SERMON XL. The Privilege of the Living above the Dead. WHEN Coo. iii. 22.Whether life or death, a1í are yours. Y these words were explained, this doctrine was drawn from the first part of them, viz. " When life is given or conti- nued to the saints, it is Kew their advantage." The first thing proposed, in our meditations of this truth, was to make it appear by a varios y of instances, that life is de- signed forthe benefit of christians. I proceed now to the Second, viz. to amplify and confirm this doctrine yet further by representing what various graces may be exercisedon earth, which can have no place in heaven ; and to discover in what re- spects, a living christian may be said to have some advantage over the saints that aredead. 1. The first grace 1 shall mention, which belongs only to :this life, is, faith of things unseen, whether present or future; for in heaven this sort of faith is ended and lost; it vanishes into sight ; 1 Cor. v. 7. Here in this world we walk by faith, and not 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. 29. Hereby theliving christian doth much honour to God, and offers him arevenue of such glory, as can never be offered tohim among all the saints and angels on high. To believe that there is a God who matte 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 sub- mission to his will, in the midst of thoughtless sinners who de- ride 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 boldandsubtle 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 ourhopes, in the midstof an age of deists and heathens, that laugh at our bible and our belief together: These are noble instances of a militant faith in a world of infidelity. To believe that Jesus ofNazareth, who was hanged upon a treewithout Jerusalem, and died there, poi
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