4. Unbelief ; for faith doth enliven all our notions of God, and Christ, and heaven, and the day of judgment, and inaketh them effec- tual and powerful. The apostle telleth us, Heb. xi. 1, ' That faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.' It puts a presence into things, and so affects us as if the things believed were before our eyes ; otherwise, a man cannot see things at a dis- tance, 2 Peter i. 9. Christ and eternity are afar off, hence to an unbeliever they seem little, and therefore, it is not made a business of the greatest weight or importance to seek after them. At the day of judgment how will wicked men stamp and tear their hair, when matters of faith become matters of sense, that they minded them no more ! Oh ! if I had known this, I should never have dreamed out my time as I have done, saith the convinced wretch, but made a more serious business of my preparation. If the day of judgment be too far off, let us lay the scene a little nearer. Suppose one of the damned souls now in torments, that feeleth that which he would never believe, thus crying out, Oh ! had I thought my lazy desires and good mean- ings would have done me no more good, that my slothfulness would have ended so sadly, I would rather have wept out my eyes, and have
344 SERMONS UPON MATTHEW XXV. [Sl5R. III.
filled the world with sorrowful complaints ; I would have bereaved myself of sleep by night, and refused my bread by day, rather than to have wanted time to have thought of God, and the great affairs of my soul. If our faith be so short-sighted that we cannot look as far as the region of darkness, time may come in this world that we shall wish we had done more for God and our precious and immortal souls. First or last we bear witness to this truth, when the neglected soul cometh to be separated from the pampered flesh or over-prized body. If we would learn to shut the eye of sense, and open the eye of faith, we might see it now.
Use 2. Is to press you to get oil in your vessels, to be rooted and grounded in faith, settled in love, hope, zeal, temperance, and perfect what is lacking to every grace. That you may be sensible what I exhort you to, I shall give you the sum of it by degrees.
1. Do not merely affect the reputation of good people, and rest there. As the Lord saith of the church of Sardis, Rev. iii. 1 , ' Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.' Do not rest in this, that you have a name to live. God judgeth not as man judgeth. Man judge th according to outward appearance, but God judgeth according to the reality of the thing. Many have the name without the thing : Isa. xlviii. 2, ' For they call themselves of the holy city, and stay them- selves upon the God of Israel ; ' that is, they get themselves a name to be his people, but they have not the thing itself. On the other side, we read of some ' that are Israelites indeed,' John i. 47. Some are only so in the show and outside, and some are ' disciples indeed,' John viii. 31 ; so in reality ; others are so in pretence only. There is no true ground of solid comfort but in this, in being real disciples. So John viii. 37, we read of some that were ' free indeed.' The Jews had the name of freemen, but were not ' free indeed ; ' stood upon their liberty ; they were in bondage to no man. Some are religious indeed, humble indeed, fear God indeed : when a man hath gotten the thing, he may refer himself to God for the name.
2. Do not rest in a common work of grace. Look, as in the beasts there is some little tincture of reason, so in temporaries there is some- thing that looks like saving grace, but is not ; something that resem- bles "it, and looketh most like it ; yet it is but the shadow of grace, not true grace itself. Historical faith is the shadow of true saving faith. There are some outward lineaments of repentance in Ahab's humili- ation, and Judas his compunction ; of spiritual affection in Herod's delight in John ; and ' the stony ground received the word with joy ; ' and some show of reformation there was in those that escaped the pollutions of the world. Therefore if you rest here, without a power- ful and inward affecting of the whole heart, you may come short of glory. The grace of temporaries is good in its kind, but must not be rested in. It is good in its kind, it is like priming the post, to make it receptive of other colours ; it is an inchoate, imperfect thing. They are affected almost with the same feeling the godly are, come very near. How nice a point is that wherein the temporary and the real Christian differ ! Both pray with sorrow, hear with joy, perform duties with some enlargement and sweetness — Similifere sensu afficiuntur — yet, as two hills may seem very near at the top, when their bottoms are tar