The Life of Faith

The Contents of the first Part.

The SERMON.
• WHat Faith is, page 2. The Text opened, p. 4. The grounds of the certa • nty of Faith briefly intimated, p. 5, &c.
• Why God will have us live by Faith, and not by sight, p. 1 • , &c.
• Use 1. To inform us what a Christian or Believer is; described, p. 15
• Use 2. The Reason why Believers are more serious in matters of Religion, than unbelievers are.
• Use 3. Of Examination, p. 29
• The misery of unbelievers, p. 30
• Marks of a true Faith, p. 32
• Use 4. Exhortation to the serious exercise of Faith, p. 37
• Some assisting suppositions, p. 38
• How those will live who thus believe; opened in certain Questions, p 4 •
• Motives to live by a foreseeing Faith on things not seen, p. 45
• The Conclusion; 1. Exhorting to live by Faith: 2. And to promote this life in others, p. 46.

The Additions.
• Cap. 1. The conviction and reproof of Hypocrites, Who live contrary to the Faith which they profess, 48
• Cap. 2. A general Exhortation to live as Believers, 56
• Cap. 3. An exhortation to the particular duties of Believers. 63

The Contents of the Second Part.
• Chap. 1. The Believers Directory must show him, I. How to strengthen Faith: 2. How to use it,
• And I. For the first, the order of the presupposed Natural Verities, is briefly mentioned, 8 •
• Chap. 2. The true Method of enquiry into the supernatural evidences of Faith, and the Rules therein to be observed, 87
• Chap. 3. The proper Evidence of Faith. The SPIRIT and the Image of God himself, 97
• Chap. 4. The Image of God's Wisdom on the Christian Religion: It's wonderful Method opened, in thirty instances. Six more instances, 99
• Chap. 5. The Image of God's Goodness and Holiness on the Christian Religion: in thirty instances, 108
• Chap. 6. The Image of God's Power upon the Christian Religion; in twenty instances, 115
• Chap. 7. The means of making known all this to us infallibly. How the first witnesses knew it. How the next Age and Churches knew it. How we know it. Twenty special historical Traditions of Christianity, and matters of fact. What the Spirits Witness to Christianity is, 125
• Chap. 8. Twelve further Directions to confirm our Faith, 136
• Chap. 9. Twenty General Directions how to use Faith, or to live by it, when it i • confirmed. What Christian Faith is: Errors about it, 148

The Contents of the third Part.
• Chap. 1. How to live by Faith on God, 168
• Chap. 2. How to live by Faith on Jesus Christ, 188
• Abuses of the Doctrine of Redemption. The extent of it. Of Christ's Office: His Merits and Sacrifice: Example, &c.
• Chap. 3. How to live by Faith on the Holy Ghost. Of the Trinity. Several doubts resolved about believing in the Holy Ghost. Of giving the Spirit: His operations: Whether Love to God, or Faith in Christ go first; exactly answered. (And consequently whether Faith or Repentance be first.) Of the Spirit in Christ and the Apostles: Of sufficient Grace. How Faith procureth the Spirit. Whether desires of grace be grace, 20 •
• Chap. 4. How to live by faith as to God's Command • . The admirable goodness of God's Laws. Whether the Promise and •• eward be the end of Obedience, or Obedience the end of the 〈…〉 Reward. Of Scripture examples, 232
• Chap. 5. How to live by faith on God's Promises. What will of God it is, according to which they must ask who will receive. Of a particular faith in prayer. Is the same degree of grace conditionally promised to all? Directions for understanding the Promises. The true nature of faith or trust in God's Promises, opened at large. Affiance is in the understanding, will and vital power. Whether Faith be Obedience, or how related to it. Ten acts of the understanding essential to the Christian Faith in the Promises. Several acts of the will essential to Faith. And in the vital power, whether all true Faith have a subjective certainty of the truth of the Word. Choice, and venturing or forsaking all, is the sign of real trust. Promises collected for the help of Faith. 1. Of Pardon, 2. Of Salvation, 3. Of Reconciliation and Adoption, 4. Of pardon of new sins after conversion. 5. Of Sanctification: 6. Promises to them that desire and seek. 7. To Prayer. 8. To groans that want expression. 9. Promises of all that we want, and that is good for us. 10. To the use of God's Word and Sacraments. 11. To the humble, meek and lowly. 12. To the peaceable. 13. To the diligent. 14. To the patient. 15. To Obedience. 16. To the Love of God. 17. To them that love the godly, and are merciful in good works. 18. To the poor, 19. To the oppressed. 20. To the persecuted. 21. In dangers. 22. Against temptations. 23. To them that overcome and persevere. 24. In sickness, and at death. 25. Of Resurrection, final Justification and Glory. 26. For children of the godly. 27. To the Church, 241
• Chap. 6. How to exercise faith on God • Threatenings and Judgments. How far belief of the threatenings in good, necessary, and a saving faith. How saving faith is a personal application. How to perceive true faith, 297
• Chap. 7. How to live by faith for Pardon and Justification. In how many respects and ways Christ justifieth us. Of the imputation of Christ's Righteousness. Twelve reasons to help our belief of pardon. How far sin should make us doubt of our Justification, 308
• Chap. 8. 58 Dangerous Errors detected, which hinder the 〈…〉 faith about 〈…〉 and the contrary truth • • sserted • ▪ 321
• Chap. 9. How to live by faith in the exercise of other graces and duties: And 1. Of the doctrinal Directions. What Sanctification is. How God loveth the unsanctified▪ How 〈◊〉 loveth 〈◊〉 in Christ. Of Preaching mere Morality, • 61
• Chap. 10. The practical Directions, to promote Love to God and Holiness, 367
• Chap. 11. Of the order and harmony of graces and duties, which must be taken all together. Of the parts that make up the new Creature. 1. The intellectual order; or a method, or scheme of the heads of Divinity. 2. The order of Intention and Affection. 3. The order of practice. Of the various degrees of means to man's ultimate end. Of the grace necessary to concur with these various means. The circular motion by divine communication to our Receiving Graces, and so by our Returning Graces, unto God again. The frame of the present means of grace, and of our returning duties. Rules about the order of Christian practice (which show that, and how the best is to be preferred, and which is best) in fifty three Propositions. How man's Laws bind conscience (and many other cases) resolved. A lamentation for the great want of order, and method, and harmony in the understandings, wills and lives of Christians. Many instances of men's partiality as to truths, graces, duties, sins, &c. Twenty Reasons why few Christians are complete and entire, but • ame and partial in their Religion. Ten Consectaries. Whether all graces be equal in habit. Religion not so perfect in us as in the Scriptures; which therefore are the Rule to us, &c. 373
• Chap. 12. How to use faith against particular sins, 417
• Chap. 13. What sins the best are most in danger of, and should most carefully avoid. And wherein the infirmities of the upright differ from mortal sins. 421
• Chap. 14. How to live by faith in prosperity. The way by which faith doth save us from the world. General Directions against the danger of prosperity. Twenty marks of worldliness. The pretences of worldly minds. The greatness of the sin. The ill effects, 428
• Chap. 15. How to be poor in spirit. And 1. How to escape the Pride of prosperous men. The cleaks of Pride. The signs of Pride and 〈…〉 , 446
• Chap. 16. How to escape the 〈…〉 , by faith. The mischief of serving the appetite. 〈…〉 465
• Chap. 17. How faith must conquer sloth and idleness. Who are guilty of this sin Cases resolved. The evil of idleness. The remedies, 474
• Chap. 18. Unmercifulness to the poor, to be conquered by faith. The remedies, 491
• Chap. 19. How to live by faith in adversity, 493
• Chap. 20. How to live by faith in trouble of conscience, and doubts of our salvation. The difference between true and false repentance. How to apply the universal grace to our comfort. The danger of casting our part on Christ; and of ascribing all melancholy disturbances and thoughts to the spirit. Of the trying the spiri • : and of the witness of the Spirit, 503
• Chap. 21. How to live by faith in the public Woshipping of God, Overvalue not your own manner of Worship, and overvilifie not other men's. Of communion with others, 519
• Chap. 22. How to pray in faith, 527
• Chap. 23. How to live by faith towards children and other Relations, 530
• Chap. 24. How by faith to order our affections to public Societies, and to the unconverted world, 535
• Chap. 25. How to live by faith in the love of one another, and to mortify self-love. It is our own interest and gain, to love our neighbors as ourselves. Objections wherein it consisteth. What is the sincerity of it. Consectaries. Loving others as yourselves is a duty even as to the degree, 539
• Chap. 26. How by faith to be followers of the Saints, and to look with profit to their examples and their end, and to hold communion with the heavenly Society. Reasons of the duty. The nature of it. Negatively, what it is not; and Affirmatively, what it is. Wherein they must be imitated, 556
• Chap. 27. How to receive the sentence of death, and how to die by Faith, 589
• Chap. 28. How by faith to look aright to the coming of Jesus Christ in Glory, 594

CHAP. 2. Some Uses.

Use 1. THis being the nature and use of Faith, to apprehend things absent as if they were present, and things unseen, as if they were visible before our eyes; you may hence understand the nature of Christianity, and what it is to be a true Believer. Verily, it is another matter than the dreaming, self-deceiving world imagineth. Hypocrites think that they are Christians indeed, because they have entertained a superficial opinion, that there is a Christ, an immortality of souls, a Resurrection, a Heaven and a Hell; though their lives bear witness, that this is not a living, and effectual faith; but it is their sensitive faculties and interest that are predominant, and are the bias of their hearts. Alas, a little observation may tell them, that notwithstanding their most confident pretensions to Christianity, they are utterly unacquainted with the Christian life. Would they live as they do, in worldly cares, and pampering of the flesh, and neglect of God and the life to come, if they saw the things which they say they do believe? Could they be sensual, ungodly and secure, if they had a faith that served instead of sight?

Would you know who it is that is the Christian indeed? 1. He is one that liveth (in some measure) as if he saw the Lord: Believing in that God that dwelleth in the inaccessible light, that cannot be seen by mortal eyes, he liveth as before his face. He speaks, he prays, he thinks, he deals with men, as if he saw the Lord stand by. No wonder therefore if he do it with reverence and holy fear. No wonder if he make lighter of the smiles or frowns of mortal man, than others do that see none higher; and if he observe not the luster of worldly dignity, or fl • shly beauty, wisdom or vain-glory, before the transcendent incomprehensible light, to which the Sun itself is darkness. When he awaketh he is still with God, Psal. 134.8. He sets the Lord always before him, because he is at his right hand, he is not moved, Psal. 16.8. And therefore the life of Believers is oft called, a walking with God, and a walking bef • re God, as Gen. 5.22, 24. & 6.9. & 17.1. in the case of Enoch, Noah, and Abraham. All the day doth he wait on God, Psal. 25▪5. Imagine yourselves what manner of person he must be that sees the Lord ; and conclude that such (in his measure) is the true believer. For by faith he seeth him that is invisible (to the eye of sense) and therefore can forsake the glory and pleasures of the world, and feareth not the wrath of Princes, as it's said of Moses, Heb. 11.27.

2. The Believer is one that liveth on a Christ whom he never saw, and trusteth in him, adhereth to him, acknowledgeth his benefits, loveth him, and r • joyceth in him, as if he had seen him with his eyes. This is the faith which Peter calls more precious than perishing gold ; that maketh us love him whom we have not seen, and in whom th • ugh now we see him not, yet believing we rejoice, with unspeakable and glorious joy, 1 Pet. 1.8. Christ dwelleth in h • s heart by faith ; not only by his Spirit ; but objectively ; as our dearest absent friend, doth dwell in our estimation and affection, Ephes. 3.17. O that the miserable Infidels of the world, had the eyes, the hearts, the experiences of the true believer! Then they that with Thomas tell those that have seen him, [ Except I may see and feel, I will not believe ] will be forced to cry out, [ My Lord and my God, ] Joh. 20.25, &c.

3. A Believer is one that judgeth of the man by his invisible inside, and not by outward appearances with a fleshly worldly judgment. He seeth by faith a greater ugliness in sin, than in any the most deformed monster. When the unbeliever saith, what harm is it to please my flesh, in ease, or pride, or meat and drink, or lustful wantonness? the believer takes it as the question of a fool, that should ask [what harm is it to take a dram of Mercury or Arsenick?] He seeth the vicious evil, and foreseeth the consequent penal evil, by the eye of faith. And therefore it is that he pitieth the ungodly, when they pity not themselves, and speaks to them oft with a tender heart in compassion of their misery, and perhaps weeps over them (as Paul, Phil. 3.18, 19.) when he cannot prevail; when they weep not for themselves, but hate his love, and scorn his pity, and bid him keep his lamentations for himself; because they see not what he sees.

He seat • also the inward beauty of the Saints, (as it shineth forth in the holiness of their lives) and through all their sordid poverty and contempt, beholdeth the image of God upon them. For he judgeth not of sin or holiness as they now appear to the d • stracted world; but as they will be judged of at the day which he foreseeth; when sin will be the shame, and holiness the honored and d • sired state.

He can see Christ in his poor despised members, and love God in those that are made as the scorn and off-scou • ing of all things, by the malignant unbelieving world. He admireth the excellency and happiness of those, that are made the laughing-stock of the ungodly: and accounteth the Saints the most excellent on earth, Psal. 16.2. and had rather be one of their communion in rags, than sit with Princes that are naked within, and void of the true and durable glory. He judgeth of men as he perceiveth them to have more or less of Christ. The worth of a man is not obvious to the sense. You see his stature, complexion and his cloths ; but as you see not his learning or skill in any Art whatsoever, so you see not his grace and heavenly mind. As the soul itself, so the sinful deformity, and the holy beauty of it, are to us invisible, and perceived only by their fruits, and by the eye of faith, which seeth things as God reveals them. And therefore in the eyes of a true Believer, a vile person is contemned; but he honoreth those that fear the Lord, Psal. 15.4.

4. A true Believer doth seek a happiness which he never saw, and that with greater estimation and resolution, than he seeks the most excellent things that he hath seen. In all his prayers, his labors, and his sufferings, it is an unseen Glory that he seeks: he seeth not the Glory of God, nor the glorified Redeemer, nor the world of Angels, and perfected spirits of the just: but he knoweth by faith, that such a God, such a Glory, such a world as this there is, as certain as if his eyes had seen it. And therefore he provides, he lives, he hopes, he waits, for this unseen state of spiritual bliss, contemning all the wealth and glory, that sight can reach in comparison thereof. He believeth what he shall see ; and therefore strives that he may see it. It's something above the Sun, and all that mortal eyes can see, which is the end, the hope, the portion of a believer, without which all is nothing to him; and for which he trades and travels here, as worldlings do for worldly things, Matth. 6.20, 21. Col. 3.1. Phil. 3.20.

5. A true Believer doth all his life prepare for a day that is yet to come, and for an account of all the passages of his life, though he hath no • hing but the Word of God, to assure him of it. And therefore he lives as one that is hasting to the presence of his Judge; and he contriveth his affairs, and disposeth of his worldly riches, as one that looks to hear of it again, and as one that remembereth the Judge is at the door, James 5.9. He rather asketh, [what life, what words, what actions, what way of using my estate and interest, will be sweetest to me in the review, and will be best at last when I must accordingly receive my doom?] than [what is most pleasant to my flesh? and what will ingratiate me most with men? and what will accommodate me best at present? and set me highest in the world?] And therefore it is, that he pitieth the ungodly even in the height of their prosperity; and is so earnest (though it offend them) to procure their recovery, as knowing that how secure soever they are now, they must give an account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead, 1 Pet. 4.5. and that then the case will be altered with the presumptuous world.

6. Lastly, A true believer is careful to prevent a threatened misery which he never felt ; and is awakened by holy fear to fly from the wrath to come, and is industrious to escape that place of torment which he never saw, as if he had seen it with his eyes. When he heareth but the sound of the trumpet, he takes warning that he may save his soul, Ezek. 33.4. The evils that are here felt and seen, are not so dreadful to him, as those that he never saw or felt. He is not so careful and resolute, to avoid the ruin of his estate or name, or to avoid the plague, or sword, or famine, or the scorching flames, or death, or torments, as he is to avoid the endless torments, which are threatened by the righteous God. It is a greater misery in his esteem, to be really undone forever, than seemingly only for a time, and to be cast off by God, than by all the world; and to lie in Hell, than to suffer any temporal calamity. And therefore he fears it more, and doth more to avoid it; and is more cast down by the fears of God's displeasure, than by the feelings of these present sufferings. As Noah did for his preservation from the threatened deluge, so doth the true Believer for his preservation from everlasting wrath, Heb. 11.7. [ By faith Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an Ark, to the saving of his house, by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness, which is by faith.] God first giveth warning of the flood: Noah believeth it: not with a lifeless, but a working faith: that first moved in him a self-preserving fear: This fear moveth Noah to obey the Lord in the use of means, and to prepare the Ark; and all this was, to save himself and his house from a flood, that was as yet unseen, and of which in nature there was no appearance. Thus doth God warn the sinful world, of the day of judgment, and the fire that is unquenchable; and true believers take his warning ; and believing that which they cannot see, by fear they are moved to fly to Christ, and use his means to scape the threatened calamity. By this they become the heirs of that Righteousness which is by faith, and condemn the unbelieving careless world, that take not the warning, and use not the remedy.

By this time you may see that the Life of Faith is quite another thing, than the lifeless opinion of multitudes that call themselves believers. To say [ I believe there is a God, a Christ, a Heaven, a Hell, ] is as easy as it is common. But the faith of the ungodly is but an ineffectual dream. To dream that you are fighting, wins no victories: To dream that you are eating, gets no strength. To dream that you are running, rid • no ground: To dream that you are plowing, or sowing, or reaping, procureth but a fruitless harvest. And to dream that you are Princes, may consist with beggary. If you do anymore than dream of Heaven and Hell, how is it that you stir not, and make it not appear by the diligence of your lives, and the fervor of your duties, and the seriousness of your endeavors, that such wonderful inexpressible overpowering things, are indeed the matters of your belief? As you love your souls, take heed lest you take an image of faith to be the thing itself. Faith sets on work the powers of the soul, for the obtaining of that joy, and the escaping of that misery which you believe. But the image of faith in self-deceivers, neither warms nor works: it conquereth no difficulties; it stirs not up to faithful duty. It's blind, and therefore seeth not God ; and how then should he be feared and loved? I • seeth not Hell, and therefore the senseless soul goes on as fearlessly and merrily to the unquenchable fire, as if he were in the safest way. This image of faith annihilateth the most potent objects, as to any due impression on the soul. God is as no God, and Heaven as no H • aven, to these imaginary Christians. If a Prince be in the room, an image reverenceth him not: If music and feasting be there, an image finds no pleasure in them. If fire and sword be there, an image fears them not. You may perceive by the senseless neglectful carriage of ungodly men, that they see not by faith the God that they should love and fear; the Heaven that they should seek and wait for; or the Hell that they should with all possible care avoid. He is indeed the true Believer that (allowing the difference of degrees) doth pray as if he saw the Lord; and speak and live as always in his presence; and redeem his time as if he were to die tomorrow, or as one that seeth death approach, and ready to lay hands upon him; that begs and cries to God in prayer, as one that foreseeth the day of judgment; and the endless joy or misery that followeth: that bestirreth him for everlasting life, as one that seeth Heaven and Hell, by the eye of faith. Faith is a serious apprehension, and causeth a serious conversation: for it is instead of sight and presence.

From all this you may easily and certainly infer, 1. That true faith is a Jewel, rare and precious: and not so common as nominal careless Christians think. What say they, Are we not all believers? will you make Infidels of all that are not Saints? are none Christians, but those that live so strictly? Answer, I know they are not Infidels by profession: but what they are indeed, and what God will take them for, you may soon perceive, by comparing the description of faith, with the inscription legible on their lives. It's common to say, I do believe: but is it common to find men, pray and live as those that do believe indeed? It is both in works of charity and of piety, that a living faith will show itself. I will not therefore contend about the name: If you are ungodly, unjust, or uncharitable, and yet will call yourselves Believers, you may keep the name, and see whether it will save you. Have you forgotten how this case is determined by the holy Ghost himself, James 2.14, &c. What doth it profit my Brethren, if a man say, he hath faith, and hath not works? Can faith save him? Faith if it hath not works is dead, being alone. Thou believest that there is one God: thou dost well: the Devils also believe and tremble. If such a belief be it, that thou gloriest in, it's not denied thee! But wilt thou know, oh vain man, that faith without works is dead? &c. Is there life where there is no motion? Had you that Faith that is instead of sight, it would make you more solicitous for the things unseen, than you are for the visible trifles of this world.

2. And hence you may observe, that most true Believers are weak in Faith. Alas, how far do we all fall short of the love, and zeal, and care, and diligence, which we should have if we had but once beheld the things which we do believe? Alas, how dead are our affections? how flat are our duties? how cold, and how slow are our endeavors? how unprofitable are our lives, in comparison of what one hours sight of Heaven and Hell would make them be? O what a comfortable converse would it be, if I might but join in prayer, praise, and holy conference one day or hour, with a person that had seen the Lord, and been in Heaven, and born a part in the Angelical Praises! Were our Congregations composed of such persons, what manner of worship would they perform to God? How unlike would their heavenly ravishing expressions be to these our sleepy heartless duties? Were Heaven open to the view of all this Congregation while I am speaking to you, or when we are speaking in prayer and praise to God, imagine yourselves what a change it would make upon the best of us in our services! What apprehensions, what affections, what resolutions it would raise! and what a posture it would cast us all into! And do we not all profess to believe these things, as revealed from Heaven by the infallible God? Do we not say, that such a Divine Revelation is as sure as if the things were in themselves laid open to our sight? Why then are we no more affected with them? Why are we no more transported by them? Why do they no more command our souls, and stir up our faculties to the most vigorous and lively exercise? and call them off from things that are not to us considerable, nor fit to have one glance of the eye of our observation, nor a regardful thought, nor the least affection, unless as they subserve these greater things? When you observe how much, in yourselves and others, the frame of your souls in holy duty, and the tenor of your lives towards God and man, do differ from what they would be, if you had seen the things that you believe, let it mind you of the great imperfection of faith, and humble us all in the sense of our imb • cility. For though I know that the most perfect Faith, is not apt to raise such high affections in degree, as shall be raised by the beatifical vision in the glorified, and as present intuition now would raise, if we could attain it; yet seeing Faith hath as sure an Object and Revelation as sight itself, though the manner of apprehension be less affecting, it should do much more with us than it doth, and bring us nearer to such affections and resolutions, as sight would cause.

Use 2. If Faith be given us to make things to come as if they were at hand, and things unseen as if we saw them, you may see from hence, 1. The reason of that holy seriousness of Believers, which the ungodly want. 2. And the reason why the ungodly want it. 3. And why they wonder at, and distaste and deride this serious diligence of the Saints.

1. Would you make it any matter of wonder, for men to be more careful of their souls, more fervent in their requests to God, more fearful of offending him, and more laborious in all holy preparation for eternal life, than the holiest and precisest person that you know in all the world, if so be that Heaven and Hell were seen to them? Would you not rather wonder at the dullness and coldness, and negligence of the best, and that they are not far more holy and diligent than they are, if you and they did see these things? Why then do you not cease your wondering at their diligence? Do you not know that they are men, that have seen the Lord, whom they daily serve? and seen the glory which they daily seek? and seen the place of torments which they fly from? By Faith in the glass of Divine Revelations they have seen them.

2. And the reason why the careless world are not as diligent, and holy as Believers, is because they have not this eye of Faith, and never saw those powerful objects, that Believers see. Had you their eyes, you would have their hearts and lives. O that the Lord would but illuminate you, and give you such a sight of the things unseen, as every true Believer hath! What a happy change would it make upon you? Then instead of your deriding or opposing it, we should have your company in the holy path: You would then be such yourselves, as you now deride. If you saw what they see, you would do as they do. When the heavenly light had appeared unto Saul, he ceaseth persecuting, and enquires what Christ would have him to do, that he might be such a one as he had persecuted: And when the scales fell from his eyes, he falls to prayer, and gets among the Believers whom he had persecuted, and laboreth and suffereth more than they.

3. But till this light appear to your darkened souls, you cannot see the reasons of a holy heavenly life: and therefore you will think it hypocrisy, or pride, or fancy, and imagination, or the foolishness of cracked • brained self-conceited men. If you see a man do reverence to a Prince, and the Prince himself were invisible to you, would you not take him for a mad man; and say that he cringed to the stools or chairs, or bowed to a post, or complemented with his shadow? If you saw a man's action in eating and drinking, and see not the meat and drink itself, would you not think him mad? If you heard men laugh, and hear not so much as the voice of him that gives the jest, would you not imagine them to be brain-sick? If you see men dance, and hear not the music; if you see a Labourer threshing, or reaping, or mowing, and see no corn or grass before him; if you see a Soldier fighting for his life, and see no enemy that he spends his strokes upon, will you not take all these for men distracted? Why this is the case between you and the true Believers. You see them reverently worship God, but you see not the Majesty which they worship, as they do: You see them as busy for the saving of their souls, as if an hundred lives lay on it; but you see not the Hell from which they fly, nor the Heaven they seek: and therefore you marvel why they make so much ado about the matters of their salvation; and why they cannot do as others, and make as light of Christ and Heaven, as they that desire to be excused, and think they have more needful things to mind. But did you see with the eyes of a true Believer, and were the amazing things that God hath revealed to us, but open to your sight, how quickly would you be satisfied, and sooner mock at the diligence of a drowning man, that is striving for his life, or at the labor of the City, when they are busily quenching the flames, in their habitations, than mock at them that are striving for the everlasting life, and praying and laboring against the ever-burning flames?

How soon would you turn your admiration, against the stupidity of the careless world, and wonder more that ever men that hear the Scriptures, and see with their eyes the works of God, can make so light of matters of such unspeakable eternal consequence? Did you but see Heaven and Hell, it would amaze you to think that ever many, yea so many, and so seeming wise, should willfully run into everlasting fire, and sell their souls at so low a rate, as if it were as easy to be in Hell as in an Ale-house, and Heaven were no better than a beastly lust? O then with what astonishment would you think! [Is this the fire that sinners do so little fear? Is this the glory that is so neglected?] You would then see that the madness of the ungodly is the wonder.

Use 3. By this time I should think that some of your own Consciences have prevented me, in the Use of Examination, which I am next to call you to. I hope while I have been holding you the glass, you have not turned away your faces, nor shut your eyes: But that you have been judging yourselves by the light which hath been set up before you. Have not some of your consciences said by this time [If this be the nature and use of Faith, to make things unseen, as if we saw them, what a desolate case then is my soul in? how void of Faith? how full of Infidelity? how far from the truth and power of Christianity? How dangerously have I long deceived myself in calling myself a true Christian, and pretending to be a true Believer? When I never knew the life of Faith but took a dead opinion, bred only by education, and the custom of the Country instead of it; little did I think that I had been an Infidel at the heart, while I so confidently laid claim to the name of a Believer! Alas, how far have I been from living, as one that seeth the things that he professeth to Believe? ] If some of your consciences be not thus convinced, and perceive not yet your want of faith, I fear it is because they are seared, or asleep.

But if yet conscience have not begun to plead this cause against you, let me begin to plead it with your consciences: Are you Believers? Do you live the life of Faith, or not? Do you live upon things that are unseen, or upon the present visible baits of sensuality? That you may not turn away your ears, or hear me with a sluggish senseless mind, let me tell you first, how nearly it concerneth you, to get this Question soundly answered; and then, that you may not be deceived, let me help you toward the true resolution.

1. And for the first, you may perceive by what is said, that saving Faith is not so common, as those that know not the nature of it, do imagine. [ All men have not faith, ] 2 Thes. 3.2. O what abundance do deceive themselves with Names, and shows, and a dead Opinion, and customary Religion ▪ and take these for the life of faith!

2. Till you have this faith, you have no special interest in Christ. It is only Believers that are united to him, and are his living Members : and it is by faith that he dwelleth in our hearts, and that we live in him, Ephes. 3.17. Gal. 2.20. In vain do you boast of Christ, if you are not true Believers. You have no part or portion in him: None of his special Benefits are yours, till you have this living working Faith.

3. You are still in the state of enmity to God, and unreconciled to him, while you are unbelievers. For you can have no peace with God ▪ nor a •• ess unto his favor, but by Christ, Rom. 5.1, 2, 3, 4. Ephes. 2.14, 15, 17. And therefore you must come by faith to Christ, before you can come by Christ unto the Father, as those that have a special interest in his love.

4. Till you have this Faith, you are under the guilt and load of all your sins, and under the curse and condemnation of the Law; For there is no Justification or forgiveness, but by Faith, Act. 26.18. Rom. 4, & 5, &c.

5. Till you have this sound Belief of things unseen, you will be carnal minded, and have a carnal end to all your actions, which will make those to be evil, that materially are good, and those to be fleshly that materially are holy: Without Faith it is impossible to please God, Rom. 8.5, 8, 9. Prov. 28.9. Heb. 11.6.

6. Lastly, Till you have this living Faith, you have no right to Heaven, nor could be saved if you die this hour. [ Whoever believeth shall not perish but have everlasting life: He that believeth on him, is not condemned: but he that believeth not, i • condemned already: He that believeth on the Son, hath everlasting life: and he that b • lieveth not the Son, shall not see life; but the wrath of God abid • th on him, Joh. 3.16, 18, 36.

You see, if you love yourselves, it concerneth you, to try whether you are true Believers: Unless you take it for an indifferent thing, whether you live forever in Heaven or Hell ; it's best for you to put the question close to your consciences betimes. Have you that Faith that serves instead of sight? Do you carry within you the evidence of things unseen, and the substance of the things which you say you hope for? Did you know in what manner this question must be put and determined at judgment, and how all your comfort will then depend upon the answer, and how near that day is, when you must all be sentenced to Heaven or Hell, as you are found to be Believers or Unbelievers, it would make you hearken to my counsel, and presently try whether you have a saving Faith.

2. But lest you be deceived in your trial, and lest you mistake me as if I tried the weak by the measure of the strong, and laid all your comfort upon such strong affections, and high degrees, as fight itself would work within you, I shall briefly tell you, how you may know whether you have any faith that's true and saving, though in the least degree. Though none of us are affected to that height as we should be, if we had the sight of all that we do believe, yet all that have any saving belief of invisible things, will have these four signs of faith within them.

1. A sound belief of things unseen, will cause a practical estimation of them, and that above all earthly things. A glimpse of the heavenly glory as in a glass, will cause the soul deliberately to say, [This is the chief desirable felicity; this is the Crown, the Pearl, the Treasure; nothing but this can serve my turn. It will debase the greatest pleasures, or riches, or honors of the world in your esteem. How contemptible will they seem, while you see God stand by, and Heaven as it were set open to your view ; you will see there's little cause to envy the prosperous servants of the world; you will pity them, as miserable in their mirth, and bound in the fetters of their folly and concupiscence; and as strangers to all solid joy and honor. You will be moved with some compassion to them in their misery, when they are braving it among men, and domineering for a little while; and you will think, alas poor man! Is this all thy glory! Hast thou no better wealth, no higher honor, no sweeter pleasures than these husks? With such a practical judgment as you value gold above dirt, and jewels above common stones ; you will value Heaven above all the riches and pleasures of this world, if you have indeed a living saving faith, Phil. 3.7, 8, 9.

2. A sound belief of the things unseen will habitually incline your wills to embrace them, with consent and complacence, and resolution, above and against those worldly things, that would be set above them, and preferred before them. If you are true believers, you have made your choice, you have fix • your hopes, you have taken up your resolutions, that God must be your portion, or you can have none that's worth the having: that Christ must be your Savior, or you cannot be saved: and therefore you are at a point with all things else: they may be your Helps, but not your Happiness: you are resolved on what Rock to build, and where to cast anchor, and at what port and prize your life shall aim. You are resolved what to seek and trust to God or none: Heaven or nothing: Christ or none ; is the voice of your rooted, stable resolutions. Though you are full of fears sometimes whether you shall be accepted, and have a part in Christ, or no? and whether ever you shall attain the Glory which you aim at; yet you are off all other hopes; having seen an end of all perfections, and read vanity and vexation written upon all creatures, even on the most flattering state on earth, and are unchangeably resolved not to change your Master, and your hopes, and your holy course, for any other life or hopes. Whatever come of it you are resolved that here you will venture all: Knowing that you have no other game to play, at which you are not sure to lose, and that you can lay out your love, and care, and labor on nothing else that will answer your expectations; nor make any other bargain whatsoever▪ but what you are sure to be utterly undone by, Psal. 73.25. & 4.6, 7. Mat. 6.20, 21. & 13.45, 46. Luke 18.33.

3. A sound belief of things invisible, will be so far an effectual spring of a holy life, as that you will [ seek first the Kingdom of God, and its Righteousness, ] Mat. 6.33. and not in your Resolutions only, but in your Practices, the bent of your lives will be for God, and your invisible felicity. It is not possible that you should see by faith, the wonders of the world to come, and yet prefer this world before it. A dead opinionative belief, may stand with a worldly fleshly life ; but a working faith will make you stir, and make the things of God your business: and the labor and industry of your lives will show whether you soundly believe the things unseen.

4. If you savingly believe the invisible things, you will purchase them at any rate, and hold them faster than your worldly accommodations ; and will suffer the loss of all things visible, rather than you will cast away your hopes of the glory which you never saw. A human faith and bare opinion, will not hold fast when trial comes. For such men take Heaven but for a reserve, because they must leave earth against their wills, and are loath to go to Hell: but they are resolved to hold the world as long as they can, because their faith apprehendeth no such satisfying certainty of the things unseen, as will encourage them to let go all that they see, and have in sensible possession. But the weakest faith that's true and saving, doth habitually dispose the soul, to let go all the hopes and happiness of this world, when they are inconsistent with our spiritual hopes and happiness, Luke 14.33.

And now I have gone before you with the light, and shown you what a Believer is, will you presently consider how 〈◊〉 your hearts and lives agree to this description? To know [ Whether you live by faith or not ] is consequentially to know▪ whether God or the world be your portion and felicity ; and so whether you are the heirs of Heaven or Hell. And is not this a question that you are most nearly concerned in? O therefore for your souls sakes, and as ever you love your everlasting peace, Examine yourselves, whether you are in the faith or not? Know you not that Christ is in you (by faith) except you be reprobates? 2 Cor. 13.5. will you hearken now as long to your consciences, as you have done to me? As you have heard me telling you, what is the nature of a living, saving faith will you hearken to your consciences, while they impartially tell you, whether you have this life of faith, or not? It may be known if you are willing, and diligent, and impartial: I • you search on purpose as men that would know whether they are alive or dead, and whether they shall live or die forever: and not as men that would be flattered and deceived, and are resolved to think well of their state, be it true or false.

Let conscience tell you: What eyes do you see by, for the conduct of the chief employment of your lives? Is it by the eye of sense, or faith? I take it for granted that it's by the eye of Reason. But is it by Reason corrupted and by • ssed by sense, or is it by Reason elevated by faith? What Country is it that your hearts converse in? Is it in Heaven or Earth? What company is it that you solace yourselves with? Is it with Angels and Saints? Do you walk with them in the Spirit, and join your echo's to their triumphant praises, and say, Amen, when by faith you hear them ascribing honor, and praise, and glory to the ancient of days, the Omnipotent Jehovah, that is, and that was, and is to come? Do you fetch your Joyes from Heaven or Earth? from things unseen or seen? things future or present? things hoped for, or things possessed? What Garden yieldeth you your sweetest flowers? Whence is the food, that your hopes and comforts live upon? Whence are the spirits and cordials that revive you; when a frowning world doth cast you into a fainting fit, or swoun? Where is it that you repose your souls for Rest, when sin or sufferings have made you weary? Deal truly, Is it in Heaven or Earth? Which world do you take for your pilgrimage, and which for your home? I do not ask you, where you are, but where you dwell? not where are your persons, but where are your hearts? In a word, Are you in good earnest, when you say, you believe a Heaven and Hell? And do you think, and speak, and pray, and live, as those that do indeed believe it? Do you spend your time, and choose your condition of life, and dispose of your affairs, and answer temptations to worldly things, as those that are serious in their belief? Speak out; do you live the life of faith upon things unseen? or the life of sense on things that you behold? Deal truly; for your endless • oy or sorrow doth much depend on it. The life of faith is the certain passage to the life of glory. The fleshly life on things here seen, is the certain way to endless misery. If you live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye by the spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live, Rom. 8.13. Be not d • ceived: God is not mocked • for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap: For he that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption: but he that soweth to the spirit, shall of the spirit reap everlasting life, Gal. 6.7, 8. If you would know where you must live forever, know how, and for what, and upon what it is, that you live here.

Use 4. Having inquired whether you are Believers, I am next to ask you, what you will be for the time to come? will you live upon things seen or unseen? While you arrogate the name and honor of being Christians, will you bethink you what Christianity is? and will you be indeed what you say you are, and would be thought to be? Oh that you would give credit to the Word of God that the God of Heaven might be but heartily believed by you! And that you would but take his Word to be as sure as sense? and what he hath told you is or will be, to be as certain as if you saw it with your eyes? Oh what manner of persons would you then be? how carefully and fruitfully would you speak and live? How impossible were it then that you should be careless and profane? And here that I may by seriousness bring you to be serious, in so serious a business, I shall first put a few suppositions to you, about the invisible objects of faith ; and then I shall put some applicatory questions to you, concerning your own resolutions and practice thereupon.

1. Suppose you saw the Lord in glory continually before you ; When you are hearing, praying, talking, j • sting, eating, drinking, and when you are tempted to any willful sin: Suppose you saw the Lord stand over you, as verily as you see a man! (As you might do if your eyes could see him: for it's most certain that he is still present with you) suppose you saw but such a glimpse of his back parts as Moses did, Exod. 34. when God put him into a cleft of the Rock, and covered him while he passed by ( Chap. 33.23.) when the face of Moses shined with the sight, that he was fain to veil it from the people, Exod. 34.33, 34, 35. Or if you had seen but what the Prophet saw, Isa. 6.1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. when he beheld the Lord upon a Throne, high and lifted up, &c. and heard the Seraphim cry, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory. When he said, Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips! for mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hosts. Or if you had seen but what Job saw, Job 42.5, 6. when he said, [ I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth thee; wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. ] What course would you take, what manner of persons would you be after such a sight as this? If you had seen but Christ app •• ring in his glory, as the Disciples on the holy Mount, Matth. 17. or as Paul saw him at his conversion, when he was smitten to the earth, Acts 9. or as John saw him, Rev. 1.13. where he saith [ He was clothed with a garment down to the foo • , and girt with a golden girdle; his head and his hairs were white like Wooll or 〈◊〉 , and his eyes were as a flame of fire, and his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace, and his voice as the sound of many waters; and he had in his right hand seven Stars, and out of his mouth went a sharp two edged Sword, and his countenance was as the Sun shineth in his strength: and when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead; and he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, fear not, I am the first and the last; I am • e that liveth and was dead; and behold I am alive for evermore, Amen, and have the keys of hell and death. ] What do you think you should be and do, if you had seen but such a sight as this? Would you be godly or ungodly after it? As sure as you live, and see one another, God always seeth you: He seeth your secret filthiness, and deceit, and malice, which you think is hid; he seeth you in the dark: the locking of your doors, the d • a • ing of your curtains, the setting of the Sun, or the putting out of the Candle, doth hide nothing from him that is Omniscient, Psal. 94.8, 9. [ Understand oh ye brutish among the people! and ye fools, when will ye be wise? He that planted the ear, shall be not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see? ] The lust and filthiness, and covetousness, and envy, and vanity of your very thoughts are as open to his view as the Sun at noon. And therefore you may well suppose him present that cannot be absent ; and you may suppose you saw him that still seeth you, and whom you must see. Oh what a change, a glimpse of the glory of his Majesty, would make in this Assembly! Oh what amazements, what passionate workings of soul would it excite! Were it but an Angel that did thus appear to you, what manner of hearers would you be? how serious? how affectionate? how sensible? And yet are you Believers, and have none of this? when faith makes unseen things to be as seen? If thou have faith indeed, thou seest him that is invisible: thou speakest to him: thou hearest him in his Word: thou seest him in his Works: thou walkest with him: he is the life of thy comforts, thy converse and thy life.

2. Suppose you had seen the matters revealed in the Gospel to your faith, as to what is past and done already? If you had seen the deluge and the Ark, and preservation of one righteous family: the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah with fire from Heaven; and the saving of Lot whose righte ••• soul was grieved at their sins, and hunted after as a prey to their ungodly rage, because he would have hindered them from transgressing? Suppose you had seen the opening of the Red Sea, the passage of the Israelites, the drowning of Pharaoh and his Egyptians ; the Manna and the Q • ails that fell from Heaven, the flaming Mount, with the terrible Thunder, when God delivered the Law to Moses ! what manner of people would you have been? what lives would you have led, after such sights, as all or any one of these? Suppose you had seen Christ in his state of Incarnation, in his examples of lowliness, meekness, contempt of all the glory and vanities of this world, and had heard him speak his heavenly Doctrine with power and authority, as never man spake. Suppose you had seen him heal the blind, the lame, the sick, and raise the dead; and seen him after all this made the scorn of sinners, buffeted, spit upon, when they had crowned him with thorns, and arrayed him gorgeously in scorn; and then nailed between malefactors on a Cross, and pierced, and die a shameful death, and this for such as you and I. Suppose you had seen the Sun darkened without any eclipse, the Vail of the Temple rent, the Earth tremble; the Angels terrifying the Keepers, and Christ rise again! Suppose you had been among the Disciples when he appeared in the midst of them, and with Thomas, had put your fingers into his wounded side: and had seen him walking on the waters, and at last seen him ascending up to Heaven. Suppose you had seen when the Holy Ghost came down on the Disciples in the similitude of cloven tongues, and had heard them speak in the various languages of the Nations, and seen the variety of Miracl • s, by which they convinced the unbelieving world: What persons would you have been? what lives would you have led, if you had been eye-witnesses of all these things? And do you not profess to believe all this? and that these things are as certain truths, as if you had seen them? why then doth not your belief affect you, or command you more? why doth it not do what sight would do, in some good measure, if it were but a lively saving faith indeed that serveth instead of sense? Yea I must tell you, Faith must do more with you, in this case, than the sight of Christ alone, could do, or the sight of his Miracles did on most. For many that saw him, and saw his works, & heard his Word, yet perished in their unbelief.

3. Suppose you saw the everlasting Glory which Christ hath purchased and prepared for his Saints: That you had been once with Paul, wrapped up into the third Heavens, and seen the things that are unutterable: would you not after that have rather lived like Paul, and undergone his sufferings and contempt, than to have lived like the brain-sick brutish world? If you had seen what Stephen saw before his death, Acts 7.55, 56. the Glory of God, and Christ standing at his right hand ; If you had seen the thousands and millions of holy glorious spirits, that are continually attending the Majesty of the Lord; If you had seen the glorified spirits of the just, that were once in flesh, despised by the blind ungodly world, while they waited on God in faith, and holiness, and hope, for that blessed Crown which now they were: If you had felt one moment of their joys; if you had seen them shine as the Sun in glory, and made like unto the Angels of God; if you had heard them sing the song of the Lamb, and the joyful Hallelujahs, and praise to their eternal King: what would you be, and what would you resolve on after such a sight as this? If the rich man Luke 16. had seen Lazarus in Abraham's bosom in the midst of his bravery, and honor, and feasting, and other sensual delights, as afterwards he saw it when he was tormented in the flames of Hell, do you think such a sight would not have cooled his mirth and jollity, and helped him to understand the nature and value of his earthly felicity; and have proved a more effectual argument than a despised Preachers words? at least to have brought him to a freer exercise of his Reason, in a sober consideration of his state and ways? Had you seen one hour what Abraham, David, Paul, and all the Saints now see, while sin and flesh doth keep us here in the dark, what work do you think yourselves it would make upon your hearts and lives?

4 Suppose you saw the face of Death, and that you were now lying under the power of some mortal sickness, Physicians having forsaken you, and said, There is no hope: Your friends weeping over you, and preparing your winding sheet and coffin, digging your graves, and casting up the skulls, and bones, and earth, that must again be cast in to be your covering and company: Suppose you saw a Messenger from God to tell you that you must die tomorrow ; or heard but what one of your predecessors heard, Luke 12.20. Thou fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee: then whose shall these things be that thou hast provided? ] How would such a Message work with you? would it leave you as you are? If you heard a voice from God this night in your chamber in the dark, telling you, that this i • the last night that you shall live on earth, and before tomorrow your souls must be in another world, and come before the dreadful God: what would be the effect of such a Message? And do you not verily believe that all this will very shortly be? Nay, do you not know without believing, that you must die, and leave your worldly glory? and that all your pleasures and contents on earth, will be as if they had never been, (and much worse!) O wonderful! that a change so sure, so great, so near, should no more affect you, and no more be fore-thought on, and no more prepared for! and that you be not awakened by so full and certain a fore-knowledge, to be in good sadness for eternal life, as you seem to be when death is at hand!

5. Suppose you saw the great and dreadful day of Judgment, as it i • described by Christ himself in Matth. 25. [ When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all his holy Angels with him, and shall sit upon his glorious Throne, and all Nations shall be gathered before him, and he shall separate them one from another, as a Shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats, and shall set the sheep on his right hand, and the goats on his left.] v. 31, 32, 33. and shall sentence the righteous to eternal life, and the rest into everlasting punishment. If you did now behold the glory and terror of that great appearance, how the Saints will be magnified, and rejoice, and be justified against all the accusations of Satan, and calumnies of wicked men; and how the ungodly then would fain deny the words and deeds that now they glory in; and what horror and confusion will then overwhelm those wretched souls, that now out-face the Messengers of the Lord? Had you seen them trembling before the Lord, that now are braving it out in the pride and arrogancy of their hearts: Had you heard how then they will change their tune, and wish they had never known their sins: and wish they had lived in greater holiness than those whom they derided for it: What would you say, and do, and be, after such an amazing fight as this? Would you sport it out in sin as you have done? Would you take no better care for your salvation? If you had seen those sayings out of the holy Ghost fulfilled. Jude 14, 15.2 Thes. 1.7, 8, 9. [ When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power. ] What mind do you think you should be of? What course would you take, if you had but seen this dreadful day? Could you go on to think, and speak, and live as sensually, stupidly and negligently as now you do? 2 Pet. 3.10, 11, 12. [ The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the bravens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent beat; the earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burnt up: Is it possible soundly to believe such a day, so sure, so near, and no more regard it, nor make ready for it, than the carel • ss and ungodly do?

6. Suppose at that day you had heard the Devil accusing you of all the sins that you have committed; and set them out in the most odious aggravations, and call for justice against you to your Judge: If you heard him pleading all those sins against you that now he daily tempts you to commit, and now maketh you believe are harmless, or small inconsiderable things: If you heard him saying, At such a time this sinner refused grace, neglected Christ, despised Heaven, and preferred Earth: at such a time he derided godliness, and made a mock of the holy Word and Counsels of the Lord: at such a time he profaned the name of God, he coveted his neighbors wealth; he cherished thoughts of envy or of lust; he was drunk, or gluttonous, or committed fornication, and he was never thoroughly converted by renewing grace, and therefore he is an heir of H • ll, and belongs to me: I ruled him, and I must have him.] What would you think of a life of sin, if once you had heard such accusations as these? How would you deal by the next temptation, if you had heard what use the tempter will hereafter make of all your sins?

7. What if you had seen the damned in their misery, and heard them cry out of the folly of their • mpenitent careless lives; and wishing as Dives, Luke 16. that their friends on earth might have one sent from the dead, to warn them that they come not to that place of torment (I speak to men that say they are believers) what would you do upon such a fight? If you had heard them there torment themselves in the remembrance of the time they lost, the mercy they neglected, the grace resisted, and wish it were all to do again, and that they might once more be tried with another life. If you saw how the world is altered with those, that once were as proud and confident as others, what do you think such a sight would do with you? And why then doth the believing of it do no more, when the • h • ng is certain?

8. Once more; suppose that in your temptations you saw the tempter appearing to you, and pleading with you as he doth by his inward suggestions, or by the mouths of his instruments. If you saw him, and heard him h • ssing you on to sin, persuading you to gluttony, drunkenness, or unclean • ess? If the Devil appeared to you, and led you to the place of lust, and offered you the harlot, or the cup of excess and urged you to swear, or curse, or ra • l, or scorn at a holy life; would not the sight of the Angler ma • his g • me, and 〈◊〉 your courage, and spoil your sport, and turn your stom • chs? would you be drunk, or filthy, if you saw him stand by you? Think on it the next t • me you are tempted. Stout men have been apaled by such a sight. And do you not believe that it's he indeed that tempteth you? As sure as if your eyes beh • ld h • m, • tos he that prompteth men to •• er at god • iness, and puts your wanton ribbald speeches, and oaths, and curses into yo • r mouths: He is the Tutor of the enemies of grace, that teacheth them doc • e del • rare, ingeniose insanire, ingeniously to quarrel with the way of life, and learnedly to confute the arguments that would have saved them; and subtly to dispute themselves out of the hands of mercy, and gallantly to scorn to stoop to Christ, till there be no remedy; and with plausible eloquence to commend the plague and sickness of their souls; and irrefrag • bly maintain it, that the way to Hell will lead to Heaven; and to justify the sins that will condemn them; and honourably and triumphantly to overcome their friends, and to serve the Devil in mood and fig •• re, and valiantly to cast themselves into Hell, in despite of all the laws and reproofs of God or man that would have hindered them. It being most certain that this is the D • vils work, and you durst not do it if he moved you to it with open face, how dare you do it when faith would assure you, that it's as veri • y he, as if you saw him?

More distinctly, answ • r these following Questions, upon the foregoing suppositions.

Q • est. 1. If you saw but what you say you do believe, would you not be convinced that the most pleasant gainful sin, is worse than madness? and would you not spit at the very name of it, and openly cry out of your open folly, and beg for prayers, and love reprovers, and resolve to turn without delay?

Quest. 2. What would you think of the most serious holy life, if you had seen the things that you say you do believe? would you ever again reproach it as preciseness? or count it more ado than needs? and think your time were better spent in playing, than in praying; in drinking▪ and sports, and filthy lusts, than in the holy services of the Lord? would you think then that one day in seven, were too much for the work for which you live; and that an hour on this holy day were enough to be spent in instructing you for eternity? Or would you not believe that he is the blessed man, whose delight is in the Law of God, and meditateth in it day and night? Could you plead for sensuality or ungodly negligence, or open your mouths against the most serious holiness of life, if Heaven and Hell stood open to your view?

Quest. 3. If you saw but what you say you do believe, would you ever again be offended with the Ministers of Christ, for the plainest reproofs, and closest exhortations, and strictest precepts and discipline, that now are disrelished so much? Or rather, would you not desire them to help you presently to try your states, and to search you to the quick, and to be more solicitous to save you than to please you? The patient that will take no bitter medicine in time, when he sees he must die, would then take anything. When you see the things that now you hear of, then you would do anything: O then might you have these days again, Sermons would not be too plain or long: In season and out of season would then be allowed of. Then you would understand what moved Ministers to be so importunate with you for conversion ; and whether trifling or serious preaching was the best.

Quest. 4. Had you seen the things that you say you do believe, what effect would Sermons have upon you, after such a sight • s this? O what a change it would make upon our preaching, and your hearing, if we saw the things that we speak and hear of? How fervently should we importune you in the name of Christ? How attentively would you hear, and carefully consider and obey? we should then have no such sleepy preaching and hearing, as now we have. Could I but show to all this Congregation, while I am preaching, the invisible world of which we preach, and did you hear with Heaven and Hell in your eye sight, how confident should I be (though not of the saving change of all) that I should this hour teach you to plead for sin, and against a holy life no more? and send you home another people than you came hither. I durst then ask the worst that heareth me, [Dare you now be drunk, or gluttonous, or worldly? dare you be voluptuous, proud, or fornicators anymore? Dare you go home, and make a jest at piety, and neglect your souls as you have done?] And why then should not the believed truth prevail, if indeed you did believe it, when the thing is as sure, as if you saw it?

Quest. 5. If you had seen what you say you do believe, would you hunt as eagerly for wealth, or honor, and regard the thoughts or words of men, as you did before? Though it's only the Believer that truly honoreth his Rulers, (for none else honor them for God, but use them for themselves;) yet wonder not if he fear not much the face of man, and be no admirer of worldly greatness▪ when he seeth what they will be, as well as what they are. Would not usurpers have been less feared, if all could have foreseen their fall? Even common reason can foresee, that shortly you will all be dust: Methinks I foresee your ghastly paleness, your loathsome blackness, and your habitation in the dark: And who can much envy, or desire the advancements that have such an end? One sight of God would blast all the glory of the world, that's now the b •• t for man's perdition.

Quest. 6. Would temptations be as powerful, as now they are, if you did but see the things you bear of? Could all the beauty or pleasures in the world, entice you to filthiness or sensuality, if you saw God over you, and judgment before you, and saw what damned souls now suffer, and what believers now enjoy? Could you be persuaded by any company or recreation, to waste your precious time in vain, with such things in your eye? I am confident you would abhor the motion; and entertertain temptations to the most honored, gainful, pleasant sin, as now you would do a motion to cut your own throats, or leap into a coal-pit, or thrust your head into a burning-oven. Why then doth not faith thus shame temptations, if indeed you do believe these things? Will you say, [ It is your weakness, you cannot • hus • ] or that [ it is your nature to be lustful, revengeful, sensual, and you cannot overcome it. ] But if you had a sight of Heaven and Hell, you could then resist: you cannot now, b • cause you will not: But did you see that which would make you willing ▪ your power would appear. The sight of a Judge or Gallows can restrain m • n: The sight of a person whom you reverence, can restrain the exercise of your disgraceful sins; much more would the sight of Heaven and Hell. If you were but dying, you would shake the head at him that would then tempt you to the committing of your former sins. And is not a lively foreseeing faith as effectual?

Quest. 7. Had you seen what you say you do believe, you would not so much stick a • sufferings, nor make so great a matter of it, to be reproached, slandered, imprisoned, or condemned by man, when God and your salvation command your patience. A sight of Hell would make you think it worse than madness, to run thither to escape the wrath of man, or any sufferings on earth, Rom. 8.18.

Quest. 8. And O how such a sight would advance the Redeemer, and his Grace, and Promises, and Word, and Ordinances, in your esteem! It would quicken your desires, and make you fly to Christ for life, as a drowning man to that which may support him. How sweetly then would you relish the name, the word, the ways of Christ, which now seem dry and common things!

Q • est. 9. Could you live as merrily, and sleep as quietly in a negligent uncertainty of your salvation, if you had seen these things, as now you do? Could you live at hearts ease, while you know not where you shall be tomorrow, or must live forever? Oh no: Were Heaven and Hell but seen before you, your Consciences would be more busy in putting such questions [ Am I regenerate, sanctified, reconciled, justified, or not? ] Then any the most zealous Minister is now.

Quest. 10. I will put to you but one Qu • stion more. If we saw God, and Heaven, and Hell before us, do you think it would not effectually reconcile our differences, and heal our unbrotherly exasper • tions and divisions? would it not hold the hands that itch to be using violence, against those that are not in all things of their minds! what abundance of vain controversies would it reconcile! As the coming in of the Master doth part the fray among the School-boys; so the sight of God would fr • ghten us from contentions, or uncharitable violence. This would teach us how to preach and pray better than a storm at Sea can do; which yet doth it better than some in prosperity w • ll learn: Did we see what we preach of, it would drive us out of our man pleasing▪ self-seeking, sleepy strain, as the cudgel drives the beggar from his canting, and the breaking loose of the Bear did teach the affected cripple to find his legs, and c • st away his c • utch • s. I would desire no better outward help to end our controversies about indifferent modes of worship, than a sight of the things of which we speak: This would excite such a serious • rame of soul, as would not suffer Religion to evaporate into formality, nor dwindle into affectation, complement and ceremony: nor should we dare to beat our fellow-servants, and thrust them out of the vineyard, and say, you shall not preach, or pray, or live, but upon these or those unnecessary terms: But the sense of our own frailty, and fear of a severe disquisition of our failings, would make us compassionate to others, and content that necessaries be the matter of our unity, unnecessaries of our liberty, and both of charity.

If sight in all these ten particulars would do so much, should not faith do much, if you verily believe the things you see not?

Alas, corrupted reason is asleep, (with men that seem wise in other things) till it be awakt by faith or sight. And sleeping reason is as unserviceable as folly. I • doth no work: it avoids no danger. A Doctor that's asleep, can defend the truth no better than a waking child. But reason will be reason, and conscience will be conscience, when the dust is blown out of men's eyes, and sight and feeling have awakened, and so recovered their understandings; or Faith more seasonably and happily awaked them.

AND O that now we might all consent to addict our • selves to the Life of Faith: And

1. That we live not too much on visibles. 2. That we live on the things invisible.

1. One would think that worldliness is a disease that carrieth with it a cure for itself; and that the rational nature should be loath to love at so dear a rate, and to labor for so poor a recompense. It is pity that Gehazi 's leprosy, and Judas 's death, should no more prevent a succession of Gehazi 's and Judas 's in all generations. Our Lord went before us most eminently in a contempt of earth: His Kingdom was not of this world. No men are more unlike him than the worldlings. I know necessity is the pretence: But it is the dropsy of Covetousness that causeth the thirst which they call N • c • ssity: And therefore the cure is non addere opi • us, sed imminuere cupiditatem: The disease must not be fed but healed. Sa • s est divitiarum non amplius velle. It hath lately been a controversy, whether this be not the golden age? that it is aetas ferrea we have felt; our demonstrations are undeniable: that it is aetas aurata, we have sufficient proof: and while gold is the god that rules the most, we will not deny it to be aetas aurea, in the Poets sense,

This prevalency of things seen, against thing unseen, is the Idolatry of the world; the subversion of nature ; the perversion of our faculties and actions ; making the soul a drudge to flesh, and God to be used as a servant to the world. It destroyeth Piety, Justice and Charity: It turneth JUS by perversion into VIS ; or by reversion into SUI. No wonder then if it be the ruin of societies, when

It can possess even Demosthenes with a Squinancy, if there be but an Harpalus to bring him the infection. It can make a Judicature to be as Plutarch called that of Rome, [ 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ] impiorum regionem ;] contrary to Cicero 's description of Sulpitius, who was [ magis justitiae quam juris consultus, & ad facilitatem aequitatemque omnia contulit; nec maluit litium actiones constituere, quam controversias tollere. ] In a word, if you live by sense and not by Faith, on things present, and not on things unseen, you go backward ; you stand on your heads ▪ and turn your heels against Heaven; you cause the beast to ride the man ; and by turning all things upside down, will turn yourselves into confusion.

2. Consider that it is the unseen things that are only Great and Necessary, that are worthy of a man, and answer the excellency of our nature, and the ends of our lives, and all our mercies. All other things are inconsiderable toys, except as they are dignified by their relation to these. Whether a man step into eternity from a Palace or a Prison, a Lordship or a Lazarus state, is little to be regarded. All men in the world, whose designs and business take up with anything short of Heaven, are in the main of one condition, and are but in several degrees and forms in the School of folly. If the intendment of your lives fall short of God, it matters not much what it is you seek, as to any great difference. If lesser children play for pins, and bigger boys for points and pence, and aged children for lands and money, for titles of honor, and command, What difference is there between these, in point of wisdom and felicity? but that the little ones have more innocent delights, and at a cheaper rate, than the aged have, without the vexatious cares and dangers that attend more grave and serious dotage. As Holiness to the Lord is written upon all that is faithfully referred to his Will and Glory ; so Vanity and Sin, is written upon all that is but made provision for the flesh, and hath no higher end than Self. To go to Hell with greater stir, and attendance, and repute, with greater pomp and pleasure than the poor, is a poor consolation, a pitiful felicity!

3. Faith is the wisdom of the soul: and unbelief and sensuality are its blindness, folly and brutishness. How short is the knowledge of the wisest unbelievers? They know not much of what is past; (and less they would know, if Historians were not of more credit with them, than the Word of God:) But alas, how little do they know of what is to come? sense tells them where they are, and what they are now doing : but it tells them not where they shall be tomorrow. But Faith can tell a true Believer, what will be when this world is ended, and where he shall live to all eternity, and what he shall be d • ing, what thoughts he shall be thinking, what affections shall be the temper and employment of his soul: what he shall see, and feel, and enjoy ; and with what company he shall converse forever. If the pretenders to Astrological prediction, could but foretell the changes of men's lives, and the time and manner of their deaths, what resort would be to them? and how wise would they be esteemed? but what is all this to the infallible predictions of the All-knowing God, that hath given us a prospect into another world, and shown us what will be forever, more certainly than you know what a day may bring forth.

So necessary is fore-knowledge in the common affairs of men, that without it the actions of the world would be but mad tumultuary confusion: What would you think of that man's understanding, or how would you value the employments of his life, that looked no further in all his actions, than the present hour, and saw no more than the things in hand? What would you call him that so spends the day, as one that knoweth not there will be any night: and so past the night, as one that looked not for that day? that knew not in the Spring there would be an Harvest, or in the Summer, that there would be any Winter: or in Youth, that there would be Age or Death? The silly brutes that have no fore-knowledge, are furnished with an instinct that supplieth the want of it, and also have the help of man's fore-knowledge, or else their kind would be soon extinct. The Bees labor in Summer, as if they foresaw the Winters need. And can that man be wise, that foreseeth not his everlasting state? Indeed he that knoweth not what is to come, hath no true knowledge of what is present: For the worth and use of present things, is only in their respect to things eternal: And there is no means, where there is no end. What wisdom then remains in Unbelievers, when all their lives 〈◊〉 mis-employed, because they know not the end of life? and when all their actions are utterly debased, by the baseness of 〈◊〉 brutish ends, to which they serve and are referred. 〈◊〉 is truly wise or honorable, that is done for small and 〈◊〉 things. To draw a curious picture of a shadow, or elegantly write the history of a dream, may be an ingenuous kind of foolery; but the end will not allow it the name of Wisdom : And such are all the actions of the world (though called Heroic, Valiant and Honorable) that aim at transitory trifles, and tend not to the everlasting end. A bird can neatly build her nest, but is not therefore counted Wise. How contrary is the judgment of the world to Christ's? When the same description that he giveth of a fool, is it that worldlings give of a wise and happy man, Luke 12.20, 21. [ One that layeth up riches for himself, and is not rich towards God. ] Will you persuade us that the man is wise, that can climb a little higher than his neighbors, that he may have the greater fall? That is attended in his way to Hell with greater pomp and state than others? That can sin more Syllogistically and Rhetorically than the vulgar; and more prudently and gravely run into damnation; and can learnedly defend his madness, and prove that he is safe at the brink of Hell? Would you persuade us that he is wise, that contradicts the God and Rule of Wisdom, and that parts with Heaven for a few merry hours, and hath not wit to save his soul? When they see the end, and are arrived at eternity, let them boast of their Wisdom, as they find cause: We will take them then for more competent Judges. Let the Eternal God be the portion of my soul; let Heaven be my inheritance and hope; let Christ be my Head, and the promise, my security, let Faith be my Wisdom, and Love be my very heart and will, and patient persevering Obedience be my life▪ and then I can spare the wisdom of the world, because I can spare the trifles that it seeks, and all that they are like to get by it.

What abundance of complaints and calamity would foresight prevent? Had the events of this one year been (conditionally) foreseen, the actions of thousands would have b • en otherwise ordered, and much sin and shame have been prevented. What a change would it make on the judgments of the world? how many words would be otherwise spoken? and how many deeds would be otherwise done? and how many hours would be otherwise spent, if the change that will be made by Judgment and Execution, were well foreseen? And why is it not foreseen, when it is foreshewn? When the omniscient God, that will certainly perform his Word, hath so plainly revealed it, and so frequently and loudly warns you of it? Is he wise, that after all these warnings will lie down in everlasting woe, and say, [ I little thought of such a day: I did not believe I should ever have seen so great a change? ]

Would the servants of Christ be used as they are, if the malicious world foresaw the day, when Christ shall come with ten thousands of his Saints, to execute Judgment on all that are ungodly? Jude 14, 15. When he shall come to be glorified in his Saints, and admired in all them that do believe, 2 Thes. 1.10. When the Sa • nts shall judge the world, 1 Cor. 6.2, 3. and when the ungodly seeing them on Christ's right-hand, must hear their sentence on this account [ Verily I say unto you, in as m • ch as you did it (or, did it not) to one of the least of these (my Brethren) you did it unto me.] Matth. 25. Yet a few days, and all this will be done before your eyes: but the unbelieving world will not foresee it.

Would malignant Cain have slain his brother, if he had foreseen the punishment, which he calleth afterward intolerable, Gen. 4.13. Would the world have despised the preaching of Noah, if they had believed the deluge? Would Sodom have been Sodom, if they had foreseen that an Hell from Heaven would have consumed them? Would Achan have meddled with his prey, if he had foreseen the stones that were his Executioners and his Tomb? Would Gehazi have obeyed his covetous desire, if he had foreseen the leprosy? Or Judas have betrayed Christ, if he had foreseen the hanging himself in his despair? It is fore-seeing Faith that saves those that are saved; and blind unbelief that causeth men's perdition.

Yea present things as well as future, are unknown to foolish Unbelievers. Do they know who seeth them in their sin? and what many thousands are suffering for the like, while they see no danger? Whatever their tongues say, the hearts and lives of fools deny that there is a God that seeth them, and will be their Judge, Psalm 14.1. You see then that you must live by Faith, or perish by folly.

4. Consider that things visible are so transitory, and of so short continuance, that they do but deserve the name of things ; being nothings, and less than nothing, and lighter than vanity itself, compared to the necessary eternal Being, whose name is IAM. There is but a few days difference between a Prince and no Prince; a Lord and no Lord; a man and no man; a world and no world. And if this be all, let the time that is past inform you how small a difference this is. Rational foresight may teach a Xerxes to weep over his numerous Army, as knowing how soon they were all to be dead men. Can you forget that death is ready to undress you? and tell you, that your sport and mirth is done? and that now you have had all that the world can do, for those that serve it, and take it for their part? How quickly can a fever, or the choice of an hundred Messengers of death, be • eave you of all that earth afforded you, and turn your sweetest pleasures into gall, and turn a Lord into a lump of clay? It is but as a wink, an inch of time, till you must quit the stage; and speak, and breath, and see the face of man no more. If you foresee this, O live as men that do foresee it. I never heard of any that stole his winding-sheet, or fought for a Coffi • , or went to Law for his grave. And if you did but see (as wise men should) how near your Honors and Wealth, and Pleasures do stand unto Eternity, as well as your Winding sheets, your Coffins, and your Graves, you would then value, and desire, and seek them regularly and moderately, as you do these. Oh what a fading flower is your strength? How soon will all your gallantry shrink into the shell? Si vestra sunt tollite • a vobiscum. Bern. Bu • yet this is not the great part of the change. The terminus ad quem doth make it greater: It is great, for persons of renown and honor, to change their Palaces for graves, and turn to noisome rottenness and dirt: and their Power and Command into silent impotency, unable to rebuke the poorest worm, that saucily feedeth on their hearts or faces. But if you are Believers, you can look further, and foresee much more. The largest and most capacious heart alive, is unable fully to conceive what a change the stroke of death will make.

For the holy soul so suddenly to pass from prayer to Angelical praise, from sorrow unto boundless joys: from the slanders, and contempt, and violence of men, to the bosom of eternal Love ; from the clamours of a tumultuous world, to the universal harmony and perfect uninterrupted Love and Peace; O what a blessed change is this; which believing now, we shall shortly feel.

For an unholy unrenewed soul, that yesterday was drowned in flesh, and laughed at threatenings, and scorned reproofs, to be suddenly sna • cht into another world; and see the Heaven that he hath lost, and feel the Hell which he would not believe : to fall into the gulf of bottomless eternity, and at once to find, that Joy and Hope are both departed; that horror and grief must be his company, and Desperation hath locked up the door: O what an amazing change is this! If you think me troublesome for mentioning such ungrateful things, what a trouble will it be to feel them? May it teach you to prevent that greater trouble, you may well bear this. Find but a medicine against death, or any security for your continuance here, or any prevention of the Change, and I have done: But that which unavoidably must be seen, should be foreseen.

But the unseen world is not thus mutable; Eternal life is begun in the Believer. The Church is built on Christ the Reck ; and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it. Fix here, and you shall never be removed.

4. Hence followeth another difference: The mutable creature doth impart a disgraceful mutability to the soul that chooseth it. It disappointeth and deceiveth: And therefore the ungodly are of one mind today, and another tomorrow! In health they are all for pleasure, and commodity, and honor: and at death they cry out on it as deceitful Vanity : In health they cannot abide this strictness, this meditating, and seeking, and preparing for the life to come; but at death or judgment, they will all be of another mind! Then O that they had been so wise as to know their time: and O that they h • d lived as holily as the best! They are now the bold opposers and reproachers of an holy life: But then they would be glad it had been their own: They would eat their words, and will be down in the mouth, and stand to never a word they say, when sight, and sense, and judgment, shall convince them.

But things unchangeable do fix the soul. P • e • y is no matter for Repentance. Doth the Believer speak against sin and sinners: and for an holy, sober, righteous life? He will do so to the last: Death and Judgment shall not change his mind in this, but much confirm it. And therefore he perseveres through sufferings, to death, Rom. 8.35, 36, 37. [ For this cause we faint not: but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day: For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory: While we look not at the things that are seen, but at the things which are not seen: For the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal, 2 Cor. 4.16, 17.

6. Lastly, let this move you to live by a foreseeing Faith, that it is of necessity to your salvation. Believing Heaven, must prepare you for it, before you can enjoy it. Believing Hell, is necess • ry to prevent it. Mark 16.16. John 3.18, 36. [ The just shall live by Faith; but if any man draw back (or, be lifted up) the Lord will have no pleasure in him. Heb. 10.38. H • b. 2.4. Take heed that there be not in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, to depart from the living God. Heb. 3.12. And be not of them that draw back to perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. Heb. 10.39. It is God that saith [ They shall all be damned that believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness ] 2 Thes. 2.10, 11, 12.

May I now in the conclusion more particularly exhort you, 1. That you will live upon things foreseen. 2. That you will promote this life of faith in others, according to your several capacities.

Princes and Nobles live not always: You are not the Rulers of the immovable Kingdom ; but of a boat that is in an hasty stream, or a ship under sail, that will speed both Pilot and Passengers to the shore. Dixi, estis Dii: at moriemini ut homines. It was not the least or worst of Kings, that said, [ I am a stranger upon earth ] Psal. 119.19. Vermis sum, non homo: I am a worm, and no man, Psal. 32.6. You are the greater worms, and we the little ones: but we must all say with Job, ch. 17.13, 14. [ The grave is our house, and we must make our beds in darkness: Corruption is our Father, and the Worm our Mother and our Sister. ] The inexorable Leveller is ready at your backs, to convince you by unresistible argument, that dust you are, and to dust you shall return. Heaven should be as desirable, and Hell as terrible to you as to others. No man will 〈1 page duplicate〉 〈1 page duplicate〉 〈1 page duplicate〉 〈1 page duplicate〉 fear you after death: much less will Christ be afraid to judge you. Luke 19.27. As the Kingdoms and glory of the world were contemned by him in the hour of his temptation; so are they inconsiderable to procure his approbation. Trust not therefore to uncertain riches. Value them but as they will prove at last. As you stand on higher ground than others, it is meet that you should see further. The greater are your advantages, the wiser and better you should be: and therefore should better perceive the difference between things temporal and eternal. It is always dark where these glow-worms shine, and a rotten post doth seem a fire.

Your difficulties also should excite you; You must go as through a Needles eye to Heaven. To live as in Heaven, in a crowd of business, and stream of temptations, from the confluence of all worldly things, is so hard, that few such come to Heaven. Withdraw yourselves therefore to the frequent serious fore-thoughts of eternity, and live by faith.

Had time allowed it, I should have come down to some particular instances: As, 1. Let the things unseen be still at hand, to answer every temptation, and shame and repel each motion to sin.

2. Let them be still at hand, to quicken us to duty, when backwardness and coldness doth surprise us. What, shall we do anything coldly for eternity?

3. Let it resolve you what company to delight in ; and what society to be of; even those with whom you must dwell forever : What side soever is uppermost on earth, you may foresee which side shall reign forever.

4. Let the things invisible be your daily solace, and the satisfaction of your souls. Are you slandered by men? Faith tells you, it is enough that Christ will justify you. O happy day, when he will bring forth our righteousness as the light, and set all strait, which all the false histories, or slanderous tongues or pens in all the world made crooked. Are you frowned on or contemned by men? Is it not enough that you shall everlastingly be honored by the Lord? Are you wronged, oppressed, or trodden on by pride or malice? Is not Heaven enough to make you reparation? and eternity long enough for your joys? O pray for your malicious enemies, lest they suffer more than you can wish them.

2. Lastly, I should have become on the behalf of Christ, a petitioner to you for protection and encouragement to the heirs of the invisible world. For them that preach, and them that live this life of faith: not for the honors and riches of the world; but for leave and countenance to work in the Vineyard, and peaceably travel through the world as strangers, and live in the Communion of Saints, as they believe. But, though it be for the beloved of the Lord, the apple of his eye, the people that are sure to prevail and reign with Christ forever; whose prayers can do more for the greatest Princes, than you can do for them; whose joy is hastened by that which is intended for their sorrow, I shall now lay by any further suit on their behalf.

But for yourselves, O use your seeing and fore-seeing faculties: Be often looking through the prospective of the promise: and live not by sense on present things; but live as if you saw the glorious things which you say you do believe. That when worldly titles are insignificant words, and fleshly pleasures have an end, and Faith and Holiness will be the marks of honor; and unbelief and ungodliness the badge • of perpetual shame, and when you must give account of your Stewardship, and shall be no longer Stewards, you may then by brought by Faith unto Fruition, and see with joy the glorious things that you now believe. Write upon your Palaces and goods, that sentence, 2 Pet. 3.11. Seeing all these things shall be dissolved, What manner of persons ought ye • o be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for, and hasting to the coming of the day of God!