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 awakened them.

And O, that now we might all consent to addict ourselves to the life of faith; and,

1. That we live not too much on visibles. 2. That we live on 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 Judah's death should no more prevent a succession of Gehazis and Judahs 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 pretense; but it is the dropsy of covetousness that causeth the thirst which they call necessity; and, therefore, the cure is non addere opibus, sed imminuere cupiditatem.' The disease must not be fed, but healed. Satis est divitiarum non amplius velle.' It hath lately been a controversy whether this be not the golden age. That it is ætas ferrea,' we have felt; our demonstrations are undeniable: that it is ætas aurata,' we have sufficient proof; and while gold is the god that rules the most, we will not deny it to be ' ætas aurea,' in the poet's sense,

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This prevalency of things seen, against things 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

"Gens sine justitiâ, sine remige navis in undâ.”

It can possess even Demosthenes with a squinaney, if there be but an Harpalus to bring him the infection. It can make a judicature to be as Plutarch called that of Rome, daß yaav, impiorum regionem;' contrary to Cicero's description of Sulpitius, who was, magis justitiæ quam juris consultus, et ad facilitatem æquitatemque 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 heav

en; 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 any thing 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 histories 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 to-morrow. 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 doing, 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 showed us what will, be forever, more certainly than you know what. a day may bring forth!

So necessary is foreknowledge 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 passed the night, as one that looked not for the 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 foreknowledge, are furnished with an instinct that supplieth the want of it; and also have the help of man's foreknowledge, or else their kind would be soon extinct. The bees labor in summer, as if they foresaw the winter's 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 are misemployed, because they know not the end of life? and when all their actions are utterly debased by the baseness of those brutish ends to which they serve and are referred? Nothing is truly wise or honorable that is done for small and worthless things. To draw a curious picture of a shadow, or elegantly write the history of a dream, may be an ingenious 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 ain 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; "One that layeth up riches for himself, and is not rich towards God;" Luke xii. 20, 21. 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 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. 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, 66 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.

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.

Yea, present things, as well as future, are unknown to foolishunbelievers. 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; 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 I 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 conce.ve 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;