Labour, then, for faith, that you may overcome the world. It was an excellent speech of Christ when he sent forth his disciples, * Did you lack anything ?' and they said, ' Nothing at all,' Luke xxii. 35. Labour there- fore for faith to rely on the promise; for provision, protection, and all things needful. If God be our shepherd, we are sure to lack nothing.
And cherish a waking heart; lay hold of eternal life. The way to get this is not to be drunk of the world, but to be wise, redeeming your time ; and balance these earthly things with heavenly. See what these fading comforts are to eternity. All the things we see here are temporal, but the things which are not seen, they are eternal, 2 Cor. iv. 18. Therefore, we should let our affections run the right way, and have Abraham's eyes to see afar off, and feed our meditations with the things which we shall have here- after, as Moses did.
I beseech you, let us prize the favour of God above all that the earth affords. What though we endure hardness here ! Did Christ leave heaven to suffer for us, and shall not we suffer some straits for him ? Faith can see a greater good in Christ than in the creature. This is that that will set out the vanity of the world and the excellency of heaven, the certainty of the one and the perishing condition of the other. It will make things to come as present with us, and find out a sufficiency in the worst estate.
FAITH TRIUMPHANT.
These all died in faith, not haviuf] received the promises, hut having seen them afar of, they were j^^rsuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that theij were strangers and jnlgrims on earth. — Heb. XI. 13.
This chapter is a little book of martyrs. It discovers the life and death of the holy patriarchs, and by what means God's children are brought into possession of that that they have an interest and right unto upon earth. It is by faith. By faith we do and suffer all that we do and suffer, all that God hath ordained us to go through, till he have brought us and invested us to heaven, which is prepared for us.
In the former part of the chapter there is an induction, the instances of particular blessed patriarchs ; and after he had named diverse particulars, he sums them up in this general, ' All these died in faith.'
In this verse there is.
First, The general set down, ' All these died in faith.'
And then the particular unfolding of this. ' They received not the promises, having seen them afar oft", and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed they were strangers and pilgrims on earth.' He sets down their faith particularly, hereby setting down what might hinder it and yet did not hinder it, 'the not receiving of the promises.' ' They received not the promises, and yet they believed the promises;' that is, the things promised. They were afar off, and yet they saw them.
' They saw them.' That is the first degree.
' They were persuaded of them.' That is the second.
' They embraced them.' That is the third.
' They confessed they were pilgrims and strangers.' That is the fourth.
' All these died in faith.' ' There is one faith from the beginning of the world. As there is one Christ, one salvation, so there is one uniform faith for the saving of our souls. We hope to be saved by Jesus Christ as they were. I do but touch that.
* 'Faith Triumphant' forms 'five' of the Sermons of 'Evangelical Sacrifices' (4to, 1640). Its separate title-page is as follows: — 'Faith Trivmpliant. In five Sermons, on Heb. 11. 13. By the late Learned and Keverend Divine, Rich. Sihhs. Doctor in Divinity, M^ of Katherine Hall in Cambridge, and sometimes Preacher to the Honourable Society of Grayes-Inne. Luke 7. 50. And hee said to the woman, thy faith liath saved thee, goe in peace. London, Printed by T. B. for N. Bourne, at the Pioyall Exchange, and R. Harford, at the guilt Bible in Queenes-head Alley in Pater-noster-Row. 1639.'
FAITH TRIUMPHANT. 415
Then again, here is implied a continuance and perseverance in faith. 'All these died in faith ; ' that is, they lived in faith and by faith till they died, and then they died in faith. Faith first makes a Christian, and then after, he lives by faith. It quickens the life of grace, and then he leads his life by that faith. He continues in it till he come to death, which is the period of all, and then he dies by that faith. But of perseverance to the end and the helps to it, I spake at large upon another occasion, therefore I omit it.* 'All these died in faith.' Faith carried them along all their lifetime till death itself. Now that faith that helped them through all the difficulties of this life, that faith by which they lived, in that faith they died. * They died in faith.'
In the faith of the Messiah, in faith of Canaan, in faith of heaven. For the patriarchs, they had not Canaan till many hundred years after. It was a type of heaven. They had not Christ till some thousands of years after. So they died in faith of Christ, of Canaan, and of heaven. The benefits by Christ is the upshot of all this. ' They died in faith.' He doth not say how otherwise they died, because it is not material whether they died rich or poor, great or mean. God takes no great notice of that, nor a Christian takes no great notice of it. ' They died in faith.' Whether they died a violent or a peaceable death it is no matter ; they died blessed, in that they died in faith. 'They died in faith,' which in other phrase is, 'to die in the Lord,' 'to sleep in the Lord;' because whosoever dies in faith, dies in Christ. Faith lifts them up to Christ, and they sleep in Christ. It is a happy thing to die in Christ. Now those that die in faith, they die in Christ. ' Blessed are those that die in the Lord, they rest from their labours,' saith the apostle, Kev. xiv. 13.