420 LICE 05' FAITH, en; you cause the beast to ride the man; and by turning all things upside down, will turn yourselves into confusion. (2.) Consider that it is the unseen things that are only great and necessary, that are worthy of a man, and answer the excel- lency of our nature, and the ends of our lives, and all our mercies. All other things are inconsiderable toys, except as they are digni- fied by their relation to these. Whether aman step into eternity from a palace or a prison, a lordship or a Lazarus state, islittle to be regarded. All men in the world, whose designs and business take up with any thing short of heaven, are, in the main, of One condition, and are but in. several degrees and forms in the school of folly. If the intendment of your lives fall short of God, it mat- ters not much what it is you seek, as to any great difference. If lesser children play for pins, and bigger boys for points and pence, and aged children for lands and money, for titles of honor and command, what difference is there between these, in point of wis- dom and felicity, but that the little ones have more innocent delights, and at a cheaper rate than the aged have, without the vexatious cares and dangers that attend more grave and serious dotage? As holiness to the Lord is written upon all that is faith- fully referred to his will and glory, so vanity and sin is written upon all that is but made provision for the flesh, and bath no high- er end than self. To go to hell with greater stir, and attendance, and repute, with greater pomp and pleasure, than the poor, is a poor consolation,a pitiful felicity. (3.) Faith is the wisdom of the soul ; and unbelief and sensu- ality are its blindness, folly and brutishness. How short is the knowledge of the wisest unbelievers! They know not much of what is past ; (and less they would know if histories were not_ of more credit with . them than the word of God ;) but, alas! how little do they know of -what is to come ! Sense tells them where they are, and what they are now doing; but it tells them not where they shall be to- morrow. But faith can tell a true believer what will be when this world is ended, and where he shall live to all eternity, and what he shall be doing, what thoughts he shall be thinking, what affections shall be the temper and employment of his soul; what he shall see, and feel, and enjoy; and with what company he shall converse forever. If the pretenders to astro- logical prediction could but foretell the changes of men's lives, and the time and manner of their deaths, what'resort wouldbe to them! and how wise would they be esteemed! But what is all this to the infallible predictions of the All-knowing God, that bath given us a prospect into another world, and showed us what will be forever, more certainly than you know what a day may bring forth!
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