LIFE OF FAITH. 423 Yea, present things, as well as future, are unknown to foolish unbelievers. Do they know who seeth them in their sin? And what many thousands are suffering for the like, while they see no danger ! Whatever their tongues say, the hearts and'lives of fools deny that there is a God that seeth them, and will be their Judge ; Psal. xiv. 1. You see, then, that you must live by faith, or perish by folly. (4.) Consider that things visible are so transitory, and of so short continuance, that they do not deserve the name of things; being nothings, and less than nothing, and lighter than vanity it- self, compared to the necessary Eternal Being, whose name is I AM. There is but a few days' difference between a prince and no prince; a lord and no lord ; a man and no man ; a world and no world. And if this be all, let the time that is past inform you how small a difference this is. Rational foresight may teach a Xerxes to weep over his numerous army, as knowing how soon they were all to be dead men. Can you forget that death is ready to undress you ; and tell you, that your sport and mirth is done ; and that now you have had all that the world can do for those that serve it, and take it for their part ? How quickly can a fever, or the choice of an hundredmessengers of death, bereave you of all that earth afforded you, and turn your sweetest pleasures into gall, and turn a lord into a lump of clay ! It is but as a wink, an inch of time, till you must quit the stage, and speak, and breathe, and see the face of man no more. If you foresee this, O live as men that do foresee it! I never heard of any that stole his winding- sheet, or fought for a coffin, or went to law for his grave. And if you did but see (as wise men should) how.near your honors, and wealth, and pleasures do stand unto eternity, as well as your wind- ing-sheets, your coffins, . and your graves, you would then value, and desire, and seek them regularly and moderately, as you do these. O, what a fading flower is your strength How soon will all your gallantry shrink into the shell ! ' Si vestra sunt tol- lite ea vobiscum.' Bern. But yet this is not the great part of the change : the ' terminus ad quern ' doth make it greater. It is aw- ful for persons of renown and honor to change their palaces for graves, and turn to noisome rottenness and dirt ; to change their power and command for silent impotency, unable to rebuke the poorest worm, that saucily feedeth on their hearts or faces. But if you are believers, you can look further, and foresee much more. The largest and most capacious heart alive is unable fully to con- ceive what a change the stroke of death will make. For the holy soul so suddenly to pass from prayer to angelical praise ; from sorrow unto boundless joys ; from the slanders, and contempt, and violence of men, to the bosom of Eternal Love ;
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