400 LIFE OF FAITH. which he never felt ; and is awakened by holy fear to fly from the wrath to come, and is industrious to escape that place of torment which he never saw, as if he had seen it with his eyes. When he heareth but the "sound of the trumpet, he takes warning that he may save his soul ;" Ezek. xxxiii. 4. The evils that are here felt and seen are not so dreadful to him as those he never saw or felt. He is not so careful and resolute, to avoid the ruin of his estate or name, or to avoid the plague, or sword, or famine, or the scorching flames, or death, or torments, as he is to avoid the endless tor- ments which are threatened by the righteous God. It is a great- er misery, in his esteem, to be really undone forever than, seem- ingly only for a time, and to be cast off by God than by all the world ; and to lie in hell than to suffer any temporal calamity. And therefore he fears it more, and loth more to avoid it ; and is more cast down by the fears of God's displeasure than by the feel- ings of these present sufferings. As Noah did for his preservation from the threateneddeluge, so doth the true believer for his pres- ervation from everlasting wrath. "By faith Noah, being warned of God of thingsmot seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark, to the saving of his house, by the which he condemned, the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith;" Heb. xi. 7. God first giveth warning of the flood ; Noah believ- eth it ; not with a lifeless, but a working faith, that first moved in him a self-preserving fear. This fear moved Noah to obey the Lord in the use ofmeans, and to prepare the ark ; and all this was to save himself and his house from a flood that was as yet un- seen, and of which in nature there was no appearance. Thus doth God warn the sinful world of the day ofjudgment and the fire that is unquenchable ; and true believers take hiswarning, and believing that which they cannot see, by fear they are moved to fly to Christ, and use his means to escape the threatened calamity. By this they become the "heirs of that righteousness which is by faith," and condemn the unbelieving, careless world, that take not the warning and use not the remedy. ' By this time you may see that the life of faith is quite another thing than the lifeless opinion of multitudes that call themselves believers. To say, ` I believe there is a God, a Christ, a heaven, a hell,' is as easy as it is common; but the faith of the ungodly is but an ineffectual dream. To dream that you are fighting; wins no victories. To dream that you are eating, gets no strength. To dream that you are running, rids no ground. To dream that you are ploughing, or sowing, or reaping, procureth but a fruitless har- vest. And to dream that you are princes, may consist with beg- gary. If you do any more than dream of heaven and hell, how is
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