w ked because they are inconsiderate. The keenest sword, the greatest cannon, will do no execution against an enemy while they lie by, and are not used. There is a mighty power in the word of God, and the example Of Christ, to pull down strong holds, and conquer the strongest lusts and corruptions. But they will not do this while they are forgotten and neglected. Will heaven entice the man that thinks not of it ? Will hell deter the man that thinks not of it? Why is it that all the reasoning in the world will dó no more good to a man that is deaf, than if you said nothing? But because the passage to his thoughts and understanding is stopt up. And if you have eyes and see not, and ears and hear not, and wilfully cast it out of your thought, what good can any thing do to you that is spoken ? It is not holding your meat in your mouth that will nourish you, if you will not let it down ; nor taking it into your stomach, if you will not keep it, but presently cast it up again : but it must be kept till it is digested and distributed. So it is not the most excellent truths in the world that will change your hearts if you let them not down to your hearts, and keep them not there 'by meditation till they are digested and turned into spiritual fire. The plaister must be laid upon the sore, if you would be cured. The wound and sickness is at your heart : and if you will not take in the word to your heart, where the sickness is, I know not how you should expect a cure. The soul will not be charmed into holiness, by the bare hearing or saying over a few good words, as wizards used to cure diseases, oy seemed to cure them. It must be truth at the heart that must change the heart. And if you will not think on, and think on it again, how can you expect it should ever come to your heart ? You say you would gladly have Christ and grace, and are ready to lay the blame on God, because he doth not give it you, and say, We cannot convert our- selves : but would you have the spirit come in, while you hold the door against him ? He knocks, and de- TO A SOUND CONVERSION. 423 { 3
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