VeR. 1.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. 355
as if we should brinp: down all rational aflfairs to the judgment of sense, and seek a law for man among beasts ; reason must not be captivated to fancy, but to faith. Much of religion is past, and consists of articles unknown.
2. Mucli of religion is yet to come, and therefore can only be dis- cerned by faith. Fancy and nature cannot outsee time, and look beyond death : 2 Peter i. 9, ' He that lacketh these things/ that is, that lacketh faith, and other graces that do accompany it, ' is bhnd, and cannot see afar off;' unless faith hokl the caiidio to hope, we cannot see heaven at so great a distance. Heaven and the glorious rewards of religion are yet to come ; faith only can see heaven in the promises and look upon the gospel as travailing in birth with a great salvation. Faith must supply the room of sense, and believe heaven though it see it not, and look for it though we enjoy it not. As reason must not jostle out faith, so faith must not be uncertain, though it cannot aspire to the light of glory. The apostle saith, ' We walk by faith, not by sight,' 2 Cor. v. 7 ; that is our light here. Graceless souls may be sharp-sighted in all things that concern their temporal interest, and talk of the affairs of the present world ; but as for the things of the other world they are stark blind.
3. That of religion which is of actual and present enjoyment, sense or reason cannot discern the truth or worth of it ; therefore iaith is still the evidence of things iTnseen.
[1.] It cannot discern the truth of it. There are few things in religion but the truth of them is contradicted by carnal sense. Eternal life is promised to us, but first we must be dead ; the resurrection of the body, but first we must moulder to dust in the grave. Blessedness is promised to us at last, but in the meantime we are of all men most miserable ; a comfortable supply of all things, but in the meantime we hunger and suffer thirst. God saith he will be a present help in a time of trouble, but he seems to be deaf to our prayers ; therefore faith is conversant about things present. The carrying on the work of grace is a thing invisible : Col. iii. 3, ' Our life is hid Avith Christ in God.' I say, the secret power and influence, by which grace is fed and main- tained, is carried on from step to step in despite of devils or men. Therefore the apostle begs, Eph. i. 18. 'That their eyes might be opened ; ' why ? what should they discern ? — ' that they might know the hope of their calling, and the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.' The power that goes to the maintaining of grace, till we come to the po.'^session of the rich and glorious inheritance which God hath provided for us, it is a matter of faith not of sense. What would become of us, if faith did not supply the place of sense, and the promise did not make amends for enjoyment ? That phrase of ' living by faith,' is always used in opposition to present feeling. It is men- tioned in four places of scripture, twice in the case of justification, Kom. i. 17, Gal. iii. 11, when we are dead in law, lost in the sense of our own consciences ; then when we can cast ourselves upon the mercies of God in Christ, this is living by faith. And it is used twice in the case of great troubles and anxiety ; when we have nothing else to live upon but our own sorrows and tears, when the destroyer in the land wasted and devoured all they had, then ' the just shall live by faith,'
25C) SERMONS UrON HEBREWS XL [SeK. IV.
Hab. ii. 4. So when their goods were plundered, Heb. x. 34, then ' the just shall live by faith,' ver. 38, so that the whole life of a christian is made up of riddles ; and faith is still opposite to sense. This indeed is living by faith, to see that in God which is wanting in the creature. The whole business of Christianity is nothing else, but a contradicting of sense ; God's dealing seenieth often to make against his promise, and his way is contrary to the judgment of the carnal mind. Where would religion be were it not for faith ?
[2 ] As the truth of religion is not always visible to sense, so the worth of religion is checked by carnal reason : 1 Cor. ii. 14, ' The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit, neither can he receive them, because they are spiritually discerned.' Carnal reason judgeth it to be a foolish thing to renounce present delights and present advantages. Suffering zeal seemeth peevishness and frowardness to a carnal judgment and active zeal a fond niceness. Look, as astronomers have invented names of bears, lions, dragons, for those things which are glorious stars in the heavens; so doth carnal reason miscall all the graces of the Holy Spirit. When a men makes conscience of his ways, carnal reason says that which carnal men do, We shall have you turn fool now! So that he that will be wise to salvation, must become one of the world's fools, that he may be wise, 1 Cor. iii. 18. Therefore that we may be sincere and strict in religion, and faithful with God, willing to do and willing to suffer, there is need of faith, that we may quit visible conveniences for invisible rewards, and despise things that are seen for things that are not seen : 2 Cor. iv. 18. ' While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen ; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.' That made the apostles renounce worldly interests, and mortify carnal affections. Faith •discovered a worth and beauty in things not seen to reason and sense.