Baxter - Houston-Packer Collection BT770 .B39 1670

40 The Life ofFaith. Believer, what will be when this world is ended, and wheat he thill live to all eternity, and what he (hall be ding, what thoughts he (hall be thinking, what affections (hall be the temper and employment of his foul : what he (hall fee, and feel, and enjoy; and with what company he (hall converfe for over. lithe pretenders to Afirological prediction, could but foretel the changes ofmens lives, and the timeand manner of their deaths, what refort would be to them ? and how wife would they be efteemec ? but what is all this to the infallible predi8ions of the All-knowing, God, that hath given us a profped into another world, and Chewed us what will be for evci,inore certainly thanyou know what a day may bring forth. So necefiary isfore- knowledge in the common affairs 'ofmen, that without it the at ions of the world would be but mad tu- multuary confufion : What would you think of that mans un- derftanding, or howwould you value the imploymcnts of his life, that lookt nofurther in all his ackions, than the prefent hour, and fawno more than the things in hand? What . would you call him that fo (pends the day, as one that know- cth not there will be any night and Co pall the night, as one- that looked not for that day, ? that knew not in the Spring there would be an Harvcfl, or in the Summer, that there wouldbe any Winter : or in Youth, that there would be Age or Death ? The filly brutes that have no fore- knowledge, are furnifhcd with an infiint that fupplieth the want of it,and. allo have the help ofmans fore- knowledge, or elfe their kind would be loon extineef. The Bees labour in Summer, as ifthey forefaw the Winters need. And can that man be wife, that farefeetb not his everlaffing (late ? Indeed he that knowethnot what is tocome, bath no trueknowledge of what is prefent : For the worth and ufe ofprefent things, is only in their re fpod to thingseternal : And there is nomeans, where there is no end. What wifdo,s, then remains in üubelievers, when all their lives are mil- imploycd, bccaufe they know not the end of life ? and when all their adions are utterly debated, by the bafenefs of thole brutifh ends, to which theyCave and arc referred. Nothing is truly wife or honourable, that is done for frnall and worthlefs things. To draw a curious pi6ure of thadow,

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