Reason to love, not to defire any thing but what he hath fair hope to enjoy, not to delight in any thing but what is in his Power to poffefs and keep, it being, I fay, in his Power to be effected as he pleases, and to regulate his own Motions according as he thinks fit and reafonable; he may chufe whether he will be a Coward or no, and fhould the grimmeft Danger ftare him in the Face, yet fuppofing him to have fuch a Command of himself, as not to defire 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 defie it to do its worst. Now one great Office of Righteousness is to do right to a Man's felf, to rescue him from the Tyranny of his Paffions, and reduce him under the Command of his Reason, and the more fuccessful it is in this great Undertaking, the more valiant and magnanimous it must neceffarily render us; for the more a Man's Paffions are fubdued 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 fortifie his Heart with brave Confiderations. So that when a Man hath made any confiderable Progress in the Conqueft of himself, he will be fo much in his own Power, that no Danger will be able to divide him from himfelt, or scare him from the Post of his Reason, and while Death is whizzing about his Ears, and Blood and Slaughter, Terror and Confufion are round about him, his Mind will be invironed with invincible Thoughts, and guarded with fuch puiffant Confiderations, that no outward Force will be able to approach it. And thus Freedom (you fee) from the Slavery of Paffion, which is an Effect of Righteousness, is an effectual cause of Courage and Magnanimity. But in Wickedness a great Part of this Slavery confifts, for in this State Men are entirely governed by Paffion and Appetite; as for their Reason, that fits by as an idle Spectator of the brutish Scene of their Actions, and intermeddles no farther in it than to cenfure and condemn it, having no other other Office allowed it but to cater for their Appetites, and enable them to play the Brutes with greater Luxury and Rellifh; and being under the Command of fuch Masters as thefe, we are out of our own Power, and cannot difpofe of our felves as we please, for either our Paffions and Appetites must be governed by our Reason, or by the Goods and Evils that are without us; and if thefe 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 according as the Wind blows, and like Water we must take our Form from the Veffels we are poured into; and when the Paffions and Appetites that over-rule us are thus over-ruled by the Chances and Contingences without us, how is it poffible we fhould be truly couragious? For now when any Danger looks us in the Face,we can have no prefent Relief from our Reafon, having all along difufed our felves to confult and advife with it, and fo every Alarm of Danger 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 wife and brave Thoughts which should guard and defend it. And a Man's Thoughts and Confiderations being thus defeated and put to the Rout, he must either fink under his Danger, or Charge headlong upon it foolhardily or defperately; for now he hath no other Courage to fupport him, but either that of a Mastiff, that fights because his Blood is in a brisk Fermentation; or that of a Rat, that flees in his Enemy's Face because he is defperate of escaping. II. Another Caufe that mightily contributes to the making Men couragious is their being well hardened to endure Difficulties and Inconveniences; for how distant foever a State of Softness and Delicacy is from that of Slavery, yet it concenters with it in the Effect, and by a different Quality produces the fame bafe and unmanly Temper. For as Slavery cows the Spirit by rigorous and fervile Ufage, and fuppreffes aud ftifles all its generuos generous Emotions, fo Softness and Delicacy doth fo melt and diffolve it, that it hath not the Firmness to refift any violent Impreffions, but is ready to fhrink at the least Touch of Evil, or Appearance of Danger, having been accustomed to nothing but Pleasure, and wrapt up in Eafe and Voluptuoufnefs; and hence we fee, that though the Valour and Courage of Nations be very much owing to the Temper of the Climes in which they are fituated, yet by the Exercise of Temperance and fevere Virtue the Inhabitants of the most effeminate Climes have fometimes improved themselves into the most Heroick and Magnanimous of all Nations, as the Romans and Perfians for Inftance: As on the contrary, thofe who by the Temperament of their native. Air and Country are naturally the moft hardy and couragious have many times by their diffolute Manners been broken and difpirited into the most wretched Coward; as the English for inftance, who though they have been ever remarked for a People of a daring and undaunted Genius, have yet fometimes been fo melted |