my prayer is not the beginning of my punishment Though these be but small like the Sand yet being many as the Sand how can I stand under them I am ashamed yea even confounded for these reproaches of my duties Nay then saies God that hearkens behind the curtains all this while Is Ephraim my dear Son is not he a pleasant child I will remember him I will have mercy upon him When thou art ripe for Hell in thy own eyes then art thou ripe for grace and glory in the eyes of God No man shall ever be overborn with a sin he hates Go my blessed Spirit that hast melted him and mend him that hast softened him strengthen him he that laments his sin shall never languish under it The sacrifice of a broken heart doth please him though the sacrifice of a broken Christ alone doth satisfie him 2. Dispositively grief at heart doth help forward the cure of distractions and that by softening the heart and so fitting the same for the impressions of God's will When the Wax is melted you may turn and mold it which way you will So when the soul is melted by grief for these sins God Almighty may easily be heard and his counsel will be taken And also this godly sorrow as was before observed doth so afflict and make a mans heart to ake and smart that he will take some pains to prevent the like anguish again When they knock at door you 'l say O these are they that cost me dear at such a time non emam tanti poeniteo I feel yet the sad impressions of my late affliction for them I found a pardon no easie enterprize nor Repentance so pleasing a potion to brew for it again I would not for all the world much less for one vain thought or two nor for a thousand worlds together be under that anger of God nor feel one drop of his scalding indignation which I have perceived for these offences O Sirs where godly sorrow is in the power of it what carefulness doth it work what zeal what indignation yea what revenge It makes sin lye like a Mountain upon the soul musters up all the aggravations of sin and sets them home on the heart O to sin in an Ordinance against such a God! in the midst of my greatest business after such conviction vows and promises of exactness before him To offend both Father Son and Holy Ghost at a clap heart of stone dost not melt yea to offend the Angels of Heaven which holy spirits turn away their faces at our vanities in the Assemblies yea and offend the Angels upon Earth God's Ministers while that which cost them most serious pains is spoken to the air to wound my own soul in the act of curing it and increase guilt when I am getting it cleared to play the Hypocrite before the face of God the Judge of Heaven and Earth O wretched man that I am O my sin is exceeding sinful lend a tear O rend an heart O thou most high A broken heart today will be a good preservative against a wandring heart to morrow SECT III. III. ENgage the holy Spirit of God in thine assistance Joh. 15.5 Without me ye can do nothing Supernatural work cannot be done without supernatural help You may and ought to do what a man can do that is compose your selves and guard your senses but you cannot do that which only a God can do that is fly up and fix your hearts in Heaven Rom. 8.26 We cannot pray for any thing for matter as we ought for the manner but the Spirit it self maketh intercession for us The Greek word signifies the Spirit over and above steps in and helps or as others makes vehement intercession for us We climb up the Ladder as well as we can towards Heaven but alas it wavers no stability till the Holy Ghost hold it at the top and draw and lift us up and then we get a sight of Heaven And you have resolved belike and been secure of a good frame but Prov. 28.26 He that trusteth to his own strength is a fool you have found no fixedness or liveliness in your spirits without the assistance of God He that prayes aright must pray in the Holy Ghost Jude v. 20 This also quickens and hears the soul whereby there is no room or leisure for distracted thoughts Hereby the soul is carried streight up to God and staies at nothing on this side Heaven yea by the Spirit 's blessed assistance Every thought is brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. O blessed frame when every thought is captivated to obey Christ there is none can deal with our spirits but the Spirit of God When the Word comes in the hand of the Spirit there is no avoiding it Then the reading one Chapter can convert as that Ioh. 1. did the learned Iunius yea of one verse as that 1 Tim. 1.15 did Mr. Bilney yea one sentence can comfort the heart as that Isa. 57.15 did the afflicted conscience of one that nothing else could satisfie thereby the soul is carried up as Mr. Tilleman the Martyr was in his devotions so that he saw or heard no body till after long search and great noise his persecutors took him up from his knees The heart is so carried upward to God that all the world looks as inconsiderable as a mote or atome at that time and not worth the thinking on And is entertained with that sweet content that it cannot wish to be any where else and therefore a by-thought is as unâ—welcom as base company to him that is busie with Nobles Beg therefore of God with earnest importunity at the entrance of every Ordinance for his holy Spirit and he hath said Luk. 11.13 He will give his Spirit to them that ask him Say Lord if thy Spirit go not with me let me go no further For as the Intercession of Christ is absolutely necessary for your acceptance so the Intercession of the Holy Ghost is necessary for your assistance The Spirit it self also making intercession for us with sighs that cannot be uttered Promise your heavenly Father that you will never willingly disoblige or grieve away his Spirit again Art thou dead cry Quicken me and I will call upon thy Name Is thy heart roving cry Unite my heart to fear thy Name Humbly plead his promise that he will put his Spirit and fear into your hearts that you shall never and if never then not in his solemn Ordinance depart from him and observe the gracious gales of the Spirit and when they clash not with the Rules of his holy Word lay hold on them and fall to duty It 's best rowing below when the wind blows fair above When thy heart is warm and in ure then do the business throughly And beware of grieving him between times let there be a coherence between prayer and practice let your whole life be of a piece lest he withdraw when you have most need of
VI. The Causes of Distractions in God's Worship Sect. 1. 1. Secret Atheism 64. A Remedy thereof 67. Sect. 2. 2. The corruption of our Nature 68. It s Remedy 72. Sect. 3. 3. Vnpreparedness unto holy Duties 76. A Case of Conscience answered viz. What measure of Preparation is necessary before our ordinary Duties of Worship 77. Sect. 4. 4. Lukewarmness 82. Its Remedies 84. Sect. 5. 5. Worldy-mindedness 88. It s Remedy 91. Sect. 6. 6. Weakness of love to Christ and his Ordinances 95. Its Remedies 99. Sect. 7. 7. Want of Watchfulness 104. 1. Before Duties ibid. 2. In Duties 105. 3. After Duties 107. The Remedy thereof 108. Sect. 8. 8. A Beloved sin 110. Its Remedies 113. Sect. 9. 9. Satan 115. A Remedy 118. Sect. 10. 10. Vain Thoughts at other times 121. These 1. Displease and dis-ingage the Spirit of God ibid. 2. Dispose and naturalize the soul to these Thoughts 122. 3. Discourage us to the conquest and incourage us to the sin 124. 4. Infect the Memory 125. 5. Provoke God to give us up 126. The Remedies hereof 127. Sect. 11. 11. A divided heart in four respects 133. It s Remedy 136. Sect. 12. 12. An opinion that there is no great evil in them 139. It s Remedy 142. CHAP. VII The Evil of Distractions 145. 1. In their Nature Sect. 1. 1. They are sins against the first Table ib. Sect. 2. 2. They are heart-sins 147. Sect. 3. 3. They are sins in the special presence of God 148. Sect. 4. 4. They are sins about the most serious business 151. Sect. 5. 5. They are sins of hypocrisie 153. 2. In their Effects Sect. 6. 1. They alienate the heart from holy duties 156. Sect. 7. 2. They much affront the Majesty of God 158. Sect. 8. 3. They hinder the benefits of an holy duty 160. Sect. 9. 4. They deprive the soul of comfort 162. Sect. 10. 5. They grieve away the Holy Ghost 164. CHAP. VIII The Cure of Distractions 166. Sect. 1. 1. Dispel the Causes before specified 167. Sect. 2. 2. Bewail your former failings herein 169. Sect. 3. 3. Engage the Spirit of God in your assistance 174. Sect. 4. 4. Believe the Presence of God 178. Sect. 5. 5. Lay a Law upon your senses 184. A Note about whispering during the Worship of God 186. Sect. 6. 6. A watchful reflection and ejaculation 39â— Sect. 7. 7. Strength of Grace 195. How it should be gotten 201. CHAP. IX Encouragements under the burden of Distractions 204. Sect. 1. 1. They are consistent with Grace 206. Sect. 2. 2. Your case is not singular 208. Sect. 3. 3. Christs Intercession is without Distraction 209. Sect. 4. 4. Distractions may make us humble 211. Sect. 5. 5. God can make some sense out of such Prayers 213. Sect. 6. 6. There is grace and strength in Christ to help against them 215. Sect. 7. 7. A perfect riddance of them is the Happiness of Heaven 217. CHAP. X. Inferenâ—es from this Doctrine Sect. 1. 1. We have â—ause to mourn over our best duties 220. Sect. 2. 2. Omissions of duties are extreme dangerous 223. Sect. 3. 3. The grand Necessity of Watchfulness 226. Particularly in 1. Prayer 2. Hearing God's Word 3. Reading 4. Singing Psalms 5. Meditation 229. Sect. 4. 4. Great cause to bless God for freedom from Distractions 232. Sect. 5. 5. That Religion is an inward difficult and serious Business 234. Reader if you will read sense you must first correct these more material mistakes of the Press For points and accents and some literal faults common indulgence is desired PAge 2. line 22. read no part p. 11. l. 9. r. smell p. 24. Margin r. cedrenus Phorbante p. 25. l. ult r. sincerity p. 26. l. 13. after weak r. child p. 35. Marg. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 39. l. 8. r. Ordinance p. 43. l. ult r. every breaâ—h p. 71. l. 3. r. subtlest p. 86. Marg. r. nam si p. 137. l. 18. r. disturb p. 141. l. 4. r. caso l. 13. r. meer p. 148. l. 19. r. awake p. 158. l. 8. blot out of l. 23. r. stale p. 163. Marg. r. that reads p. 164. l. peâ—ult r. heavily p. 165. l. 12. r. somewhere p. 171. l. 2. r. our hearts p. 172. l. 20. positively p. 173. l. 9. r. poenitere p. 193. l. penulâ— r. these p. 195. l. 17. blot out all p. 197. l. 19. r. norâ—â— p. 201. l. 18. blot out as p. 205. l. 4. r. insnare l. 12. r. by l. 26. r. displease p. 207. l. 18. r. gadding p. 218. l. 2. r. unison p. 219. l. penult r. tenth p. 224. l. 21. r. 〈◊〉 CHAP. I. The Text explained The Doctrine proposed and a Distraction described SECTION I. 1 CORINTH 7.35 That you may attend upon the Lord without Distraction THe Apostle is a Casuist in this Chapter and the present Case is about Virginity and Marriage wherein I. He determines for the former vers 26. when the Church was in the bonds of Persecution it was not safe to be in the bond of Marriage II. He prevents mistakes vers 27 28. though the single man be fittest to suffer yet there is neither that sin nor misery on the married as to dissolve the sacred knot III. He offers Reasons for this Resolve 1. One from the crosses and troubles then attending the state of Marriage vers 28. Thorns as well as Roses 2. The other from the Cares that alwaies accompany it vers 32. For the Man now is his heart divided Before if I can but please the Lord and and contrive how to live comfortably with my God this is all my care and ambition Now the stream of my thoughts and affections is parted I must please and provide for my Wife vers 32 33. For the Woman now is her task doubled Before her whole aim was to please her Husband in Heaven Now must her designs and respects be for her earthly Husband also vers 34 Not that these several Relations are inconsistent but to provide for these new Duties and Temptations will distract the mind especially in the daies of Tryal IV. He qualifies his Counsel and explains himself vers 35. It is noâ— part of my meaning either to obtrude the Doctrine or Duty of Coelibate upon you that to avoid a strait you should run upon a sin but my motion is 1. For your profit my office and so my counsel is rather to profit than to please you 2. There is a comeliness or conveniency in it both states are alwaies lawful but the one may sometimes be more convenient And 3. My ultimate design is that you may chuse that state wherein you may best Attend upon the Lord without Distraction This the occasion and tendency of these words SECT II. FRom the general import of these words flows this Annotation That condition should be chosen by all that 's best for their souls Your outward condition must serve your inward condition and this life must
hands to God in the Heavens The elevation of the hands signifies nothing without lifting up the heart with them If prayer be the lifting up of the heart what are words without the heart A man may spend the same time and the same words in a serious and in an heartless Duty and yet the latter stand for nothing for want of intenseness and attention Isa. 64.7 There is none that calleth on thy name because none stirreth up himself to take hold on thee If a man come to the service of God and do not excite and stir up his soul to exercise grace as a man will blow a dull fire his faith zeal and humility if he do not blow them up but suffer his Heart to run at randome the holy God counts all the rest as a Cypher without a figure it stands for nothing 2. It is necessary to comfort in the Duty The service of God is a most sweet pot of ointment of a most refreshing odour The gracious soul is refreshed therein as in a bed of Spices Distractions are the dead flies Eccles. 10.1 that dropping into this sweet ointment cause it to send forth a stinking savour displeasing to God and unpleasing to the soul. Where can the soul be better than with God what sweeter company than that which Angels keep or pleasant imployment than conversing in Heaven till a sort of wandring thoughts arise and like a black cloud quite hide the sweet beams of that Sun of Righteousness from the soul and then your comfort is gone The sweetness of musick consists in its harmony when the strings are out of tune or untuneably toucht it is but a harsh sound there is no musick wandring thoughts are like strings out of tune there is no musick in that Duty the Holy Ghost goes away and likes it not and the soul likes it not is weary of it there is no sweetness in that Duty It is a tried Maxime The more seriousness the more sweetness the neerer to God the warmer and merrier is the soul which inward comfort is some reward to the heart of a Christian when his particular suit is denyed so that IN keeping of Gods Commandments there is a great reward The choicest of the Spirits sealing comforts are bestowed in the lively service of God 3. It is necessary to the prosperity of a Duty Psal. 66.18 If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear my Prayer In Gods service the soul should be regarding God alone If I regard a Corruption instead of Christ If wâ—en some vain object presents it self I turn my back on God to treat with vanity the Lord will not hear me nor regard me We read 1 Sam. 1.13 of that gracious Hannah that she spake in her heart only her lips moved not her voice was not heard yet this wordless prayer did the business Lip-labour if no more is but lost labour The sweating and labouring of the heart prevails The Lord our God hath a book of remembrance for them that think on his name while he turns the deaf ear to them that cry Lord Lord and do not inwardly adore him In short thus saith the Lord God Ezek. 14.4 Every man Child or not Child that setteth up his Idols in his heart and cometh to the Prophet sits demurely before the Preacher I the Lord will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his Idols He that sets his heart on vanity vanity shall be his recompense If he will not affect his own Heart he shall never affect mine He that withdraws his Heart in asking will find the Lord to withdraw his Hand in giving what he asks 4. It is necessary to communion with Iesus Christ in a Duty Which though it be a Riddle to unregenerate men yet is the very business and next end of the Worship of God which if you lose that Duty is lost Jesus Christ calls Cant. 2.14 O my Dove let me see thy countenance let me hear thy voice for sweet is thy voice and thy countenance is comely Now if when he waits thus to be gracious you wait not for his grace and watch for the blessed appearances of the Holy Ghost you will lose that happiness you 'l lose your labour and at length your souls How are you troubled that you are abroad when some good customer comes to your shop It troubles you when that is bestowed with another that was intended for you O Sirs the spirit of God is a good Customer and when he comes and you are away you are absent to your loss and therefore keep at home the next time How unmannerly would it be for the Subject to knock at his Princes Chamber and knowing he is within and waits for him step away about some frivolous trifle when he hath done The Prince appears opens his royall door and calls but the Clown is gone How fairly may he shut his door against such a guest and make him dance attendance long enough before he see his face Ah how seldome do we see the face of God in an Ordinance or much endeavour it Psal. 63.8 My soul followeth hard after thee The Hebrew is glued to thee That soul and that alone that follows hard after God by the earnest intenseness of zeal and love that cannot be content without him that heart shall cleave to him and have rare communion with him Thus you may plainly see that to attend on the Lord without Distraction is a Duty which is the Third Point to be handled CHAP. IV. Reasons why we ought to Attend on the Lord without Distraction SECT I. THe fourth Point is to shew the Reasons for the Doctrine and Duty of Attending on the Lord without Distraction And they are drawn 1. From the Nature of God 2. From the Nature of his Worship 3. From the Nature of our condition 4. From the Nature of Distractions The first reason is taken from the Nature of God each of his Attributes plead for this especially 1. The greatness of God The greater the Personage the greater the Reverence and the more solemn your attendance is Hence Elihu cryes Job 37.19 Teach us what we shall say to him for we cannot order our speech by reason of darkness It is a bold adventure to speak to him what is it then to trifle with him wilt thou speak to God nay pray to God and not so much as look that way when thou speakest to him This is to put on him the robes and title of a King and use him like a slave A Prince may converse with two or three of his servants at a time but its Impudence for a servant to talk to two or three Princes at a time The great Iehovah can speak with thee and a thousand more and do all your errands at a time but alas thou art too poor a worm to entertain the great Iehovah and other matters at once We are his
and affections while it remains imperfect in your mind and judgment Associate also with zealous Christians borrow some of their heat and lend them some of your light and be not ashamed to talk of God Heaven and a Soul when you are together we lose the benefit of mens graces for want of broaching those blessed Vessels of grace you converse with Especially read the Scripture which will inflame thee and mold thee being rightly used into its blessed nature I have known some that before their private duties would meditate on a verse in the Psalms Canâ—icles or the like and then run hot and lively into the presence of God And chose rather to be frequent and fervent than long and roving in a duty Shorter prayers may sometimes inflame when long ones tire the spirits and that way the antient Christians in Egypt used to take And lastly do as holy David did that carried such a nature as thou dost be ever calling to God as He who is at it eight or nine times in Psal. 119. Quicken me in thy way quicken me and I will call upon thy name and if He had need thus to fetch fire from Heaven how much more have We Q. Were it not better to omit the duty than attempt it with such a dull heartless frame as this A. 1. Omission of a duty will never fit us for the better performance of a duty Luther was used to say The oftner I neglect the more unfit I am this is nothing but a shift of the Devil 2. If thou dost endeavour with thy utmost strengthâ— and sincerity though thou be dull it 's better than to leave it undone for as one sin prepares for another so one duty prepares for another Fall therefore to work and then God is engaged to help thee never think neglects will mend it one sin never cures another By the upright use of these means you will find the holy Ghost as it were stretch himself on your cold hearts and infuse life and heat into you And when you are soaring aloft in the Spirit that cunning marksman cannot shoot and fetch you down by his distracting Arrows SECT V. THe fifth cause of Distractions in God's Worship is Worldly mindedness An heart in earth and an heart in Heaven are far asunder As long as the Lark soareth upward she sings without danger of the Net but stooping to gaze on the Foulers deceitful Glass she is quickly ensnared So is it with us while we live aloft we are safe but when the heart stoops down and grows worldly through the false glass Satan puts upon it then are we taken in these snares Ezek. 33.31 With their mouthes they shew much love but their heart goeth after their covetousness Their faces look one way but they row another their eyes are up towards heaven their hearts set on the earth and grasping two affairs they prosper in neither How should he set his affections on the things above that hath set them chiefly on things below when as these two are directly opposed Col. 3.2 How should the Soul that Bird of Paradise flie up to heaven in a duty when it is not only weighed down with the lead of natural corruption but intangled in the lime-twigs of earthly mindedness they can never write on their duties Holiness to the Lord that stamp upon their coyn God with us Hence it comes to pass that the heart is loth to come to an Ordinance and then longs to goe out again how heavily do they go to Church how lightly to the market for here the heart goes with them and there it 's left behind and being forc'd into a duty because its treasure is in the world the heart hastens to be there again and sicut piscis in arido is out of its element when in an Ordinance We read of the world set in a mans heart Eccles. 3.11 and of an heart set on the world Ps. 62.10 Now how should God have any of such a heart No no he that is of the earth is earthly and speaketh of the earth there he can rest without weariness of that he can discourse without distractions but when he should turn to God and flee to heaven this care knocks at door and that business whispers him in the ear and there the carcase is left but the heart is gone The Prophet Hosea 4.11 tells us that whoredome and wine and new wine take away the heart It were very unlikely that any man in the heat of those sins should pray or hear or meditate aright and it is much what as likely for an heart that is taken away with the cares of this world and drowned therein to converse with God without innumerable wandrings Mistake not it is not the world but worldly mindedness that is taxed not the increase of riches but the heart set upon them And so no doubt a poor man may have his part of distractions through his want of worldly things as well as the rich through his abundance He may have many a distracting thought what to do for the world as the rich hath what to do with the world And thus we see those things which were given for our welfare prove our snare and what should hire us to serve God keeps us from him Which shews what good reason the wise man had to crave neither riches nor poverty but convenient comforts seeing the weight of the world distracts one sort and the want of the world another sort in the very immediate service of God Howbeit for the most part the heart that is fullest of the world is emptiest of God Now the best remedy against worldly mindedness is Mortification O get a chip of Christ's Cross Gal. 6.14 whereby the world will be crucifi'd to you and you to the world So was Paul As saith one of the Antients Paul and the world were like two dead bodies that neither embrace with delight nor part with grief from each other You must be dead I say dead to the world if you mean to live to God or live with him A drunken prayer and a worldly prayer are alike devout Therefore Love not the world nor the things of the world for so long the love of the Father is not in you and if you love him not how should you pray to him It would be an ill favoured sight to behold all this Congregation in their work-day cloaths here how unpleasing a sight to God is it to see us all with our work-day hearts Now that you may be rid of an earthly heart faithfully make use of these directions 1. Get faith to believe the report God hath given of the world that all that is in it is but the lusts of the flesh the lusts of the eyes and the pride of life a poor vain thing not able to give the soul a breakfast this all that have tasted it and Christ also do aver and canst thou
and the dangerous passenger for all his importunity is stopp'd and turn'd again Why perhaps the plague comes with him and therefore the Halbard salutes his breast he comes not there the neglect of this care would soon lay waste the land So if any stragling thought perhaps with the plague in it shall enter at pleasure into the soul especially while the Lord's service is in hand no wonder that soul lies waste Lord have mercy may be written on that door 1. The neglect of watchfulness before holy duties causes distractions and that is by not heeding to order your affairs with discretion for God's service When you involve your selves in too much business too much for your head too much for your time or too much for your strength then worldly thoughts will get place you cannot help it Or when men are unadvised in their business in not chusing a fit time for duties and thereby your business and God's shoulder one another and neither is done well And therefore we are commanded 1 Pet. 4.7 to watch unto prayer As Satan watches to cross and indispose us by throwing some diverting and cooling occasions so is it our wisdom to counter-watch him Indeavour to time your businesses and especially your duties It is the character of a good man Psal. 112.6 that he orders his affairs with discretion and renders every thing beautiful in its time For its a true observation that an indiscreet ordering of Saturdays business hath great inâ—luence into the unprofitableness of the Sabbath's Ordinances 2. Neglect of watchfulness in holy duties Our hearts so far as unregenerate are fetch'd into holy duties as a prest souldier into the field he is brought in against his will no principle of courage or love to his country he had rather be digging or idling at home Now such a souldier what trust can you repose in him if he be not watch'd he steals away at every lanes end and in the midst of the battel you shall be sure to miss him a constant eye must keep him or you lose him 'T is just so with our naughty hearts if there be not a predominant principle of grace 't is not choice but use that brings them in they would rather be carking or trifling about any thing than busie in prayer and therefore if you neglect to watch them at every turn no sentence end but they will steal away For prayer without watching is but a meer complement Where the tongue goes one way and the heart another that 's a complement and such is a watchless duty It is said the Nightingale in her sweetest notes is apt to fall asleep to prevent which she settles her self on a bough with a thorn at her breast that when she begins to nod that sharp monitor may awake her The holiest Saint is apt to nod and steal away in the midst of his solemnest duties if God's Spirit do not aurem vellere quicken his watch Christ's own Disciples even just after a Sacrament were overtaken for want of this Matth. 26.40 What could ye not watch with me one hour And if they fell asleep at prayer for want of watching how can you keep close to God without it that have neither so good a monitor without nor so good an heart within 3. Neglect of watchfulness after duties causes distractions in the next that follow people use to let loose their hearts when the Duty ends and unlace themselves for ease and then their thoughts take liberty Which our deceitful hearts fore seeing no cords will bind them to a good behaviour in the very duties themselves whereas were there a constant watch kept up after our duties were done and conscience made of our thoughts all the day long we should contain our hearts in better order while God's worship lasts The fore-sight and especially fore-tastes of liberty approaching sets the soul madding thereupon and we cannot keep it in Besides Religion is concatenated hath a dependance one thing upon another and it is unsufferable to take and leave where we will If vain thoughts lodge with you at other times they will visit you at your business and if they be entertained when you have a mind they will press in when you have no mind The Remedy against this neglect is To be throughly convinc'd of the absolute necessity of constant watchfulness Prov. 4.23 Keep thy heart with all diligence as a castle is kept from scaling an house from robbing or a Jewel from defacing so the Criticks and all these are kept constantly one hours negligence would hazard any of them And then with all diligence Heb. with all keeping or as some above all keeping The eye we watch from harm all the day the vitals we defend and guard with constant care we know that a touch there is mortal but above all keeping keep the soul Be perswaded that watchfulness is as necessary as prayer you think without prayer you shall go to hell and I aver that without watchfulness you cannot go to heaven Mans life in this sense is a continued Ordinance Hos. 12.6 wait on thy God continually not only at thy prayers but at thy plough while on your knees you are waiting on God and when you rise from your knees you are going to wait on him in your calling and an unbecoming thought is displeasing to him every where he is sensible of an affront in the kitchen as well as in the parlour and hates vanity all the day long 1 Pet. 4.7 Be sober and watch unto prayer Sober and watch as if they that do not watch are mad To watch unto prayer is duty as well as to watch in it He that watches not to duties doth not do his duty a wise Christian should have always something in store for God work and look at God eat and drink and talk and still look at God and at the soul This is to wâ—lk with God all the day long As the careful Bee must needs leave her hive and fly abroad but she dwells no where else she lights on this â—lower and then on that exhausts their sweetness deflowers them and gets away she never rests till she return to her hive there she rests and enjoys her self So an holy heart must needs out into the world and business must be done but he rests at nothing till he return to the enjoyment of God again no flower gives him content no business no company satisfies but he retires to God looks at him and is lightned and steps out again This Sirs this is the Religion of Religion I know it 's hard but it 's possible the ice is broken for you and the way is trodden Act. 24.16 Herein do I exercise my self to have always a conscience void of offence It 's my daily trade and business to keep my soul that I neither offend God nor man If you will make a trade on 't you may do it God never calls for duty but helps in
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
a sinful thought any time of day That man must walk with God in the Day that will have God draw nigh to him at Night 2. These dispose and naturalize the soul to roving Habit is a second nature and it is almost as hard to wash an Ethiopian white as to break an evil custome Jer. 13.23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots then may ye also do or think good that are accustomed to Evil. If a man be used to ill company and link't in with them though he sometimes resolve better yet when they come away he must go with them against his purpose Perhaps you have resolved against these vain wandrings in Gods service but being us'd to them they call at door and take you captive away against your intention And therefore set up a constant watch against them for Religion is link't together in the power and practicals of it So that you must take all or leave all be a Christian allwayes and altogether or not at all It is said of that accursed Mahomet that he had used a Dove to come to his Ear and thence to eat her commons And so when the falling sickness surprized him his pigeon presently came to her repast which he feigned to be the holy Ghost or an Angel that told him the mysteries of his Religion my beloved if these fowls these evil Angels be used to your ear or heart they will come even in your most coelestial imployments and divert and distract you and hereby they become less strange and things that are familiar to us though ugly are not started at nay treble diligence will not dispel them if you give them ordinary entertainment If a way be made over your corn or ground and people used to come that way it must be an higher hedge than ordinary that must keep them off If vain thoughts have made a road over thy heart and use to come that way without controll it must be a very high and strong watch and resistance that will turn them by in holy Duties Prov. 35.28 He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a City that is broken down and without Walls 3. These vain thoughts at other times make us apprehend it more impossible to conquer and less sinfull to be conquered by them And when Distractions appear so powerful that there is no resisting them or so harmless that they are not worth our trouble to resist them then is a floodgate opened to let them in when once our courage is conquered or our Conscience is feared we are quite undone And thus you see that one sin ushers in another and the loosness of our heart at one time prepares it to be so another Even as you observe your Children 't is the comparison of one that hath the skill of simileâ—s they are more unruly before strangers or at times when they should be most demure than at other times and you are then more aware and troubled at their shrewd words and gestures than the whole year besides Alas It is not meerly that they are worse then but then you take more notice of it it is then most observeable and apparent though their carriage be much at one So it is with your Hearts O cry you I am more pestred with foolish thoughts in Prayer or Sermon than all the day or week besidesâ— Then my Heart is worst when it should be best Alas its naught all along it do's but as it is used to do only you observe it not at other times and now observe it a little and find it out but it s alwayes so 4. These do infect the memory and imprint such species and notions there as offer and produce themselves when we are in the service of God And so when a good man out of the good treasure of his heart should bring forth good things He stumbles upon the vain and unprofitable trash before laid up in his memory to the grieâ— of Gods spirit and hazard of his own The memory you know will most easily retain an impertinent story a filthy or foolish imagination a long time and then when an Idle heart hits upon it though God himself looks on that will run away with the heart and give both matter and strength to a long woful and wandring Distraction How doth the active Fancy in our sleep sometimes light upon some sorry thoughts we had in the day and take them by the end and spin them out into a very sinfull Dream and this Casuists say we are responsible for though it seem involuntary because we administred matter for it and remotely promoted it so we shall be found guilty before God even of our unwilling wandring in Gods service because we laid up for them before If we brew for them Satan will be sure to broach them 5. These idle thoughts at other times provoke God to give us up to our own inventions As that dreadful word Hos. 4.17 Ephraim is joyned to Idols let him alone Seeing he will be marryed to them and forsake me let him take them If a man be resolved upon Idols or any other sin God will not hinder him So when he finds the heart joyned taken up and pleased with vain thoughts Good motions knock and wait but are not accepted or heeded come and knock again with double earnestness How long shall vain thoughts lodge within thee but are not regarded sin and the heart are making merry within come and try once more open now or never And no answer nay now the Soul is joyned to these things let him alone Sleep on now and take thy rest Trouble him no more in his vain inventions So I gave them over Psal. 81.12 To their own hearts lust and they walked in their own counsels If they choose Hell before Heaven let them take it My Spirit shall not alwayes strive with man And now when the Soul is given up to a vagabond frame then thy weak purposes and faint watchfulness over it stand for nothing but are broken like Sampsons cords and a deluge of all manner of impertinencies breaks in and the Heart is prostituted to all temptations The Remedy against these idle thoughts out of Duties is 1. A right understanding what a vain thought is Though it sound somewhat harsh that all thoughts are either good or bad the matter of some being in itself indifferent yet if we consider the Principle and Tendency of them we shall hardly light upon one individual thought but it hath either the stamp of Good or Evil upon it It is certain that a wicked mans thoughts are all vain as they come from him neither flowing from a sanctified heart nor being directed to a Divine end Ah poor sinners your hearts are little worth the imaginations of them are materially or formally or finally evil only evil and that continually The sweetest words from corrupt lungs do stink in the nostrills of them that stand by and so your best
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
's the meaning of Salem In Salem also is his tabernacle and his dwelling place in Sion Psal. 76.2 The unkindness offered is very great as if you should earnestly importune some noble friend to accompany and help you in some arduous affair and he comes to go with you once and again and still when you should come along and promote your own business you steal away about some trivial matters and leave your noble friend in the lurch This is the very case you humbly imporâ—une the holy Spirit of God to help you in the service of God and he most graciously comes to help you but one distraction or other charms away your heart and the Holy Ghost is left alone And thus the Holy Ghost is so oft sinned against till at length he is sinned away And thus you see the evil of Distractions which is the seventh Point to be handled CHAP. VIII The Cure of Distractions SECT I. AND if there be such great evil in these Distractions and evil effects of them what shall an upright heart do to be rid of them I say an upright heart that inquires for means to use them and craves a plaister not to look at but to apply to his sore And art thou thus resolved that readest these lines For us to spend our skill and you your time without full purpose to practise is labour in vain Nay it will harden your hearts here and increase your condemnation hereafter You will deceive your selves and disappoint us if you rest in hearing without doing what you hear Well then are you resolved unfeignedly to take the Lord's counsel for the destruction of your distractions Stop a little and resolve And now let me put that question to you Ier. 30.21 Who is this that hath ingaged his heart to approach unto me saith the Lord Who is this who will do it who is thus well advised that hath ingaged not only made a proffer but ingaged and that his heart to approach unto God and where in this Congregation doth that man sit or stand that out of a deep sense of the hatefulness and hurtfulness of this sin doth now ingage his heart and soul to use all means against it and that in the uprightness of his heart The Lord your God sees who yields and cries out through grace I am resolved Well on that condition I proceed to Direction I. Dispel the Causes fore-mentioned and use the Remedies prescribed against them and here if you be in good earnest you will look back and review them and the helps adjoyned and beg of God as you read them In this Lord pardon and help thy Servant A man of small skill may easily stop the symptoms of diseases as the present pain in the teeth or the like but he is an Artist that removes the causes of them and it is more easie to turn off two or three of these vain thoughts than to heal the soul of the Thought-evil in the causes thereof If these remain Atheism unpreparedness lukewarmness worldliness and the like in the heart all the rules and receits under Heaven will never cure you of Distractions For there will still spring up continual supplies from these corrupt causes as the lopping of the boughs will still have new sprouts coming until the â—ooâ— be stocked up and therefore with faithfulness and resolution set upon all those Remedies that have been prescribed Beg of God to dry up the spring else your damming up the streams will do no good When the causes are dispelled the cure is wrought And here is a plain discovery of an Hypocrite in heart if some light easie receit will help him in any case he may set to it but if he must go about and take pains if the way of cure be any whit intricate or difficult then he throws it up never will go to the bottom of his business Whereas the upright heart doth but desire to know what to do what is God's method and way and then long or short hard or easie he never disputes he demurrs not but falls to work he knows every inch he goes he gets advantage and IN keeping of God's Commandments there is great reward The speediness of his cure he desires but the soundness of it he insists on and counts no trouble in the cure like the evil of his sin Are you resolv'd in this else 't is to no purpose to proceed To stumble at the threshold presages But if we be clear thus far I proceed SECT II. II. BEwail your former failings in this respect this will divers waies conduce to your amendment 1. Morally being an Argument that you really dislike the sin and the condition of God's pardon thereof The ordinary Lord have mercy doth herein fall short of pardon because it is not spoke in tears If God did but see a man grieve for his sin a little ado a few words should get forgiveness The Publican had but a short peccavi nor David upon his dreadful fall but they were words that were felt they were heart deep they swum in tears each word fetcht a drop of blood from the heart And God was well pleased with them in Christ. When Antipater had written a large Letter to Alexander against his Mother Olympia his answer was dost thou not know that one tear from my Mother's eye can wash away all her faults so one penitential tear from a believers eye can perswade much with God in Christ for the pardon of his wandrings But the most imbroidered phrases without this Christian grief work not with God at all Lachrymarum lingua disertissimè loquitur If Christ Jesus himself did sue for pardon for an impenitent sinner he would not be heard But when your conscience is toucht and the heart melts and bleeds for your faults herein now saith God I see yonder man cannot live with a wandring heart and therefore he shall live without it I 'le never see him drown'd in his distractions that is thus drowned in tears about them if he really dislike them I 'le really dispel them And then again till their guilt be pardon'd our tear are usually desperate like a wicked spend-thrift while hopeless of a discharge from all treasures up sin unto sin till that dreadful pay-day come the day of Judgement Whereas when sin this sin is truly grieved for the Holy Ghost doth ever bring a pardon in one hand and a plaister in another at the same time to clear the guilt and cure the disease O saies the soul I am defiled I am wounded in my flight to Heaven I am disappointed in my affairs my God is angry I have sinned just then when I should have scored out my sins I have sinned against my remedy and how shall I be cured O was there ever such a rotten backsliding heart such a Cain-like vagabond cursed frame what place but Hell is fit for that heart that cannot rest in Heaven Ah Lord I wonder that the end of
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
soul. Look yet again till thy heart be inflamed with love to him till he cry in Heaven Cant. 4.9 Thou hast ravished my heart my Sister my Love thou hast ravished my heart with one of thy eyes with one chain about thy neck He that spends his eye there to observe his neighbours to criticize upon their gestures hath little to do and less to get in that sacred Ordinance And then lay a Law upon thine ear and tast and touch for most of the senses are gratified and useful in this Ordinance that nothing may interrupt thy communion with Jesus Christ at that time For there the utmost strength of body and soul are scarce enough to gain and feel and do what is there to be gain'd and felt and done And in general be not treacherous to your selves Satan without you can do no great matters within you your senses you can command your hearts not so well Be faithful in what ye can else if you could order your very hearts you would not He that will not do what he can would much less do what he cannot SECT VI. VI. THE sixth Cure of these Distractions is a watchful reflection of the soul upon its self and ejaculation unto God It is said Eccles. 10.2 A wise mans heart is at his right hand but a fools heart is at his left Is not this the meaning of it That a wise good man hath his heart ready can speedily serve him instantly recoil upon himself but a wicked foolish man his heart is aukward and unskilful a left-hand-heart unweildy and unready for any good work O get then a dextrousness of heart to bolt in◠and break the sinful knot of your vain imaginations That a distraction may not set so long on the heart that it hatch and breed yet more of the kind and so swallow you up in condemnation It is said Gen. 15.11 When the Fowls light Abraham drove them away not when they were sitting or feeding upon the carkasses but as soon as ever they lighted we must not give place to these for a moment Mr. Dod adviseth us to ask our selves often these two questions 1. What I am 2. What I am doing We are well if we can well answer these two questions If thou canst answer I am a Child of God and I am doing God's Will it will stand thee in more stead than if thou couldst answer all the questions in Aquinas We read Nehem. 4.17 That in the building of God's house every one with one of his hands wrought in the work and with the other hand held a weapon Work and watch work and fight was the guise of them And he that will edifie in God's house yet must do the same hear and watch and watch and pray and fight and struggle and pray still This Hill we climb inch by inch One may tumble into Hell but the strait gate must be striven at Let conscience then perform it's part and speedily glance into the heart with all fidelity Abraham's Fowls came without sending for and yet would not go away without driving You cannot hinder a Thief from coming by the house but you may from quartering with you at least with any quiet and approbation And it is good to cast off these wandring thoughts with an Ejaculation to God else the destruction of one will prove the generation of another When Satan casts in his injaculations lift you up your ejaculations This will ingage divine strength and work God your friend Do as they Act. 19.34 When they thought Alexander would speak evil of Diana they cryed Great is Diana of the Ephesians So when these are injected then breath forth into some heavenly ejaculations so will you cross the tempter and in stead of losing gain Send up thy prayer in a Parenthesis like that Psal. 119.37 Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity and quicken me in thy way Forsake me not O God me strength And take not thy Holy Spirit from me Awake O North-wind and come thou South blow upon my Garden These darting desires sent up with faith will weaken the habits of corruption and affright Satan from his suggestions This resisting the Devil will make him flee from you As the golden spikes were set on the Temple to keep the Fowls from thence so will these being conscionably used keep off vain thoughts from lodging upon your sacrifices Up therefore and stir up thy self by this means to save thy sacrifice from being devoured and thy soul polluted Alas we are daily told and we feel it that the heart is deceitful above all things if a wary eye be not kept over it you will find it sometimes in the bed of lust sometimes on the pinacle of honour and often diging in the world and yet salve up all with an I thank God I am not as other hearts are If ever you be rid of less guests you must do as good Barnabas advised them with full purpose of heart to cleave unto the Lord Act. 11.23 There must be heart purpose of heart full purpose of heart and then you will cleave unto the Lord. Obj. But I am suddenly slipt from God before I am aware and when I see it and resolve anew yet ere five sentences be past I am gone again Answ. This shews the sad corruption of our nature and should therefore humble us And this argues also the contracted ill disposition of the soul when a disease hath such recidivations and returns it speaks that it is too much radicated yet in this case you must not give out nor throw down your watch you must not compound with sin because it 's hard to sue out an ejectione firmâ no peace must be made with Amalek for ever If the Devil and your unregenerate part be unwearied in their assault against you you must be unwearied in your resistance and die se defendendo And you will find as use and custom hath strengthened these temptations so an use of reflection and strenuous opposition will at length weaken and at last extinguish them SECT VII VII THE last and great cure of distractions is strength of grace As no props without will keep the ship steady except there be store of ballast within so no extrinsick helps will stablish your hearts against these wandrings without grace yea strong grace within Heb. 13.19 It is a good thing that the heart be established with grace For 1. The more sanctifying grace you have the more mortified will your heart be unto the world and the flesh the great disturbers of divine service The fairest Landskip shewed to a dead man moves him not at all A heart dead to the world is not removed from God with every trifle of the world 2 Cor. 4.18 While we look not at all things that are seen but at things that are not seen Things visible are not worth looking at especially when things invisible are in place What 's a temporal house or land or children