542 Tfft CÁI2.ISTIA5I $ TREASVRÉ. nal pleasure; for the book of God assures me, that thins pre.. sent and things to come are mine: Make haste then, all ye re- maining revolutions of nature ; and days, and months, and ages' make liaste: Time cannotfly too fast for me, who have such an eternity in view. My Lord hath told me in his word, surely I come quiékly, and my heart echoes to that voice ofmy beloved, Amen, 'even so come Lord Jesus." FourthUse. This doctrinerequires the believer to befound . in the constant exercise of faith, that so he may be able.always tosurvey his inheritance, and take solid delight in it. Otherwise, when he sustains loss in temporal things, and sickness and trou- ble attend hint in the flesh,-he will be readyto judge by the mere principles of sense, and to think his comforts all gone, and that he has nothing left. It is faith alone can teach a believer to re- joice in this, treasure given him by thecovenant of grace, when the world has taken almost all sensiblecomforts from him. The natural man with aneye of sense looks on things just as the eye of a brute-animal beholds them, and sees nothing morethan ac- cording to the common impressions they makeon flesh and blood:. But the eye, of faith is aidedby the divine glass of the covenant, which as a microscope discovers many beauties where the natural eye unassisted, can see nothing but roughness and deformity: It is nothing but faith fixing its eyes on sanctified losses and crosses, sanctified pains, and sickness, and distresses, that can enable us to reckon these among our treasures. It is nothing' but the spirit of faith that can instruct us to think ourselves rich, because we are heirs of the kingdom, while we are poor and destitute in this lower world ; James ii. *. It is the spirit of faith that taught the ApostlePaul to triumph under all his infir- mities, in such language as this ; As dying and behold we live ; as sorrowfid, and yet always rejoicing; as poor, andyet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing ali things; 2 Cor. vi. 9, 10. And ifwe have the same spirit of faith we may believe and speak the same language. Fifth Use.Thisdoctrine forbids all murmuring at the hand of God, though his dispensations may have something painful and severe in them. He has given us all things indeed, by the promise of the gospel, but he has not put this treasure into our ownhands, lest we should abuse and forfeit it ; but he hasput it into the hands of Christ for us ; and it is Christ our Lord who distributes out such parcels and portions of our estate to us daily, as his perfect wisdom sees most proper to promote our real in- terest. The christian under sickness, perhaps will say, Is not life . and health writ down in the inventory of my inheritance ? Yes, but sickness and death are written down there too, and thy
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