[2.] The heart will be altered. When faith gives us a sight of things, the heart is warmed with love to things so seen ; ' Being persuaded, they embraced,' Heb. xi. 13. Aftection follows persuasion. When we
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are soundly persuaded, then the heart embraceth, closeth with them, and entertaineth them with the tenderest welcome of our souls ; whereas before we talked of heaven and hell in jest, now we mind them in downright earnestness. The light and knowledge of heaven and hell that we had by education, tradition, customary talking, reading and hearing, it never pierceth the soul to the quick, never warmeth the affections ; but when we have this evidence concerning things to come and things unseen, then the heart is affected.
[3.] The life will be altered. Art thou taken off from earthly things and wordly vanities, and seriously set a-work to make provision for eternity ? I tell you, the most visible and sensible effect of a sound conviction is a diligent pursuit, when a man is set a-work by the notions he hath of God, Christ, and eternity ; 1 Cor. ix. 26, ' Therefore I so run, not as uncertainly : I so fight, not as one that beats the air.' Oh then, there is running, striving, fighting. The man is certainly persuaded of things to come, and he will be taken off from those trifles and childish toys which did engross the former part of his life ; and then all thy thoughts, and serious cares, and fears will be diverted into another channel, and taken up about those better things which thou art convinced of by faith. Faith hath light in it, such a light as finds us corrupted, l)ut dispossesseth us of those evil affections, and sways our practice. Therefore, are your judgments, your hearts, and your lives altered ? by this you may know whether you have been acquainted with this work of faith namely, as it is ' an evidence of things not seen.'
SERMON IV.
And the evidence of things not seen. — Heb. xi. 1.
Secondly, I come to the object, ' Things not seen.' Faith is an evi- dence, but what kind of evidence ? of things that cannot be otherwise seen, which doth not disparage the evidence, but declare the excellency of faith. ' Not seen,' that is, not liable to the judgment of sense and reason.
What are those 'things not seen ' ? Things mav either be invisible in regard of their nature, or of their distance and absence from us. Some things are invisible in their own nature — as God, angels, and spirits ; and all the way and work of the Holy Ghost in and about the spiritual life. Other things are invisible in regard of their distance and absence ; and so things past and to come are invisible ; we cannot see them with our bodily eyes, but they are discovered to us by faith. In short, these ' things not seen,' are either matters of constant prac- tical experience, which are not liable to outward sense, or principles of knowledge, which are not suitable to natural reason.
1. Matters of practical experience. The blessings of religion as the enduring substance, Heb. x. 34, the benefit of afiliction, the rewards and supplies of the spiritual life, answers of prayer, they are things
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not seen in regard of the bodily eye and carnal feeling ; but faith expects them with a.s much assurance as if they were corporeally present, and could be felt and handled, and is assuredly persuaded of them, as if they were before our eyes.
2. Principles of knowledge. There are many mysteries in religion above reason ; until nature put on the spectacles of faith, it cannot see them ; as the incarnation of Christ, the doctrine of the trinity, natural parts cannot discern the truth or worth of them ; they find no sap, or savour in the truths of the gospel. They are unseen to reason, but faith makes them clear to the soul.
Doct. That the evidence of faith is conversant about things unseen by sense or natural reason.
The point admits of much speculative debate, but I shall handle it only in a practical way.
That faith is conversant about things unseen I shall prove by three reasons taken from the differences of time.
1. Because much of religion is past, and we have bare testimony and revelation to warrant it ; as the creation of the world out of nothing, the incarnation, life, and death of Christ ; these are truths not liable to sense, and unlikely to reason — that the vine should grow upon one of its own branches, that God should become a man, and die. Now upon the revelation of the word, the Spirit of God makes all evident to faith. As the centurion, when he sav/ the miracles of Christ's death said. ' Truly this was the Son of God,' Mat. xxvii. 54 ; so by the Si>irit in the hearts of believers, they are convinced, surely this is no other than the word of God. Faith can see God veiled under a curtain of flesh, and Christ the Son of God hanging and dying on a cross. Yea the more impossible the thing is to nature, the litter object of faith, when it is accompanied with divine testimony. If carnal reason object against these things, we must renounce and give it the lie when it contradicts divine truth ; for though the truths of the gospel are hidden and strange to reason, they are open and evident to faith. There are several lights God hath set up in the world, and they must keep their place ; there is sense, which is the light of beasts ; reason, which is the light of men ; faith, which is the light of saints ; and vision, which is the light of glory : now all these lights are not contrary, but sub- ordinate. If we should examine all things by sense, we should la}- aside many things evident to reason ; as to sense a star is no bigger than a spangle, or spark ; but reason knows, because of the distance, we must much otherwise conceive of them. So if we sliould lift up reason against faith we should discard many principles and ailicles of religion which are of greatest concernment. It is an old error to oppose the course of nature to God's word. Those mockers in Peter erred, because they examined things by sense : 2 Peter iii. 4, ' All things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.' When men will believe nothing above their reason, and above their sense, it is a sign they want the light which God hath set up in the church, the light of faith, Jude 19, 'Sensual, not having the Spirit.' Men that go according to reason only, go most against reason ; nothing can be more irrational than to consult with nature about supernatural tilings, and to fetch the judgment of spiritual things from sense ; it is all one