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
and seeking help The condemned prisoner is not sleeping or fooling at the Bar. Dionysius his Flatterer had little mind of his Musick seeing the naked sword hang by an hair over his empty head neither would a poor sinner if he were enlightned to see his guilt and danger so commonly and senselesly trifle before God when his matter is debating and terms of life or death proposing Alas there is no hope of your cure in this till your fundamental disease be healed your whole life is a long distraction from the true end and main business of life and therefore it stands you upon if ever you would perform a pleasing duty unto God to get grace whereby you may serve God acceptably for without that you cannot do it And to counterballance that corruption of Nature in you you that have some sanctification must get more This sweet wood cast into that bitter water will by degrees render it more wholesome The more sanctification the more you will be mortified to the world and all the business and vanity thereof and then its thoughts and cares will not rush in with that violence upon you but stay to speak with you at your better leisure or if they be invading the heart you will have more vigour of grace to expel them and more repentance for them you will be more lively and spiritual and fervent in Religious duties and so less room for these wandrings for he that 's hot in his business prevents the assault of the most importunate diversions and a lively serious Christian runs on his errand like Elisha's Servant 2 King 4.29 If thou meet any man salute him not and if any salute thee answer him not again and Satan cannot fasten discourse on such a man yea and generally the more holy the heart is the fewer of these wandring thoughts forasmuch as sanctity being his frame and element heterogeneous by thoughts do put him out of his temper and so displease him and cause some smart to the soul and the sin that really molests a man will hardly ever prevail over him and finally the more holiness you attain the more afraid will you be to displease God For to be amended with a little cross to be affected with a little mercy and to be afraid of a little sin are certain arguments of a great deal of grace And therefore an holy Christian is more troubled at a vain thought in a duty than a sleight Christian is at the total neglect of a Duty It follows therefore that all means be used and improved to the utmost for the increasing of the grace of God in your hearts there being as much duty to grow in grace as to get it and no greater argument of sincerity than endeavours to grow better Turn therefore those many thoughts you spend about the truth of your grace into all possible care to advance and increase it so will you best clear your doubts and in particular clear your distractions SECT III. THe third Cause of distractions in the Service of God is unpreparedness unto it Iob 11.13 If thou prepare thine heart and stretch out thine hands to hins If iniquity be in thy hand put it far away Then shalt thou be stedfast First prepare the heart then stretch out the hands He that keeps not his foot when he goes into the house or service of God a thousand to one he stumbles and offers but the sacrifice of fools He that 's unfitted for any work must needs be unfixed in it As holy Mr. Dod used to say of Afflictions when we are prepared for them they are like a sword that only strikes upon our Armour but when we be unprepared they be like a sword striking on our bare skin Even so when the heart is well fixed and prepared for the Lord's service an impertinent thought or suggestion falls on our Armour but when we come unprepared it meets with our very hearts and runs away with them If a man chop into a Prince's presence undress'd unbrush'd or without his band you may easily imagine how when he is aware of the feathers or dirt up and down he is distracted so is the Soul wofully carried off when approaching to God the follies of sin and vanities of the world disfigure and divert it from a close converse with God and therefore a serious Christian doth not only pray and watch in prayer but watcheth unto prayer We so eat our meat says Tertullian of their primitive Supping as remembring we must go pray before we go to bed And here I shall answer a necessary Question viz. Q. What kind of Preparation is necessary before our ordinary duties of Worship Answ. 1. The light of nature teacheth us to prepare for every weighty action Approaching to the Lord of Heaven and Earth is such Who teaches the Client to consider his case when he comes to state it to his Advocate or the Husband-man to prepare himself for his tillage or the poor suitor to weigh his request that he makes to a Prince Why the light of nature teacheth this and the light of Scripture distinguisheth an upright man from an hypocrite hereby 2 Chron. 19.3 There are good things in thee in that thou hast prepared thine heart to seek God there was Iehoshaphat Again 2 Chron. 12.14 Rehoboam did evil because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord. He sought God its likely as many will do but he cared not how he did it and so though he did a good thing yet saith the Scripture He did evil Answ. 2. Most certainly the Lord is a great God who can raise or ruine thee in a moment and whom the Angels approach not without a profound respect and so likewise Duties of Worship are great and weighty Duties wherein you transact for a Kingdom and plead or hear the cause that is for life or death You drink a cup that will either mend or end you and who is sufficient for these things And it is manifest that we are naturally unprepared and to every good work reprobate The positure of our hearts is inverted and now they are open downwards and shut towards Heaven all which if you lay together it must needs follow that some preparation is necessary even for the ordinary duties of God's Worship Answ. 3. The hearts of men are of a different temper and so are their occasions the hearts of some are always in heaven or else within a Call they are as the Apostle speaks Tit. 3.1 Ready to every good work When a duty of Piety is offered they are ready when an object of charity is proposed they are ready to distribute And this present Spirit is a great blessing when Holiness is so rooted and framed upon the heart that God's Worship is their Element the hearts of others through custom and supine negligence abide at great distance from God no little ado will raise them nor will they be fetch'd in with many calls like a great
1.2 His delight is in the Law of the Lord and then it follows in that Law doth he meditate day and night When prayer is your delight and not your task then you will dwell therein with complacence Psal. 43.4 Then will I go unto the altar of God unto God my exceeding joy Children are subject to look off their books because they delight not in them but when they are playing they do hoc agere But now when thy love is cool and weak thou lovest Christ and that 's all alass there 's little heart to him the soul comes heavily to him and having little delight and heavenly complacence in him is most easily drawn off with any distraction for where the treasure is there will the heart be also where God and Christ are a man's treasure his heart is with them He wakes and travels and cares but his heart is with them he runs through his business with all the haste that may stand with good speed that he may retreat to his heart which he left with God and then holy duties are the rest of his soul. And where the world or sin are a mans treasure his heart is with them also he reads and hears and prays but his heart is away the least noise business or whisper can fetch him away alas his love is cool and a drop of water will quench a spark of fire The Remedies of this weakness of love to Christ and his Ordinances are 1. Know him better and meditate more on his real excellencies Ignoti nulla cupido Cant. 5.9 What is thy Beloved more than another beloved Why ver 16. His mouth is most sweet yea he is altogether lovely or as the Heb. all of him is delights And then mark the reply chap. 6.1 We will seek him with thee The pure and orient Sun is no more than a glow-worm to the blind nor the fairest face than a Skeleton It is the eye that must affect the heart Come then open the eye of Faith and gaze on this heavenly object sit down and meditate who and what he is open but the sacred Cabinet of his Attributes every box full of most sweet perfumes each of his offices pregnant with true and transcendent comfort His actions his passion his words his works and above all his heart as full of Heaven as ever it can hold and full for thee the breast full running into the open mouth of faith the Fountain opened for thy sins and uncleanness The treasures of his grace free for thy supplies what heart can freez under such discoveries Nay stay and look at him on the cross calling thee arms stretched out to embrace thee heart opened to let thee in and deny him thy love if thou can And if once your hearts be inflamed with his love no small businesses shall keep you from his presence nor distract you in it 2. Get communion with Christ in his Ordinances As he said on another occasion Ioh. 4.10 If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is thou wouldest have asked and he would have given thee living water So I say if thou knewest what communion is with Christ thou wouldest ask after prayer and long for such opportunities Why what is communion with Christ Why for thy spirit to flie up into heaven among the celestial spirits and for Christ's Spirit to descend into thy heart And this makes an heaven upon earth 't is inexperience in this that makes us cool to Christ and holy duties strangeness makes company burthensome A King and a beggar a scholar and a clown cannot make company of one another So when there is a distance between God and the soul there is little longing for his Ordinance nor true delight in it Communion with Christ increases love and love to him promotes communion Cant. 8.1 O that thou wert my brother saith the Spouse the son of my mother there 's ardent love when I should find thee without I would kiss thee there 's communion yet should I not be despised If you did but see his power and glory your soul would be filled as with marrow and fatness and your mouth would praise him with joyful lips Psal. 63.2 5. One beam of his holiness love or mercy would so charm your hearts that you would be loth to part and long to meet again for how can it choose but transport a finite heart to see and feel the sweetest properties of the infinite God displayed before and graven on it When Moses was in near communion with God on the Mount no thinking of meat no cares about his tents below but there he is swallowed up and is content to melt in that Sun of light and heat and come down no more easie to count his distractions in the Mount O who can see the face of God and not be ravished therewithâ— who can behold the beauty of the Lord and not chuse to dwell in his presence all the days of a mans life 'T is communion with Christ Iesus that will warm your love to him and when the King brings you into his chambers you will be glad and rejoyce in him you will remember his love more than wine 3. Believe verily that you can be no where better no where so well as in an Ordinance this will content and please your minds in the Lord's service when you can be no where better for what company can be better than God's The chiefest Good must needs afford the choicest company who can impart such rare delights and sweet content as he can and where doth he communicate himself as in an Ordinance Say the world knocks at door and would have thee away can vanity entertain you like felicity can the world produce higher pleasures than he that made it Would sin come in and steal your hearts away can the chiefest evil create thee sweeter entertainment than the chiefest Good No no you are best where you are If the world could find you such another Deity somewhat might be yielded or give you security like God of the reality satisfaction and duration of its toys quarter-contents but alas there 's no shew for this you are best where you are I am conversing with the Lord of heaven and earth who can reward or ruin me in a moment I am sucking at the breast of the chiefest Good I am in the next employment to heaven in a corner of heaven I cannot look off yonder lovely One I will not leave I must not come down And this experience would enamour you of an Ordinance and deliver you from diversions in it you will sit down under his shadow with great delight when his fruit is sweet to your taste SECT VII THe seventh cause of wandring of the thoughts in the worship of God is want of watchfulness Matth. 26.41 Watch and pray are most necessary companions else shall we fall into temptation In those sad times of plague the faithful Guard stands at the City gates
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
Yea he often approaches nearer and works immediately upon the Fancy upon which he can imprint a thousand notions most strange and incoherent many times to steal the heart from God for we are not ignorant the more is our sorrow of his devices Hence we have him Iob 1.6 When the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord coming also among them And being questioned tells his business is to go to and fro in the earth and to walk up and down in it as if he walked only out of curiosity or for some charitable end But as our Lord Iesus went up and down doing good this was his work from morning to night so the Devil walks up and down doing evil He is in every pue at every elbow throwing in his fire-balls and enticing poor souls to commit folly with him and when God is treating with the soul about Heaven and Hell then comes He and thrusts the World between or some vanity therein to break the treaty and spoil that sacred conference so that of all roads no road is so full of thieves as the road to Heaven And though to give the Devil but his due we can make shift to be bad enough in an Ordinance without him yet he waits there no doubt to make us worse what else should bring thoughts then into our head that have never come there in a month or year before who else should suggest such horrid atheistical thoughts when we are pinch'd with convictions and move us to question all when any thing pursues us Ephes. 6.12 We wrestle against spiritual wickedness in heavenly things or employments The devil is wickedness in the abstract when we are about heavenly work Never did the crafty Cheat watch and spie how to defraud and slur the innocent Merchant while he is receiving his cash as Satan lies at catch in the Worship of God to purloin from us the true treasure that should make the soul rich Especially that Prayer or Chapter or Sermon that should do thee most good or most destroy his Kingdom will he be most busie in When the High Priest was interceding for the poor Church then Satan stood at his right hand to resist him hence our solemnest Duties often have the saddest Distractions and such as have no coherence nor reason for them but arrows fiery darts shot out of the Devils own quiver What a sort of them have I in the very writing hereof and what long parenthesis between every sentence and you perhaps will not want while you are reading yea it may be as the body when the humours are stirred by Physick is worse so he will be busiest to divert and trouble your hearts while the cure is working But when your heart is prepared before and watchful in your Duty though yours be the sorrow that you have the womb that bare them yet his will be the guilt because he is the father that begets them The Remedy against Satan's distracting us in God's Worship is that of Christ's own prescribing Matth. 26.41 Watch and Pray lest ye enter into temptation Stand upon your guard give no heed to his suggestions As you run to the water with the bucket to quench a spark of fire in the thatch so drop a tear of contrition upon this spark of temptation Treat not with these thoughts but dismiss them unregarded and by some short ejaculation call in thy friend to countermine thine enemy And still watch and pray And pray and watch and always remember that we have as much need of the strength of Christ for assistance as the merit of Christ for acceptance in every duty And be sure to cast out his injections with disdain and hatred Nam superbus est spiritus non patitur contemptum He is a very proud piece and cannot endure contempt The stronger is your resistance the longer will he stay away and the more you hate his motions the less mind he 'l have to offer them The devil is like that Sanballat Nehem. 6.2 c. that sent to Nehemia who was busie in the work of the Lord And I saith Nehemia sent messengers unto them saying I am doing a great work so that I cannot come down why should the work cease whilst I leave it and come down to you Yet they sent messengers unto me four times after this sort and I answered them after the same manner Come says Satan let 's meet and confer here 's a notion and here 's a business you must needs discuss this Nay say thou I am doing a great work for Eternity As that gallant Painter being demanded a reason of his exact curiosity in his work answered Pingo eternitati I paint to last for eternity So I am doing a work for eternity I am pleading the cause that runs for life or death so that I cannot hearken to thee Why should my great work cease while I leave it and come down Alas this business will go no farther than it 's lifted at I am rowing upon a River if I trifle or nod a little I go down again I have a business on the wheel that cannot be leâ—t a minute If I look away my iron burns and I suffer loss Yet he 'l send messengers over and over again as Sanballat did but still answer them after the same manner Discourage him and break his heart with thine obstinate resolution Resist the devil and he will flee from you SECT X. THE Tenth Cause of Distractions in our Lords service is Vain thoughts at other times For 1. These displease and disengage the spirit of God without whose help these Infirmities will crowd in upon us If you should lodge your noble friend whom Love only moves to visit you in the same room with a nasty beggar may not he take it for a plain affront and refuse to come near or help you in your need even so the holy Ghost your Noblest Friend will take it ill to be pack't into a room with base and beggarly thoughts and may justly deny that presence and assistance which we have need of and without Gods spirit helping us we cannot pray as we ought nor keep out Distractions with all our skill Rom. 8.26 The spirit helpeth our infirmities and these wandrings are some of those infirmities which the spirit must help us about yea and will if he be not disobliged but it is far from likely that we should have that sacred Spirit at our beck in Duty whom we have distasted all the day long How justly may He say as it is Jer. 11.15 What hath my beloved to do in my house or as the Margent what is to my beloved in my house seeing she hath wrought lewdness with many As if he should say I know not what to do with thee in my house or what thou hast to do with me having roved so extreamly with thy heart from me and been lewd with many Remember it is the Holy Ghost who hates
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
him And remember that to grief the Spirit oft is the way to quench the Spirit and to quench the Spirit oft is the way to do despite to the Spirit That is a rare expression Gal. 5.25 If ye live in the Spirit let us also walk in the Spirit how far is this phrase from vulgar apprehension or feeling To live and walk by the conduct and quickening of the Holy Ghost this is the life of a Saint And then he that walks in the Spirit prays also in the Spirit and watches thereunto Ephes. 6.18 Whereby those airy darts of the Devil that would conquer the strength of a man are crush'd and chas'd away by the strength of a God SECT IV. IV. BElieve the Presence of God The eye of the Master makes the Scholar busie If his eye be off the Scholar the Scholar's eye is off his book Psal. 16.8 I have set the Lord alwaies before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved Else your hearts will be moved and removed too upon every motion And therefore Faith which doth realize invisible things and presentiate an invisible God is of great use in every holy duty Heb. 11.6 He that cometh to God must believe that God is He must as fully believe that God is present as if he were visible that thou art incompassed and involved in the presence of God If thou go forward he is there if backward thou mayest perceive him on the left hand there he doth work though thou canst not behold him he hides himself on the right hand that thou canst not see him Yet he knoweth the way that thou takest Job 23 9 10. This his common presence but then in an Ordinance there he is in the midst of his people there he looks over Heaven and Earth as nothing and to this man looks he that 's poor and contrite and trembles at his Word and therefore when you pray you must not only speak as speaking of God but to God It 's sleighting a Prince when we deliver a Petition and look another way we bid our children look at us when they speak to us and so should we at God who is not far from every one of us in his Ordinances There he is with his Host about him and though 't is above us to determine whether his Angels are imployed to conduct his Word to us or our Prayers to him yet it s certain that they attend the great Iehovah and never more willing than in an Ordinance being transported with joy at a sinners conversion and most pleasantly feasting on our poenitential tears It 's true God is alwaies and every where with thee with those more common Attributes of Immensity Power and Providence but in his Worship there he is also present by his grace mercy holiness and efficacy His common presence may be compared to the Sun in a cloudy day it is in the Sky we have great benefit by it we should die without it but his special Ordinance Presence is like the Sun breaking out of a cloud in a Summers morning that discovers atomes warms our bodies and refresheth our spirits Even so the common presence of God upholds the world in him we live move and have our Being and the belief that God is every where should perswade us to sin no where But now the special presence of God in his Worship that like the Sun breaking out inlightens the mind warms the heart and melts the most rocky soul. Hereby God doth as it were shine directly upon us so that to trifle or sin before him is a crime intolerable The name of every place where God is rightly worshipped is Iehovah Shammah the Lord is there Thy closet the Lord is there between thy chair and thee and canst thou shift from him thy bed-chamber the Lord is there between thy bed-side and thee and canst thou turn from him by the fire-side with thy family the name of that place is Iehovah Shammah and wilâ— thou sleep In the Assembly the Lord is there and what are all the Gallants there in comparison of him O therefore hear and look at God and pray and look at God meditate and look at God sing Psalms and still look at God It was Hagar's saying Gen. 16.13 Have I also here looked after him that seeth me And she called the Name of the Lord that spake to her Thou God seest me O call the Name of the Lord that speaks to thee and the Lord to whom thou speakest Thou God seest me Keep thy eye upon him as he keeps his eye upon thee find a fairer object and gaze and spare not but while there is none in Heaven or Earth desirable like him let nothing in Heaven or Earth distract thee from him The lively sense of thisâ— will charm the heart exceedingly and we steal from duty because we see no One there It 's said Prov. 20.8 A King that sitteth in the Throne of Iudgement scattereth away all evil with his eyes that is his very countenance should read such a Lecture of Justice Temperance Chastity and Piety that every spectator should fear to do otherwise O then how should the presence of God so inchant the soul with that holiness goodness and sweetness therein that not one thought could be spared from so lovely an object The full and clear vision and fruition of this presence of God doth so eternally ravish and content the soul in Heaven that they would not look off the face of God for a thousand worlds no though all the Kings of the Earth in their greatest triumph should pass by Heaven gates and the Earth's utmost glory with them A glorified soul is so full of the presence of God that it would not spare one minut's look to see it all It is said of one Theodorus a Martyr that in all his tortures he smiled and being askt his reason answered that he saw a glorious youth wiping the sweat off his face whereby he was infinitely refreshed If thou couldest but see by the eye of Faith the blessed face of God smiling on thee and with the handkerchief of his love wiping thy sweat and tears away thy heart would be glad and thy glory rejoyce and thou wouldst say Lord it 's good yea it 's best for me to be here Go not willingly from him without a sight of him Moses had few distractions when he saw God face to face The actual faith of a Saint ingages the actual presence of God Drexelius tells us of a vision of an holy man and behold in the Temple an Angel at every man's elbow that was at prayer He that prayed with malice in his heart his Angel wrote his petitions in Gall he that prayed coldly his prayers were written in the water he that prayed with distractions his suits were written in sand and he that prayed in faith his Angel wrote his petitions in Letters of Gold The moral whereof at least is good