602 RARING LIGHT OF CHRIST. have.been ready to wonder, when I have heard such weighty things delivered, how people can forbear crying out in the congregation; much more how they can rest till they have gone to their minis- ters, and learned what they should' do tobe saved, that this great business might be put out. of doubt. O, that heaven and hell should work no more on men ! . O, that everlastingness should work no more ! O, how can you forbear, when you are alone, to think with yourselves 'what it is to be everlastingly in joy, or in torment ! I wonder that such thoughts do not break your sleep ; and that they come not in your mind when yon are about your labor ! I wonder how you can almost do any thing else ! How you can have any quietness in your minds ! How you can eat, or drink, or rest, till you have got some ground of everlastingcon- solations ! Is that a man, or a corpse, that is not affected with matters of this moment ? that can be readier to sleep than to trem- ble, when he heareth how he must stand at 'the bar of God ? Is that a man, or a clod of clay, that can rise and lie down without being deeply affected with his everlasting estate? that can follow his worldly business, and make nothing of the great business of salvation or damnation ; and that when they know it is hard at hand ? Truly, sirs, when I think of the weight of the matter, I wonder at the very best of God's saints upon earth, that they are no better, and do no more in so weighty a case. I wonder at those whom the world accounteth more holy than needs, and scorns for making too much ado, that they can put 'off Christ and their souls with so little; that they pour notout their souls in every suppli- cation ; that they are not more taken up with God; that their thoughts be not more serious in preparation for their account. I wonder that they be not a hundred times more strict in their lives, and more laborious and unwearied in striving for the crown than they are. And for myself, as I am ashamed of my dull and care- less heart, and of my slow and, unprofitable course of life, so the Lord knows I am ashamed of every sermon that I preach. When I think what Thave been speaking of, and who seht me, and that men's salvation or damnation is so much concerned in it, I ans ready to tremble,' lest God, should judge me as a slighter cf his truth, and the souls of men, and lest, in the best sermon; I should be guilty of their blood. Methinks we should not speak a word to men in matters of such consequence without tears, or the great- est earnestness that possibly we can. Were not we too much guilty of the sin which we reprove, it would be so. Whether we are alone, or in company, methinks our end, and such an end, should be still in our mind, and as before our eyes ; and we should sooner forget any, thing, and set lightby any thing, or by all things, than by this. Consider, 1,. Who is it that sends this weighty message to you:
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