Baxter - Houston-Packer Collection BT770 .B39 1670

The Life ofFaith. He feeth alto the inward beauty of the Saints, (sr it (bunch forth in the holinefs of their lives) and through all their tordid poverty and centerrspt, beholdeth the image of God upon them. For he judgeth not oilier or h:)linefi as they now appear to the diftrae ed world ; but as they will be j dged of at the day which he forefreth; when fin will be the thane, and holinefs the honoured and d: fired flare. He can fee Chrift in his poor defpifcd members, and love God in thofe that are made as the (corn and offfeu-ing of all things, by the malignant unbelieving world: He-adtriireth the excellency and happinefs ofthole, that are male the laughing- ftock ofthe ung.Aly : and accounteth the Saints the mole ex- cellent on earth, Pfal. 16. 2. and had rather'be one of their communion in raggs, than fit with Princes that are naked within, and void ofthe true and durable glory: He judgeth ofinen as he perceiveth them to have more or Ices of Chrift. The worth cf'a man is not obvious to the fence. You fee hisffature,camplexion and his cloths; but as you fee not his learningor skill in any Art whatfoever, fo you fee not his grace and heavenlymind. As thefoul it fell, fo the finfui deformity, and the holy beauty of it, arc to us invifible, and perceived on- ly-by their fruits, and by the eye of faith, which feeth things as God reveals them. And therefore in the eyes of a true Be- liever, a vile perfon is contemned; but .be wonoureth thofe that fear the Lord, Pfal. 15. 4. 4. A true Believer doth fee a happinefs which he never law, and that with greater effimation and refolution, than he feeks t'e melt excellent things that he bath feen. In all his prayers; his labours; and his fufferings, it is an unfeen Glory that he leeks : he feetbnot the Glory of God, nor the glori- fied Redeemer, nor the world of Angels, and perfedcd fpi- nits of the juh : 'but he knoweth by faith, that filch a God, filch a Glory, filch a world as this there ir, as certain as if his eyes had teen it: And therefore he provides, he lives, he hopes, he waits, for this unfeen Rate of fpiritual 'blifs, con= temning all the wealth and glory, that fight can reach in cotn- parifon thereof. He believeth what hefted fee ; and therefore ftrives that hemay fee it. It's fomething above the Sun, ar.d all that mortal eyes can fee, which is the end, the hope, the C 3_ portion

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