admit a division It was the commendation of David Josiah Jehosophat and Hezekiah in the old Testament that they sought the Lord with all their heart and it is Christs commandement in the new Testament that we love him with all our Heart for to love God with all the Heart is in effect as much as to give him the Heart but not the whole heart there is something more in the heart then Love for Discretion Perception Consideration and Meditation are affirmed of the Heart And all these are acts of the understanding and God is said to blesse Solomon to give him an understanding heart 1. K. 3. 12. the Heart is said to be the seat ofwisdom so that God in calling for the heart requires the understanding to know him as well as the affections to love him and he hath not the whole heart except he have both I will not dispute whether of the two is more usefull for us or acceptable to him hee requires both we can lack neither nor can the one well subsist without the other and the heart is not perfect where either is wanting Knowledge begetteth Love Love encreaseth knowledge if knowledge preceed not it is a naturall instinct not Love for how can we love God before wee know him It is a true Rule Invisa diligere possumus incognit a nequaquam Aug. apud Amb. de spiera ser 15. ignoti nulla cupido no knowledge no love It is the knowledge of the worth of the object of our love that spurres on the affections the judgement of the understanding goes before and there followeth the election of the will that discernes this chooses the understanding by discourse examines the object and having found it utile jucundum right and good commends it to the will which readily embraceth it under those termes 1. Jo. 4. 7. and so the better wee know God the more we love him and the more we love him the better we know him Love and be wise then the Apostle makes use of one word to signifie both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Col. 3. 2. by this manner of speech giving us to understand that our love to God must not be an irregular passion but a well ordered affection for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from whence the word commeth signifieth the mind or understanding to teach us that our love must not be directly bolted out from the will but must passe by the understanding and have there allowance before it break forth therefore first you must labor to know God and that knowledge will reforme your love love him entirely and that love will inform your knowledge for knowledge without love is vaine knowledge 1 Cor. 8. 2. puffeth up it is love that edifieth had a man all knowledge if he have not love it is nothing 1 Cor. 13. 2 the holy Scripture advanceth it above its fellowes gives the preheminence to it determins all in it as the perfection of all vertues and it is love that moves them all to their proper Acts that maketh faith believe hope rely patience endure temperance abstaine humility submit Yea in love there are two passions desire and feare A desire to please God in all things A feare to offend him in any thing The feare to offend God begets an awfull reverence to his dreadfull name The desire to please him incites to a cheerfull obedience of his heavenly will and the triall of obedience is the performance of our duty the duty here enjoyned is Give God that gives all requires something not by way of requitall or compensation for so man hath nothing to render him for all his benefits but by way of thankfulnesse or gratulation and so it is fit very fit that some present be tendered and given to him that hath given all to us and loe what it is the heart that must be given My Sonne give me thine heart And shall we then call this donum and not debitum our free gift and not our bounden duty Is it not he that hath made us and not we our selves and so he may challenge our hearts as his owne jure creationis by the right of creation as the maker of them It is he that hath redeemed and bought us at a deare rate the life of his Sonne pretio empti estis magno saith St Paul and thus the heart it his jure redemptionis by right of purchase as the Saviour and redeemer of it Besides in Baptisme we devoted ourselves wholy to him and so jure pacti by right of sale or covenant the heart is his and yet he saith give as if it were ours whereas he may justly take it as his owne may but will not he that made thee without thee will not save thee without thee and though Salvation be the free gift of God and a worke of grace yet there must concurre the act of mans will who if he would be saved must worke out his owne Salvation with feare and trembling It is certaine God can by violence take the heart of man but he will have it freely given drawing by faire meanes the will of Qui fecit te sine te nō salvabit te sine te Aust the flesh into conformity to the law of the spirit But doth not he who here saith give in the 4 chapter of this book verse twenty three say keepe thy heart with all dilligence and how can a man do both give and keepe for by a gift there is transitus rei ad alium a thing is made over to another And yet in temporall things we know the same thing may be both given and kept when a man makes over his right to another retayning the use to himselfe for a time but God in this case wil admit of no such reservation nor wil he be content to accept of the heart in reversion he will have it in present the very actuall and reall possession and when once Hieroms trans the heart by faith and obedience is consecrated to God he bids keep it not from him but for him the word is serva * save it for him sell it not to another omni custodia serva with all manner of keepe with watching fasting praying with watching that Sathan with his tentations ensnare it not with fasting that the flesh with it's lusts entangle it not with praying that the world with it's cares distract it not and thus to keep it is absolutely to give it Or if thou wilt not absolutely give it yet da mutuò lend it God bring it to his house and let him have the use of it here It may be the pleasures of Gods house may so affect thine heart that what at first thou didst barely lend afterward thou wilt most cherefully give And even present thy selfe before thy heavenly Plautus in Tri. father with the sonne in the comedy pater adsum impera quod vis neque tibi ero in mora Father command me what thou wilt loe
a most beautifull Chappell a continuall and visible memento to put you in mind of your daily dutie to the God of heaven And let it not be thought presumption in me that to these I have added this as a helpe to your Devotion and to this mine uncessant prayers for the prospering of your good beginnings And for the welfare and everlasting happinesse of your selfe your vertuous good Lady and whole familie shall never be wanting the hearty desires of Your Worships in the service of CHRIST sincerely devoted JAMES BARKER THE CHRISTIAN SACRIFICE PROVERBS 23. 26. My Sonne give me thine heart THe text is briefe the words few but full * Stilo brevis doctrina uberior c Sal. in Ep. Euch. episscopo for many words need not amongst friends friends in that neer Relation as Father and Sonne the title of Father imports Pauca sunt quae mandat sed salutaria c. Tim. ad ecclesiam cath Authoritie the name of Sonne Obedience and where there is Authoritie and Veleitie Power to command and will to Obey it is but command and it is done but this is an intreatie no command and it cannot be that a father who hath power to command should entreat a Sonne and be said nay this is the easiest request that can be made My Sonne give me thine heart and yet the hardest suite that can be granted for he that gives his Heart gives himselfe and all hee * Aq. prima secundae q. 17. art 9. arg 1. Idem prima secundae q. 38. art 5. resp 3. hath And now whilst God calls for the heart let me intreat the eare your patience and attention that what I shall speak passing from the eare to the heart may set it in a right temper to God-ward may fit and dispose it for such a sacrifice as God accepteth all other Sacrifices without Non bove mactato Caelestia numin a gaudent Ovid. Ep. 19. this are in vaine there is none Gods delight but the heart that he craves My sonne give me thine Heart The words are Salomons and Salomon here speakes not in his owne name but in Gods God by him calls us sonnes and he for God requires our Hearts It is God that confers the Dignitie and God that requires the Dutie and he doth it in the sweetest termes of Relation he comes in love and speaks in the language of a Father My sonne give me thine heart My Sonne saith God and in saying so he teacheth us what we should say for God in suing to us calling us his Sonnes teacheth us in praying to him to call him Our Father and this should serve as a common Rule to all that none in any case dare to approach into Gods presence or mention him without the Addition of his just Titles Reverence and Humilitie best pleases him and becomes us In some cases he admittes Boldnesse in any case detestes Rudenesse at the least aford him what he vouchsafeth us titles of Respect seeing wee are taught to call him Our Father because he calleth us his sonnes My sonne saith God here is his Interest Give me thy heart there is his Request And hard it were that a father should not speed when he entreats his Sonne whatsoever his suit be the Request is reasonable and unreasonable yea more unnaturall were that Sonne to denie that Father any thing to whom he owes all Indeed he were too facile that would entrust his Heart with every one It uses not to be communicated appropriated for the most part to some one or two and those dearest friends for carefull a man is to whom he imparts his heart but from a Father such a one as God nothing should bee with-held that he would have thou must render up when he requests My Sonne give me thine heart This is Gods suite to Man and he preferres his suite by way of Petition and to the Petition he addes a Preface The Preface is a gentle compellation My sonne the Tenour of the Petition Give me thine heart And yet to call this a Petition is not so kindly a Terme a Father to petition his Son Is it not a Precept rather jubet non orat pater the stile of a father is Imperative not optative and the Father that speakes here is in the same moode Biddes but Beseeches too The law that was imperative only presented God unto us as a Lord the Gospel is more mild gentle reveals him as a father when our Lord became our Father then was the rigour turned into Love and in love there is a majestie as well as sweetnesse which not only allures but awes us If still therefore wee call this a Petition it derogates nothing from Gods Authoritie his Petition hath the force of a precept and acquaints us with our dutie as well as his desire call it then still a Petition or what else you will please to call it you shall find it hath a double aspect to God and to Man As it Relates to God it points out his love and Authoritie His Love in owning us for his Sonnes His Authoritie in vouchsafing to become Our Father As it Relates to man it points out his Dignitie his Dutie His Dignitie to be the Sonne of God His Dutie to do what becomes Gods Sonne His Love hath exalted us to the dignity of Sons His Authoritie calles for the Dutie of Sonnes And no share shall we have in the Dignitie except we performe the Dutie our Dutie it is to give God our hearts and then he will give us the Dignitie to become his Sonnes First My Sonne It had not beene much to be called Sonne had not God vouchsafed to become the Father Sonne is but an usuall and ordinary complement of a superior to his inferior Sonne saith Abraham to Dives in Hell But My Sonne comes from the bowels of a Father and a title of great Dignitie it is when God speaks it My Sonne saith God and in saying so he expresses his love and commends our Dignitie Saint John would have all to note this and therefore markes it out with an Ecce 1. John 3. 1. Behold what manner of love the father hath bestowed on us that we should be called the sonnes of God It is his love his free and unmerited love that hath thus exalted us It is the Lords doing and it is marveilous in our eyes marveilous indeed for a wretched man to become Gods sonne had it been My servant it had beene honour enough for man the greatest Saints were ambitious of no greater title there is Abraham his Servant and Moses his Servant Psal 105. and David in the 116. Psalme ingeminates the title as if he were delighted with it and tooke pleasure to repeat it O Lord saith he truly I am thy servant thy servant and the Sonne of thine hand-maid nay the blessed Virgin who had the honor to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Mother of God yet her humilitie lookes no higher then a servant ecce
hath no calling to get him one for he that hath no vocation is of no Religion There are in the world viri absque jugo * Anabaptists unruly men who stand upon their lawlesse libertie which they mis-name Christian untamed heyfers whom no pales or walles of law or discipline can keepe within the boundes of the Church or Common-wealth who abhorre that lawfull Authoritie or Christian Charitie should regulate their ill-governed libertie But surely this is no privilege of Gods Sonnes a character it is rather of the sonnes of Belial * Judg. 19. 22. 1. Cor. 7. 21 1. Pet. 2. for Saint Paul in one Epistle and Saint Peter in another teach another lesson thus much in effect that honour reverence obedience and service unto men may well consist with the libertie of the Sonnes of God The freedome Christ purchased for them is not civil from the obedience of the magistrate soveraigne or subordinate nor naturall from those respects and duties which children owe to their parents wives to their husbands c. But spirituall from sinne and Sathan death and hell this and not that is the freedome Christ purchased and Saint Paul fitly called the glorious libertie of the Sonnes of God from which happy libertie no beleever is excluded and unto which the meanest hath as good right as the greatest and be mens qualities and degrees in the world never so different God comprehends all under one common motion of Sonnes nor is it any worldly respect that makes a man ever the more favoured with God for a man to plead his birth breeding wealth wit learning beautie valour is more fit for a Coridon to his Alexes or a Phoebus to his Daphne then a Christian to his God It is not the proper man nor the rich man nor the wittie man nor the valiant man nor the learned man nor the noble man It is not any of these though all these deserve a civil respect that God is taken with his affection pitches on the godly man Psalme 4. 3. The Lord hath chosen to himselfe the man that is godly and now let no man disdaine Gods choyce how meane soever in outward appearance for whom his mercie chooses his love advanceth to the dignitie of his Sonne and whom his love hath advanced to the Dignitie from him his authoritie requires the duty of his Sonne and the duty here expressed is to give God his Heart which is the second part of my text My Sonne give me thine heart If wee be his Sonnes God is our Father there is his authoritie over us And if God be our Father where is his honour there is our duty to him Nobilitas ad virtutem obligat the greater honor God hath done us the greater are our engagements to him and therefore as wee have looked up with comfort to the dignitie so now let us looke downe with care to the dutie of Gods sonnes which is briefly sum'd up in two words Love and Obedience Where Obedience is there is nothing so difficult commanded that will not with diligence be attempted And where Love is there is nothing so pretious demanded that will not with cheerefulnesse be tendred here God tries our Love by our Obedience that he may see how much wee love him by that which we will doe for him And againe he tries the sinceritie of our Obedience by our Love that he may see how much we will doe for him by that which we wil cheerfully give him and as a pledge both of Love and Obedience he requires the heart My Sonne give me thine heart Cor tuum thy heart to God there is the thing required to testifie our Love Da mihi Give mee there is the dutie to be performed to expresse our Obedience The testimony of thy Love to God is thy Heart to God A Heart there is the quid the thing what it is that God requires Thine there is the cujus the proprietie whose it is First the Heart is the thing God calls for and what is that This small piece of flesh that beates in our mortall bodie No that were to require our lives God will have Mercy and not Sacrifice and craves not our life but our Love the Heart is the seate of Love that our heavenly Father requires of us his unworthy Children that we love him And not only our Love but in calling for the heart he calls for our feare and service too for whatsoever the curiositie of some Philosophers have determined to the contrary the heart is the seate of all the affections and passions the Gall Liver and Spleene give the occasion to stirre them up but in the heart they are seated the Heart is the Metropolis of the soule and often taken for the soule with all her faculties Besides the Heart is Omnis hona dispositio corporis reduci dat quodam modo ad cor ficut ad principium corporaliū motionum Aq. 1 2. q. 38. art 5 resp ad 3. arg Vide Aq. 1 2. q. 17. art 9 arg 1. 2. the first mover of all the Externall actions and every member worketh according to the motion inclination and will of the Heart It liveth first and dyeth last and therefore first and last and for all give God the heart for that is all All the faculties of the soule all the members of the body attend the Heart and follow it the Heart goes before and drawes the whole man after it And this is Gods delight the whole man he loves Integrity and in calling for the heart he requires every part thy head to know him thy tongue to confesse him thine eyes to observe him thine eares to attend unto him thy lips to praise him thy hands by good workes to glorifie him thy knees to bow before him and thy feet to stand in his Courts God is not served at all where any part is withheld from him or devoted to any other besides him sincerity and integrity are individuall companions If true devotion lodge in the heart humble reverence will shine in every part So sings David Psal 84. 2. Cor meum caro mea exultaverunt c. My heart inwardly and my flesh outwardly have rejoyced in the living God Thus the whole man must apply it selfe to the worship of God the outward aswell as the inward man by the outward 2 Cor. 4. 16 Oecum in locum man the learned * understand the body the inward man by St. Peter is expounded to be the hidden man of the heart that aswell as this this in private that in publike this with inward and spirituall that with outward and corporall worship In private then and in thine owne Chamber commune with thine owne heart the testimony of Gods spirit and thine own is sufficient But in publik in Gods presence Chamber the Temple it sufficeth not except the Church may see too that all may see and beare witnesse that God is in you of a truth and this cannot be except mens externall
poore of a contrite spirit and trembleth at his word It must be cor humanum thine heart O man Isay 66. 2. And is mans heart so pretious a Jewell that God should become a suitor for it Moses telleth us that Gen. 6 7. God seeth every imagination of mans heart that it is onely evill continually Jeremie saith that the heart is deceitfull above Jer. 17. 19. all things and desperately wicked who can know it Christ hath taught that out of the heart proceed Mat. 15. 19. evill thoughts murthers adulteris c. Shall such a heart be offered unto God or will the searcher of the heart accept of such an offering he is a God of purer eyes then to behold iniquity neither shall any Matth 5. wickednesse dwell with him our Saviour saith the pure in heart shal only see God take the Apostles Jam. 4. 8. counsell therefore and purifie the heart and that it may be purified deal with it as with gold melt it or if thou canst not melt it breake it for a broken and a contrite Ps 51. 17 heart O Lord thou wilt not despise It is you have heard cor hominis the heart of a man that must be offered but not the pharisaicall heart of the proud man full of hypocrisy nor the wanton heart of the lascivious man full of vanity nor the covetous heart of the worldly man full of iniquity nor the hereticall heart of the malitious man full of obstinacy but the contrite and broken heart of the penitent man full of humility ad hunc respiciam saith God to this man will I have regard Esay 66. 2. and to his offering But this tuum in my text looks neerer home and points out the owner here and the owner here is a sonne It is cor filii thine heart my Sonne and a sonnes heart is a loving and dutyfull heart the servant doth his duty aswell as the sonne but he for feare this for love that constrainedly this most willingly his obedience is not mercinary and arises from love not hire as the dog serves his Master pro osse offa for a bone and a bite but as a sonne his Father in reverence and love It is the loving and tender heart of a sonne that is here required thine heart my Sonne And first my son thine heart tuum that is proprium cor thine own in thine own power and in thine owne possession it must be thus thine If lent to vanity thou must recall it if bound to sin thou must release it if sold to Sathan thou must redeem it thine heart must be released from sinne recalled from vanity and Sathan dispossessed and then when it is purged and purified set at liberty and enlarged and so made thine when none other hath any interest in it or can lay any claim unto it but that it is thine own not enthralled to Sathans tentations not intangled in carnall lusts not distracted with worldly cares when it is no more the heart of a sinner but of a sonne then such it is as God would have thine own heart Againe thine heart my Sonne that is cor unicum simplix one single heart for one man hath but one heart Solomon tels us the fool hath none heart Prov. 17. 16. But David the Father of Salomon sets out the wicked with a heart and a heart Psal 12. 2. in Saint Hieroms translation with a double heart in our allowed translation the context tels us whom he meanes he that doth one thing and intendeth another saith one thing but thinketh another this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sent. Theog man the scripture cryes out upon voe duplici cordi nor will God have any thing to do with him the Prophet discovers him Psal 55. 21. by his faire tongue and false heart the words of his mouth are smoother then butter having warre in his heart Judas like he ushers in his treason with a kisse and like to Joab makes a smiling face and a friendly salute the prologue to a mortall stabbe the double hearted man is dangerous and uncertaine for when his mouth speakes safety his heart speakes ruine and there is one that understandes the language of the heart for that any man hath said in his heart that is hath entertained envious and malicious thoughts against the godly trecherous and rebellious thoughts against Church or State he must be answerable to God for these thoughts for even these thoughts come within the compasse of the lawes transgression of Gods law but not of mans mans law punishes onely the notorious Gods law takes notice of the heart And so God Psal 5. 9. knowes though men do not the thoughts of the heart that their inward parts are very wickednes albeit the mouth be muzled that it dare not speak it and the hands bound that they cannot effect it for when he speakes his thought it is ruine to the godly when shall he dye and his name perish Destruction to the Church down with it down with it even to the ground Desolation to the State come and let us make Hierusalem a heape of stones Thus the malicious or double-hearted man like Esay 5 8. Ps 36. 4. Ps 139. 3. the covetous would be alone upon the earth for mischiefe ever delights to be solitary never considering that God is about his bed and about his paths and espieth out all his wayes God understandeth his thoughts afarre off nor is there a word in his tongue but loe O Lord thou knowest it altogether God sees and abhorres to see a false Heart under a faire Simulata sanctitas duplex iniquitas tongue for this with God is a double sinne the Heart is his delight but it is simplex cor a single heart a Heart without guile and hypocrisie the faithfull are called Doves and innocencie and simplicity are the properties of a Dove and yet for protection from injurie for the prevention of evill and preservation of pietie It is best to take our Saviours counsell and joyne to the Doves Matth. 10. 16. heart the Serpents head for harmlesse simplicitie and Christian policy may well stand together for Christian policy is to true Religiō as sugar to fruit keeps preserves the sent taste and often causes that they who distaste them raw and uncompounded sweetly to relish them thus fairely ordered thy heart for God then and although it be Corsapiens let it be simplex a wise and warie but a single harmlesse heart and the good Lord pardon every one that prepareth his heart to seek God the Lord God of his fathers though he be not clensed according to the purification of the Sanctuary 2. Chron. 30. 19. Lastly here is one propertie more of the Heart it must be totum or integrum thy whole Heart like the true mother of 1 King 14. 8. 2 King 23. 25. 2 Chron. 22. 9. 2. Chron. 31. 21. the child his fatherly affection will not