The fading of the flesh and flourishing of faith, or, One cast for eternity…

Philosophers observe, that lumen est vehiculum influentiae: Light is the convoy of heat. Certain it is, Reader, that this light of knowledge would quickly cause heat in thy affections. Couldst thou but see God with an eye of faith, thine eye would so affect thine heart, that (as some, who have beheld Mahomets ⟨p. 152⟩Tomb, have put out their eyes, least they should be defiled with common objects after they have been blessed with so rare a sight) thou wouldst shut thine eyes at those gilded poisons, and wink ever after on those specious nothings. Couldst thou see this God as he is visible in the glass of the Creatures; Couldst thou compass the earth which he hath made, the several Islands and Continents which are in it; Couldst thou, like the Sun, so surround it, as to see all the Nations in it, their several languages, carriages, customs, their number, order, natures, and the creatures in every Kingdom and Country; the various plants, birds, minerals, beasts, and savage inhabitants in wildernesses, their multiplicity, variety, dispositions, subordination, and serviceableness each to other, and all that concerneth them; what thoughts wouldst thou then have of this God for a portion? Couldst thou behold at one view the vast Ocean, discern the motion of the huge waters, in the cause of its ebbing and flowing, all the storms and tempests which are there raised, and all the persons and goods which have been there ruined. Couldst thou see how those proud waves are laid with a word; how when they swell and rage, it is but Peace, be still, Matth. 8 (as a mother will hush her crying Infant) and all is quiet! how they are kept in with bars and doors, and for all their anger and power cannot go beyond their decreed place: Couldst thou dive into it, and see the many wonders that are in that great deep, the vast riches which are buried there out of the sight of covetous mortals: the Leviathan, whose teeth are terrible round about him, whose scal•s are his pride, shut up together as with a close seal; by whose ⟨p. 153⟩neesings a light doth shine, and whose eyes are the eyelids of the morning; whose breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth; who esteemeth iron as straw, and brass as rotten wood; who maketh the deep to boil like a pot, and the sea like a pot of ointment? Couldst thou behold the innumerable fish, both small and great, that are there;