LIEF OF FAITH. 411 candle, Both hide nothing from him that is omniscient. " Under- stand, O ye brutish among the people! and ye fools, when will ye be wise ? He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? He that formed the eye, shall he not see ? " Psál. xciv. 8, 9. The lust, and filthiness, and covetousness, and envy, and vanity of your very thoughts are as open to his view as the sun at noon. And, there- fore, you may well suppose him present that cannot be absent; and you may suppose you saw him that still seeth you, and whom you must see. O, what a change a glimpse of the glory of his majesty would make in this assembly! O, what amaiements, what passionate workings of soul would it excite! Were it but an angel that did thus appear to you, what manner of hearers would you be! how serious ! how affectionate ! how sensible ! And yet are you believers, and have none of this, when faith makes unseen things tobe as seen ? If thou have faith indeed, thou seest him that is invisible ; thou speakest to him ; thou hearest him in his word ; thou seest him in his works ; thou walkest with him ; he is the life of thy comforts, thy converse and thy life. 2. Suppose you had seen the matters revealed in the gospel to your faith, as to what is past and done already. If you had seen the deluge, and the ark, and preservation of one righteous family ; the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah with fire from heaven; and the saving of Lot, whose righteous soul was grieved at their sins, and hunted after as á prey to their ungodly rage, because he would have hindered them from transgressing. Suppose you had seen the opening of the Red sea, the passage of the Israelites, the drowning of Pharaohand his Egyptians ; themanna and the quails that fell from heaven, the flaming mount, with the terrible thunder, when God delivered the law to Moses ; what manner of people would you have been? What lives would you have led after such sights as all or anyof these ? Suppose you had seen Christ in his state of incarnation, in his examples of lowliness, meekness, con- tempt of all the glory and vanities of this world, and had heard him speak his heavenly doctrinewith power and authority, as never man spake ! Suppose you had seen him heal the blind, the lame, the sick, and raise the dead ; and seen him, after all this, made the scorn of sinners, buffeted, spit upon, when they had crowned him with thorns, and arrayed him gorgeously in scorn ; and then nailed, between Malefactors, on a cross, and pierced, and die a shameful death, and this for such asyou and I ! Suppose you had seen the sun darkened without any eclipse; the veil of the temple rent ; the earth tremble ; the angels terrifying the keepers, and Christ rise again! Suppose you had been among the disciples when he appeared in the midst of them, and with Thomas hadput
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