590 MAILING LIGHT Or CHRIST. ally, and, by custom in signing, made more hard, especially by long abuse of mercy, and neglect of the means of grace, and, re- sisting the Spirit of God. Hence it is that menare turned into such stones ; and till God cure them of the stone.of the heart, no wonder if they feel not what they know, or regard not what we say, but make light of all : it is hard preaching a stone into tears, or making a rock to tremble. You may stand over a dead body longenough, and say to it, ' O, thou carcass, when thou hast lain rotting and mouldered to dust till the resurrection, God will then call thee to account for thy sin, and cast thee into everlasting fire,' before you can make it feel what you say, or fear the misery that is never so truly threatened. When men's hearts are like the highway that is trodden to hardness by long custom in sinning, or like the clay that is hardened to a stone by the heat of those mer- cies that should have melted them into repentance when they have consciences seared with a hot iron, as the apostle speaks, (1 Tim. iv. 2.) no wonder, then, if they be past feeling, and, work- ing all uncleanness with greediness, do make light of Christ and everlasting glory. O that this were, not the case of too many of our hearers ! Had we but living souls to speak to, they would hear, and feel, and not make light of what we say. I know they are naturally alive, but they are spiritually dead, as Scripture wit- nesseth ; Ephes. ii. 3. 0, if there were but one spark of the life of grace in them, the doctrineof salvation by Jesus Christ would appear to them to be the weightiest business in the world ! O how confidejtt should I be, methinks, to prevail with men, and to take them off this world, and bring them to mind the matters of another world, if I spàke but to men that had life, and sense, and reason ! But when we speakto blocks, and dead men, how should we be'regarded? O, how sad a case are these souls in, that are fallen under this fearful judgment of spiritual madness and deadness ! To have a blind mind, and a hard heart, to be sottish and senseless, (Mark iv. 12, John xii. 40.) lest they should be converted, and their sin should be forgiven them ! 6. Christ and salvation are made light of by the world, because they are wholly enslaved to their sense, and taken up with lower things. The matters of another world are out of sight, and so far from their senses, that they cannot regard them; but present things alt; nearer them, in théir eyes, and in their hands. There must be a living faith to prevail over sense, before men can be so takenwith things that are not seen, though they have the word of God for their security, as to neglect and let go things that are still before their eyes. Sense works with great advantage, and therefore doth much in resisting faith where it is. No wonder, then, if it carry all before it, where there is no true and lively faith to resist, and
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