cloak for the things the nothings of the world for the worst thing sin is the saddest sacriledge and for which he will not hold you guiltless if he find you griefless And then the fourth Commandment is broken by a plain rape and theft committed of God's holy time that which you destinate at your kneeling down to his service is purloyned away by these roving thoughts especially when they invade the Sabbath For when you seem to give him much in effect it comes to nothing sift out the bran of your wandring thoughts and the flower of cordial service will be next to nothing And so your time is lost your duty lost and danger of your souls loss after all And thus you see the first Table broken at a blow It is a sad blow that breaks four Commands at once SECT II. THE second Evil in their Nature is That they are heart-sins Psal. 5.9 There is no faithfulness in their mouths their inward part is very wickedness As wounds in the inwards are most dangerous because hard to come at and cure Hence it is far easier to cure a swearer of swearing than a roving heart of its distractions And as these sins are more dangerous so are they very displeasing The heart is God's-Acre the inclosure he keeps for his own walk and delight He hath said Prov. 23.26 My Son give me thy heart Now to injure him of his peculiar to lay the filthy excrements of our sinful distractions under his most blessed nostrils to speak with most deep reverence and grief to thrust him out of his Mansion-house on Earth the heart this is no small injury affront and unkindness And such a backslider in heart shall be filled with his own waies if he fill not the sacred bottles with his tears And they are more heavy to the conscience in that they meet with no shame or trouble without which is the ordinary lot of other sins but are begun and perfected in the heart within and their guilt is more because their shame is less And they do thereupon leave as such other sins do a deeper sting of remorse and horrour of conscience when the conscience is weake There is much evil in these Ezek. 6.9 I am broken with their whorish HEART which hath departed from me SECT III. THE third Evil in the nature of them is That they are sins in the special Presence of God We read Ezek. 8.16 of God shewing the Prophet with infinite wrath five and twenty men at the door of the Temple of the Lord between the Porch and the Altar with their backs towards the Temple of the Lord and their faces toward the East and they worshipped the Sun towards the East This he highly resented that in his Temple they should have their faces towards the Sun and turn their backs on him This is the manners of a roving heart In God's own presence he turns his back on God and his face to the things under the Sun and those he worships O infinite patience that turns not such a soul into a Pillar of Salt yea throws it not into a Pit of Brimstone Ezek. 5.11 Therefore as I live saith the Lord God surely see how he binds it with double strength because thou hast defiled my Sanctuary with all thy detestable things and with all thy abominations therefore I also will diminish thee A third part shall die with the Pestilence Which of all thy detestable sins but thou hast had a fling at in the Sanctuary and Presence of God now a proud now a wanton then a worldly thought Ah sayes God I cannot bear it He that provokes me to my face shall feel it Few think these sins have brought the Plague no more than the Corinthians did their unworthy partaking at the Lord's Table In his special presence he looks at thee as I may say with both eyes Psal. 90.8 He sets all our iniquities before him but he places these secret sins in the light of his countenance O this is an evil thing and a bitter that thou shouldest provoke the Lord to his face and that his fear doth not awe thee Ier. 31.11 Yea in my house have I found their wickedness saith the Lord this dyes it with a double dye I am God Almighty walk before me and be thou perfect Gen. 17.1 To believe you are sitting standing kneeling before God should make us perfect How demurely doth the Child stand before his Father the Scholar before his Master and shall the Child of God only forget himself the poorest Scholar before the best of Masters Famous was that execution Levit. 10.12 Two of Aaron's Sons came with their Censers and offered strange fire BEFORE the Lord which he commanded them not and there went out fire from the Lord and devoured them and they died BEFORE the Lord. Behold the dreadful hand of God! before him was their sin before him they were punished Lord how terrible art thou in thy holy place If no place will deter them from sin no place shall be a sanctuary to them from Judgement What are distracted thoughts but strange fire and a strange punishment may the workers of iniquity have if timely Repentance prevent not SECT IV. THE fourth Evil in their Nature is That they are sins about the most serious business The most grand affairs under the Sun are transacted in an Ordinance I have read of a Noble Man of this Nation that when his Cause of Life and Death was trying though he had a pardon in his pocket at the same time he was irrevocably sentenced being that while asleep he was sleeping while the Judge was sentencing was not this a gross neglect and did not he trow ye bite his nails and beat his head that could not watch when his head was in question Sinner thy head and life and soul and all are in question thy eternal happiness is handling or thy dreadful sentence passing and is this a time to trifle and straggle away from God If you should come to the elbow of a Counsellor pleading at the Bar much more of one impeach't for Treason and tell them such a companion hath sent for them to the Tavern or that such a Cock is like to win the Game the Cattel broken into such a field such a game at Chess likely to be lost with what disdain and indignation would they turn back such a message and cry Is this time to trouble me with these things when the very hearing of such an errand may lose my cause or hazard my life Are Cocks or Corn or Companions parallel to immortal souls what are these to the things between God and me If the dead must not be buried when Christ calls nor a man stay to take leave of his friends how greatly doth he trespass that runs riot after toys and sins when the great God calls and calls again We have a clear instance Luk. 10.41 42. the Preacher was at Martha's house
and the dangerous passenger for all his importunity is stopp'd and turn'd again Why perhaps the plague comes with him and therefore the Halbard salutes his breast he comes not there the neglect of this care would soon lay waste the land So if any stragling thought perhaps with the plague in it shall enter at pleasure into the soul especially while the Lord's service is in hand no wonder that soul lies waste Lord have mercy may be written on that door 1. The neglect of watchfulness before holy duties causes distractions and that is by not heeding to order your affairs with discretion for God's service When you involve your selves in too much business too much for your head too much for your time or too much for your strength then worldly thoughts will get place you cannot help it Or when men are unadvised in their business in not chusing a fit time for duties and thereby your business and God's shoulder one another and neither is done well And therefore we are commanded 1 Pet. 4.7 to watch unto prayer As Satan watches to cross and indispose us by throwing some diverting and cooling occasions so is it our wisdom to counter-watch him Indeavour to time your businesses and especially your duties It is the character of a good man Psal. 112.6 that he orders his affairs with discretion and renders every thing beautiful in its time For its a true observation that an indiscreet ordering of Saturdays business hath great inâ—luence into the unprofitableness of the Sabbath's Ordinances 2. Neglect of watchfulness in holy duties Our hearts so far as unregenerate are fetch'd into holy duties as a prest souldier into the field he is brought in against his will no principle of courage or love to his country he had rather be digging or idling at home Now such a souldier what trust can you repose in him if he be not watch'd he steals away at every lanes end and in the midst of the battel you shall be sure to miss him a constant eye must keep him or you lose him 'T is just so with our naughty hearts if there be not a predominant principle of grace 't is not choice but use that brings them in they would rather be carking or trifling about any thing than busie in prayer and therefore if you neglect to watch them at every turn no sentence end but they will steal away For prayer without watching is but a meer complement Where the tongue goes one way and the heart another that 's a complement and such is a watchless duty It is said the Nightingale in her sweetest notes is apt to fall asleep to prevent which she settles her self on a bough with a thorn at her breast that when she begins to nod that sharp monitor may awake her The holiest Saint is apt to nod and steal away in the midst of his solemnest duties if God's Spirit do not aurem vellere quicken his watch Christ's own Disciples even just after a Sacrament were overtaken for want of this Matth. 26.40 What could ye not watch with me one hour And if they fell asleep at prayer for want of watching how can you keep close to God without it that have neither so good a monitor without nor so good an heart within 3. Neglect of watchfulness after duties causes distractions in the next that follow people use to let loose their hearts when the Duty ends and unlace themselves for ease and then their thoughts take liberty Which our deceitful hearts fore seeing no cords will bind them to a good behaviour in the very duties themselves whereas were there a constant watch kept up after our duties were done and conscience made of our thoughts all the day long we should contain our hearts in better order while God's worship lasts The fore-sight and especially fore-tastes of liberty approaching sets the soul madding thereupon and we cannot keep it in Besides Religion is concatenated hath a dependance one thing upon another and it is unsufferable to take and leave where we will If vain thoughts lodge with you at other times they will visit you at your business and if they be entertained when you have a mind they will press in when you have no mind The Remedy against this neglect is To be throughly convinc'd of the absolute necessity of constant watchfulness Prov. 4.23 Keep thy heart with all diligence as a castle is kept from scaling an house from robbing or a Jewel from defacing so the Criticks and all these are kept constantly one hours negligence would hazard any of them And then with all diligence Heb. with all keeping or as some above all keeping The eye we watch from harm all the day the vitals we defend and guard with constant care we know that a touch there is mortal but above all keeping keep the soul Be perswaded that watchfulness is as necessary as prayer you think without prayer you shall go to hell and I aver that without watchfulness you cannot go to heaven Mans life in this sense is a continued Ordinance Hos. 12.6 wait on thy God continually not only at thy prayers but at thy plough while on your knees you are waiting on God and when you rise from your knees you are going to wait on him in your calling and an unbecoming thought is displeasing to him every where he is sensible of an affront in the kitchen as well as in the parlour and hates vanity all the day long 1 Pet. 4.7 Be sober and watch unto prayer Sober and watch as if they that do not watch are mad To watch unto prayer is duty as well as to watch in it He that watches not to duties doth not do his duty a wise Christian should have always something in store for God work and look at God eat and drink and talk and still look at God and at the soul This is to wâ—lk with God all the day long As the careful Bee must needs leave her hive and fly abroad but she dwells no where else she lights on this â—lower and then on that exhausts their sweetness deflowers them and gets away she never rests till she return to her hive there she rests and enjoys her self So an holy heart must needs out into the world and business must be done but he rests at nothing till he return to the enjoyment of God again no flower gives him content no business no company satisfies but he retires to God looks at him and is lightned and steps out again This Sirs this is the Religion of Religion I know it 's hard but it 's possible the ice is broken for you and the way is trodden Act. 24.16 Herein do I exercise my self to have always a conscience void of offence It 's my daily trade and business to keep my soul that I neither offend God nor man If you will make a trade on 't you may do it God never calls for duty but helps in
it Phil 4.13 I can do all things through Christ. God and his servant can do any thing SECT VIII THe eighth cause of distractions in holy duties is A beloved sin When the soul hath espoused some bosome lust the thoughts be you never so busie will be warping towards it though God himself look on Ier. 4.14 O Ierusalem wash thy heart from wickedness how long shall vain thoughts lodge within thee When wickedness is in the heart vain thoughts will be in thy duties they will enter yea they will lodge within thee A beloved sin is like a byass on the bowl though you throw it out never so streight yet the byass will draw it off that way do what you can so is a beloved sin unto the soul aim you with utmost skill yet there is a secret load stone in it that attracts the heart and makes that prayer to end in hell that began in heaven Either sin and you must be at a distance or God and you will The soul that is in league with sin dare not come at God dare not look at him dare not think on him and what must that man think on in a duty that dare not think seriously on God As that penitent Father speaks in his confessions An unmortifi'd soul like the husband of a scolding wife had rather be any where than at home and makes many a sad bargain abroad because he hath no comfort at home with his wife so such an heart chooses to be thinking of any thing rather than God alas matters are not straight between them the poison of sin is in him and he hugs that abhominable thing which God hates the Thief had rather go forty miles another way than come near the Judge God is an offended Judge to a wilful sinner and he cares not for ever coming near him Hence Heb. 10.22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience He that comes to God with a true upright honest heart being sprinkled from an evil conscience may draw near to God in full assurance of faith whereas guilt clouds clogs and distracts the soul. So that you see both the guâ—lt and power of a bosom sin furnish us with too much cause of distractions Sin That would have all the heart and God He will have all or nothing It 's such an offering that is a whole burnt-offering that the Lord delights in As no subject is capable of two contrary qualities in the intense degree as heat and cold may be both in the same hand but not in their intense degrees so the heart of man cannot entertain Christ and corruption light and darkness except the one be loved and served superlatively above the other Psal. 66.18 If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me God first stops his ear above and then the sinners mouth below that regards iniquity that likes loves approves or gives it rest and quiet in the soul. Indeed God neither regards him nor doth such a soul regard God He must love God that is lively in his service Iob 27.10 Will he delight himself in the Almighty will he always call upon God will he always he may now and then send a thought that way in his special need but not always there 's difference between converse and communion One may have converse or traffick with a stranger upon occasion but communion is with a friend there 's visits of pure kindness an hypocrite may have some converse or trading with God for necessaries but sweet communion constant calling on God and serious duties he can never enjoy and follow that loves any sin before the chiefest Good The Remedies against a beloved sin are briefly these two 1. Consideration sit down and think what real good this sin hath ever done thee Think what hurt it hath done thee and others and what fruit but shame and death it brings to any Thy dearest sin is but sin which is the worst thing in the world and its masks and disguises being laid aside more ugly than the devil more horrid than hell it self And think the more thou lovest it the more God hates it and his rage and jealousie is increased with the increase of thy desires Think how many prayers it hath lost thee how many mercies it hath poison'd to thee how many smiles it hath clouded besides what unutterable sufferings it hath inflicted upon Christ and is preparing for thee in hell Consider that thou maist have as much joy happiness and true comfort without it and all converted sinners confess that Jesus Christ hath been better to them than all their sins and if you may have as good injoyments or better to have Christ with them and Heaven after them will not make them worse 2. Supplication Kneel down and pray with faith in the uprightness of your hearts for strength from above All the strength of Heaven is engag'd by prayer He that heartily sets himself against his sin by prayer cannot but dislike it and when it is truly disliked its heart is broken Augustine complains that when he in his unconverted estate begged a divorce from his sin his heart was afraid lest God should hear his prayers Beware lest your hearts secretly cry Spare when your tongues openly cry Lord kill and crucifie my corruption but do thou bonâ fide pull on earth and the Lord will bono Spiritu pull from Heaven and rent thy sin and soul asunder Otherwise as the Poets tell us of Hippomanes that running with Atalanta for victory he conquered by throwing golden apples down which Atalanta stooping to take up lost the prize so Satan seeing the soul running heaven-ward in God's service will throw down the gilded temptations of a beloved sin stop it in its carreer and hazard the prize of eternal glory SECT IX A Ninth cause of Distractions in the Worship of God is Satan And this he doth sometimes more remotely by throwing in some cross business before Duties whereby the soul is unhinged some body or Letter with business just before prayer or some passionate distempering passages in the family whereby to lay matter ready for our discomposure and wandrings in the following duties Sometimes he approaches nearer and by presenting and occasioning objects to our senses in God's Worship draws off the heart He can stay One long from the Congregation that Another may be distracted in observing him coming in and so wounds two and sometimes twenty at a blow Satan is not idle when this and that child are restless and unquiet in the family whereby perhaps all in the family lose the passages that would most profit them He can create a further distraction by every pillar and part of the structure and every person in the congregation and can be content you read sentences on the walls to hinder and divert your sâ—uls from the sentences in the pulpit
as some though God may answer such requests out of his superabundant mercy yet such a man can look for nothing Though a distracted prayer may receive something yet it cannot expect any thing from God when a mans supplication is a provocation there is little hope He that puts treason into his petition has little reason to hope for a good answer How an heart may be said to be divided in a duty these waies 1. When all the heart is not ingaged therein as when understanding or conscience without the will or affections This opens a door unto distractions Eph. 6.6 Doing the Will of God from the heart with good will doing service as to the Lord and not to men Half an heart can do nothing with God A man may as well with one eye observe the stars and with the other measure the Earth at the same time as at once dispatch affairs with God and man Hereby both businesses are spoiled Conscience of God hinders from any discreet and serious contrivance of any thing in his presence and tampering with the world provokes God and hinders the affairs above Our Lord Christ is most peremptory in that case Ye cannot serve two Masters the one will be over-served ye cannot serve God and Mammon 2. The heart may be said to be divided when it is unfixed and indeterminate wavering and unsetled A duty to God is shooting at an hairs breadth if a man be uncertain and unsteady how shall he hit the mark Psal. 57.7 O God my heart is fixed O God my heart is fixed I will sing and give praise Now the work is likely to go on You cannot it seems so much as sing a Psalm or give the Lord praise without this fixedness of heart As you have seen the Needle in a Compass waver up and down perpetually till it point towards the North then it is fixed and standeth still so until the soul be composed and bent directly towards God it wanders and trifles everlastingly 3. The heart is divided by Hypocrisie Iames 4.8 Purifie your hearts ye double minded As he speaks to open sinners to cleanse their hands so to close Hypocrites to purifie their hearts that is be sincere An Hypocrite is a man of two hearts and both little worth one good one is worth a thousand pair of double hearts Hence holy David Psal. 86.11 Unite my heart to fear thy Name else I shall have one heart to move me towards thee and another heart to fetch me back again One heart for God another for Baal and so shall halt between them 4. The heart is divided when you perform not his service with all your might and strength Ier. 48.10 Cursed is he that doth the work of the Lord negligently loosely that unbends his bow that unstrings his heart in the Lord's service He that is studying with all his might the least noise or word distracts him and troubles himâ— he cannot admiâ— or abide the least diversion So he that is intent with all his might in God's service cannot give room for the least by thought No I am before the Lord and I can do but little but I 'le do what I can Psal. 103.1 Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me praise his holy Name And this leads us to the Remedy for this Cause The Remedy for a divided heart is get sincerity and seriousness And indeed the soul that is sincere is serious The real Beggar begs in good earnest he cries he weeps he heeds not the playing of the children the barking of the doggs not he his wants pinch him his stomach pulls and craves nothing but meat will please him There 's musick perhaps within and company without but all 's one to him he is not concerned therewith he 's hungry in good earnest and therefore still he cries for bread So it is with the upright and serious heart he is really and deeply prest down with sin and needy of grace and comfort he sees the reality of invisible things he fears the anger of God and feels his broken bones therefore let the Devil or the world distribute what they can or suggest what they will he plyes this 〈◊〉 must have paâ—don and graceâ— and the light of the Lord's countenance It is not the stirring of a feather can unhinge him for he is in good earnest Ier. 30 21. For who is this that hath engaged his heart to draw nigh to me saith the Lord. Where sits that man that gives a heart to God the Lord cryes who O let every one that hears or reads this cry out Lord it is I and when the heart the whole heart is engaged in a duty then work goes on There 's a vast difference between the pleading of an Orator and the pleading of a Malefactor The former hath perhaps a more smooth elegant and starcht discourse but he handles it with a light finger a friend a fee would take him off but the Malefactor that pleads for his life he sweats he cryes he begs the Judge interrupts him but he goes on the Jaylor stops his mouth but he will proceed all the Court cannot distract his mind from his business his heart is wholly in it And so it is with a sincere and serious Saint He can truly say Lord thou hast more of my heart than ever any creature in the world had my heart is fixed I am set upon this affair The great matters I am about I neither can live nor dare die without them and therefore blame me not to be busie It is the dear prayer that prevails the prayer that costs us dear SECT XII THE Twelfth Cause of wandring Thoughts in God's Worship is an opinion that there is no great evil in them which partly proceeds from that Notion that thoughts are free or at least that no sin is really sin except it be voluntary and these are without consent partly from our being used to greater sins which do widen the conscience to digest these lesser ones without any staying And partly from the commonness of them being the snares wherein we are most frequently taken and the oftener they walk thorow the heart the less strange are they there the more familiar they are the more apology we have for them and so usually it becomes no sin that we have a mind unto And now when there is bred in the soul an opinion that there is no evil or next to none therein the heart is pleased with thâ—â— and merrily playes with those baits till by the hidden hook it 's caught in the hidden snare of the Devil To rectifie this mistake 1. Somewhat must be granted The evil in these wandring thoughts is not so great as in many other sins these do not vastare conscientiam lay the conscience waste as some others especially these roving thoughts as are rather injected than contrived the matter whereof is good not evil and which are short and sorrowed for But
my prayer is not the beginning of my punishment Though these be but small like the Sand yet being many as the Sand how can I stand under them I am ashamed yea even confounded for these reproaches of my duties Nay then saies God that hearkens behind the curtains all this while Is Ephraim my dear Son is not he a pleasant child I will remember him I will have mercy upon him When thou art ripe for Hell in thy own eyes then art thou ripe for grace and glory in the eyes of God No man shall ever be overborn with a sin he hates Go my blessed Spirit that hast melted him and mend him that hast softened him strengthen him he that laments his sin shall never languish under it The sacrifice of a broken heart doth please him though the sacrifice of a broken Christ alone doth satisfie him 2. Dispositively grief at heart doth help forward the cure of distractions and that by softening the heart and so fitting the same for the impressions of God's will When the Wax is melted you may turn and mold it which way you will So when the soul is melted by grief for these sins God Almighty may easily be heard and his counsel will be taken And also this godly sorrow as was before observed doth so afflict and make a mans heart to ake and smart that he will take some pains to prevent the like anguish again When they knock at door you 'l say O these are they that cost me dear at such a time non emam tanti poeniteo I feel yet the sad impressions of my late affliction for them I found a pardon no easie enterprize nor Repentance so pleasing a potion to brew for it again I would not for all the world much less for one vain thought or two nor for a thousand worlds together be under that anger of God nor feel one drop of his scalding indignation which I have perceived for these offences O Sirs where godly sorrow is in the power of it what carefulness doth it work what zeal what indignation yea what revenge It makes sin lye like a Mountain upon the soul musters up all the aggravations of sin and sets them home on the heart O to sin in an Ordinance against such a God! in the midst of my greatest business after such conviction vows and promises of exactness before him To offend both Father Son and Holy Ghost at a clap heart of stone dost not melt yea to offend the Angels of Heaven which holy spirits turn away their faces at our vanities in the Assemblies yea and offend the Angels upon Earth God's Ministers while that which cost them most serious pains is spoken to the air to wound my own soul in the act of curing it and increase guilt when I am getting it cleared to play the Hypocrite before the face of God the Judge of Heaven and Earth O wretched man that I am O my sin is exceeding sinful lend a tear O rend an heart O thou most high A broken heart today will be a good preservative against a wandring heart to morrow SECT III. III. ENgage the holy Spirit of God in thine assistance Joh. 15.5 Without me ye can do nothing Supernatural work cannot be done without supernatural help You may and ought to do what a man can do that is compose your selves and guard your senses but you cannot do that which only a God can do that is fly up and fix your hearts in Heaven Rom. 8.26 We cannot pray for any thing for matter as we ought for the manner but the Spirit it self maketh intercession for us The Greek word signifies the Spirit over and above steps in and helps or as others makes vehement intercession for us We climb up the Ladder as well as we can towards Heaven but alas it wavers no stability till the Holy Ghost hold it at the top and draw and lift us up and then we get a sight of Heaven And you have resolved belike and been secure of a good frame but Prov. 28.26 He that trusteth to his own strength is a fool you have found no fixedness or liveliness in your spirits without the assistance of God He that prayes aright must pray in the Holy Ghost Jude v. 20 This also quickens and hears the soul whereby there is no room or leisure for distracted thoughts Hereby the soul is carried streight up to God and staies at nothing on this side Heaven yea by the Spirit 's blessed assistance Every thought is brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. O blessed frame when every thought is captivated to obey Christ there is none can deal with our spirits but the Spirit of God When the Word comes in the hand of the Spirit there is no avoiding it Then the reading one Chapter can convert as that Ioh. 1. did the learned Iunius yea of one verse as that 1 Tim. 1.15 did Mr. Bilney yea one sentence can comfort the heart as that Isa. 57.15 did the afflicted conscience of one that nothing else could satisfie thereby the soul is carried up as Mr. Tilleman the Martyr was in his devotions so that he saw or heard no body till after long search and great noise his persecutors took him up from his knees The heart is so carried upward to God that all the world looks as inconsiderable as a mote or atome at that time and not worth the thinking on And is entertained with that sweet content that it cannot wish to be any where else and therefore a by-thought is as unâ—welcom as base company to him that is busie with Nobles Beg therefore of God with earnest importunity at the entrance of every Ordinance for his holy Spirit and he hath said Luk. 11.13 He will give his Spirit to them that ask him Say Lord if thy Spirit go not with me let me go no further For as the Intercession of Christ is absolutely necessary for your acceptance so the Intercession of the Holy Ghost is necessary for your assistance The Spirit it self also making intercession for us with sighs that cannot be uttered Promise your heavenly Father that you will never willingly disoblige or grieve away his Spirit again Art thou dead cry Quicken me and I will call upon thy Name Is thy heart roving cry Unite my heart to fear thy Name Humbly plead his promise that he will put his Spirit and fear into your hearts that you shall never and if never then not in his solemn Ordinance depart from him and observe the gracious gales of the Spirit and when they clash not with the Rules of his holy Word lay hold on them and fall to duty It 's best rowing below when the wind blows fair above When thy heart is warm and in ure then do the business throughly And beware of grieving him between times let there be a coherence between prayer and practice let your whole life be of a piece lest he withdraw when you have most need of
of a gaddy temper that runs abroad and comes defiled home this is not done like a sanctified heart but it were a simple conclusion to draw hence certainly I am no child of God I have no true grace at all For alas the sweetest Rose hath its prickles the greatest wits have a spice of madness and the sincerest heart hath some vanity in it SECT II. II. THE second Incouragement is That your case is not singular Though the commonness of a Plague make it not the better or less mortal yet it shews that I am not alone miserable So although this consideration make not the sin less heinous yet it makes the affliction more tolerable Poor soul thou art not alone in thy complaints Go to all the Saints in an Assembly and they will all conclude there is none hath a more giddy heart than they and there 's few at the end of an Ordinance would be pleased that the rest should know the particulars of their stragling Though charity binds us in particular to hope better of every one than of our selves yet both God's Word and common experience tell us in general that the imaginations of the thoughts of men are evil continually And there is none thinks themselves so bad but there are found others that would be glad to change hearts with them some indeed are nearer the cure of this disease and do watch more narrowly and so have obtained more freedom than others but yet all are tainted with this infirmity and every man being convicted by his own conscience will go out of the Congregation one by one and there will not be a sinless man to cast a stone at thee SECT III. THE third Incouragement is That Christ's Intercession for thee is without distraction There was fire alwaies on the Altar though the sacrifices were intermitted His intercession is continual ours is interrupted What unspeakable comfort may a poor weak Christian take in this that Christ Iesus is every moment I say every moment presenting to the Father the unanswerable argument of his passion for the impetrating and obtaining pardon and grace to help him in time of need See Heb. 6.20 Heb. 3.25 Poor sinner thou art sometimes so dead that thou canst not pray to purpose so guilty thou dost hardly pray and oft so distracted thou thinkest thy prayers stand for nothing yet be not discouraged thy Mediator is sick of none of these diseases The holy Psalmist was sometimes as Psa. 77.4 so troubled that he could not speak yet then had he one to speak for him The sight of that precious glorified Son of of God doth infinitely please and prevail with his Father for us when we can hardly speak good sense for our selves I but how can I tell that he intercedes for me Answ. 1. Hast thou a good word to speak for him to men then hath he a good word to speak for thee to God And 2. Dost thou sigh and groan and speak for thy self as well as thou canst his intercession is to help our weakness not to excuse our laziness If some ignorant poor man that cannot say his errand but is often out in his business have a cordial friend that hath the grace of speaking and the favour to be heard undertake his business he needs not be discouraged so though you have much ado and be often out in your best resolved duties yet you have a friend in Court that hath the Art of it and the King's ear beside who ever liveth to make intercession for you and therefore do your best and never be discouraged SECT IV. THE fourth Incouragement is That distracted duties may keep you humble when as your perfect performances might make you proud It is written of Master Knox that on his death-bed after he had received many blows from Satan about his sins he was at last assaulted by him with this temptation viz. That sure God owed him a kindness for his upright and industrious labours until that 1 Cor. 4.7 was strongly imprinted on him What hast thou which thou hast not received Perhaps the Lord fore-saw that thy heart was ready to be fly blown with pride when thou dost well and therefore he suffers these distractions like Vultures to gnaw upon thy heart to keep thee humble Far be it from you to draw from hence an occasion to rest more securely in these sins That Knight was sirnamed Fortunate because being on a time in the deck of a ship a great wave came and took him off into the Sea and another wave took him and set him on the deck of another ship yet no man I trow would to obtain such a name be content that a wave should so hazard him Even so though God do sometimes make use of our infirmities to do us good yet let no man venture therefore to sin that grace may abound Because the Physician can so temper poison that it may do thee good wilt thou therefore venture to drink poison It is miraculous wisdom in God to do thee good hereby and it were miraculous folly in thee therefore to venture upon evil And with this caution I proceed and observe that it is a very hard thing to hear or pray exactly without some tang of spiritual pride after it And to prevent this God permits us to wander and lose our selves lest we should be lost he sees that it is easier for a man to fall into a lesser evil when he can turn it to a greater good than to attain a lesser good and hazard to fall into a greater evil O when a man sees so much dreggs in his very best duties such constant disapppointments such foolish impertinencies in his heart yea such wicked contrivances in the very presence of God O then what a wretched man am I surely I am more brutish than any man I am not worthy to come to thee nor think I my self worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof no such sinner on earth as I my best is very bad c Thus the soul is throughly humbled and brought to sit among the chief of sinners and spiritual pride rebuked SECT V. THE fifth Incouragement is That our God can gather some sense out of a distracted duty and do us some good by it Rom. 8.27 He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit 't is true of our spirit as well as of God's The great searcher of hearts knows what you came pregnant with what you meant though you mist it in the delivery He can tell what was written in the Letter though it did miscarry and will answer your godly meaning and over-look your unwilling failing Psal. 103.13 As a Father pitieth his Children so the Lord Why the child comes sometimes full of a suit to the Father and he is quite out in his tale has forgotten what he would have but the Father knoweth what he wants and what he would
I found thee and dead I leave thee So most justly might the Lord answer our distracted duties with distracting terrours and leave us under the judgement of distraction for our sins in distractions And what a piece of ignorance and impudence is it for any man to be proud of his duties Alas the best duties are of divers colours like the Beggar 's Coat and what Beggar will be proud of his patched Coat If there were any flowers or spices in thy duties they were none of thine from thee came all the stench from above came all the perfumes and what poor reason then hast thou to be proud It is sad that when our sins make us humble our duties should make us proud Isa. 64.6 We are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are as filthy raggs for there is none that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee With what shame and trouble would we go among folks if we had no better cloaths than filthy raggs and yet how high we look that have no better cloaths of our own upon our souls if you wear any better they are borrowed garments and what silly wretch is proud of borrowed garments And this shews likewise what need we have of the Righteousness of Iesus Christ to make our prayers pass into the holy place It was the smoak of the Incense which came with the prayers of the Saints and ascended up before God out of the Angels hand Rev. 8.4 The prayers of the Saints themselves are like smoak in God's eyes to speak with reverence but the smoak of the Incense is a perfume in God's nostrils Iesus Christ can be heard when we cannot Our quaintest Oratory is broken and ineffectual His intercession is constant and Imperatory Go therefore to the Throne of Grace leaning on your Beloved Keep an actual eye to Christ's mediation in your prayers and though you bring in his precious Name in the fagg end of your supplication yet remember you have need of him in every sentence a broken prayer had need of an intire Mediator SECT II. II. IT follows hence That omissions of holy duties are extremely dangerous Into these our fall is most frequent against these our watch is most careless after these our mourning is most easie yet of these the number great and the nature heinous If according to that Ier. 48.10 He be cursed that doth the work of the Lord negligently what is he that doth not God's work one way or other If a distraction in prayer may damnâ— O what may an Omission of prayer do If the Scholar be whipt that looks off his book what will become of him that plaid the truant Do the consciences of God's children smite them for vain thoughts in a duty how should yours wound you that you have no thoughts of your duty O you that omit secret prayer reading the Scripture meditation and such like will your negligence pass with God He sees how seldom you sigh in secret what strangers you are to prayers and tears should one in some cases refuse marriage for fear of distractions in God's service and can you wholly omit his service without danger Are watchfulness and seriousness such dispensable things that they are happy that have them but one may do well without them I tell you he that chastens his careless children will punish his graceless servants He that makes them smart for their distractions will make you tremble for your omissions Undone duty will undo your souls It 's not enough that you have left off the language of swearing unless you have learnt the language of praying It 's not enough that you have burnt your books of curious Arts unless you love to read in the Book of Books the Scripture To be mortified to contemplative wickedness is well but till you be vivified to contemplative holiness it is not well enough Do you must or die you shall You may come to Hell as certainly by not climbing up as by running down and lose Heaven by Naturality as well as by Hostility When you have read the 25 th chap. of Matthew you shall tell me whether wanting Oyl may not as truly ruin you as drinking poison whether an unprofitable servant will not come to a sad reckoning as well as a prodigal Son Though you take not anothers yet you may be consumed for not giving your own and in fine you will find that sins of omission do deserve damnation O hearken to this all ye that live quietly in the omission of closer or family-prayer of solemn fasting or communion in the blessed Supper of the Lord. Hath God abated you of the price that others must give hath he granted a new way to Heaven for you must others make Religion their business and you baulk it where you please what can your consciences answer to that Iam. 2.10 If a a man keep the whole Law mark the whole Law and yet offend Gr. stumble stumble and stop at one point he is guilty of all O beloved there is a concatenation of Truths and Duties in Religion you may easier go away with all your work than some a negative holiness will but bring you to a negative Heaven and you know behind Heaven-door is Hell O awaken therefore your hearts ye that stick at this point that are far from debauchery and excess any way but will not be gotten to positive duties Will ye with one dash expunge the one half of Scripture Is not Good as amiable as Evil is hateful what cause is there to fear that your avoidance of evil is from no good principle but either fear or shame or interest or at the best a better temper For the love or fear of God would make you cleave to that which is good as well as abhor that which is evil and to do God's will as well as deny your own SECT III. III. SEE hence what grand necesitâ—y we have of Watchfulness that most continual duty of a Christian this is the garment we must put on next us every day especially in every duty Between duties that we may not want praying hearts in duties that we miss not prayer-blessings Some duties bind alwaies but not to be alwaies done as prayer hearing meditation but you can be safe no where without your watch at all times in all places with all companies yea with no company in all callings there is a snare for the heart every where Wherefore saith the Prophet Hosea 12.6 Wait on thy God continually and the wise man Prov. 23 17. Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long especially but not only in your morning and evening sacrifices It is a true and a sad observation that many praying people are most devout and serious in God's service morning and evening but trace them all day long hardly one word of God or Heaven in their mouths as if Religion were hem'd up in times of Worship nay they are often most light and vain