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 iny 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 been 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 foreshown? 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 Thess. i. 10. When "the saints shall judge the world;" 1 Cor. vi. 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, Inasmuch as you did it (or did it not) to one of the least of these, (my brethren,) you did it unto me; Matt. xxv. Yet a few days, and all this will be done before your eyes; but the unbelieving world will not foresee it.

66

Would malignant Cain have slain his brother, if he had foreseen the punishment, which he calleth afterwards intolerable? Gen. iv. 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 a 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 foreseeing faith that saves those that are saved, and blind unbelief that causeth men's perdition.

And

Yea, present things, as well as future, are unknown to foolish unbelievers. Do they know who seeth them in their sin? 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; Psal. xiv. 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 not 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 1 AM. 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, bereave 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 breathe, 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 windingsheet, or fought for a coffin, 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. O, what a fading flower is your strength! How soon will all your gallantry shrink into the shell! Si vestra sunt tollite ea vobiscum.' Bern. But yet this is not the great part of the change the terminus ad quem' doth make it greater. It is awful for persons of renown and honor to change their palaces for graves, and turn to noisome rottenness and dirt; to change their power and command for 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.

6

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 clamors 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 snatched 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 rock; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Fix here, and you shall never be removed.

(5.) 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 to-day, and another to-morrow. 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 be of another mind. Then, O that they had been so wise as to know their time! And O that they had lived as holy as the best! They are now the bold opposers and reproachers of a 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. Piety is no matter for repentance. Doth the believer speak against sin and sinners, and for a 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; Rom. viii. 35-37. And therefore he perseveres through sufferings to death: "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. iv. 16-18.

(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 necessary to prevent it; Mark xvi. 16. John in. 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. x. 38. Hab. ii. 4. "Take heed that there be not in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, to depart from the living God;" Heb. iii. 12. "And be not of them that draw back to perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul;" Heb. x. 39. It is God that saith, "They shall all be damned that believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness;" 2 Thess. ii. 10-12.

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 unmovable kingdom; but of a boat that is in a hasty stream, or a ship under sail that will speed both pilot and passengers to the shore. Dixi, estis Dii: ut moriemini ut homines.' It was not the least or worst of kings that said, "I am a stranger upon earth;" Psal. cxix. 19. 'Vermis sum, non homo:' "I am a worm, and no man; "Psal. xxii. 6. You are the greater worms, and we the little ones: but we must all say with Job, "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;" Job xvii. 13, 14. The inexorable leveler is ready at your backs to convince you, by irresistible 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 fear you after death; much less will Christ be afraid to judge you; Luke xix. 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 where a rotten post doth seem a fire.

Your difficulties also should excite you: you must go as through

a needle's 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 forethoughts 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 any thing 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 straight, 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 in 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 foreseeing 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