OF THE FAITHFUL MAN.

His eyes have no other objects but absent and invisible, which they see so clearly as that to them sense is blind.  That which is present they see not; if I may not rather say, that what is past or future is present to them.  Herein he exceeds all others, that to him nothing is impossible, nothing difficult, whether to bear or undertake.  He walks every day with his Maker, and talks with Him familiarly, and lives ever in heaven, and sees all earthly things beneath him.  When he goes in to converse with God, he wears not his own clothes, but takes them still out of the rich wardrobe of his Redeemer, and then dares boldly press in and challenge a blessing.  The celestial spirits do not scorn his company; yea, his service.  He deals in these worldly affairs as a stranger, and hath his heart ever at home.  Without a written warrant he dare do nothing, and with it anything.  His war is perpetual, without truce, without intermission, and his victory certain; he meets with the infernal powers, and tramples them under feet.  The shield that he ever bears before him can neither be missed nor pierced; if his hand be wounded, yet his heart is safe.  He is often tripped, seldom foiled, and, if sometimes foiled, never vanquished.  He hath white hands, and a clean soul fit to lodge God in, all the rooms whereof are set apart for His holiness.  Iniquity hath oft called at the door and craved entertainment, but with a repulse; or, if sin of force will be his tenant, his Lord he cannot.  His faults are few, and those he hath God will not see.  He is allied so high, that he dare call God father, his Saviour brother, heaven his patrimony, and thinks it no presumption to trust to the attendance of angels.  His understanding is enlightened with the beams of divine truth.  God hath acquainted him with His will; and what he knows he dare confess:  there is not more love in his heart than liberty in his tongue.  If torments stand betwixt him and Christ, if death, he contemns them; and if his own parents lie in his way to God, his holy carelessness makes them his footsteps.  His experiments have drawn forth rules of confidence, which he dares oppose against all the fears of distrust; wherein he thinks it safe to charge God with what he hath done, with what he hath promised.  Examples are his proofs, and instances his demonstrations.  What hath God given which he cannot give?  What have others suffered which he may not be enabled to endure?  Is he threatened banishment? there he sees the dear Evangelist in Patmos.  Cutting in pieces? he sees Esai under the saw.  Drowning? he sees Jonah diving into the living gulf?  Burning? he sees the three children in the hot walk of the furnace.  Devouring? he sees Daniel in the sealed den amidst his terrible companions.  Stoning? he sees the first martyr under his heap of many gravestones.  Heading? lo, there the Baptist’s neck bleeding in Herodias’ platter.  He emulates their