me once under a sober
and serious examination, and the other party, that is, Jesus Christ and
the word of life, might have the liberty to be heard in the inward retired
thoughts of the heart, it would soon be found how unequal they are, and
that all their efficacy consists in our ignorance, and their strength in
our weakness. Certainly Christ would carry it, to the conviction of all
that is in the soul. I beseech you let us give him this attention.

He that answers a tale before he hears it, it is a folly and weakness to
him. A folly certainly it is to give this gospel a repulse before ye hear
it. It promiseth life and immortality, which nothing else doth. And you
entertain other things upon lower promises and expectations, even after
frequent experiences of their deceitfulness. What a madness then is it to
hear this promise of life in Christ so often beaten upon you, and yet
never so much as to put him to the proof of it, and to put him off
continually who knocks at your hearts, before you will consider
attentively, who it is that thus importunes you! O my beloved, that you
would hear him to Amen. Let him speak freely to your hearts, and commune
with them in the night on your beds, in your greatest retirement from
other things, that you may not be disturbed by the noise of your lusts and
business, and I persuade myself, you who have now least mind of this life,
and joy in God, should find it, and find it in him. But to cut off all
convictions and persuasions at first, and to set such a guard at your
minds to provide that nothing of that kind come in, or else that it be
cast out as an enemy, this is unequal, ignorant, and unreasonable dealing,
which you alone will repent of, it may be too late, when past remedy.

He propounds that which he is to speak in the fittest way, for the
commendation of it to their hearts, and oh! how vast a difference betwixt
this, and the ordinary subject of men's discourses. Our ears are filled
continually with reports, and it is the usual way of men to delight to
hear, and to report even those things that are not so delightful in
themselves. And truly there are not many occurrences in the world
(suppose you had a diurnal of affairs of all men every week) that can give
any solid refreshment to the heart, except in the holy meditation of the
vanity, vexation, and inconstancy that God hath subjected all those things
unto. But it is sad that Christians, who have so noble and divine, so
ple