' 2 Peter i. 4. Mark, the whole word of God is the object of faith ; but the promises, more especially, are the prime object about which faith is most conversant.
2 Spelled ' egregious ;' meaning ' peculiar.' — G.
' xara -rirrn, t. e. persevering in faith, oKr^rara/nvoi. Some think that it is an allusion to the custom of saluting one another, by embracing or laying hold of each other.
* Jer. xxxii. 40, 41 ; Ezek. xi. 19, 20 ; xxxvi. 25-27 ; Isa. xlii. 1 ; Ezek. xx. 41-43 ; Ps. xci. 15 ; Isa. Ixv. 24 ; Jer. xxxiii. 3 ; Isa. xxxii. 15 ; Ezek. xxxiv. 30, 31, with many otheifs of the like import.
6 Spiritual and absolute promises are the most precious mines to enrich you ; in them you will find the greatest pearls of price.
450 HEAVEN ON EARTH. [ROM. VIII. 32-34.
Look not only upon some of the riches, the jewels, the pearls, that be wrapped up in the promises, but enlarge and expatiate your under- standings to an effectual contemplation of all those riches and treasures that God hath laid up in the promises. Cast not the eye of your faith only upon one beam of the sun, but endeavour to see all the beams of the sun ; look not upon one branch of the tree of life, but upon every branch of that tree ; look not upon one bunch of the grapes of Canaan, but look upon the whole land.' As understanding heirs, when they come to read over their evidences and writings, they will see what they have in houses, what in goods, what in lands, what in money, what in jewels, what at home, what abroad ; they will not sit down and say, Well ! we find in our evidences, that such and such land is ours, and look no further ; no, no, they will look all over, and take exact notice of everything ; they will say, We have so much land, and so much money, &c. O beloved, there is much marrow and fatness, there is much honey and sweetness, much grace and glory wrapped up in the promises. Oh press them, and oppress^ them till you have got forth all the riches and sweetness that is in them.
Ah, Christians ! did you this, God would be more honoured, the promises more prized, your graces more strengthened, your fears more abated, your hearts more warmed and engaged, and your lives more re- gulated, and Satan more easily and frequently vanquished. And so much for this third object, about which faith is exercised.
(4.) Fourthly, The fourth object of faith. The fourth object and last that I shall mention that faith is set and fixed upon is, that glory, blessedness, and life, which God hath laid up for them, that love him? The things of eternity are the greatest things, they are the most excellent things. They are most excellent in their natures, in their causes, in their operations, in their effects, in their ends ; and upon these faith look s and lives. Faith realiseth things; it makes absent things present. 'Faith is the sub- stance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,' Heb. xi. 1.* Faith makes absent glory present, absent riches present, absent pleasures present, absent favours present. Faith brings an invisible God, and sets him before the soul. Moses by faith saw him that was invisible. Faith brings down the recompence of reward, and sets it really though spiritually before the soul. Faith sets divine favour before the soul. It sets peace, it sets pardon of sin, it sets the righteousness of Christ, it sets the joy of heaven, it sets salvation, before the soul ; it makes all these things very near and obvious to the soul : ' Faith is the evidence of things not seen.'* Faith makes invisible things visible, absent things present, things that are afar off to be very near unto the soul, by convincing demonstrations, by arguments and reasons drawn from the word, as the Greek word signi- fies : 2 Cor. iv. 17, 18, ' For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things
* Haman took notice, yea, and would have his friends take notice, of all his greatness, honours, and riches, Esther v. 10-12; and will not you stir up j'our hearts to see all those riches and pleasures that be in precious promises ? ^ Qu. • expiess'? — Ed.
" 2 Tim. iv. 8. Faith ante-dates glory.
* vTirraris, the substance, t. e. that which gives a substantial being to the things of etfrnal life. Faith alters the tenses ; it puts the future into the present, Pa. Ix. 6 ; Heb. xii. 2. ' ixtyx'!) the index, or clear conviction by disputation.
Rom. VIII. 32-34.] heaven on earth. 451
which are not seen : for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal/* Faith trades in invisible things, in eternal things. Its eye is always upwards, like the fish called by Galen uraiioscopos,^ that hath but one eye^ and yet looks continually up to heaven.^ Faith enters within the veil, and fixes her eye upon those glorious things of eternity, that are so many that they exceed number, so great that they exceed measure, so precious that they are above all estimation. Says faith, The spangled firmament is but the footstool of my Father's house ; and if the footstool, the outside, be so glorious, oh how glorious is his throne ! Verily, in heaven there is that life that cannot be expressed, that light that cannot be compre- hended, that joy that cannot be fathomed, that sweetness that cannot be dissipated, that feast that cannot be consumed ; and upon these pearls of glory I look and live, says faith.
And thus I have shewed you the choice and precious objects about which that faith is exercised that accompanies salvation.
I shall now in the next place shew you the properties of that faith that accompanies salvation, and they are these that follow.