412 LIFE or rnrir:. yourfingers into his wounded side ; and had seen him walkingon the waters, and at last seen him ascending up toheaven. Suppose you had seen when the Holy Ghost came down on the disciples in the similitude of cloven tongues, and had heard them speak in the various languages of the nations, and seen the variety Of miracles by which they convinced the unbelieving world; what persons would you have been? What lives would you have led; if you had been eye-witnesses of all these things? And do you not pro- fess to believe all this, and that these things are as certain truths as if you had seen them? Why, then, doth not your beliefaffect. you, or command you more? Why doth it not dò what sight would do, in some good measure, if it were but a lively, saving faith indeed, that serveth instead of sense ? Yea, I must tell you, faith must do more with you in this case than the sight 'of Christ alone could do, or the sight of his miracles did on most. For many that saw him, and saw his works, and heard his word, yet perished in their unbelief. 3. Suppose you saw the everlasting glory which Christ hath purchased and prepared for his saints ; that you had been once with Paul, rapt up into the third heavens, and seen the things that are unutterable ; would you not, after that, have rather lived like Paul, and undergone his sufferings and contempt, than to have lived like the brain-sick, brutish world? If you had seen what Stephen saw before his death, "the glory of God, and Christ standing at his right hand," (Acts. vii. 55, 56 ;) , if you' had seen the thousands and millions of holy, glorious spirits, that are con- tinually attending the Majesty of the Lord; if you had seen the glorified spirits of the just, thatwere once in flesh, despised by the blind, ungodly world, while they waited on God in faith, and holi- ness, and hope, for that blessed crown which. now they wear; if you had felt one moment oftheir joys ; ifyou had seen them shine as the sun in glory, and made like unto the, angels of God ; if you had heard them sing the song of the Lamb, and the joyful halle- lujahs, and praise to their eternal Icing, what would you be, and what would you resolve on, after such a sight, as this? If the rich man (Luke xvi.)'had seen Lazarus in Abraham's bosom, in the midst of his bravery, and honor, and feasting, and other sensual delights, as afterwards he saw it, when he was tormented in the flames of hell, do you think such a sight would not have cooled his mirth and jollity, and helped him to understand the nature and value of his earthly felicity ; andhaveproved a more effectual ar- gument thana despised preacher'swords ? At least to have brought him to a freer exercise of his reason, in a sober consideration of his state and'ways? Had you seen one hour what Abraham, David,
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