For we walk by faith, not by sight.—2 Cor. v. 7.

GET an eye of faith, to look through and above the creature. A man shall never get to look off from the world, till he can look beyond it. For the soul will have holdfast of something; and the reason why men cling so much to the earth, is, because they have no assurance, if they let go that hold, of having any subsistence elsewhere. Labor, therefore, to get an interest in Christ, to find an everlasting footing in the steadfastness of God's promises in him, and that will make thee willing to suffer the loss of all things; it will implant a kind of hatred and disestimation of all the most precious endearments, which thy soul did feed upon before. St. Peter saith of wicked men, that they are purblind," they cannot see afar off: " they can see nothing but that which is next them; and therefore no marvel, if their thoughts can not reach unto the end of the creature. There is in a dim eye the same constant and habitual indisposition, which sometimes happeneth unto a sound eye by reason of a thick mist: though a man be walking in a very short lane, yet he sees no end of it and so a natural man can not reach to the period of earthly things. Death and danger are still a great way out of his sight whereas the eye of faith can look upon them as already expiring; and, through them, look upon him who therefore gives the creatures unto us, that in them we might see his power, and taste his goodness. And nature itself methinks, may seem to have intended some such thing as this, in the very order of the creatures. Downwards a man's eye hath something immediately to fix on; all is shut up in darkness save the very surface, to note, that we should have our desires shut up too from those earthly things which are put under our feet, and hid from our eyes, and buried in their own deformity. All the beauty and all the fruit of the earth is placed on the very outside of it, to show how short and narrow our affections should be toward it. But upward the eye finds scarce any thing to bound it all is transparent and diaphanous, to note how vast our affections should be toward God; how endless our thoughts and desires of his kingdom; how present to our faith the heavenly things should be, even at the greatest distance. The apostle saith,

that"Faith is the substance of things hoped for;" that it gives being and present subsistency to things far distant from us; makes those things which, in regard of natural causes are very remote-in regard of God's promises, to seem hard at hand. And therefore though there were many hundred years to come in the apostle's time, and for aught we know, may yet be to the dissolution of the world,—yet the apostle tells us, that even then it was the last hour,-because, faith being able distinctly to see the truth and promises of God, and the endlessness of that life which is then presently to be revealed,—the infinite excess of vastness in that, made that which was otherwise a great space, even seem as nothing,—no more in comparison, than the length of a case or trunk, through which a man looks on the heavens, or some vast country. And ever the greater magnitude and light there is in a body, the smaller will the medium or distance seem from it. The reason why a perspective glass draws remote objects close to the eye, is, because it multiplies the species." We, then, by faith apprehending an infinite and everlasting glory, must needs conceive any thing through which we look upon it, to be but short and vanishing. And therefore though the promises were afar off, in regard of their own existence, yet the patriarchs did not only see, but embrace them; their faith seemed to nullify and swallow up all the distance. Abraham saw Christ's day, and was glad: he looked upon those many ages which were between him and his promised seed, as upon small and inconsiderable distances in comparison of that endless glory into which they ran: they were but as a curtain or piece of hangings, which divide one room in a house from another. Labor therefore to get a distinct view of the height and length, and breadth and depth, and the unsearchable love of God in Christ, to find in thine own soul the truth of God in his promises, and that his word abideth for ever; and that will make all the glory of other things to seem but as grass.

"Faith lends its realizing light;

The clouds disperse, the shadows fly;

Th' Invisible appears in sight,

And God is seen by mortal eye."

Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness.—Col. i. 11.

II. WHENCE this good is expected and obtained; from the glorious power of God.

According to his glorious power. In these words the apostle shows, whence the strengthening and might of the godly comes, namely from the glorious power of God. Three things are to be considered: What this strengthening power is; Why it is called glorious power; How it comes to us and whence it is derived.

As to the first: The strengthening power is the Holy Spirit himself with his gifts; who breathes wonderful might into our infirm minds. For so Christ himself speaks, Tarry ye, said he to the apostles, in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high; that is, until the Holy Spirit enters into you from heaven. For so Paul when writing to the Ephesians; May God grant you, that ye may be strengthened mightily by his Spirit in the inner man. We are here taught,

1. That no one ought to confide in his own strength, as though by his own power he could resist temptations, or endure griefs and afflictions for Christ; but he should seek strengthening from this Spirit. Piously and wisely spake Augustine, “A presumption of stability keeps back many from stability: no one will be strong by God, but he who perceives his weakness in himself."

2. That when temptations are overcome, it behooves us to ascribe the glory to God, not to ourselves, or to our own power. Not unto us, not unto us, but to thy name give the glory. For it is a species of pride when any one would seem to have that form himself which he borrowed from another.

Thus it appears whence this strengthening might comes. Let us inquire why it is called glorious. The apostle could have said, we are strengthened by God, or by his power; but he adds this epithet, glorious power, or glorious might:

1. That we may place the greater confidence in his divine power. Because this word contains in itself an earnest, or rather a promise of victory and triumph for this could not be glorious power, if it might be overcome by an evil spirit and sin. In all

:

these things we are more than conquerors through him who hath loved us.

2. It is called glorious power on account of the admirable mode of conquering the devil, the world, and the flesh. For the Spirit of God not immediately, by his absolute power, beats off these enemies of our salvation; but by inspiring us with strength causes even ourselves to trample them under. Moreover, that power must necessarily be very admirable and glorious, which makes feeble man, clothed with sinful flesh, to overcome the insults and wiles of devils, the alarms and solicitations of the flesh, the hatred, snares, and injuries of the whole world. Of this glorious power God himself speaks, My strength is made perfect in weakness.

Only one thing now remains to be explained: How this glorious power of the Holy Spirit comes to us. It is derived unto us by the gracious mediation and intercession of Christ sitting at the right hand of the Father. Concerning the gift or sending of his Spirit into the hearts of believers, we have the promise of Christ, It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go away, I will send the Comforter unto you. Christ, therefore, as God, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, gives this glorious power of the Holy Spirit to his people. God alone gives God. Christ, as man, intercedes with the Father, and by his intercession obtains this spirit of fortitude for all the elect: I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever.

Hence we gather that Christ, although seated in heaven, is yet the living head of, and really united to, the church which is on earth. For as the natural head diffuses sense and motion through its body; so Christ, the spiritual head of the church, communicates the vital power of his Spirit to all his members.

Here we see the real practical use of that article, He sitteth at the right hand of the Father: For we do not believe as we ought the sitting of Christ at the right hand of the Father, unless we believe that he so reigns in heaven, as far more effectually to protect and strengthen his people by this his glorious power, than if he continued to be yet present upon the earth in the body, and stood by each one of us.

For ye were as sheep going astray, but are now returned to the shepherd and bishop of your souls.-1 Peter ii. 25.

In these few words, we have a brief and yet clear representation of the wretchedness of our natural condition, and of our happiness in Christ. The resemblance is borrowed from Isaiah liii. 6.

Not to press the comparison, or, as is too usual with commentators, to strain it beyond the purpose, in reference to our lost estate, this is all, or the main circumstance wherein the resemblance with sheep holds-our wandering, as forlorn and exposed to destruction, like a sheep that has strayed and wandered from the fold. So taken, it imports, indeed, the loss of a better condition, the loss of the safety and happiness of the soul, of that good which is proper to it, as the suitable good of the brute creature here named, is, safe and good pasturage.

That we may know there is no one exempt in nature from the guiltiness and misery of this wandering, the prophet is express as to the universality of it. All we have gone astray. And though the apostle here applies it in particular to his brethren, yet it falls not amiss to any others. Ye were as sheep going astray. Yea, the prophet there, to the collective universal, adds a distributive, Every one to his own way, a man to his way. They agree in this, that they all wander, though they differ in their several ways. There is an inbred proneness to stray in them all, more than in sheep, which are creatures naturally wandering, for each man hath his own way.

And this is our folly, that we flatter ourselves by comparison, and every one is pleased with himself because he is free from some wanderings of others; not considering that he is a wanderer too, though in another way; he hath his way, as those he looks on have theirs. And as men agree in wandering, though they differ in their way, so those ways agree in this, that they lead unto misery, and shall end in that. Think you there is no way to hell, but the way of open profaneness? Yes, surely, many a way that seems smooth and clean in a man's own eyes, and yet will end in condemnation. Truth is but one, error endless and interminable. As we say of natural life and death, so may we