SEEKING THE SAINT'S REST. 115 his worldly advantage. And as one whose spirits are enfeebled by some pestilential disease; so this man's spirits being possessed by the plague of a wordly dis- position, how feeble is he in secret prayer! how su- perficial in examination and meditation ! how poor in heart-watchings ! how nothing at all in loving and walking with God, rejoicing in him, or desiring him ! So that both these, and many other sorts of hypo- crites, though they will go with you in the easy outside of religion, yet will never be at the pains of inward and spiritual duties. 5. And even the godly themselves are too lazy seekers of their everlasting rest. Alas! what a dis- proportion is there between our light and heat! our profession and persecution). Who makes that haste, as if it were for heaven? How still we stand ! how idly we work ! how we talk, and jest, and trifle away our time! how deceitfully we perform the work of God! how we hear, as if we heard not ! and pray," as if we prayed not! and examine, and meditate, and reprove sin, as if we did not! and enjoy Christ, as if we enjoyed him not! as if we had learned to use the things of heaven, as the apostle teacheth us to use the things of the world! What a frozen stupidity has benumbed us! we are dying, and we know it, and yet we stir not; we are at the door of eternal happiness or misery, and yet, we perceive it not; death knocks, and we hear it not; God and Christ call and cry to us, " To -day, if ye will hear my voice, harden not your hearts: work while it is day, for the night corneth when none can work: now ply your business, labour for your lives, lay out all your strength and time: now or never !" and yet we stir no more than if we were half asleep. What haste do death and judgment make! how fast do they come on ! . they are almost at us, and yet what little haste we make! Lord, what a senseless, earthly, hellish thing, is a hard heart ! Where is the man that is in earnest a Christian! Methinks men every-where make but a trifle of their eternal state.
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