I66 THE PRIVILEGE OF THE [SLRM. -XL. and to discover in what respects a living christian may be said to have sgme advantage over the saints that are dead. L The first grace I shall mention, which belongs only to this life, is, faith of things unseen, whether pre- sent or future: for in heaven this sort of faith is ended and lost ; it vanishes into sight. __ 2 Cor. v. 7. Here in this world we walk by faith, andnot by sight; but in the world above, we shall live by sight, and not by faith. " Blessed are those souls on earth who have not seen, and yet have believed," John xx. 99. Hereby the living christian Both much honour to God, and offers him a revenue of such glory, as can never be offered to him among all the saints and angels on high. To believe that there is a God who made all things, among, a world of atheists, that deny him that made them; to carry it toward an unseen God with a solemn awe of his majesty, and deep reverence and submission to his will, in the midst of thoughtless sinnerswho deride religion, and live without' God in the world; to believe that the bible is the word of God, notwithstanding all the difficulties contained in it, and all the bold and sub- tle cavils that infidels have raised against it; to make this word the ground of our religion, the rule of our practice, and the foundation of our hopes, in the midst of an age of deists and heathens, that laugh at our bible ançl our belief together ; These are noble instances. of a militant faith in a worldof infidelity. To believe thatJesus of Nazareth, who was hanged 'upon a tree without Jeru- salem, and died there, is the only begotten Son of God, 'the Makerand the Saviour of the world, to believe that he now lives and governs all things at the right-hand of his Father, and to trust in him who died upon the 'cross to give us a crown of eternal life ; these are such exercises of the grace of faith, as have no place in the world of sight, where every saint beholds him face to face: Sgch acts as these, are only suited to our present state of ab- sence from the Lord, and yet they are highly honour- able toGod and our Redeemer, " whom having not seen we love, And in whom, though nowwe see him not, yet believing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable," 1 Peter i. 8. To believe that there is a heaven of glory far above th9 clouds, where our Lord Jesus Christ has dwelt in his
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