find that in it which none ever found will it do more for thee than ever it did for any Believe its vanity upon God's Word ere thou try it by thy sad experience Get faith to suck vertue out of Christ's death to vanquish it For this is our victory 1 Ioh. 5.4 that overcometh the world even our faith Lay thee down with Christ in the grave by faith and say then What is the world Get faith to believe that eternal happiness which being once seen by that piercing eye would so disgrace the world that all the comforts of it would not weigh a straw in comparison of it If a man lived in the Sun what a poor mote would the whole earth look He that lives in Christ in Heaven by faith sees all the glories of the earth with a disdainful eye and cries Vanity of vanities all is vanity 2. You shall be helped against this disease by deep consideration of the folly and misery of such a frame of heart It 's folly for all that is gotten of the world with the neglect of the soul invasion of holy duties or by a carking worldly heart comes to thee in wrath will sink thee deeper in hell or if thou repent is most commonly some way consumed vix gaudet tertius haeres thy grand-child will rue it If we could penetrate the method of God's providence usually those losses you have in this beast or the other house or the like are the just value of what you have gotten by immoderate care hard dealing with others or unseasonable contrivance when your heart should have been better employed And then the misery of worldly-mindedness that it pierceth the heart through with many sorrows Sorrow and pain in getting sorrow and care in keeping sorrow and grief in losing The heart is never at perfect rest A man would not use his horse as a worldling doth his heart gives it no quiet or ease and all this to no purpose at all Hab. 2.13 The people labour in the very fire and weary themselves for very vanity and may not the consideration hereof be an effectual means to hate this humour and when it is once hated it is more than half discharged 3. Have recourse to God by prayer and therein see and bewail thy former madness solemnly vow to restore their right to every man thou hast wronged rather part like Zacheus with half thine estate than with thy whole soul and body and earnestly cry to the Lord to encline thy heart to his testimonies and not unto covetousness Psal. 119.36 Intreat your heavenly Father to give you an heavenly heart and if it come not at first asking it 's a gift worth going for again humbly tell him by vertue of that Covenant wherein you promised to forsake the world which you are now resolved to stick to his Majesty is bound to give you a mortifi'd and heavenly heart and you will never leave him till you have obtained it 4. Charm your hearts from worldly thoughts when you go to the worship of God Prov. 16.1 3. The preparation of the heart is from the Lord Commit thy ways to him and thy thoughts shall be established The Heathen left their shooes at the Temple doors to intimate that all earthly affections must be left behind you when you go to speak with God Do as that great States-man used who would lay off his Gown wherein he administred his Office when he went to worship God and say Lie there Lord Cecil implying he would take none of the cares of his Office into the presence of God So when you go to prayer reading or hearing lay aside the world and say Lie there house ye fields lie there lie there my cares till I have done with God So Abraham left his servants and asses Gen. 22.5 below the hill and took up nothing but an holy heart and the materials of his Sacrifice with him thither Keep still an eye upon your hearts and both watch and pray lest ye enter into temptation SECT VI. THe sixth cause of Distractions in the Worship of God is Weakness of love to Iesus Christ and consequently to his Ordinances Love unites the soul to its object as Faith is the bond of our mystical so Love is the bond of our moral union with Christ. The more love to Christ the more life in his service Cant. 8.6 Set me as a seal upon thy heart as a seal upon thy arm for love is strong as death Were your love more strong it would seal up both soul and body and unite them firmly unto Jesus Christ. Love marries the heart and eye to the object hence 't is there is not a distracting thought in heaven for there love is perfect they see and love and sing and praise and see enjoy and love for ever and ever The three Disciples Matth. 17.4 had but an half-quarter glimpse of that state but their love to their dearest Lord and his presence was so heightned that the world was forgotten Ierusalem below and all their friends and fellow-Disciples forgotten and they undone to abide there And if we could by the eye of faith see him that is invisible and perfectly love him O how hardly could we spare a by-thought in his presence and service no all the world would be forgotten comforts and crosses all sleep together while God and our soul were conversing in an Ordinance Whence is it that most men can work and care perpetually and no distractions divert them discourse their business most orderly without one alien thought drive on a bargain an hour together and think on nothing but what 's pertinent to their present business Why they love what they are about they like it well and so tongue and heart go together are wholely taken up therewith The jovial knot like their company and nothing shall distract them the servant comes about necessary business the master fumes that they will not let him alone the child comes and then the wife but he frets he rages And why all this why he loves his company 't is his delight his heaven Even so the Soul that hath a strong love to a precious Christ and his Ordinance-presence doth most heavily bear a distracting thought The devil cannot pluck him from Christ but the soul smarts and when there is this smart at parting that soul will part but seldom You have sometimes seen a sucking child that loves the mother and the breast most dearly how loth is it to leave it while it is hungry how eagerly and angrily it seeks and cries and catches hold again Here 's love Christ Iesus is the spring of all happiness and his Ordinances are his breasts and he that loves the Lord Jesus with all his soul and all his strength there he lies and sucks at the breasts of consolation This business knocks at door that trifle tempts him yet there he sticks and frowns away all his temptations His love is ardent Psal.
but one or two how glad will he be of them that are left and make much of them the rest are kill'd and these only remain Even so thy duties of Religion which thou hast planted and expectedst they should bring thee some good fruit but alas these Caterpillars have consumed it unless it be here and there a prayer here and there a Sermon that have scap'd O bless the Lord for these you have often prayed for such a mercy now you have it Let praises wear what prayers have won It is sad to consider what a beggarly spirit we are of if we want any thing Heaven and Earth shall ring of us but we are graves wherein the gifts of God are buried without any resurrection Where is the heart that is pregnant with praises that cries out to his friend O help me to praise the Lord Divide our lives and the one half of them is mercies and the other half is sins and yet divide our prayers and hardly the tenth part is spent in praises Alas thanks is a tacite begging Let God gain the glory and thou shalt not lose the advantage The God of Israel is he that giveth strength to his people blessed be God Psal. 68.35 Conclude with the Psalmist Not unto me O Lord not unto me but unto thy Name give glory Think not when thou hast attended on the Lord without distractions I have quit my self well but mercy hath quit its self well He that justly payes his score shall be trusted again SECT V. V. YOU see here in the last place That Religion is an inward a difficult and a serious business Rom. 2.28 29. He is not a Iew that is one outwardly But he is a Iew that is one inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit and not in the letter whose praise is not of men but of God To be watchful and holy within that 's a Christian to have the vanities of the heart cut off that 's circumcision to carry it so in an Ordinance that you may be praised of God that 's Religion while others are quarrelling about shadows in God's Ordinances beware leâ—t you lose the substance thereof There is in Religion a Body and a Soul The Religion of the body is but the body of Religion the Religion of the soul is the soul of Religion And as the separation of the body and the soul is the death of a man so the divorcing asunder the form and power of godliness is the death of godliness As it is injury to macerate and destroy the body for to cure and save the soul so it is a crime to damn and lose the soul to please and pamper the body Even so it is injurious to destroy the body and outside of Religion to preserve and advance the soul and inside of Religion but it is heinous to lose and break the heart of the inside and vitals of Religion to pamper and adorn the exteriours thereof It is well if while we quarrel about a bended knee we do not lose a broken heart Is the folly of the Quakers criminal for killing Religion in her body how sinful then is Formality that slayes Religion in her soul And then you see here also that Religion is a difficult and serious business men cannot swim to Heaven in a stream of Rose water nor row up this River while they are asleep we cannot wrestle with our God with our hands in our pockets nor get the blessing without sweat and tears To repeat so many Pater nosters or Ave-maries with the heart on other things and running sometimes from their knees to other business in the midst of their Devotion as many do in the Church of Rome or to say our prayers and be slumbring or dressing us the while as in the guise of many outside Christians is far from our Religion The manner of duties is material to the acceptation of them Ah stupid worldlings how can ye read those Scriptures Mat. 7.14 Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life and few there be that find it Mat. 11.12 The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force and such like and yet hope for salvation in that secure and formal course you hold Do you imagine there are two waies to Heaven one for the diligent mortified and watchful Christian and another for the idle sluggard or carnal worldling Have the holiest Saints much ado to walk with God and get to him that make it their business they are saved and that 's all and can you live and die well enough that are neither mortified nor watchful nor diligent that have no delight but in your vanities no skill but in the world no diligence but for your base ends what back-way have you found to Heaven what blind way have you descried to happiness Awake awake look at the Scripture and then look at your selves and be convinced that the only way to eternal happiness is to make Christ your choice Religion your business the Scriptures your Rule Heaven your design the Saints your company and the Ordinances your delight and in them remember that you go to attend upon the Lord and this must be done without Distractions And now you know your duty and your danger The end of speculation is practice and the end of our Preaching is not your approbation but your submission The Christian Religion is not so much the form of spiritual Notions as the power of spiritual Motions He that complements in God's service will complement his soul into Hell The outside of Religion may bring you to the the outside of Heaven but inside-holiness will conduct you into the inside of happiness If these Directions I have given be but studied and applied as you would study and apply a medicine for the Gout or Stone or but the Tooth-ach I verily trust they will prove the destruction of your distractions But if they be neglected your distractions will prove your destruction FINIS * Letter to the E. of Salisb. concerning his Advancement Ambroâ— lib 8. â—p 6◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 §. 1. The dependance of the words * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Si orationem facit ad Dominum propè est Coelo Scripturis incumbit totuâ— illâ—c est Si Psalmum canit placet sibi Tertul. de exh cast p. 670. :: Tu de castitate canisâ— illae somniant etiam viros flammas patiuntur saciunt ubi decorum ubi adhasio Domini ubi finis à Paulo positus sublato fine tolli debent ad illud destinata Areâ—ius in loc * So the word is used 1 Cor. 14.40 §. 2. An Observation §. 3. The Explication of the Text. (a) Quod inteniè facit servire Domino sine ullâ distractione Hieron lib. 1. contr Jo. vin By comparing whereof with the present vulgar you may easily see the Vulgar was none of Hieromes For thus the Vulgar Quod facultatem
be subservient to another life If single-life do every way better qualifie you to serve the Lord and save your souls this is the best life for you and if Marriage be better for your souls no state is better For if the soul prosper All prospers and if thaâ— miscarry All 's lost If to be a Prince were dangerous for the soul 't were better to be a Beggar If a poor state do enrich the soul it is the best estate This needs not to be proved unto Christians that will be granted by Heathens some of whom have so powerfully discoursed of the immortality and excellency of the soul that their Auditors have posted to death by self-destruction for the happy state thereof If Pagans would chuse to dye as a condition best for the soul well may we chuse that condition of life which best serves the soul lest those Acts which were unable to justifie them prove able to condemn us with a witness Let this Axiom come in when you are disposing your children or your selves being confident when you are most sollicitous about the soul God will be most careful for the body and you will meet with least distress when you flee the least Distraction SECT III. THe words of the Text present us with a Design that Believers as often aim at and yet miss as any in the World and which is so excellent a rare attainment that the Holy Ghost even makes two words on purpose to express it by no where else found in the New-Testament To Attend on the Lord without Distraction Hierome confesseth that the Latine can hardly express the Emphasis of the Greek in this clause and that thereupon it was wholly omitted in the Latine books In the words we must consider 1. The Matter What Attend upon the Lord. 2. The Manner how Without Distraction 1. The Matter what Attend upon the Lord The Greek word for Attend in our Copies hath a notable elegancy in it 1. That you may be Fit and ready for Gods Service That Religion and religious Duties may sit fitly on you that you may be ready to serve the Lord in Duty or Suffering A most sweet frame of soul to be alwayes bent and strung for the Service of God That man is meet for the Masters use that is prepared unto every good work 2 Tim. 2.21 How many choice opportunities for instruction for reproof for charity for prayer do we hazard yea and lose for want of a Soul quick and ready to our duty 2. That you may be Fixâ— and setled in his Service The word intimates such an inseparable cleaving such a marriage of the mind to the work of God that we have in hand as can by no means suffer a divorce It should be as hard a matter to break off the heart from God in his service being married to him and setled in holy duties as it is to abstract the misers soul from the world to which it is glued 2. The Manner how Without Distraction The sense hereof is almost prevented by the Emphasis of the former word Yet this Word is not without its great weight And it speaks a quiet unshaken and immoveable frame of Soul which cannot be whirled about with vain trifles The soul is never at that holy quiet as when it is directly ascending and communing with the Lord and therefore Satan exceedingly envies this Coelestial happiness of the Saints and if he cannot distract them from duty be sure he will distract them in it and this he doth very much by the World and the business thereof And therefore sayes the Apostle guide your condition so in this suffering season as that it may not misguide your hearts in your attendance on the Lord that you may not attend on your selves nor on others but on Him who is the Centre of an Ordinance and your All in All. Take the sum of all in this Assertion the main Doctrine from the Text. It is a Christians Duty to attend on the Lord without Distractions And that I may from this Text and Doctrine profitably handle the Case and attempt the Cure of Distractions I shall proceed to shew these things 1. The Nature of a Distraction 2. The Kinds of Distractions 3. That it is our Duty to attend upon the Lord without Distrâ—ctions 4. The reasons why we must attend on the Lord without Distractions 5. Answer the Objections 6. Describe the Causes of Distractions 7. The Evil of them 8. The Cure of them 9. Propound some encouragements under the burden of Distractions 10 Draw some Inferences from this Doctrine And first of the first viz. the nature of a Distraction SECT IV. THE first Head will be to describe a Distraction A Distraction is a secret wandring of the Heart from God in some Duty in hand 1. It is a wandring As the remisness of our Devotion shoots short so Distraction shoots awry 'T is said Prov. 27.8 As a bird that wandereth from his nest so is a man from his place It s commonly known the ready way to destroy the young in the shell is discontinuance of heat and to wander from our heavenly work produces the dead off-spring of unprofitable Duties It would be almost as easie to trace and follow the Bird in her vagaries as the volatile and intricate imaginations of the heart It is a digression you that are curious to observe the Minister in his digressions how much more necessary is it to observe your own 2. It is secret in the Heart And this contracts the guilt and nature of Hypocrisie upon a Distraction for we have a short and clear description of hypocrisie which agrees too well with distractions Matth 15.7 8. This People draweth nigh unto me with their mouth and honoureth me with their lips but their heart is far from me To have a bended knee a craving eye are choice Expressions of Duty but without the Impressions and attendance of the heart are double iniquity and flat hypocrisie How empty would our Congregations be sometimes if no more bodies were present than there are souls And what abundance of sorry service hath our God that no body sees Yet how unknown soever these triflings of the mind are to others or to our selves yet are they most palpable to the Lord who sets our most secret sins in the clearest light of his Countenance and though these primo-primi motus may antevert the use of Reason and therefore seem small Peccadillo's yet they fall under the rebuke of Religion and are as sinfull as they are secret Good in secret is the best Goodness and secret sinfulness the worst sinfulness 3. This wandering of the Heart is from God for God is the Object of Worship To pray aright is Zech. 8.21 To pray before the Lord. To give thanks aright is Dan. 6.10 To give thanks before his God not in his sight only for so you are when your hearts are worst