of the
saints. Whence comes it that it has not the like effects in us?--that
though we acknowledge virtue to be the richest treasure of the soul of
man, we take little pains about it, passionately seek the things of this
world, are cast down and broken under every adversity, and curb and
restrain our passions only by halves?--that the most glorious objects,
God and heaven, and the amazing and dreadful truths, a judgment to come,
hell, and eternity, strike us so feebly, and operate so little in us?
The reason is plain: because we meditate not sufficiently on these great
truths. Our notions of them are dim and imperfect; our thoughts pass so
slightly over them, that they scarce retain any print or traces of them.
Otherwise it is impossible that things {110} so great and terrible
should excite in us no fear, or that things in their own nature
infinitely amiable, should enkindle in us no desire. Slight and faint
images of things move our minds very weakly, and affect them very
coldly, especially in such matters as are not subject to our senses. We
therefore grossly deceive ourselves in not allotting more time to the
study of divine truths. It is not enough barely to believe them, and let
our thoughts now and then glance upon them: that knowledge which shows
us heaven, will not bring us to the possession of it, and will deserve
punishments, not rewards, if it remain slight, weak, and superficial. By
serious and frequent meditation it must be concocted, digested, and
turned into the nourishment of our affections, before it can be powerful
and operative enough to change them, and produce the necessary fruit in
our lives. For this all the saints affected solitude and retreats from
the noise and hurry of the world, as much as their circumstances allowed
them.

Footnotes:
1. {}
2. Ep. 83, ad Magn.
3. B. 71.
4. Hist. B. 5, c. 5.
5. Apol. c. 5. L. ad Scap. c. 4.
6. Chron.
7. Or. 2, de 40 mart.
8. _Christianorum_ FORTE _militum precationibus impetrato imbri_.
Tertull. Apolog. c. 5. Euseb. l. 5, c. 5. Some take the word _forte_
here to signify, _casually, accidentally, as hap was_. Several
learned Protestants have written in defence of this miracle: see Mr.
Weston's dissertation in 1748. The exceptions of Le Clerc, Hist.
Eccl. p. 744, and of Moyle, in his essay on the Thundering Legion,
deserve no notice. The deliverance of the emperor is represented on
the _Columna Antoniniana_, in Rome, by