strate, but are revealed only by the word of God: though about many of its invisible objects faith hath the consent of reason for its encouragement. Value not sight and sense too much; think not all to be mere uncertainties and notions that are not the ob jects of sense. We should not have heard that God is a Spirit, if corporeal substances had not a baser kind of being than spirits. Intellection is a more noble operation than sense. If there be any thing properly called sense in heaven, it will be as far below the pure intellective intuition of the Lord, as the glorified body will be below the glorified soul. But what that difference will be, we cannot now understand. Fix not your minds on sensible things. Remember that your God, your home, your portion, are unseen and therefore live in hearty affections to them, and serious prosecution of them, as if you saw them. Pray as if you saw God, and heaven, and hell. Hear, as if you saw him that sends his messenger to speak to you. Resist all the temptations to lust, and sensuality, and every sin, as you would do if you saw God stand by. Love him, and fear him, and trust him, and serve him, as you would do if you beheld him. “Faith is the evidence of things not seen." Believing must be to you instead of seeing; and make you as serious about things unseen, as sensual men are about things sensible. In every thing that you see, remember that it is he that is unseen that appeareth in them. He lighteth you by the sun; he warmeth you by the fire; he beareth you by the earth. See him in all these by the eye of faith. "Faith lends its realizing light; The clouds disperse, the shadows fly: Th' Invisible appears in sight, And God is seen by mortal eye." MARCH 2. AUGUSTINE. Sing unto the Lord a new song, and praise him in the congregation of saints. -Psalm cxlix. 1. LET us praise the Lord both in voice, and in understanding, and in good works; and, as this Psalm exhorteth, let us sing unto him a new song. For thus it beginneth: Sing ye to the The old man hath an old song, the new man Lord a new song. a new song. The Old Testament is an old song, the New Testament a new song. In the Old Testament are temporal and earthly promises. Whoso loveth earthly things singeth an old song: let him that desireth to sing a new song, love the things of eternity. Love itself is new and eternal; therefore is it ever new, because it never groweth old. For if thou consider well this is old. How then is it new? Christ himself is everlasing life, and as touching his Godhead, he is not lately born; for, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God: the same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him was nothing made. If the things which were made by him are old, what is he by whom they were made? What, but everlasting, and eternal with the Father. But we have sunk into sin; we have reached old age. For those are our words in the Psalm, I have grown old among all mine enemies. Man grew old by sin; he is renewed by grace. All then who are renewed in Christ, that they may begin to appertain unto everlasting life, sing a new song. And this song is of peace, this song is of charity. Whoso severeth himself from the union of the saints, singeth not a new song; for he hath followed old strife, not new charity. In new charity what is there? Peace, the bond of an holy society, a spiritual union, a building of living stones. Where is this? Not in one place, but throughout the whole world. This is said in another psalm, Sing unto the Lord a new song, sing unto the Lord all the earth. From this is understood, that he who singeth not with the whole earth, singeth an old song, whatever words proceedeth out of his mouth. For why should I care to hear what he saith, when I know what he thinketh? Sayest thou, canst thou see what he thinketh? Yes, his deeds declare it. For the eye penetrateth not into the conscience. I observe what he doeth, and therein I understand what he thinketh. For neither if any one, for instance, taketh another in any wicked act, doth he see his thoughts in his heart, but in his deeds. There are some things which lie hid within; but there are many also which come forth into works, and are manifest even to men. Although then they who severed themselves from the bond of the love of Christ, and the society of the congregation of saints, were inwardly in themselves evil, yet none knew it, save God. The time came: He severed them, and so made manifest to men what God alone had known before. For the fruit is not shown, save in deeds. Wherefore it is said, by their fruits ye shall know them. For the Lord said it to some who clothe themselves in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves: lest human frailty should perhaps be unable to distinguish the wolf under the sheep's skin, he saith, By their fruits ye shall know them. We seek the fruits of love, we find the thorns of dissension. By their fruits ye shall know them. Their song then is an old one, let us sing a new song. We have already said, brethren, that all the earth singeth a new song. He who singeth not with the whole earth a new song, let him sing what he will, let his tongue sound forth Hallelujah, let him utter it all day and all night, my ears are not so much bent to hear the voice of the singer, but I seek the deeds of the actor. For I ask, and say, "What is it that thou singest?" He answereth, "Hallelujah." What is "Hallelujah ?" "Praise ye the Lord." Come, let us praise the Lord together. If thou praise the Lord, and I praise the Lord, why are we at variance? Charity praiseth the Lord, discord-blasphemeth the Lord. MARCH 3. Which is the earnest of our inheritance.—Eph. i. 14. FLAVEL. THE earnest or foretastes we have had of heaven already in the body, should make all the saints long to be disembodied for the full and perfect fruition of that joy, seeing it can not be fully and perfectly enjoyed by the soul, till it hath put off the body by death. That there are prelibations, first-fruits, and earnests of future glory given to believers in this life, is put beyond all doubting, not only by Scripture testimonies, but the experiences of God's people. I speak not only with the Scriptures, but with the clearest experience of many saints when I say, here are to be felt and tasted, even here in the body, the earnests of our inheritance. "The first-fruits of the Spirit," the sealing of the Spirit, "the very joy of the Lord," of the same kind, though in a less degree, with that of the glorified. That the fullness of this joy can not be in us whilst we tabernacle in bodies of flesh, is as plain. When Moses desired a sight of that face which the spirits of just men made perfect do continually behold and adore, the answer was, "No man can see my face and live," as if it had been said, Moses, thou askest a great thing, and understandest not how unable thou art to support that which thou desirest: should I show thee my glory in this compounded state thou now art in, it would confound thee and swallow thee up. Nature, as now constituted, can not support such a weight of glory. A ray, a glimpse of this light overpowers man, and breaks such a clay vessel to pieces; which is the reason why the resurrection must intervene between this state and that of the glorification of the body. And it is not to be doubted, but one main end and reason why these foretastes of heaven are given us in the body, is to embolden the soul to venture through death itself for the full enjoyment of those delights and pleasures. They are like the grapes of Eschol to the fainthearted Israelites, or the sweet wines of Italy to the Gauls, which, once tasted, made them restless till they had conquered that good country where they grew. "We which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves do groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our bodies." Well then, reflect seriously upon these sweet tastes that you have had of God and his love, in your sincere and secret addresses to him, and converses with him. What a holy forgetfulness of all things in this world hath it wrought! How insipid and tasteless hath it rendered the sweetest creature enjoyments! What willingness to be dissolved for a more full fruition of it! God this way brings heaven nigh to your souls, out of design to overcome your reluctancies at death, through which we must pass to the enjoyment of it. And after all those sights and tastes, both of the truth and goodness of that state, shall we still be reluctant and hang back, as if we had never tasted how good the Lord is! O, you may justly question, whether you ever had a real taste of Jesus Christ, if that taste do not kindle coals of fire in your bosom; I mean, ardent longings to be with him, and to be satiated with his love. If you have been privileged with a taste of that hidden manna, with the sight of things invisible, with joys unspeakable, and full of glory, and yet are loth to be gone to the fountain whence all this flows: certainly you herein both cross the design of the Spirit in giving them, and cast a vile disgrace and reproach upon the blessed God, as thinking there is more bitterness in death, than there is sweetness in his presence. Yea, it argues the strength of that unbelief which still remains in your hearts, that after so many tastes and trials as you have had, you still remain doubtful and hesitating about the certainty and reality of things invisible. O, what ado hath God with his forward and peevish children! If he had only revealed the future state to us in his word, as the pure object of faith, and required us to die upon the mere credit of his promise, without such pawns, pledges, and earnests as these are; were there not reason enough for it? But after such, and so many wonderful and amazing condescensions, wherein he doth, as it were, say, Soul, if yet thou doubtest, I will bring heaven to thee, thou shalt have it in thy hand, thy eyes shall see it, thy hands shall handle it, thy mouth shall taste it: how inexcusable is our reluctancy! "Thou art the earnest of his love, The pledge of joys to come; MARCII 4. CHRYSOSTOM. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.-John i. 12. "WHY then, O blessed one, dost thou not also tell us the punishment of them who received him not? Thou hast said that they were his own, and that when he came to his own, they received him not; but what they shall suffer for this, what punishment they shall undergo, thou hast not gone on to add. Yet so thou wouldest the more have terrified them, and have softened the hardness of their insanity by threatening. Wherefore then hast thou been silent?" "And what other punishment," he would say, 66 can be greater than this, that when power is offered them to become sons of God, they do not become so, but willingly deprive themselves of such nobility and honor as this?" Although their punishment shall not even stop at this point, that they gain no good, but moreover the unquenchable fire shall re |