2Cl INWfiRD WITNESS 'f0 CHRISTFhNITT. DEAN.. H. and demonstration ; this witnessed the truth and divi- nity of the gospel of Grist beyond all contradictions or doubt. II. A contempt of this world, is another part of holi- ness, and of heaven ; a sacred disregard of temporal things raised by the sight of things eternal. If we look upwards to heaven, we shall behold there all the inhabitants looking down with a sacred contempt upon the trifles, amusements, businesses, and cares of this presentlife, that engross our affections; awakenour desires, fill our hearts with pleasure or pain, and our flesh with constant labour. With what holy scorn do you think those souls, who are dismissed from flesh, look down upon the hurries and bustles of this present state, in which we are engaged ? They dwell in the full sight of those glories which, they hoped for here on earth, and their intimate acquaintance with the pleasures of that upper wórld, and the divine sensations that are raised in them there, make them contemn all the pleasures of this state, and every thing below heaven. This is a part of eternal life, this belongs in some degree to every believer; for he is not a believer that is not got above this world in a good measure ; he is not a christian, who is not weaned, in some degree, from this world For this is our victory, whereby we overcome the world, even our faith. Ile that is born of God, overcomes the world; he that believes in Jesus, is born of God, 1 John v. 1, 4. Whence the argument is plain, he that be- lieves in Jesus, the Son of God; overcomes this present world. And where christianity is raised to a good degree of life and power in the soul, there we see the christian got near to heaven : he is, as it were, a fellow for angels, a fit companion for the spirits of the just made perfect. The affairs of this life are beneath his best desires and his hopes ; he engages his hand in them so far as God his Father appointshis duty; but he longs for the upper world, where his hopes are ,gone before: "When shall Ì be entirely dismissed from this labour and toil? The gaudy pleasures this world entertains me with, are 'no, entertainments to me; I am weaned from them, I am born from above." This is the language of that faith that overcomes the world : And faith, whew it it
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