Thus says he, “To what a height of _fanatic madness_ in _doctrines_, as well as practice are some advanced, who set out at first with the appearance of more than ordinary sanctity in _practice only_?” And again, “I do say that in all ages enthusiasts have been _righteous over-much_; they began with the last mentioned, and ended with the other; _and is it not so now_?” 13. Further, are there others, who begin to feel the _mystery_ of their redemption discovered in their own souls, so that they hunger and thirst after the manifestation of the divine life in them, desiring that Christ may be wholly formed and revealed in them, that they may _put on_ Christ, _be_ in him _new creatures_, led by his spirit, _growing_ in him as branches in the vine, hearing the word of God written and spoken in their hearts, in his light _seeing_ light, and _tasting_ in the inward man _the powers of the world to come_? * For such as these, the Doctor has this instruction: “That there is, says he, such a thing as the operation of the Holy Spirit upon our souls, tho’ we cannot distinguish it from the operations of our own minds, is not only granted, but insisted upon by all sincere and sober Christians. But what _reason_, what _scripture_, is there for this inward _seeing_, _hearing_, _feeling_?” * According therefore to the Doctor’s divinity both reason and scripture require, that the true Christian be _inwardly blind_, inwardly _deaf_, and void of all inward _feeling_. For if neither scripture nor reason will allow of any inward senses, then they must both of them require an _inward insensibility_. But as scripture from _Genesis_ to the _Revelation_, is full of proofs of these inward senses, I shall not now produce them: I shall here only observe that _hardness of heart_ is a well known phrase of scripture, and every where _signifies_ some degree of _blindness_, _deafness_, and loss of _feeling_. I suppose it will not be said that it signifies blindness, or loss of _outward eyes_ and _ears_, or feeling: neither does it signify a want of _human reason_, or natural _sagacity_; for _learned_, _polite_, and _ingenious_ men, are full as subject as others to this hardness of heart. Therefore the scripture is as open, as plain and express in declaring _for inward senses_, as it is in declaring against such a thing, as _hardness_ of _heart_. Hardness of heart is that to the _inward_ senses, which a deep, or as we call it, _dead sleep_, is to the _outward_. It keeps our inward eyes, and ears, and feeling all locked up. 14. A broken and a contrite heart unlocks our inward senses, and makes us see, and hear, and feel the things, which could no more be seen, heard or felt before, than a man in a deep sleep can hear, and see, and feel the things, that are said and done about him. Water frozen into a rock of ice, is very different from the same water melted, warmed, and moving under the influence of the sun and the air.