are bold, i. e. their righteousness tends to make them so; it hath an animating virtue in it, as will (if it be not overpowered by an invincible timorousness of temper) convert a poltron into a hero, imbolden the meanest spirited to confront the grimmest danger, and charge it with an undaunted resolution. For thus the scripture usually speaks of men, as if they actually were what they have great cause and reason to be. Thus in Isaiah lvii. 20. The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt; i. e. they are continually agitated with their own restless thoughts, just like the sea with its reciprocal tides: not that this is always actually their condition, but that they have always just reason to be so. So Prov. xvi. 13. Righteous lips are the delight of kings; and they love him that speaketh right. Which is not so to be understood, as if in fact it were always so; for experience too often evinces the contrary: but the meaning is, that kings, above all men, have reason to delight in men of truth, and honesty, and fidelity. And so in the text, The wicked flee when no man pursues; that is, a wicked man hath great reason to be timorous; for he hath all the moral causes of baseness and cowardice within his breast: but the righteous is bold as a lion; i. e. he hath reason to be so, his mind being inspired with the most pregnant principles of a brave and undaunted resolu

tion.

The words being thus explained, the sense of them resolves into this proposition, That wickedness naturally tends to dishearten and cowardize men; but righteousness and goodness, to encourage and imbolden them. The truth of which I might easily

demonstrate by an induction of particulars, were it proper to draw a list of those ancient heroes, whose names are renowned in the memoirs of fame, the greatest part of whom were as illustrious for their piety and goodness, as for their valour and great achievements; and who, as the historian observes of the ancient Romans, conquered much more by the charms of their virtues, than by the terror of their swords. But I am not at leisure to tell stories; and therefore, for the confirmation of the argument in hand, I shall endeavour, as briefly as I can, to represent to you what those things are which do naturally contribute to the making men courageous, and to shew you, that they are all to be found in righteousness, and their contraries in wickedness: which if I can make good, I doubt not, will abundantly convince you, that the best way to be good soldiers is to be good men; and that though you may furnish yourselves with art and conduct in the field, yet you can never acquire true courage and bravery, till you have been trained and exercised under the banner of Jesus.

Now to make men truly valiant and courageous, these six things are necessary.

First, That they be free, and within their own command.

Secondly, That they be well hardened to endure difficulties and inconveniencies.

Thirdly, That they be well satisfied in the nature of their actions and undertakings.

Fourthly, That they have a hopeful prospect of being well seconded.

Fifthly, That they have a probable security of good success.

Sixthly, That they be borne up with the expecta

tion of a glorious reward. All which causes of courage are to be found in righteousness, and their direct contraries in a sinful and wicked course of life.

I. One cause that very much contributes to the making men courageous, is their being free, and within their own command: for slavery naturally depresses the mind, and by accustoming men to a severe and rigorous treatment, habituates them to fear and pusillanimity. It is no new observation, that slaves are generally cowards; of the truth of which we have many woful instances in the world: for how many nations are there who were heretofore renowned for their courage and puissance, when they enjoyed their liberties and properties, under gentle and benign governments, that are now utterly unmanned and dispirited by oppression and slavery? But now a righteous man can never be enslaved, because he hath gotten the victory of himself, and is his own master; he hath trained up his passions to a severe obedience to his reason, and so has all his motions under his own command; and it being in his power (at least in a good measure) not to love any thing but what he hath good reason to love; not to desire any thing but what he hath fair hope to enjoy; not to delight in any thing but what is in his power to possess and keep; it being, I say, in his power to be affected as he pleases, and to regulate his own motions according as he thinks fit and reasonable, he may choose whether he will be a coward or no and should the grimmest danger stare him in the face, yet supposing him to have such a command of himself, as not to desire what he cannot have, not to dread what he cannot prevent, not to grieve and vex at what he cannot avoid,

he may throw down the gauntlet to it, and defy it to do its worst.

Now one great office of righteousness is to do right to a man's self, to rescue him from the tyranny of his passions, and reduce him under the command of his reason; and the more successful it is in this great undertaking, the more valiant and magnanimous it must necessarily render us: for the more a man's passions are subdued to his reason, the more presence of mind he will have in all dangers and difficulties, and the more his reason will be to counsel and advise him, and to fortify his heart with brave considerations. So that when a man hath made any considerable progress in the conquest of himself, he will be so much in his own power, that no danger will be able to divide him from himself, or scare him from the post of his reason; and while death is whizzing about his ears, and blood and slaughter, terror and confusion, are round about him, his mind will be environed with invincible thoughts, and guarded with such puissant considerations, that no outward force will be able to approach it. And thus freedom, you see, from the slavery of passion, which is an ef fect of righteousness, is an effectual cause of courage and magnanimity.

But in wickedness a great part of this slavery consists for in this state men are entirely governed by passion and appetite. As for their reason, that sits by as an idle spectator of the brutish scene of their actions, and intermeddles no farther in it, than to censure and condemn it, having no other office allowed it, but to cater for their appetites, and enable them to play the brutes with greater luxury and relish; and being under the command of such masters as

these, we are out of our own power, and cannot dispose of ourselves as we please: for either our passions and appetites must be governed by our reason, or by the goods and evils that are without us; and if these govern us, we are not our own men, but do live in subjection to a foreign power; and we must be what the things without us will have us, and not what our own mind and reason: our mind must turn about like as the wind blows, and, like water, we must take our form from the vessels we are poured into. And when the passions and appetites that overrule us, are thus overruled by the chances and contingences without us, how is it possible we should be truly courageous? For now when any danger looks us in the face, we can have no present relief from our reason, having all along disused ourselves to consult and advise with it; and so every alarm of danger from without will presently raise a tumult within, and put the whole soul into an uproar; in which the mind is left naked of all relief, and utterly abandoned of those wise and brave thoughts which should guard and defend it. And a man's thoughts and considerations being thus defeated and put to the rout, he must either sink under his danger, or charge headlong upon it foolhardily: for now he hath no other courage to support him, but either that of a mastiff, that fights because his blood is in brisk fermentation; or that of a rat, that flees in his enemy's face, because he is desperate of escaping.

II. Another cause that mightily contributes to the making men courageous, is their being well hardened to endure difficulties and inconveniencies: for how distant soever a state of softness and delicacy is from that of slavery, yet it concentres with it in the