SERM. talk of as the undoubted issues of faith? who is the III. man that with such glee doth hug afflictions, or biddeth adversity so welcome to his home? where dwell they, who so little regard this world, or so much affect the other? do we not see men run as if they were wild after preferment, wealth, and pleasure? what do they else, but scrape and scramble and scuffle for these things? doth not every man moan the scantness of his lot, doth not every man flinch at any trouble, doth not every one with all his might strive to rid himself of any thing disgustful to his sense or fancy? Are not therefore such encomiums of faith mere speculations, or brave rhodomontades of divinity?

The objection, I confess, is a shrewd one; but I must reply to it: you say, Where are such effects, where are such men? I ask then, Where is faith, where are believers? shew me the one, and I will shew you the other: if such effects do not appear, it is no argument that faith cannot produce them, but a sign that faith is wanting; as if a tree doth not put forth in due season, we conclude the root is dead; if a fountain yield no streams, we suppose it Jam. ii. 18. dried up: Shew me, saith St. James, thy faith by thy works; implying, that if good works do not shine forth in the conversation, it is suspicious there is no true faith in the heart: for such faith is not a feeble weening, or a notion swimming in the head, it is not a profession issuing from the mouth, it is not following such a garb, or adhering to such a

party, but a persuasion fixed in the heart by good Rom. x. 8. reason, by firm resolution, by lively sense; it is with the heart, as St. Paul saith, man believeth unto righteousness; that is the faith we speak of, and to

III.

which we ascribe the production of so great and SERM. worthy effects: if a man wanteth that, attested by practice suitable, though he know all the points exactly, though he readily will say amen to every article of the Creed, though he wear all the badges of a Christian, though he frequent the congregations, and comply with the forms of our religion, yet is he really an infidel: for is he not an infidel who denieth God? and is he not such a renegado who liveth impiously? he is so in St. Paul's account; for, They Tit. i. 16. profess, saith he of such persons, that they know God, but in works they deny him; and, He is not Rom. ii. 28. a Jew, saith the same apostle, (he is not a Christian, may we by parity of reason affirm,) who is one outwardly; but he is a Christian who is one inwardly, and faith is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God: we may attribute to a barren conceit, or to a formal profession, the name of faith, but it is in an equivocal or wide sense; as a dead man is called a man, or a dry stick resting in the earth a tree; for so faith, saith St. James, without works is dead; is Jam. ii. 17. indeed but a trunk, or carcass of faith, resembling it in outward shape, but void of its spirit and life.

Jam. ii. 26.

To our infidelity therefore, that overspreading vice; to the unsincerity, or deadness of our faith, the great defects of our practice are to be imputed; that is the grand source from which impiety doth so overflow; that so few instances of sprightly virtue are visible, may be a sign the time is the same, or very like to that, of which our Lord saith, When Luke xviii. the Son of man cometh, shall he indeed find faith upon the earth?

But if such effects can now rarely be found, yet

8.

SERM. time hath been, when they were more rife, scarce III. any time hath been quite destitute of them; every age since the foundation of things may have tokens and trophies to shew of faith's victorious efficacy; so many actions as there have been truly great and glorious, so many gallant feats have been achieved by faith if we survey the lives of the ancient patriarchs, of the prophets, of the apostles, of the martyrs and confessors of true religion, their faith in all their works is most conspicuous.

Heb. xi. 4.

Faith recommended that excellent sacrifice of Abel to divine acceptance, and advanced him to the rank of first martyr for piety.

On the wings of faith did Enoch mount to heaven, snatching the reward due to his faithful, and therefore well-pleasing obedience.

Faith preserved Noah from two mighty deluges, one of sin, the other of water, overflowing the earth; by it he stemmed the torrent of the one, and rode 2 Pet. ii. 5. on the back of the other; it encouraged him to be a

Gen. vii. 2. preacher of righteousness against the grain, and a

practiser of it against the fashion of the world, not regarding the common hatred and envy which he did incur thereby; it moved him to undertake that great and strange work of building the ark, for a sanctuary and seminary of mankind; the type of that spiritual vessel, by embarking into which through faith we are saved from utter ruin.

Faith disposed Abraham to forsake his country and home, his estate, his kindred, following divine Heb. xi. 8. conduct he knew not whither; to wander abroad Chrys. tom. and sojourn among barbarous strangers: faith inclined him, at God's command, to sacrifice his only son, a goodly youth in the flower of his age and

vii. p. 17.

III.

hopes, worthily most dear unto him; the son of his SERM. old age, and the comfort thereof, given to him by miracle and in special favour; the prop of his family, and the heir of promise, by whom his seed was to be propagated, and his memory to flourish; him was he ready in obedience with his own hand to slay, quelling nature and his bowels, thwarting his own hopes, defying all semblances of contradiction, or clashing between the commands and promises of God.

Faith, through the rudest efforts of envy and malice, through the dismal calamities of exile and slavery, through hideous snares of temptation, through villainous slanders, through loathsome prisons and fetters of iron, all along sustained with admirable moderation and presence of mind, did rear up Joseph to the helm of that great kingdom.

The same inclined Moses to exchange the dignities and delights of a court for a state of vagrancy and servility; it heartened him to outbrave the invincible obstinacy of a mighty prince; it steeled him with patience to conduct for the space of forty years, through a wild desert, a most perverse and mutinous herd of people.

Faith was mother of that renowned patience, Chrys. tom. which exhausted Satan's quiver, spent all his artil- vii. p. 17. lery, and wore out his invention in suggesting mischiefs; I know that my Redeemer liveth, was the Job xix. 25. rock, on which that unshakeable patience of Job was founded.

That pricked the ruddy stripling forward, naked and unarmed, with undaunted heart and countenance, to invade the monster of Gath, that tower of flesh, swelling with rage and pride, and all fenced

1 Sam.

SERM. with brass and steel; Thou comest to me, said he, III. with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield; but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts: there lay his confidence, thence sprung his admirable courage.

xvii. 45.

1 Kings xviii. 36. xix. 20.

To this the bold attempts, and the glorious victories of Joshua, of Gideon, of Barak, of Jephtha, of Samson, of Jonathan, of the Maccabees, are worthily ascribed, who with small forces, upon great disadvantages, did assault, did vanquish mighty enemies and oppressors.

This inflamed the zeal of Elias, by which he alone did check and control the degenerate follies of his nation, surmounting the indignation of princes which favoured them; it fed him in the wilderness 2 Kings ii. by the purveyance of ravens; it framed the wheels of that fiery chariot, which transported him into heaven.

II.

This made Jeremy, with like zeal and courage, dare to carry most unwelcome news and unpleasant messages to an outrageous people, not daunted by Jer. xxxviii. their angry menaces or cruel misusages; his feet sunk into the mire, but faith bore up his heart above all discouragement.

4, 6.

This saved the conscience of those three brave youths clear from that impiety into which barbarous violence would have driven them, so that neither the fury of that great monarch nor his gaping furnace could terrify them into sin; faith putting into Dan. iii. 16, their mouths those manful words, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thy hand, O king. But if

17, 18.