he did as firmly believe the invifible God, and the recompence of reward, as if he had beheld them with his eyes.

And of this recompence of reward we Chriftians have a much clearer revelation, and much greater affurance, than former ages and generations had and the firm belief and perfuafion of this is the great motive and argument to a holy life; the hope which is fet before us of obtaining the happiness, and the fear of incurring the mifery of another world. This made the primitive Christians with fo much patience to bear the fufferings and perfecutions, with fo much conftancy to venture upon the dangers and inconveniences which the love of God and religion expofed them to.

Under the former difpenfation of the law, though good men received good hopes of the rewards of another life, yet these things were but obfcurely revealed to them; and the great inducements to obedience were, temporal rewards and punishments, the promises of long life, and peace, and plenty, and profperity, in that good land which God had given them; and the threatenings of war, and famine, and peftilence, and being delivered into captivity. But now, under the gofpel, life and immortality are brought to light; and the great arguments that bear fway with Chriftians, are, the promifes of everlasting life, and the threatenings of eternal mifery and the firm belief and perfuafion of these is now the great principle that governs the lives and actions of good men for what will not men do that are really perfuaded, that as they do demean themfelves in this world, it will fare with them in the other; that the wicked shall go into everlasting punishment, and the righteous into life eternal? I proceed to the

II. Second obfervation, namely, That faith is a degree of affent inferior to that of fenfe. This is intimated in the oppofition betwixt faith and fight: We walk by faith, and not by fight; that is, we believe thefe things, and are confidently perfuaded of the truth of them, though we never faw them; and confequently cannot poffibly have that degree of affurance concerning the joys of heaven, and the torments of hell, which thofe have who enjoy the one and endure the other.

There

There are different degrees of affurance concerning things, arifing from the different degrees of evidence we have for them. The highest degree of evidence we have for any thing, is our own fenfe and experience: and this is fo firm and ftrong, that it is not to be fhaken by the utmost pretence of a rational demonftration. Men will truft their own fenfes and experience, against any fubtilty of reafon whatsoever. But there are inferior degrees of affurance concerning things; as, the testimony and authority of perfons every way credible. And this affurance we have in this ftate concerning the things of another world. We believe, with great reason, that we have the teftimony of God concerning them; which is the highest kind of evidence in itself. And we have all the reasonable affurance we can defire, that God hath testified these things: and this is the utmoft affurance which things future and at a distance are capable of.

But yet it is an unreasonable obstinacy to deny, that this falls very much fhort of that degree of affurance which thofe perfons have concerning these things, who are now in the other world, and have the fenfe and experience of these things. And this is not only intimated here in the text, in the oppofition of faith and fight, but is plainly expreffed in other texts of fcripture, I Cor. xiii. 9. 10. We know now but in part; but when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part fhall be done away. That degree of knowledge and affurance which we have in this life is very imperfect, in comparifon to what we fhall have hereafter. And y 12. We now fee as through a glass, darkly, èv aiviyal, as in a riddle, in which there is always a great deal of obfcurity. All which expreffions are certainly intended by way of abatement and diminution to the certainty of faith; because it is plain, that by that which is in part, or imperfect, the Apoftle means faith and hope; which, he tells us, fhall ceafe, when that which is perfect, meaning vifion and fight, is come. We fee likewife in experience, that the faith and hope of the best Christians in this life is accompanied with doubting concerning these things; and all doubting is a degree of uncertainty: but thofe bleffed fouls who are entered upon the poffeffion of glory and happiness, and those miserable wretches who lie

groning

groning under the wrath of God, and the feverity of his juftice, cannot poffibly, if they would, have any doubt concerning the truth and reality of these things.

But however contentious men may dispute against common fenfe, this is fo plain a truth, that I will not labour in the farther proof of it. Nor indeed is it reafonable, while we are in this state, to expect that degree of affurance concerning the rewards and punishments of another life, which the fight and fenfible experience of them would give us; and that upon these two ac

counts:

1. Because our present state will not admit it; and, 2. If it would, it is not reasonable we fhould have it. 1. Our present state will not admit it: for while we are in this world, it is not poffible we fhould have that fenfible experiment and trial how things are in the other. The things of the other world are remote from us, and far out of fight; and we cannot have any experimental knowledge of them, till we ourselves enter into that state. Those who are already paffed into it, know how things are those happy fouls who live in the reviving prefence of God, and are poffeffed of thofe joys which we cannot now conceive, understand these things in another manner, and have a more perfect affurance concerning them, than it is poffible for any man to have in this world; and those wretched and miferable fpirits, who feel the vengeance of God, and are plunged into the horrors of eternal darkness, do believe upon irrefiftible evidence, and have other kind of convictions of the reality of that state, and the infupportable mifery of it, than any man is capable of in this world.

2. If our present state would admit of this high degree of affurance, it is not fit and reasonable that we fhould have it. Such an overpowering evidence would quite take away the virtue of faith, and much leffen that of obedience. Put the cafe, that every man, fome confiderable time before his departure out of this life, were permitted to vifit the other world, to affure him how things are there; to view the manfions of the bleffed, and to furvey the dark and lothfome prifons of the damned; to hear the lamentable outcries of miferable and defpairing fouls, and to fee the inconceivable an

guifh and torments they are in: after this, what virtue would it be in any man to believe these things? He that had been there and feen them, could not disbelieve them, if he would. Faith in this cafe would not be virtue, but neceffity; and therefore it is obfervable, that our Saviour doth not pronounce them bleffed who believed his refurrection upon the forcible evidence of their own fenfes; but blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. They might be happy in the effects of that faith; but there is no praife, no reward belongs to that faith which is wrought in man by fo violent and irresistible an evidence. It was the great commendation of Abraham's faith, that against hope he believed in hope; he believed the promise of God concerning a thing in itfelf very improbable. But it is no commendation at all, to believe the things which we have feen; because they admit of no manner of difpute. No objection can be offered to fhake our affent, unless we will run to the extremity of fcepticism: for if we will believe any thing at all, we muft yield to the evidence of fense. This does fo violently inforce our affent, that there can be no virtue in fuch a faith.

And as this would take away the virtue of faith, fo it would very much leffen that of our obedience. It is hardly to be imagined, that any man who had feen the bleffed condition of good men in another world, and been an eye-witnefs of the intolerable torments of finners, fhould ever after be tempted knowingly to do any thing that would deprive him of that happiness, or bring him into that place of torment. Such a fight could not chufe but affect a man as long as he lived; and leave fuch impreffions upon his mind, of the indifpenfable neceffity of a holy life, and of the infinite danger of a wicked course, that we might fooner believe that all the men in the world should confpire to kill one another, than that fuch a man, by confenting to any deliberate act of fin, fhould wilfully throw himself into those flames. No; his mind would be continually haunted with those furies he had feen tormenting finners in another world, and the fearful fhrieks and outcries of miferable fouls would be perpetually ringing in his ears; and the man would have fo lively and terrible an imagination of the danger he

was

was running himself upon, that no temptation would be ftrong enough to conquer his fears, and to make him careless of his life and actions, after he had once feen how fearful a thing it was to fall into the hands of the living God. So that in this cafe the reafon of mens obedience would be fo violent, that the virtue of it must be very little for what praife is due to any man, not to do thofe things which none but a perfect madman would do? for certainly that man must be befide himself, that could by any temptation be feduced to live a wicked life, after he had feen the ftate of good and bad men in the other world; the glorious rewards of holiness and virtue, and the difmal event of a vitious and finful course. God hath defigned this life for the trial of our virtue, and the exercife of our obedience: but there would hardly be any place for this, if there were a free and eafy paffage for us into the other world, to fee the true ftate of things there. What argument would it be of any man's virtue, to forbear finning after he had been in hell, and feen the miferable end of finners? But I proceed to the

III. Third and laft obfervation, namely, That notwithstanding faith be an inferior degree of affent; yet it is a principle of fufficient force and power to govern our lives: We walk by faith. Now, that the belief of any thing may have its effect upon us, it is requifite that we be fatisfied of these two things.

1. Of the certainty; and, 2. of the great concernment of the thing. For if the thing be altogether uncertain, it will not move us at all: we fhall do nothing towards the obtaining of it, if it be good; nor for the avoiding and preventing of it, if it be evil. And if we are certain of the thing, yet if we apprehend it to be of no great moment and concernment, we fhall be apt to flight it, as not worth our regard. But the rewards and punishments of another world, which the gofpel propounds to our faith, are fitted to work upon our minds, both upon account of the certainty and concernment of them. For,

1. We have fufficient affurance of the truth of these things; as much as we are well capable of, in this ftate, concerning things future and at a distance. We have the VOL. IV.

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dictates