Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

is required of every man, who enlifts under the banners of the crofs." He muft endure "hardness, as a good foldier of Jefus “ Christ*.” And although this has been made a frequent topic of ridicule or of complaint among those who call themselves philofophers, and has been represented as a grievous burthen too heavy for human nature to fupport; yet this moral difcipline of the foul is grounded on the same reasons, and justifiable on the fame principles, as that ftrict military difcipline, to which it is frequently compared in Scripture, and which every wife commander finds it neceffary to exact and to maintain among his foldiers. It may appear to them fometimes harsh and fevere, but it leads to order, ease, security, and victory. The cafe is the fame in our Chriftian warfare. Every restraint which the Gospel imposes on us tends ultimately to make our "yoke eafy * and our burthen light," and its very cruelties, if we may call them fo, are in fact tender mercies. We must therefore fubmit with patience to the facrifices it demands from us, and we shall be amply repaid for the tranfient

* 2 Tim. ii. 3.

[ocr errors]

uneafinefs

uneafinefs which at first perhaps they may give us. We muft, in compliance with its injunctions, not only abftain from those lufts which "openly war against the soul *,” but, like them who strive for the mastery in the combat or the race, must be " temperate in all things +," must train up ourselves for the good fight of faith by frequent preparatory exercises, muft "keep the body under, and

[ocr errors]

bring it into fubjection " by timely precautions, and judicious restraints, that, when temptation calls upon us for the trial of our virtue, our defires may be found patient of controll, and able to fupport a disappoint

ment.

III. There are two extremes to be equally avoided in our moral conduct, because, though oppofite to each other, they may prove equally fatal to our virtue; a too high opinion of our adversary's strength, or a too great confidence in our own. If once we are persuaded that all resistance is vain, we shall never call forth the ftrength that God has put into our hands, but tamely give ourselves up on the

1 Pet. ii. 11. + 1 Cor. ix. 25.:
G

Ib. ix. 27.

firft

first appearance of danger; or if, on the contrary, we flatter ourselves that no refiftance is neceffary," a fudden deftruction" shall come upon us unawares, and we shall fall into what may be properly called "our own mifchief." To fteer then difcreetly between these two oppofite points is what demands our utmost care and attention. We muft, on the one hand, poffefs ourselves with a proper sense of our own natural refources, a firm truft in God's fupernatural affiftance, and a thorough conviction that our endeavours, if honeftly and earnestly exerted, "fhall not be in vain "in the Lord;" and, on the other, from a due consciousness of our own weakness and corruption, neglect no precaution in our power, nor wantonly or heedlessly expofe ourselves to unneceffary danger. This indeed is the more common error of the two, and therefore to be the more carefully guarded against. Men are much more apt to have too high, than too low, an opinion of their own fortitude, and fo fall through want, rather than excefs, of caution. It will, therefore, generally be the fafeft way to distrust our own courage and refolution, and to avoid ra

ther

ther than to provoke temptation; for we may often fave ourselves by a timely retreat, when we should have made but a weak and inglorious defence.

It is indeed always our own fault if ever we find ourselves befet with folicitations, which prove too ftrong for our virtue. We may generally recollect a time, when, if we had but exerted the leaft refolution, they muft have vanished before us. But we indolently give way to one wrong compliance after another, which we might eafily have refifted at firft; and then, when it is too late to exert the ftrength which our Maker has given us, we boldly reproach him with having given us none at all. There is, in short, a point at which we have it in our power to stop; but if, through a fatal negligence, or a false fecurity, we let that opportunity flip; if we suffer burselves to be drawn a little further, and ftill a little further on, whatever fnares we may afterwards be entangled in, we can have no reason to complain of being furprized by ftratagem, or overcome by fuperior force. The powers we are furnished with may not always be fufficient to extricate us out of difficulties,

G 2

difficulties, but they are fully fufficient to preserve us from plunging into them.

IV. But in order to guard against temptation still more effectually, take unto you, my brethren, the SHIELD OF FAITH *; for this, as St. John affures you, "is the victory that "overcometh the world, even our faith." And the apostle might well promise these great things of faith, fince it is this which fupplies us with one of the principal things we want, a counterpoife to the pleasures and the interests of this life. For by faith is here meant a firm, a rational, and a vital belief of the being of God, of the religion taught by Christ, and the truth of his promises and his threatenings as declared in the Gospel; a perfuafion that God is, and that he is, through his bleffed Son, "a rewarder of all thofe that diligently feek him ‡." It is this perfuafion, and this only, which in certain circumstances can preserve our integrity and our innocence unshaken. When this world, as it fometimes happens, fpreads before us on a fudden its most powerful allurements and ad+ Heb. ii. 6.

66

* Eph. vi. 16. † 1 John v. 4.

vantages,

« ПредишнаНапред »