who will swallow a Spider and say there is not so much poyson in this as in a Toad or break his legg and say there is not such danger therein as in breaking the neck even so it is a poor plea to say these peccadillo's trivial things are not like oaths and murders and oppression c. But these are great enough to displease God to bind guilt upon the soul to prepare for greater and bid fair for Hell 2. Something must be answered as namely 1. That though our thoughts are free from the notice of men on Earth or Satan in Hell further than they are imprinted in the body or actions though they are free from the punishment of humane Laws yet are they not free from the eye nor Law nor wrath of God as you heard in divers instances before and particularly in the case of Simon Magus Act. 8.22 And 2. That other Notion is corrupt that nothing is culpable that is involuntary It 's true this doth extenuate a fault but this doth not extinguish it 't is a less fault in that caâ—seâ— but it is a fault for the understanding may be depraved as well as the will and we are really guilty in Adam's sin though we had no previous consent therein It is a fault that we are capable subjects for such sinful injections though we yield not to them for there is something in us that incourages those attempts the Angels met with none of these The will lyes dormant when we are asleep and yet Casuists say there wants no sin even in our dreams for the fancy and the memory may be corrupted as well as the will and therefore it follows these wandring thoughts may be against God's Will though they be besides our own And 3. For our accustomedness to greater sins and frequency in those that signifies little herein for crimes do not excuse faults The Stars are the same in the firmament all day though while the Sun shines they appear not when the Sun is retired they will shew themselves while your greater staring sins appear these are nothing but if ever a night of terrour come upon you then each of these will shine in its proper guilt in the eye of conscience And then 4. The commonness of them adds to their sinfulness though it take from your sense thereof If your neighbour for a time break over your hedge and tread your corn the matter is soon put up 't is but a trespass by chance but if he daily use it and make it his way you think it 's intolerable So if a wandring thought stole in once a week it were a less offence but if they will transgress and make a way over God's ground spoil his Garden often in every day this makes the sin the greater though the sense of it be the less 3. Something must be advised for cure And that is 1. A true knowledge and deep sense of the nature of sin whereby you will see that no sin can be little that there is more evil in the least sin in a vain thought than in all the world besides Hence saith God Ier. 6.19 Behold I will bring evil upon this people even the fruit of their thoughts All the possible sorrows that can tear the mind and soul all the sickness and sores that can be inflicted on every part of the body all the mischiefs that can sink thy name and estate put them all together amount not to that real evil that is in the least sin For it is an offence to God displeasing him whom the Angels study to please and would not offend for ten thousand worlds Psal. 51.4 Against thee thee only have I sinned The greatest evil in sin is that 't is against God by it you provoke the highest Majesty displease the sweetest Nature and offend your chiefest Friend And if I know a little thing will offend such a person I am a wretch for a little thing to offend so great and good a friend Might not Adam have argued thus 't is but an Apple there can be no great hurt in this what 's this to breed a jarr between God and me and yet we have found that little Figg or Apple a great sin Here was all God was disobeyed his Will opposed his Soveraignty and Mercy trodden under foot and this is the nature of sin whereof if the soul have a deep sense it will excuse no longer but frighted at the hideous look thereof fly even into the fire to escape it Psal. 119.113 I hate vain thoughts but thy Law do I love I not only avoid them but I hate them I see a sinning evil in them I see a damning evil in them I hate vain thoughts not only wicked wanton revengeful proud or blasphemous thoughts but vain thoughts empty thoughts fill me with grief Natural conscience may abhor the former but a soft heart can only oppose the latter And there is the means he used Thy Law do I love he that loves a pure Law cannot but hate a vain thought 2. You must apprehend the evils yea the great evils that are in this sin For though we grant there is more of poison in some other crimson sins and in some distractions more than others yet there is much evil in the least of these which on purpose to whet and ripen your most serious resolutions against them and see they attain that effect I shall now in the seventh place discover CHAP. VII The Evil of Distractions SECT I. THE Evil of Distractions is 1. In their Nature 2. In their Effects Take the former in these demonstrations 1. These distractions in God's Worship are sins against the first Table And these proportionably are ever greater than those against the second Though the offence of them be properly against the second Commandment yet they have a fling against every precept of the first Table For how doth he acknowledge God that in his very presence offends him or how dost thou honour love and delight in him as the chiefest Good when thou startest aside from converse with him to parley with the world and sin There 's the first Commandment broken Do you worship him according to his will that thus worship him If material Images be cast off and spiritual fornication committed ye are still breakers of that Commandment A graven Image in the mind a worldly or wicked fancy there where Christ should be cannot but provoke him to be very angry There 's the second Commandment broken And these manifestly break the third Commandment being a palpable taking his great Name in vain To speak of God and think of the world to hold discourse with him and think of your lusts is an high taking his Name in vain As if the wife should be speaking busily with her husband and at the same time looking at the picture of the Paramour what rage would this beget in her husband's heart To make the Name of God a
that a man hath and not according to that he hath not Answ. 1. This axiom and Scripture were never intended as a pillow for the lazy but a support to the weary nor to exempt us from our duty but to comfort us under our weakness What Parent will accept this answer from a negligent Child or what Master will be content of this excuse from a slothful servant offer it now to you Governour and imagine not it will pass with God which would be counted a mockery with men 2. God never accepts the Will for the Deed when the Deed may be done when the Idem cannot be paid the Tantundem shall serve yea and so far as the Deed can be done the will without it is but a mockery unto God But wherein an upright heart hath done its utmost in the use of all means and would do more this will is accepted for the Deed even as if thou hadst perfectly obeyed And so that Scripture cited is express in the case of charity It is accepted according to that a man hath So that a man must give according to that he hath or else his willing mind stands for nothing Now have you done your utmost against Distractions can you do no more If Death stood at the end of the Duty you could double your watch Plead not this till you have done your best 3. It is far from the quality of grace to sit down content in any defect or sin or to vouch the mercy of God to secure the soul in any transgression who when he is drest in his richest garments of mercy Exod. 34.7 Yet will not by any means clear the guilty No it is the Genius of true Grace to be restless under his deâ—ects if he cannot be rid of them to rowle up the stone though it tumble still upon him and cry out and roar under those diseases that are uncurable After the Apostle had told us Rom. 7.19 The good I would I do not but the Evil that I would not that I do He lyes not down and resolves to let it run but fights and strives and cryes O wretched man that I am Vers. 24. Si dixisti sufficit periisti If thou once sit down be content and say I 'le strive no more thou givest the field The Spirit withdraws with tears and Satan goes away with triumph 4. The Great Iehovah is so far from being content with such a frame that he hath plainly cursed all such as do the work of the Lord negligently or deceitfully Jer. 48.10 Though you neglect not the work of the Lord yet if you do it negligently you are in danger of the curse Every Distraction is a neglect in each wandring you deal deceitfully with God and for every of these in a Duty Gods Law pronounceth a Curse And is the Divine Curse inconsiderable with you who could digest an hundred curses though pronounced at your door by a provoked neighbour O how much more intolerable is it to be obnoxious to an hundred Curses from Heaven justly deserved and infallibly inflicted if Repentance prevent not It is not the work of the Lord will excuse you Nadab shall perish with his strange fire as well as if he had offered nothing at all Take heed of forgiving your selves when God forgives you not A negligent Duty is abomination to God And thus you have the most material Objections answered which is the fifth Point handled CHAP. VI. The Causes of Distractions with their Remedies SECT I. VVE shall now proceed unto the more Practical part of this Subject namely to find out and summ up the causes of this Epidemical Disease which is the Sixth Point to be handled The First Cause of Distractions in Gods service is Secret Atheism There is an Atheism of the Head Atheism of the heart and Atheism of the Life In the first The Fool hath said in his Head There is no God Psal. 14.1 Mark it is not He hath thought in his heart but says it by rote to himself rather as what he would have than what he doth believe And of him this is truly said That the speculative Atheist is the greatest Monster in the world except the Practical And our late Divisions by the help of our corrupt Natures have proselyted a considerable number to this desperate Opinion As if the different opinions about the ebbâ—ng and slowing of the Sea should render it doubtful whether the Sea did ebb and flow or the disputes about the manner of Vision should call our Sight it self into question You would think it a fond conclusion to say Because Philosophers argue much about the sensitive and vegitative Faculties of the Soul that there is no rational Soul at all in that these very velitations and debates do argue a rational Soul by and with which these points are disputed even so it is notorious madness to conclude from the variety and diversity of Opinions about Religion and Government that there is no God seeing you are supported by him while you dispute and argue about him Atheism of the Heart is whereby the Fool saith also in his Heart There is no God that is either secretly questions or but coldly assents to the existence of God or heartily wishes there were none at all And it is worth observation of both these that they are such as are obnoxious to the Divine Majesty by some misdemeanor The Felon wishes there were no Judge at all and even these are forced in some pangs to acknowledge him at some fright by thunder under some horrour of Consciâ—nce or in the point of death they are forced to give Iehovah his due And they also in any sudden fright or great extremity use to cry out O God O Lord as earnestly as others Atheism of the Life that 's described Tit. 1.14 They profess that they know God but in works they deny him Now both these latter do breed of the first and this last is most visible in our Distractions For if thou didst as verily believe God present in an Ordinance as he that sits next thee durst thou trifle so egregiously as thou dost The Minister looks at you and you dare not talk if you saw him that looks at you from Heaven you durst not straggle And therefore the more or less strong our belief is of God the more or less lively are we in our applications to him Oh the patience of God! that he can indure the Worm to doubt of him yea implicitely to deny him and not demonstrate himself by a Thunderbolt But the Countrey-man's ignorance of the Primum Mobile doth not nullifie it no more doth the Athiests Infidelity degrade the Primus Motor the Majesty of Heaven Heb. 11.6 He that cometh unto God must first believe that he is The Remedy of this Cause is Humbly to read the Scripture which is the most clear certain and convincing way to work Faith herein Prayer and the Bible have convinc'd more than
no purpose may not he justly say when I come next to meet you you'st know the difference between the Majesty of a King and the sordidness of a Scullion Just so poor soul do thou and I obtain leave to approach our heavenly Lord and King and when he expects the heart earnestly to sollicit her great affairs she is roving away and bestowed in the Kitchin or worse while the great and holy God stands waiting to be gracious What Father but would take it for a great indignity to see his Son stopping his ears or whistling or playing with Flyes while he is reading his last Will and Testament to him or giving him order about his greatest affairs And is not God greater than a Father and can he with his honour abate such a child his punishment if he do not humbly cry him mercy and study to offend no more Though divine vengeance be not alwaies so visible as a Parents Rod yet it is as real and more heavy A poor man cannot escape with his affronts of a great God SECT VIII THE third Effect of Distractions is That they hinder the benefits of an holy duty God seldom thinks of those prayers that we think not of our selves Isa. 64.7 And there is none that calleth on thy Name that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee The Lord counts such prayers as none at all when a man doth not stir up himself to his business non entis nulla est operatio That which in God's account hath no being can have no working The benefits of Ordinances are many and great they are like the medium to sensation as the air to the eye or ear there is no seeing nor hearing without it so are Ordinances to the soul they are the Conduits to convey God's grace to us and our desires to him when a dirty distraction gets in the Conduit is stopt and the soul starved And in this sense God's Name which should be most sacred and dear to us is most palpably taken in vain When we use a great solemnity to no effect magno conatu nugas agimus The wind and tide to serve and yet the soul to sleep the Mariner to be at Dice or Cards till the opportunity be lost what a great evil is thisâ— when our voyage is for life and death If you could by the expence of one serious hour gain a Lordship would you not be intense and earnest that hour would you not fume at the company that would divert you and disdain any ordinary business that would interrupt you O stay and let me alone this hour for I am busie Now by the cordial management of one serious hour in prayer reading hearing or meditation you may yea shall infallibly gain at least one grain of grace which is worth more than a Kingdom yea than a whole World And is not that an evil thing and bitter that then interrupts you and frustrates your gainful imployment whereby it comes to pass that you get nothing Pearls are dealing and you get nothing Orient graces in the hand of God ready to give and you none of them who would entertain that can be rid of such companions SECT IX THE fourth Effect of these Distractions is That they deprive the soul of its purest comforts The highest truest and purest joys and comforts meet the soul in the service of God Cant. 2.3 4. I sate under his shadow with great delight There are then delights and great ones too in the waies of God And his fruit was sweet to my tast If thou hast any spiritual tast his fruit will be sweet to it He brought me to the banquetting house God's house is his banquetting-house and every Ordinance is a rare Feast to the soul that doth spiritually manage it Now these idle wandrings of the heart first by their Disturbance then by their Guile do damp and deprive the soul of the comforts thereof Just as a black cloud doth hide from you the bright and warming beams of the Sun How often have you mist of those joyes of the Holy Ghost sweeter than the musick of the Spheres by these vain thoughts with what sweet content do you look back on a Duty where communion hath been held between God and you and what a folly is it to lose an hour and neither reap pleasure not profit by it There is fatness in God's house and Rivers of pleasures with him but he shall have leanness in his soul that gives way to these and of all those Rivers drinks not a drop not one drop of true comfort and pleasure O what an Heaven do negligent sinners lose how many gracious smiles blessed tokens coelestial raptures the dainty Diet of Angels and all through the idleness of the soul Psal. 63.5 My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness I am full brim full of joy and comfort my heart runs over and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips Now all these gleams of sweet comfort and refreshing are stollen away by these thievish Distractions For an upright heart and an attentive would seldom want the sweet comforts that usually accompany sincerity and seriousness He that can keep his meditations fixt on the right object his meditation shall be sweet and where should the Lord make his Servants joyful but in the house of prayer SECT X. THE fifth Effect of Distractions in the Worship of God is That they grieve away the Holy Ghost It is true what the blessed Apostle hath said Rom. 8.26 The Spirit helpeth our infirmities and so helps against these when they are but infirmities mourn'd for and striven against but when they are contracted habits then they grieve and quench the holy Spirit The Greek word in that Scripture signifies to take and heave up a thing over against you to heave with you I but now if our spirits instead of helping shrink away and heave none this promise will do us no good If we leave the business wholly to God's Spirit without our diligent co-operation he will leave it to our spirits without his divine co-operation The Holy Ghost will dwell only with an holy heart and these Idols in the heart do heartily trouble that sweet Spirit Ezek. 14.3 Son of man these men have set up their Idols in their heart and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face should I be inquired of at all by them Read on and you 'l see what consequence this is of What are worldly and sinful distractions but Idols in the heart what are abused objects of the eye or ear but the stumbling-blocks of iniquity before the face and how can the holy Spirit dwell in such a soul or abide such doings Luther somewhat sayes that the Holy Ghost dwells not in Babel but is Salem that is delights not in the heart where is nothing but confusion that 's the english of Babel but in the heart where there is quiet peace and freedom that