398 LIFE OF FAITH. 2. The believer is one that liveth on a Christ whom he never saw, and trusteth in him, adhereth to him, acknowledgethhis ben- efits, loveth him, and rejoiceth in him, as ifhe had seen him with his eyes. This is the faith which Peter calls "more precious than perishing gold ; " that maketh us " love him whom we have not seen, and in whom, thoughnow we see him not, yet believing, we rejoice, with unspeakable and glorious joy ; " 1 Pet. i. 8. "Christ dwelleth in his heart by faith ; " not only by his Spirit, but object- ively as our dearest absent friend doth dwell in our estimation and affection ; Ephes. iíi. 17. 0 that the miserable infidels of the world had the eyes, the hearts, the experiences, of the true be- liever ! Thenthey that with Thomas tell those that have seen him, " Except I may see and feel, I will not believe," will be forced to cry out, " My Lord and my God ;" John xx. 25, &c. 3. A believer is one that judgeth of the man by his invisible in- side, and not by outward appearances, with a fleshly, worldly judg- ment. He seethby faith a greater ugliness in sin than in any the most deformed monster. When the unbeliever saith, What harm is it to please my flesh in ease, or pride, or meat and drink, or lustful wantonness ? the believer takes it as the question of a fool, that should ask, ' What harm is it to take a drachm of mercury or arsenic ?' He seeth the vicious evil, and foreseeth the consequent penal evil by the eye of faith. And therefore it is that he piti- eth the ungodly, when they pity not themselves, and speaks to them oft with a tender heart in compassionof their misery, and perhaps weeps over them (as Paul, Phil. iii. 18, 19.) when he cannot prevail ; when they weep not for themselves, but hate his love, and scorn his pity, and bid him keep his lamentations for him- self; because they see not what he sees. He seeth also the inward beauty of the saints, (as it shineth forth in the holiness of their lives,) and through all theirsordid pov- erty and contempt beholdeth the image of God upon them. For he judgeth not of sin or holiness as they now appear to the dis- tracted world; but as -they will be judged of.at the daywhich he foreseeth, when sin will be the shame, and holiness the honored and desired state. He can see Christ in his peor, despised members, and love God in those that are made as the scorn and offscouring of all things by the malignant, unbelieving world. He admireth the excellency and happiness of those that are made the laughing-stock of the un- godly, and accounteth the saints the most excellent on earth; (Psal. xvi. 2.) and had rather be one of their communion in rags, than sit with princes, that are naked within, and void of the true and durable glory. He judgeth of men ashe perceiveth them to have more or less of Christ. The worth of a man is not obvi-
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