Life in them We may see it Acts 13. 50. there it is said that the Jews stirred up certain devout and honourable women and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them out of their Coasts Though they hated Paul and Barnabas yet they are said to be devout and honourable women They imagined they were very Devout they conceived they were Religious How many men and women are there that think they are righteous and they will do many duties and take many good courses in so much that it would pity a man to think they should goe to hell they will be very Zealous they will be very Earnest against Drunkennesse and cry out against the abominations of the times they are marvellous devout and godly and yet a man that is Devout and godly in truth and in deed they cannot abide him but hate him Now if the Law should come home unto them and discover how indeed it is with them it would humble their souls and pull down their spirits and make them dead so that this presumptuous hope that men are in good terms with God and that God will be merciful to them and forgive them their sins this makes them to be alive 2. We come now to the Second thing and that is the Effect of this livelynesse what Effects it works in the heart and the Effects of this Livelynesse are Four 1. First It makes them sound and heart-whole like a boyl unlaunched it is yet sound The true sight of sin and wrath of God in the soul is able to break the heart of any man it is able to dead his spirit and kill all the livelynesse that is in him and make him have little life to go on as he doth But so long as the Law of God is not come home to a man though he have no title to heaven though hell be the portion of his cup yet he is as sound as can be as heart-whole as may be let carnal comfort come he can take it let pleasures come he is able to delight himself therewith and go on in his course as if he ailed nothing Prov. 18. 14. the Wise man saith the spirit of a man will sustain his infirmities but a wounded spirit who can bear When the Lord comes to wound a mans heart with the sight of his sins and the fearful condition he is in what a cursed creature he is having no mercy and being out of Christ having no pardon no grace no holinesse but lyeth under the curse of God If the Law thus come home and wounds his Conscience he is not able to bear it this man let carnal comforts come he is not able to take them it kills the heart Look as it is with the Stomack if it can take meat and digest it it must needs be alive for if the Stomack be dead it can digest nothing So for the tast if a mans palat and all the instruments of the tast be dead he takes no delight in any meats so there is a kind of soundnesse in the Soul that is the reason why a man can delight in carnal pleasures in Drinking and Sporting and in Profit and Gain There is a kind of soundnesse and livelinesse in the heart the heart is not yet broken If the Law come and take the hearts life away this wil pull down the heart it will make a mans heart even break it will pull down his spirit But a man whom the Law hath not yet humbled and shewed him his damned estate his heart is yet whole and sound When the Law of God had but a little killed Ahabs heart you might see it in his very gate he went softly he could not tread so confidently upon the ground as he was wont to do it tamed his very steps it is wonderful how his heart was broken it appeared in his very going up and down When the Law comes home to a man it is able to kill his heart and makes him Soul-sick and makes him cry out O the wretchednesse of my heart it makes a man sick at the heart it lyes like a heavy Plague upon the heart and conscience it will make a man sick of his sins it will make him even at deaths door with his sins it will make him say with Paul when the Commandment came sin revived and I dyed But another man though he hath evident demonstration that he is a dead man yet the Law of God hath not pulled down his heart sicknesse will pull down a mans Stomack so when the Law of God comes home to a mans Conscience and makes him sick it makes him yield and pulls down his Stomack Many men are crazy and sickly and yet they lye not by it but walk up and down and go abroad but if they were heart sick it would pull them down and make them lye by it So many a carnal man may have some qualms of sin but yet their hearts can go abroad after profits and pleasures after vanities and delights they can goe abroad for all this But when the Law comes home it will pull down a mans spirit and make him heart-sick This is the meaning of that place The whole need not a Physician but the sick Mat. 9. 12. Every carnal man so long as he is not humbled and broken under the sight of his sins his heart is yet whole his spirit is yet sound he is not yet wounded as the Prophet Isaiah speaks Isa 1. 6. from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot there is nothing but wounds and swellings and sores full of corruption there is no soundnesse in him He is indeed full of wounds but the skin is yet sound it is not broken he feels it not the Law hath not yet discovered his estate unto him This is the first effect of this livelynesse it makes men to be sound and heart-whole 2. The Second effect of this livelynesse when a man is alive in the non-appearance of his dead and damned estate alive in performance alive in presumption and self-justifying and self-hopes The effect of it is that he is fearless the more lively the more fearless First the Object must dead the heart before it can make the heart fear so long as the heart is stout the livelynesse that is in the heart is able to keep out fear So the livelinesse of a sinner makes the heart fearlesse and secure A man would wonder how any creature durst provoke God it is almost beyond the reach of true reason how any creature should dare to provoke God to consider what infinite danger he is in to have the wrath of the God of heaven and earth to hang over his head to be under the hand of revenging Justice to pull down all the Woes and Plagues and Comminations of God upon the Soul that a man should do this and yet be secure it would make a man wonder at it But a man that hath this livelynesse he can provoke God and yet be
this will make our hearts that they will not be so wanton and our spirits that they will not be so brisk though they would never so fain mind earthly things they cannot If the Lord would be pleased but to charge his law upon the heart it would make the stoutest spirit to yield Thirdly This takes away the imputation that is laid upon the Word of God many think hardly of the Word of God it takes away the spirits of men the preaching of the Law it pulls down the spirits of men and breaks mens hearts it makes men have no spirits as they said of Jeremy thou makest the knees feeble so the law infeebles the knees and takes away the spirits of a man why here we see that the law of God will do so it is the property of the law to do so wheresoever it comes it kills the heart and pulls down all the pearknesse of it The law it will ever break a mans bones as David speakes Let me hear of joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce Psal 51. The Lord had broken his very back bone by the law and now he could not rejoyce Isai 57. 15. I the Lord dwell with him that is of an humble contrite spirit to revive the spirit of the humble when the law of God hath broken a mans heart and made him contrite he is a dead man till the Lord comes to revive him and raise up his spirit I come now to the Second part of the Text When the Commandment came sin revived and I died Here also as in the former part are two things to be expounded First What doth the Apostle here mean by reviving When the Commandment came sin revived Secondly What doth he mean by dying I died When the Law and Commandment came and discovered me to my self and shewed me what a damnable thing sin was and what a wretched dead creature I was for committing the same and how I lay under the guilt thereof sinne revived and I died Therefore what doth the Apostle mean by sin revived I Answer The Apostle doth not mean here as if sin were indeed dead in him before the commandment came for sin is alive in every carnal mans heart before the commandment comes and therefore he cannot mean thus when the commandment came sin revived as if it were truly and really dead before for his sins were not dead in him when he was Pharisee his sins were not mortified when he was in his unregenerated estate and condition sin was not dead in him that cannot be the meaning as if sin were dead before and now revived But he speaks of the Appearance of the death of sin though it were not dead before yet it did appear to be dead as a Snake in cold weather though it be alive yet it appears to be dead the life of it is in a swound though it hath life yet the cold benums it and keeps it from appearing So before the commandment came sin was in Paul but it seemed to have no life but when the commandment came and discovered plainly what a dead creature he was then the life of sin came indeed to be manifested Now the Law of God doth manifest the life of sin Three wayes it manifests three lifes of sin There are three lifes of sin that appear to the soul when the law comes 1. First There is the life of Aggravation the Law of God doth aggravate and point out sinne to the full life of it it makes sinne appear in the true nature of it the true nature of every thing is the life of the thing the nature of a man is the life of a man Now the law did shew him the nature of his sins it painted them out to the very life in their lively colours this made him see how his sins were aggravated what a cursed and damned thing sin was and what a person it was committed against this made sin appear unto him in the very life of it therefore in the 13. vers of this Chapter the Apostle saith Sin that it might appear si◠wrought death in me that sin might be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 measure sinful by the commandment that is when the commandment comes and is manifested to the soul it makes the life of sin appear the life of sin is then manifested the Law of God like a glasse doth shew the life of the Commandment and the very nature of all sinning and transgressing Now before the Law came thus home unto him he could not thus see sin he could say he was a sinner and had committed these and these sins But what these sins were and the exceeding sinfulnesse of these sins he did not see that He had a dead kind of picture of his sins before but the life thereof was not manifested but the Law of God did make his sin revive and made him see his sinnes in the life of them 2. Secondly There is the life of irritation as I may so call it or of itching and egging a man This is another life of sin whereby it is full of operation and working in the Soul the operation of a thing is the life of a thing Now before the Commandment came sin seemed dead it wrought indeed many evils in him but he did not think his heart had been so full of life and so full of activity against Gods Law and commandments Sin seemed to lye dead before but now when the Commandment came and set upon his heart and began to charge him with better obedience now his heart grew itching and marvellous full of life unto lust Hereupon sin egged him the more on to lust It is like water when a man goes about to stop it it runs the more violently So it is with sin in the heart the more the Law of God goes about to stop it and hinder it the more eager it is and the more full of life and working as the Apostle speaks ver 8. without the Law sin was dead there was no such working of sin in my mortal body then but when the Commandment came when the Law was charged upon my heart then sin took occasion hereby to be the more violent and work in me all manner of Concupiscence before I committed sin without any check I had vain thoughts and foolish courses and many a lust in my soul and I went to it as if it had been a good thing not as if it had been evil But when the Law of God came to shew me the slacknesse of my obedience and to controle me and convince me and to stop the course of sin it wrought all manner of Concupiscence in me it wrought before in Paul for it wrought all his security and all his hardnesse of heart and all his vain thoughts and imaginations but this was but a dead kind of working in comparison of that which it wrought after the Commandment came There are none that have such active Rebellions against the
away from his father the Father of life Now his will is come down I will go to my father and say Father I have sinned against Heaven and against thee and am no more worthy to be called thy Son make me as one of thy hired servants Luke 15. 17. Here his will is come down he would be gone from his father before he could not abide to be held in so strictly he would fain be gone and be at liberty he had no mind to stay in his fathers house But when he came to himself when the Law shewed him he was but a dead man for going from his father and going after his lusts and pleasures now his will is brought down and it submits and yields and now he will go to his father and humble himself before his father aud say Father I have sinned against heaven and against thee c. Now I desire here to shew you Three things as I did in the former point First Wherein this deadnesse consists Secondly What be the effects of this deadness and how it pulls down the heart And Thirdly The Uses we are to make of it 1. For the First Wherein this deadnesse consists and it consists in Three things First In deadnesse in being Secondly In deadnesse in Gods account Thirdly In deadness to all doing 1. First It consists in deadnesse in being When the Law comes it shews a man indeed to be a dead man 2 Cor. 3. 6. the letter killeth saith the Apostle the very letter of the Law without the Spirit of life which Christ doth inform it with when he comes to work upon his children The letter alone without the Spirit of God kills a man now when a man is killed he is a dead man he is then fully dead he hath the very being of a dead man he is a dead man that is his Estate and Condition So when the Law of God comes home to a man it shews him indeed that he is a dead man The property of the Law when it is let in to work upon the heart is to slay a man I have flain them by the words of my mouth Hos 6. 5. The Law which proceeds from Gods mouth is able to slay a poor sinner and kill him at the heart and lay him for dead before Almighty God that he can strive no more the reason is because the Law doth charge the truth of God upon a man Now the Truth is that every sinner is a dead man this is the very Truth of it Rom. 8. 6. To be carnally-minded is death That man is a dead man there is the very death of sin and hell and condemnation in that man that is a Carnal-minded man Now the Law of God when it comes doth Charge this Truth upon the Soul it discovers a man to be in this estate and condition wherein in truth he is 2. Secondly It consists in deadnesse in Gods account For all a mans presumptions for all a mans vain hopes that he is justified for this is the nature of man before he is convinced by the Law of God to justifie himself you are they that justifie your selves not that he is indeed justified but he falsly applies justification to himself and he hopes he is justified before God he is apt to pronounce this hope unto himself let a Minister tell him of his sins here is his Salve God is merciful and Christ came to save sinners Let Sermons beat upon him from day to day to humble him he cannot imagine that he is in a damnable estate Preachers are too harsh and censorious and the like But when the Law comes it shuts up a man that he cannot get out as the Apostle speaks Gal. 3. 22. The Law hath concluded all under sin that is the nature of the word of God to shut up a man that a man is not able to get out before the law is charged the heart hath a thousand starting-holes Denounce hell and damnation against it it hath this starting-hole that Christ dyed for sinners discover plainly that he is a dead man he hath these starting-holes he hopes he shall have peace and he hopes he is not so vile before Almighty God and he hopes he hath better righteousnesse then you would bear him down with and so he hath an evasion to get out but when the Law comes and shuts him up this will tame him As we use to tame Lions and Bears and such like fierce and cruel creatures by shutting of them up so the Lord tames the heart of a poor creature when he would pull him down he shuts him up and layes him in the prison and in the Gaole and he hath no way to get out he is a dead man and there is no way to get out no evasion to escape but still he is a dead man and a damned man he cannot open his mouth any more Ezek. 16. 63. That thou mayest remember and be confounded and never open thy mouth any more when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou hast done saith the Lord God The Law indeed works thus in the Regenerate though the Lord be pacified towards them yet they shall never open their mouths never cavil against Gods precepts more never be so brisk any more But so long as a man is in his sins the Law doth not only convince him that he is dead in himself but that he is also dead towards God that God accounts him a dead man that God is not pacified towards him but he lies under the wrath of God and this pulls him down and stops his mouth A carnal mans mouth will not be stoped but he will have some thing to say some vain hope or confidence or other some pleading or excusing or other His mouth will never be stoped till the Law of God comes and when that comes that will stop his mouth and make it appear that he is guilty before God Rom. 3. 19. the Apostle saith Now we know that whatsoever the Law saith it saith to them that are under the Law that every mouth might be stopped and all the world may be culpable before God But before the Law comes a mans mouth will not be stopped Gen. 20. 3. God came to Abimilech by night and said Thou art but a dead man because of the woman which thou hast taken for she is a mans wife He was a dead man but he little thought it he would not believe that he was a dead man As the Text there speaks of temporal death So it is true of the other carnal men are indeed dead men but they will not believe that they are dead men and damned men they hope for mercy and cry peace peace to their souls but when the Law comes that knocks off all mens hopes and layes them for dead in Gods account 3. Thirdly This deadnesse I here speak of it consists in regard of all manner of doing when the Law of God hath charged it self upon the conscience and
is dead while she is alive that is dead in pleasure dead in sin dead in the vanity of her own heart and yet such a Widow liveth she liveth not only a natural life but she is alive in her own conceit in regard of a spiritual life for if she conceived she were a dead creature a damned creature it would kill all her pleasure it would kill the heart of any creature under heaven it would break the neck of all her pleasure but in that she took her pleasure it was a plain token that she was not killed Now for the Opening of the Point I will do these Three things First I will shew what this livelinesse is and wherein it consists Secondly I will shew what the effects of it are Thirdly the Uses First I will shew what this livelinesse is and it consists in these Three things I could branch them into Four but I will reduce them into Three Heads 1. First It consists in the non-appearance of a mans dead and damned estate So long as a mans dead and damned estate doth not appear unto him so long a man thinks he is alive and that he is not a dead man he is not a man that hath the sentence of condemnation lying upon him so long as the law hath not come and shewed a man his wretched estate and made his damnable estate appear in its own colours unto him why he is a live man he conceives himself to be alive because the law of God hath not convinced him of the contrary if the law of God doth seise upon a mans heart and in its own colours appear to a mans eyes and hold it self as a glasse to a mans understanding and shews him his wretchednesse and what a cursed estate he is in before God this will kill his very heart and break the livelinesse that is in him and make him burst out into out-cries Oh! I am a dead man I am a damned man so that the livelinesse that is here spoken of consists in the non-appearance of a mans dead and damnable estate As for example an Adulterer his damnable estate doth not appear to him he knows not that he is a dead man as Prov. 9. 18. He knows not that the dead are there and that her guests are in the depth of hell when he goes to lie with his Whore and commit his wickednesse he doth not think that they are dead and damned men that are there nor that they are in the pit of Hell Though his Conscience may tell him that he is wicked and sinful and wretched and that he is half dead yet he is not a dead man he is not absolutely a dead man he doth not know this It may be he will confesse it Lord I am a dead man Lord I am a damned man it may be he will confesse this in his prayer because he hath some light but yet his heart is not taken down the liveliness of his heart is not killed I will prove it to you for let another man a Minister of God or a child of God say he is a dead man a damned man one that lies under the wrath of God he will deny it and say he is uncharitable and judgeth hardly and why may he not be a live man and a good Christian he hopes he is he doth not know that he is a dead man as the wise-man speaks Prov. 14. 12. There is a way that seemeth right to a man but the issues thereof are death that is there is a way that seems to be a way of life and a man seems to be alive that walks in that way but the truth is it is a way of death and a man that goeth in that way is a dead man and a damned man but yet in the mean time while he walks in that way it seems to be a way of life unto him there is a non-appearance of the deadnesse and damnednesse of a mans estate and condition that walks in that way and therefore it seems to him to be a right way and a way of life and there is great hope in him that he shall live for evermore and many men do walk in that way and therefore it seems to him to be a right way and a way of life it seems right to a man but the end thereof is death and this is the First thing wherein this liveliness consists the non-appearance of a mans dead and damned estate 2. Secondly It consists in Performance he is able as he conceives to do the duties that God commands he hath wisdom and ability at home to go about his affairs he hath understanding and supply at home he hath life and sufficiency to go about these and these duties and performances let the law tell him he must be sober he hath life to avoid the Ale-house and if he commit a Drunken Act he would have you think he hath grace to be sorry for it and let a man tell him he is a dead man he hath no grace in him no life in him he will tell you he doth thus and thus he hears Gods Word and he Prayes to God and he Trusts in God and he Believes in God your telling of him this doth not kill his heart he thinks he is alive for all this nay let the law of God come and tell him He is a dead man for all his doing this will not kill him neither so long as the Lord himself doth not open his eyes and clear his eye-sight and discover his sins and convince his Conscience though the law say he is a dead man and a damned man this doth not kill him he can wait upon God and perform these and these duties Then let the law of God say He is a dead man for all this he must deny himself why so he will I confesse Lord I am an unrighteous man a wretched man a sinful creature and all my righteousnesse is as menstruous raggs and now he thinks all is well but the law of God hath not yet come home unto him and shewed him his heavie estate but he is alive in regard of the performance of the duty and thinks verily he hath life at home in him whereas if the law of God did come home and charge his estate upon him and shew him what obedience the law requires what severity and truth in the inward parts it would break a mans heart and kill him notwithstanding all performance but in the mean time that a mans heart is not killed and the law hath not given him his deaths wound he thinks he is alive Cry aloud saith God lift up thy voice like a trumpet shew my people their transgressions and the house of Israel their sins Isai 58. 1. there the Lord looks upon the people as dead wretched sinners and abominable people but yet notwithstanding they thought they were alive in performances as we may see vers 2. Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my wayes even as a
nation that did righteously and had not forsaken the statutes of their God they ask of me the ordinances of Justice they draw near to me saying We have fasted and thou regardest it not We see here they take delight in approaching unto God they take delight in Gods Ordinances and seek God early they can do thus and thus and are alive in all performances but that man whose spirit the law hath pulled down and the Lord hath convinced him of his infinite inability to perform the law he cannot see any livelinesse in him unto any performance Let any duty come it kills his heart I should now hear the Word of God but my heart is unprepared and my ear uncircumcised and I cannot hear aright Let an opportunity be offered to pray it kills his heart I should now call upon the Name of the Lord but I have such a cursed heart I cannot pray I cannot speak one right word before God Let an occasion be offered of holy conference it kills his heart alas saith he I want pure language my tongue was never touched with a coal from the Altar my lips have not ability to drop forth savoury speeches I am not able to speak one syllable aright to Gods glory it kills his heart he sees no life at all in him unlesse he can have life from without and ability from without he is dead all is nothing to him the law hath taken away the livelinesse that was in him But he that is not humbled by the law he is alive he hath life in himself it is nothing with him to Pray and go to Church and hear Gods Word it is nothing but thrusting to do the duty he hath life in him to do duties and wait upon God in his ordinances but when the law comes home to him it plainly lets him see that he hath no life in himself to do any good he must seek for life and ability from without else he is a dead man he can do nothing in this case David in this case cannot lookup Mine iniquities are gone over my head I cannot look up Psal 40. Moses he is a man of uncircumcised lips and cannot speak unto Pharaoh Paul cannot do any thing that is good In me dwelleth no good thing Rom. 7. And so for the rest of Gods people when the law hath killed them and laid them dead in regard of any performance they must have life from without there is no life at home no grace at home no understanding at home they must go out for all but a carnal man he is alive unto all performances Many a man is like unsavoury salt good for nothing but to throw upon the dung-hill He never received the Holy Ghost and yet he will be inducted into a living and take Pastoral Charge upon him as if he were able to performe the Duty of a Minister and take the Charge of Souls upon him So Ananias will be a husband and Saphira a wife Athalia will be a Queen and Nimrod a King and Abimelech a Judge they are alive to discharge all these duties thus men are alive the Law of God hath not killed their hearts pulled down their spirits it hath not made it appear unto them what wretched cursed creatures they are This is the second thing wherein this livelynesse consists Thirdly This livelynesse consists in a presumptuous hope he conceives that he is justified before God and that God will not damn him but forgive him his sins There is nothing can make a mans heart more full of life then to think that he is righteous before God and that God will not impute his sins unto him there is nothing can make a man more alive then this If they think they are justified before God they have then a lively hope 1 Pet. 1. 3. blessed be God saith the Apostle even the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again to a lively hope by the Resurrection of Christ from the dead So these men have a hope that makes them lively and full of life as a poor man that hath some grounded hope of an Earthly inheritance it makes the heart lively Poverty deads the heart he that hath nothing to maintain himself and those that belongs unto him it deads his heart but if he hath some hopes of an hundred pound a year and his hope is grounded if he hath sure hope of it and he makes no doubt of it it makes his heart full of life so when a man doth believe that he is in a good case that he is delivered from death that he is in the estate of grace when he hath some probability that God hath justified him from sin this breeds an hope in him of an eternal Inheritance and this hope the consideration of it makes the soul full of life There is nothing can make a man more lively then a hope that he is justified before God and that God will not impute his sins unto him Now when a carnal man conceives he is righteous before God and that God will forgive him his iniquities that God will not damn him nor count him a dead a damned man so long as a man doth imagin this he must needs be a lively man he is alive in his own apprehension nay all the delights in the world cannot make a man so ful of life as this hope It is not mens following their pleasure that makes their hearts so full of life as to have hope that the Lord doth not account them dead men that they are justified men and righteous men that they have salvation to shew for heaven and Eternall happinesse to shew for that they shall go to heaven But if now the Law were charged upon a man if he knew that he were a dead man a damned man it would pluck down his spirits and make his spirits dead for all his pleasures It is the conceit that men are justified that makes them so full of life so long as the Law doth not come home to a man and point him out in his colours and make it appear to him that he lyeth under the wrath of Almighty God that the Lord doth account him an abominable wretched creature so long as he doth not apprehend this especially if he have any good gifts and parts and qualities and moral obedience to the Law doing good duties and a general laying hold upon the promises and a hope they belong to him this makes him alive Phil. 3. 9. Paul when he was a Pharisee and did Moral Duties and performed Moral Obedience to the Law of God he thought he had righteousnesse of his own he calls it there his own righteousnesse he so apprehended of himself now this is that which makes men alive when they conceive that they have some Religion and some Grace You shall have many men and women that hate the Servants of God and yet think they are godly men and have Grace and
his Power and the strictnesse of his Justice against Sin if we did remember our Death and what account we are to make before him this would be a great help to keep us from sin now if we would remember this a special way to help us is to watch as Acts 20. 31. Watch and remember saith the Apostle he being desirous that they should remember the admonitions and exhortations which he had propounded he layes down this as a special means to help them hereunto to watch So we are to be watchful that we may be sober in eating and drinking and all lawful things for how suddenly do distempers break in upon us unlesse a man look to himself now watchfulnesse is an excellent help to Sobriety 1 Thess 5. 6. Let us watch and be sober We had need to watch whatsoever we go about that we may be sober in it whatsoever wordly businesse we go about in our Callings we had need to have this watchfulnesse that we be not over-whelmed and over head and ears in the world that we may not be intemperate in our eating and drinking that we may not give our selves too much liberty and freedom in talking and discoursing of the things here below so we are bound to keep our garments that our nakednesse may not be seen that the sins that are up and down in the world do not defile them that the temptations and alurements and occasions we meet withal and the examples of the times and such like do not take away our righteousnesse from us now watchfulnesse is an help hereunto as we may see Rev. 16. 15. the text saith Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments So that watchfulnesse is an excellent help for a further act to be done when a man hath some duty or other to be done which the Lord requires should be done with care and diligence watchfulnesse is a help thereunto as Hab. 2. 1. the Prophet knowing there was some Prophecy to be bestowed upon them the Prophet laboured to be in a fit case to receive it and that he might so be I will watch saith he in a word watchfulnesse is an intentive consideratenesse of the heart when a man doth consider how he is to do every thing lest he be surprised either by Satan or the world or by his own subtil flesh when a man is considerative and takes heed to himself to his thoughts and his words and all his actions as our Saviour saith Take heed Watch and Pray Mark 13. 33. When he would describe watchfulnesse what it is he sets another phrase by it to open it to us take heed watch and pray There is a kind of heedlessenesse that is apt to cleave to the heart whereby the heart is carelesse what snares are before it now watchfulnesse doth take off this and maketh a man to take more heed in whatsoever he doth so that there can be no opportunity of doing good but he takes it no good motion is suggested but he lyeth at catch to receive it for this is watchfulnesse Prov. 8. 33. Blessed is the man that heareth me watching daily at my gates here you may see watchfulness is expressed when a man comes into the presence of Christ waiting to hear whatsoever shall come from Christ and there is nothing that drops from the Minister that concerns him but he is ready to receive it when a man waits to be ready to obey whatsoever commandment the Lord delivers and to take heed to avoid whatsoever the Lord forbids This is watchfulness Now the second thing is what we must watch I Answer We must watch our selves and all the duties of Religion and time First we must watch over our selves Ponder thy pathes saith the Wise man Prov. 4. 26. as who should say Look to thy self take heed to every step that it be ordered aright How soon may a man be turned out of the way How soon was David carried away into those two great sins of Murther and Adultery How soon was Peter put besids his Resolution in the high Priests Hall for want of watchfulness If he had watched and remembred our Saviours item he had never denied his Master A man is marvellous ready to be carried away therefore we must watch our selves First And in particular we must watch our own thoughts naturally all our thoughts are idle and unprofitable our minds are apt to spend themselves upon that which will do us no good we had need therefore to watch over our thoughts Deut. 15. 9. Beware saith the text that there be not an evil thought in thy heart Take heed that vain thoughts come not into thy mind idle thoughts or wordly thoughts will dead us and dull us to the service of God and poyson the heart and no good thing can dwell in us if we do not look unto our thoughts the eyes of the Lord are upon our thoughts therefore watch over thy thoughts Secondly We should watch over the Heart it self The heart is the very spring there be the very issues of Life and Death the actions flow from thence therefore Prov. 4. 23. the wiseman saith Keep thy heart with all keeping as who should say Thy heart is deceitful and desperate it will make thee believe thou art going to heaven when it leads thee to hell if thou be never so well affected for a time this heart will fly off it is naturally so naught and reprobate to what is good Therefore keep thy heart with all diligence Thirdly Watch over thy Words Psal 141. 3. Set a watch O Lord before the door of my lips We must watch our lips and have a care that our words be agreeable to Gods Word and seasoned with salt and that we shun all manner of communication that doth not minister grace to the hearers we must take heed lest idle words proceed out of our mouths for which we must give an account at the day of Judgement how many times do such words proceed out of our mouths that we would give a world to recal again only because we do not watch over our words that they may be such as may tend to edifying and expresse the grace that is within Fourthly Again we should watch over our Senses we should make a covenant with our eyes as Job speaks chap. 31. 1. not to look upon a maid when our eyes are looking up and down though they be not caught with adultery or such grosssins yet there is danger to be caught one vvay or other for when a man looks upon the objects of the world as good and the like how ready is his mind to be carryed after it men are led by their eyes they carry the mind and heart with them therefore we should have a care that whatsoever comes to our eyes we make a good use of Fiftly Again we should set a watch before our Ears we should take heed what we hear when we come in company left we