x,1111. would Y9,u not take him for a madman ; ana say that he cringed to the sibols or chairs, or bowed to a post, or complimented with his shadow? if you saw a man's action in eating and drinking, and see not the meat and drink itself, would you not think him mad? if you heard men laugh, and hear not so much as the voice of him that gives the jest, would you not imaginethem to be brain- sick? If you see men dance, and hear not the music ; if you see a laborer threshing, or reaping, or mowing, and see no corn or grass before him ; ifyou see a soldier fighting for his life, and see no enemy that he spends his strokes upon ; will you not take all these for men distracted ? Why, this is the case between you and the true believers. You see them revt'rently worship God, but you see not the majesty which they worship, as they do. You see them as busy for the savingof their souls as if a hundred lives lay on it ; but you see not the hell from which they fly, nor the heav- en they seek ; and therefore you marvel why they make so much ado about the matters of their salvation ; and why they cannot do as others, and make as light of Christ and heaven as they that desire to be excused, and think they have more needful things to mind. But did you see with the eyes ofa true believer, and were the amazing things that God bath revealefl to us but open to your sight, how quickly would you be satisfied, and sooner mock at the diligence of a drowning man, that is striving for his life, or at the labor of the city when they are busily quenching the flames in their habitations, than mock at them that are striving forthe ever- lasting life, and praying and laboring against the ever-burning flames. 'How soon would you turn your admiration against the stupidity of the careless world, and wonder more that ever men that hear the Scriptures; and see with their eyes the works of God, can make so light of matters of such unspeakable, eternal consequence. Didyou but see heaven and hell, it would amaze you to think that ever many, yea, so many and so seeming wise, should willfully run into everlasting fire, and sell their souls at so low a rate, as if it were as easy to be in hell as in an alehouse, and heaven were no better than a beastly lust. O, then, with what astonishment would you think, ' Is this the fire that sinners do so little fear? Is this the glory that is so neglected ?' Yod would then see that the madness ofthe ungodly is the wonder. Use 3. By this time I should think that some ofyour own con- sciences have prevented me, in the use of examination, which I am next to call you to. I hope while I have been holding you the glass, you have not turned away your faces, nor shut your eyes; but that you have been judging yourselvesby the light which hath been set up before you. Have not some of your consciencessaid
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