Baxter - Houston-Packer Collection BT770 .B39 1670

The Láf of Faith. 19 2. And the rcafon why the carelefs world are not a' dili- gent, and holy as Believers, is becaufe they have not this eye of Faith, and never law thofe powerful objects, that Be- lievers fee. Had you their eyes, you would have their hearts and liver. O that the Lord would but illuminate you, and give you fuch a fight of the things unfeeat, as every true Be- liever hath ! What a happy change would it make upon you ? Then infead ofyour deriding or oppofing it, we fhould have your company in the holy path : You would then be loch your felves, as you now deride. If you jaw what they fee, you would' do as they do. When the heavenly light had ap peered untoSaul, he ceafeth perfecuting, and enq:.,ires what Chrift would have him to do, that he might be loch a one as he had perfecuted : And when the fcales fell from his eyes, he fells to prayer, and gets among the Believers wriom hehad perfecuted, and laboureth and fufferethmore than they, 3. But till this light appear to your darkned fouls, you can- not fee the.reafons ofa holyheavenly life : and thereforeyou will think it hypocrifie, or pride, or fancy, and imaginación, or the foolifhnefsof cracksbra:n'd fclfconceited men. 1f you fee a man do reverence to a Prince, and the Prince himfelf were invifible to you, would you not take him for a mad man; and fay that he cringed to the fools or chairs, or bowed to a pof, or complemented with his shadow ? Ifyou faw a mans a6lion in eating and drinking, and fee not the meat and drink it felt, would you not think him mad ? If you heard men laugh, and hear not fo much as she voice of him thatgives theNail, would you not imagine them to be brain.fick ? If you fee men dance, and hear not the mufick ; if you fee a Labourer threshing,or reaping, or mowing, and fee no corn or grafs before him ; if you fee a Souldier fight- ing for his life, and fee no enemy that he fpcnds his ftroaks upon, will you not takeall thefe for mendi tra&ed ? Why this is the cafe between you and the true Believers. You fee them reverently worship God, but you fee not the Majefly which they worship, as theydo : You fee them as bufie for the laving of their fouls, as ifan hundred lives lay on it ; but you feenot the Hell from which they fly, nor the Heaven they leek : and therefore you marvel why they make fo D2 mude

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