Nor dark confusion, else the grace

Of both will disappear.

Lo! errors gross on ev'ry side
Conspire to hurt and wound;
Antinomists do them divide,
And legalists confound.

CHAPTER IV.

THE BELIEVER'S PRINCIPLES CONCERNING FAITH AND SENSE.

1. OF FAITH AND SENSE NATURAL.-II. OF FAITH AND SENSE SPIRITUAL. -III. THE HARMONY AND DISCORD BETWEEN FAITH AND SENSE.

IV. THE VALOR AND VICTORIES OF FAITH.-V. THE HEIGHTS AND
DEPTHS OF SENSE.-VI. FAITH AND FRAMES COMPARED;

OR FAITH BUILDING UPON SENSE DISCOVERED.

SECTION I.

FAITH AND SENSE NATURAL, COMPARED AND DISTINGUISHED.

WHEN Abram's body, Sarah's womb,
Were ripe for nothing but the tomb,
Exceeding old, and wholly dead,
Unlike to bear the promis'd seed,

Faith said, I shall an Isaac see:
No, no, said sense, it cannot be :
Blind reason, to augment the strife,
Adds, How can death engender life?

My heart is like a rotton tomb,

More dead than ever Sarah's womb;
O! can the promis'd seed of grace
Spring forth from such a barren place?

Sense, gazing but on flinty rocks,
My hope and expectation chokes :
But could I, skill'd in Abram's art,
O'erlook my dead and barren heart,

And build my hope on nothing less
Than divine pow'r and faithfulness;
Soon would I find him raise up sons,
To Abram, out of rocks and stones.

Faith acts as busy boatmen do,
Who backward look and forward row;
It looks intent to things unseen,
Thinks objects visible too mean.

Sense thinks it madness thus to steer,
And only trusts its eye and ear;

Into faith's boat dare thrust its oar,

And put it further from the shore.

Faith does alone the promise eye;
Sense wont believe unless it see;
Nor can it trust the divine guide,

Unless it have both wind and tide.

Faith thinks the promise sure and good;

Sense doth depend on likelihood:

Faith ev'n in storms believes the seers;
Sense calls all men, ev'n prophets, liars.

Faith uses means, but rests on none;
Sense fails when outward means are gone,
Trusts more on probabilities

Than all the divine promises :

It rests upon the rusty beam
Of outward things that hopeful seem;
Let these its supports sink or cease,
No promise then can yield it peace.

True faith that's of a divine brood,
Consults not base with flesh and blood;
But carnal sense, which ever errs,
With carnal reason still confers.

What! wont my disciples believe
That I am risen from the grave?
Why will they pore on dust and death,
And overlook my quick'ning breath?

Why do they slight the word I spake ?
And rather sorry counsel take

With death, and with a pow'rful grave,
If they their captive can relieve?

Sense does inquire if tombs of clay
Can send their guests alive away;
But faith will hear JEHOVAH's word,
Of life and death the sov'reign Lord.
Should I give ear to rotten dust,
Or to the tombs confine my trust,
No resurrection can I see,

For dust that flies into mine eye.

What! Thomas, can't thou trust so much
To me as to thy sight and touch?
Wont thou believe till sense be guide
And thrust its hand into my side?

Where is thy faith, if it depends
On nothing but thy finger-ends?

But bless'd are they the truth who seal

By faith, yet neither see nor feel.

SECTION II.

FAITH AND SENSE SPIRITUAL, COMPARED AND DISTINGUISHED:

WHERE ALSO THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH, AND THE ASSURANCE OF SENSE.

THE certainty of faith and sense

Wide differ in experience: