236 TO TAE POOR Li SPIRIT. lieve ? Believing in Christ for present mercies only, be they tem- poral or spiritual, is not the true believing. They are dangerously mistaken that think the thoughts of heaven to be so accidental to the nature and workof faith, as that they, tend only to our comfort, and are not necessary to salvation itself. It is upon yourappre- hensions and expectations of that unseen felipity that both your peace and safety do depend. How contrary; therefore, is it to the nature of a believer, to forget the place of hisrest and consola- tion ! and to look for so much of these from the creatures, in this our present pilgrimage and prison, as, alas, too commonly we do! Thus 'do we kill our comforts, and thencomplain for want of them. How should you have any life or constancy of consolations, that are so seldom, so slight, so unbelieving, and so heartless; in your thoughts of heaven ! You know what a folly it is to expect any peace which shall not come from Christ as the fountain. And you must learn aswell to understand what a folly it is to expect any solid joys, or stable peace, which is not fetched from heaven, as from the end. O that Christians were careful to live with one eye still on Christ crucified, and the other on Christ coming in glory ! If the everlastingjoys weremore in your believing thoughts, spiritual . joys would more abound at present in your hearts. It is no more wonder that you are' comfortless when heaven is forgotten, or doubtingly remembered, than you are faint when you eat not, or cold when you stir not, or when you have not fire or clothes. But when Christians do not only let fall their expectations of the things unseen, but also heighten their expectations from the crea- ture, then, do they most infallibly prepare for their fears and trou- bles, and estrangedness fromGod, and witlxboth hands draw calami- ties on their souls. Who ever meets with a distressed, complaining soul, where one or both of these is not apparent; their low ex- pectations from God hereafter, or their high expectations from the creature now? What doth keep us under such trouble and disquiet- ness, but that we will not expect what God bath promised, or we will needs expect what he promised not? And then we complain when we miss of those expectations which we foolishly and un- groundedly raised to ourselves., We are grieved for crosses' for losses, for wrongs from our enemies, for unkind or 'unfaithful deal- ings of our friends, for sickness, for contempt and disesteem in the world! But who bid you look for any better? Was it prosperity, and riches, and credit, and friends, that God 'called you to believe for? or that you became Christians for? or that you had an absolute promise of in the word ? If you will make promises to yourself, and then your own promises deceive you, whom should you blame for that? Nay, do we not, as it were, necessitate God hereby to im- bitter all our comforts here below, and to make every creature as
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