402 LIFE OF FALTH. forgotten how this case is determinedby the Holy Ghost himself? " What doth it profit, my brethren, if a man say, he hath faith and bath not works ? Can faith save him ? Faith,if it bath not works, is dead, being alone. Thou believest that there is one God : thou dost well : the devils also believe and tremble ;" James ii. 14. &c- If such a belief be it that thou gloriest in, it is not denied thee- "But wilt thou know, O vain man ! that faith without works is dead ? " &c. Is there life where there is no motion ? Had you that faith that is instead of sight, it would make you more solicitous for the things unseen than you are for the visible trifles of this world. 2. And hence you may observe that most true believers are weak in faith. Alas! how far do we all fall short of the love, and zeal, and care, and diligence, which we should have if we had but once beheld the things which we do believe! Alas! how dead are our affections! how flat are our duties ! how cold and how slow are our endeavors ! how unprofitable are our lives, in com- parison of what one hour's sight of heaven and hell would make them be ! O, what a comfortable converse would it be, if I might but join in prayer, praise and holy conference one dayor hour, with a person that had seen the Lord, and been in heaven, and borne a part in the angelic praises ! Were our congregations com- posed of such persons, what manner of worship would they per- form to God ! . How unlike would their' heavenly, ravishing ex- pressions be to these our sleepy, heartless duties ! Were heaven open to the view of all this congregation while I am speaking to you, or when we are speaking in prayer and praise to God, imagine yourselves what a change it would make upon the best of us in our services! What apprehensions, what affections, what resolutions it would raise ; and what a posture it would cast us all intg! And dowe not all profess to believe these things, as revealed fromheav- en by the infallible God ? Do we not say, that such a divine rev- elation is as sure as if the things were in themselves laid open to our sight? Why, then, are we no more affected with them? Why are we no more transported by them? Why do they no more command our souls, and stir up our faculties to the most vigorous and lively exercise? and call them off from things that are not to us considerable, nor fit to have one glance of the eye of Our observation, nor a regardful thought, not the least affection, unless as they subserve these greater things? When you observe how much in yourselves and others, the frame of your souls in holy duty, and the tenor of your lives towards God and man do differ from what they would be, if you had seen the things that you be- lieve, let it mind you of the great imperfectionof faith, and hum- ble us all in the sense of our imbecility. For though Iknow that the most perfect faith is not apt to raise such high affections in de-
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