Creatures Isa. 45.11 Thus saith the Lord the holy one of Israel and his Maker If a servant must not be frivolous before his Master when he is receiving his commands who dares be so before his Maker who can as easily reward or ruine us as I can turn over a leaf in this Bible This Himself gives for the reason of that dreadful curse Mal. 1.14 upon the Deceiver that having a Male in his flock offers to God a corrupt thing For I am a great King saith the Lord of Hosts and my name is dreadfull among the Heathen Which of you will be thinking of your wives or children or ground when you are offering a Petition to a great King or run after Feathers when he is saying his mind to you Thou takest God to be such a one as thy self or else thou wouldest never do it Remember a great God must be worshipped with profound veneration and the most serious affections A man must worship God as if he were in Heaven Oh if thou wert there among those myriads of Saints and Angels with what care and humility and instance wouldest thou pour out thy heart to him or hear his words to thee 2. The Holiness of God is another Reason who is so sacred that an unholy Thought is abomination to him most especially in his holy Service Who can by an eye of Faith behold the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up and his train filling the Temple And the Seraphinis crying one to another and saying Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of Hosts Isa. 6.1 2. and suffer his heart to be ravisht away with transitory toyes in such a Sacred presence Are the Seraphims amazed at his holiness and we untransported Their thoughts are continually terminated upon him And should ours be allwayes flinching from him The Holy Lord of Hosts will not brook it If you will not sanctifie him he will sanctifie himself If you that worship him will not bear witness by your serious attendance to his Holiness He must bear witness to it by his Judgements on You which indeed are not allwayes visible but ever certain not a man in the Congregation but the Holy God is Sanctified by him or upon him Little do we know what invisible dreadfull effects there are of this daily in our Congregations And if our dear Redeemer did not stand as a skreen between us and his wrath the best of us would quickly feel the effects of his Displeasure 3. The Omniscience of God is a valid reason against Distractions Heb. 4.13 All things are naked and opened to him with whom we have to deal not only naked on the outside of us but cut up and anatomised in the inside That sharp and piercing eye looks through and through us and neither doth or can look beside us Whither can I goe from thy spirit and whither can I flee from thy presence shall the Husband fix his eye on his Wife and she that while dart her glances on her Paramour Is this reasonable or tolerable Get out of his sight and trifle on Steal into some corner where he sees you not and be truants and spare not Be but an Eye-servant to God and wee 'l ask no more Be serious while He sees you dally not while he holds you the candle A curious Eye requires a carefull servant Object But this is spoken gratis I see no body but the Minister and People seeing is believing I know no body that seeth me Answ. 1. No more doest thou see that faculty by which thou seest Is there therefore no such faculty Is there no spirits because thou never sawest them when did you see the wind and yet you doubt not of it Nay hath not he declared to thee what is thy thought Amos 4.13 in many a Sermon 2. There is another eye by which Gods Ordinary-Presence is seen which thou hast not That is an eye of Faith which if fixed in thy heart would quickly make thee cry How dreadfull is this place This is no other than the house of God and the Gate of Heaven If an hundred credible persons affirm they saw a Great man in the Congregation you would believe them though not seen by you and would conclude it your own inadvertency Hundreds there daily are that do avouch they saw felt heard imbraced the gracious presence of God and therefore conclude it your Blindness not his Distance that you saw him not SECT II. THE second Reason is taken from the Nature of his Worship 1. It is Reasonable Worship not only consonant to the Rules of Reason and backed by the most Rational Principles but must be managed as a Rational Act. Now it is a most irrational thing to converse with God without an Heart This is a silly thing as Hos. 7.11 Ephraim is called a silly Dove without Heart A Dove without spirit and a silly Dove without reason or judgement God had rather hear the roaring of a Lyon than an heartless prayer He delights more in the chirping of birds than in singing of Psalms without understanding for these do what they can and so are accepted but bruitish service from a reasonable Creature is intolerable Is it reason you should cry out for the spirit and think on the flesh be hearkning about another world and ruminating on this your eyes directed to Heaven and your Heart in the ends of the Earth the tongue busie and the soul idle the knee devout and the thoughts loose there is no coherence no reason in this When ye work work and when ye pray pray and do it with understanding 1 Cor. 14.15 What it is then I will pray with the spirit and will pray with the understanding also I will sing with the spirit and will sing with the understanding also Consider that else thou art as a mad man before God and God hath no need of mad men if one should come to thee about business of life and death and after a word or two therein should run from one impertinent thing to another would you not think him mad If thy thoughts were put into words and mingled with thy prayers what strange mad prayers would they be 2. It is spiritual-spiritual-worship and therefore you may not be distracted in it Joh. 4.23 24. The true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him Others may seek to worship the Father but the Father seeketh such to worship him to wit that worship in Spirit and in Truth In Spirit and so not like the formal Jews In Truth and so not like the ignorant Gentiles And then vers 24. God is a Spirit and must be worshipped Here 's Must and Shall and Reason for it As a spirit can do nothing at eating so a carkass can do nothing at praying The elegantest tongues on earth cannot take one stroak at prayer no the soul must be in it and the soul must
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
me and heard not my dull prayers So I said Well then so will I cry the louder Luth. Colloq And when he found his spirit out of frame he would never give over praying till he had prayed his heart into that frame he prayed for * Birds wâ—ll not light nor stay on flaming Sacrifices M. White Where could a wandring thought get into that most zealous Prayer Dan. 9 19 * Tu non audiâ— orationem tuam Dominum vis audire precem tuam Chrys. de Nat Dom. Hom. 17. * Nihil enim nihil inquam precatione ignitâ sincerâ validius est Chrys. ad Phil. * Oâ—ationi lectio lectioni succedat oratio Hieron ad Laet. * Non si sâ—rmonem in longum extenderis in negligentiam frequenter lapsus mulâ—â— Diabolo subrependi facultatem dederis supplantandi â— abducendi cogitationem ab his quae dicuntur Chrys. Hom. 79. ad pop Antioch * Dicuntur fratres in Egypto crebras quidem habere orationes sed eaâ— tamen brevissimas raptim quodammodo jaculatas Ne per productiores moras evanescat atque hebetetur intentio Absit enim ab oratione mulâ—a locutio sed non desit multa precatio August Epist. 121. Oratio debet continuari quandiu devotio potest conseâ—vari Aquin. 22. 983. a. 14. §. 5. V. Worldly mindednesâ— * Adhaerere Domino indivulse non subiâ—de mâ—ndanis curis interpelli negotiâ—s aâ—ist ahi ut vix dum sinitâ spirituali iliâ actione in quâ jam versatus est statim ad terrena anxie curanda tâ—ansvolet carnalibus eâ—us ita se penâ—tus immisceat ac si Insidelis esset Mort. in 1 Cor. 7 35. * M. Willes of perilous times * See a plain instance hereof in that hearer Luke 11.13 14. * Curvasti quidem genua sed mens tua foris vagabatur os quidem loquebatur sed mens usuras cogitabat possessionem reditus supputabat Chrysost. Hom. 17. de Nat. Dom. * Water under a ship helps it but water in the ship drowns it * Chrysost. * Let not the world be your familiar friend familiar friends will come in without knocking M. White of Thoughts * When we shall have reigned hereafter many millions of years in Heaven what thoughts will remain of this little inch of time upon earth c. M. Bolton Discourse of true Happiness pag. 143. * Let their mony perish with them that esteem all the Gold in the world worth one days society with â—esus Christ. Galeacius to a Nobleman tempting him to Apostatâ—ze with a great sam of mony * Cogitatio omnis secularis carnalis abscedat nec quicquam tunc animus quam illud solum cogitat quod precatur Cypr. de Orat. Domin * Exemplum legimus de Quodam qui volens Rusticum conviacere de cordis instabilitate dum fiâ— Oâ—atio pollicitus est se daturum sibi Asinum si posset Orationem Dominicam nihil aliud actualiter cogitans persicere Qui mox ut aâ— orationem divoâ—tit securus de Asini lucro coepit distrahi in hanc cogitatio â—m si Sellam habiturus erat cum Asino qui tandem ad se reditus se redarguens instabilitatem sui cordis confessus est Gerson de Orat. p. 611. §. 6. VI. Weakness of love to Christ and his Ordinances * Dat miâ—ifraena Timor dat mâ—hi calcar Amor. Omnes igitur â—odâ— distractâ—ones men is fluctuationes in unum collige in solâ— Deo totum desiderium tuum fige ibi sit cor tuum ubi est thesaurus tuâ—s dâ—siderabilis â—â—ultumque amabilis Bern. de inter Domo c. 5. * Judge of the Divinity of the Jesuites Q. When is a man obliged to have actually an affection for God Ans. Any time before he die others at the point of death others at least every year in fine it 's sufficient if we hate him not Sirmond of virtue p. 16 19 24. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * He loves thee little O Lord who loves any thing with thee which he loves not for thee Nil preter te nisi propter te Aug. * Mouns de Renty said of himself that when ever he pronounc'd the name of God he tasted such a sweetness upon his lips as could not be expressed In vitâ § 7. VII Want of Watchfulness * Qui enim sic vigilans orat illius exauditur oratio hoc enim significat dicens Vigilate Orate ut primum vigilemus sic vigilantes oremus Origen Tract 35. in Matth. * Prov. 18.1 Through desire a man having separated himself seâ—keth and intermedleth with all wisdom * Clarissima soror audi quâ— dico Ante tempus orare est providentia Iâ— tempoâ—e constituto oâ—aâ—e est obedientia Tempus orandi praeterire est negligeâ—â—â— Bern de de modo benè vivendi Serm. 40. * Iâ—â—â—ssiâ—ax petitio est cum precatur Deum sterilis oratio Quia Deus noâ— vocis sed cordis est auditor Cyprian de Orat. Dom. * Bonum est sanctorum precibus frui sed quando ipsi seduli vigiles fuerint Chrys. in 1 Thess. * As men are out of prayer so will they be â—n prayer Morn Lâ—ct * Let us imagine a City not only begirt with a strait siege of bloud-thirsty enemies but also within infested with lurking Commotioners how much would it stand that City upon to stand upon its guard c. M. Bolton's discourse of true Happiness p. 146. * You see the Angels sent about God's messages to thâ—s earth yet never out of their heaven never without the vision of their Maker and so should you strive when you are up and down in your business yet be within sight of God D. Hall's Contemp. * It s a thousand times easier to keep the floud-gates shut than to drain the lower grounds when they are overflown Idem §. 8. VIII A beloved sin * Observe that some make a difference between a beloved sin and a reigning sin a beloved sin rules over our sins not over our graces a reigning sin rules over both * Gravi namque menâ— nostra orationis suae tempore confusione deprimitur si hanc aut sua adhuc operatio inquinâ—t aut alienae malitiae servaâ—us dolor accusat Greg. in Job l 10. c. 18. * Ita mala quae seci cogitationi meae suis imaginibus impressa in ipsa mea oratione me conturbant Caeterum quanto graviore tumulâ—u cogitationum carnalium premor tanto ardentius orationi insistere debeo Bern. de inter Domo c. 49. * Look as it is with a boyling pot the scum of it will be rising up together with the meat therein so is it in prayer M. Cobbet of Prayer p. 396. * Ille laudatur qui 〈◊〉 coeperit cogitare indida statim inâ—â—â— ficit cogitata allidit ad pâ—tram Pâ—tra autem est Christus Ovâ—d Met. 〈…〉 c. 11. §. 9. IX Satan * Diabolus cum sit astutas scil quoniam