and without it we cannot be in his kingdom. Especially the doctrine of St. James on this point is very clear, | But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. It is *Heb. vi. 12. + Rev. i. 9. Jam. i. 4. |