Wesley Corpus

17. This remedy is faith. I do not mean that which is the faith of a Heathen, who believes that there is a God, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him; but that which is defined by the Apostle, "an evidence," or conviction "of things not seen," a divine evidence and conviction of the invisible and eternal world. This alone opens the eyes of the understanding, to see God and the things of God. This, as it were, takes away, or renders transparent, the impenetrable veil, Which hangs 'twixt mortal and immortal being. When Faith lends its realizing light, The clouds disperse, the shadows fly; The invisible appears in sight, And God is seen by mortal eye. Accordingly, a believer, in the scriptural sense, lives in eternity, and walks in eternity. His prospect is enlarged: His view is not any longer bounded by present things: No, nor by an earthly hemisphere; though it were, as Milton speaks, "ten-fold the length of this terrene." Faith places the unseen, the eternal world continually before his face. consequently, he looks not at "the things that are seen;" -- Wealth, honour, pleasure, or what else This short-enduring world can give; these are not his aim, the object of his pursuit, his desire or happiness; -- but at "the things that are not seen;" at the favour, the image, and the glory of God; as well knowing that "the things which are seen are temporal," -- a vapour, a shadow, a dream that vanishes away; whereas "the things that are not seen are eternal;" real, solid, unchangeable.