SERM. warm but abortive zeal of those who hear the IV. word, and anon with joy receive it, but only endure for a while, for when affliction and temptation arifeth, by and by they are of fended. Their goodness and their diligence, is as the morning cloud and the early dew that paeth away. But our resolution, if we would have the chriftian virtues be .in us and abound, must be ftedfast and perma nent, holding out to the end of the race that is fet before us. I come now to, The First particular, which the apoftle exhorts us to add to our faith, and it is virtue, by which I understand, in this place, a religious fortitude in adhering to the profeffion of our faith, and in that courfe of action which it directs, for tho' virtue, in the common acceptation, fignifies every moral perfection, or good quality, and it may be fometimes fo taken in fcripture, yet when it is, as here, to be understood in a limited fenfe, and exprefly diftinguished from other good habits and difpofitions, nothing more obviously occurs as its meaning, than courage. This was a way of fpeaking used by the ancient moralifts; a very eminent one tells us, that though virtue is become the common name of all good affections, yet Mat. xiii. 20, 21. + Hof. vi. 4. 1 > yet more properly, it belongs to fortitude; SERM. both the Latin word, and that of the fame IV. fignification in Greek, being derived from the name of a man in thofe languages, to denote that the quality itself in a peculiar manner belongs to man; is an excellence most becoming the dignity of his nature and his condition of being, and in the ftricteft fenfe, manly, as we now also commonly speak. like men, be The facred writers, likewife, often recom mend courage as neceffary to be added to faith, or to the embracing chriftianity, efpecially in the primitive times, when faith, was accompanied with great difficulties and dangers, and the profeffion of the gofpel expofed men to trials and afflictions of various kinds; as particularly St. Paul does,* Watch ye, ftand faft in the faith, quit you Strong. So that confidering the ftate of the chriftian Jews, to whom the apostle Peter writes, that their lot was fallen in perilous times, that they were to expect great adver fity, of which he often warns them, to be infulted and derided for their religion by scoffers to endure the spoiling of their goods, the most bitter reproaches, the torture of their bodies, H 2 and I Cor. xvi, 13. SERM, and in fine all manner of perfecution even to IV. death itself; confidering this, I fay, it would be ftrange indeed, if courage fo abfolutely neceffary in their circumftances, had not a place in his directions to them, for which, and the other reasons already mentioned, it seems natural to conclude, that fuch courage is meant by virtue in this fummary of the chriftian duties and graces. a This virtue carries in it the idea of hazards and difficulties, and the excellence of it confifts in a magnanimous fuperiority to all dangers and all oppofition. As it is peculiar to probationary state, or a ftate of discipline, like ours, it is that without which there can be no real goodness, at leaft no ftedfaftnefs in fuch a ftate. To be above all danger and all refiftance in the execution of good purposes, belongs to a more perfect condition than the human; and to fink under them and purfue good purposes against them, is to have no goodness at all. As the gofpel, therefore, requires this quality in its profeffors, it shows the proper occafion for the exercise of it. It represents our state in this world under the notion of a war, nay of a continual fight. St. Paul* exhorts chriftians to fight the good fight and not fight of faith, and near the close of his ownSERM. militant life which commenced from his IV. embracing the chriftian religion, he fays, I have fought a good fight*, we have a great number of violent adverfaries which will be continually annoying us, endeavouring to spoil us of our integrity, and to take from us our crown; fuch as the corruptions of our own hearts. It is the unhappiness of the human nature in its present degeneracy, that the flesh lufteth against the fpirit; a multitude of unreafonable and impetuous inclinations tending to fin, take their rife from the body; our fenfes and inferior appetites always minifter the occafion of evil. Now, these must be refifted by a chriftian; at least, his defires and paffions fo regulated and reftrain'd, that he may not by complying with them be led to offend God; which certainly is one of the moft arduous provinces of religion, and will require the utmost vigour and firmest refolution of our fouls. Again, the world; by which is often understood in fcripture, the corrupt part of mankind, in oppofition to God's peculiar people, his true church: Our Saviour, in his laft difcourfe to his apoftles before his death, ftates an irreconcileable en H 3 mity 2 Tim. iv. 7. SERM. mity between the world and them; and IV. fhews them they were always to expect ha tred, ill-ufage, and injuries from the men of this world. Here then is another occafion |
