LIFE 05' FAITH. u}ÿ heaven, we heard when we were with him in the holy mount ; " 2Pet. i. 16,17. And therefore when the apostles were command. ed by their persecutors not " to speak at all, or teach in the name of Jesus," they answered, "We cannot but speak the thingswhich we have seen and heard;" Acts. iv. 18.20. So that much of the objects of our faith, to us invisible, have yet been seen by those that have instrumentally revealed them; and the glory of heaven itself is seen by manymillions of souls that are now possessing it. And the tradition of the testimonyof the apostles unto us is more full and satisfactory, than the tradition of any laws of the land, or history of the most unquestionable affairs that have been done among the people of the earth, (as I have manifested elsewhere.) So that faith bath the infallible testimony of God, and of them that have seen, and therefore is to us insteadof sight. 6. Lastly, even the enemy of faith himself doth against his will confirm our faith, by the violence and rage of malice that he stir- reth up in the ungodly against the life of faith and holiness ; and by the importunity of his oppositions and temptations, discovering that it is not for nothing that he is so maliciously solicitous, indus- trious, and violent.- . And thus You see how much faith bath, that should fully satisfy a rational man, instead of presence, possession, and sight. Ifany shall here say, ' But why would not God let us have a sight of heaven or hell, *hen he could not but know that it would more generally and certainly have prevailed for the conversion and salvation of the world? Doth he envy us the most effectual means ?' I answer, 1. " Who art thou,' O man, that disputest against God ? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus ?" Must God come down to the bar of man, to render an account of the reason of his works ? Why do ye not also ask him a ,reason of the nature, situation, magni- tude, order, influences, lac. of all the stars,' and superior orbs, and call him to an account for all his tvorks? When yet there are so many things in your own bodies, ofwhich you little understand the reason. Is it not intolerable impudency, for such worms as we, an low, so dark, to question the eternal God, concerning the reason of his laws and dispensations? Do we not shamefully forget our ignorance and our distance ? 2. But if you must have a reason, let this suffice you. It is fit that the government of God be suited_ to the nature of the reason- able subject. And reason is made to apprehend more than we see, and by reaching beyond sense, to carry us to seek things high - er'and better than sense can reach. If you would have a man un-
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=