We abuse our souls. They are not made to close and grasp with the world ; they are not made for those things that are baser than ourselves. We abase our souls. A covetous man makes himself worse than he is ;
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therefore he is called the world,* because ho hath nothing in him better than the world. If we embrace Christ and the promises of salvation, the things of another life, the embracing of these raiseth the soul to be excellent like the things, and it doth quiet and rest the soul. For nothing will rest but in its own element. As the heavy bodies rest not but in the centre, in the middle point of the earth, and light bodies rest coming to their place above, so the soul it rests in God and in Christ. Faith resting in the power of God quiets the soul, carrying it to the thing it is made for. As these holy men, in all the turmoils and troubles of the world, in all con- fusions, the souls of these blessed men rested in Christ.
Wo may say of all earthly things, as Micah hath this sentence of them, Micah ii. 10, ' Go yc hence, here is not your rest.' So we may say to the soul concerning riches, and honours, and friends, ' Here is not your rest.' You were not made to embrace and to cleave to these things. Our rest is in Christ and in the good things we have by him. These good men embraced him with their whole soul.
This shews that many men have not faith ; they know not what it means. Where there is true faith, there is alvvay love, and joy, and delight in the things believed. It carries the soul with it. In what measure we appre- hend the goodness of a thing, in that measure our love is to it. In what measure we apprehend the greatness and fitness of a thing, in that measure our afi'ections are carried to it. The understanding reports it to the affections of love and liking, and they are naturally carried to that which the soul makes report of to be useful. The understanding makes them follow it. There- fore it is a sign our understandings are not persuaded, our eyes are not opened, when we love not good persons and good things, when we cleave not to them above all things. Those that do not embrace and cleave in their will and afiections to good things, let them say what they will, they do not believe. If there were but a light conjecture in men, if there were but a guessing that there were such a happiness and that there were such horrible torments for sinners that live in sin, they would live otherwise than they do. Therefore deadness in the afiections discovers atheism in the judgment and heart ; it shews there is unbelief. For how is it possible that a man should not be carried in his afi'ections to a good that he is per- suaded of. And how is it possible he should not loathe ill and destructive things ? If he were persuaded that hell were such as it is, and that these courses lead to hell and destruction, and estrange him from the favour of God, * whose loving-kindness is better than life itself,' Ps. Ixiii. 3, if men were persuaded of these things in any strength, their souls would not be afiected as they are.
Therefore if we would know whether nature be corrupted or no, we may do it by this. You have some men that are conceited, especially when they are in their rufl'f and have all things plenty. Divines talk much of the corruption of nature and such things. They think all is well. Oh, but do but lay these things together, the excellency of the things promised and the terror of the things threatened, and our indisposition to these things in regard of persuasion, that we live as if we did not think these things to be true. What a disposition of soul is that that calls divine truths into question ! To believe the lies of our own hearts and the temptations of the devil, and the world that lies in mischief, before the resolved truth of God itself, that is sealed with the oath of God. And yet the heart of man is naturally carried to believe these things more than God himself. Witness
* Cf. 1 Cor. ii. 12, xi. 32, et alibi f?).— G. t That is, = in state, grandeur.— G.
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the lives of men who have dead, carnal, base aifections in regard of heavenly things, they shew that they are not persuaded of them, notwithstanding all the sweet arguments and persuasions that the Scripture hath. They do not profess that they call them in question, yet they live as if they made uo doubt that they are all false. It is a folly not to believe those things that are sealed by so many evidences as divine things are ; but it is more desperate folly to live as if we did not believe them at all.
If these things were digested, they would make us out of love with our own natural estate, and to labour for a spirit of faith to persuade our souls, both that those things are so indeed that God hath revealed, and to get assured persuasion of our part and interest in them. Indeed, a dead faith is no faith at all. It is the effect of the whole Epistle of St James, that it is no faith that is dead ; it doth not work upon the heart and affections, nor the life and conversation. A dead faith is no faith at all.