CONFIRMED CHRISTIAN. 479 of another life when this is ended. "By faith, Noah, being warn- edof God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, preparedan ark, to the saving of his house, by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith ;" ver. 7. "Abraham looked for a city which had foundations, whose builder and maker is God; " ver. 10. "Moses feared not the wrath of the king ; for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible ; " ver. 27. So the three witnesses (Dan. iii.) and Daniel himself, (chap. ,vi.) and all believers have lived this life, as Abraham, the father of the faithful, did; who, as it is said of him, "staggered not at the promise of God .through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God ; " Rom. iv. 20. The faith of a Christian is truly divine ; and he knoweth that God's truth is as certain as tight itself can be; however sight be apter to move thepassions. Therefore, ifyou canjudge but what a rational man would be, ifhesaw heaven and hell, and all that God had appointed us to believe, then you may conjecture what a confirmed Christian is; though sense do cause more sensible apprehensions. 2. The weak Christian also hath a faith that is divine, as caus- ed by God, and resting on his word and truth. And he so far liv- eth by this faith, as that it commandeth and guideth the scope and drift ofhis heart and life. But hebelieveth with a great deal of staggering and unbelief; and therefore his hopes are interrupted by his troublesome doubts and fears; and the dimness and languor of his faith is seen in the faintness of his desires, and the many blem- ishes of his heart and life. And sight and sensual objects are so much the more powerful with him, by how much the light and life offaith is dark and weak. 3. The hypocrite, or best of the unregenerate, believeth, but either with a human faith, which resteth but on the word of man, or else with a dead, opinionative faith, which is overpowered by infidelity, or is like the dreaming thoughts of man asleep, which stir him not to action. He liveth by sight, and not by faith ; for he hath not a faith that will overpower sense and sensual objects ; James ii. 14. Matt. xiii. 22. H. 1. AChristian indeed not only knoweth why he is a Chris- tian, but seeth those reasons for his religion, which disgrace all that the most cunning atheist or infidel can say against it; and so far satisfy, confirm, and establish him, that emergent difficulties, temp- tations, and objections, do not at all stagger him, or raise any delib- erate doubts in him of the truthof the word of God. He seeth, first the natural evidenceof those foundation truths which nature itself maketh known ; as, that there is a God ofinfinite being,pow- er, wisdom, and goodness, the Creator, the Owner, the Ruler, and the Father, felicity and end of man; that we owe him all our love
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