bends all the thoughts about it and when it s deeply affected it will be intent the affections command the thoughts to goe after them deadness causes distâ—action and distraction increases deadness could you but look upon duties as the galleries of communion in which you walk with God where your Souls may be filled with those ravishing and matchless delights that are in his presence your Soul would not offer to stir from thence It is with the heart in duty as it is with those that dig for gold oare they try here and finding none try there and so go from place to place till at last they hit upon the rich vein and there they sit down If thy heart could but once hit the rich vein in duty it would dwell and abide there with delight and constancy O how I love thy law it is my meditation day and night Psal. 119. 97. The Soul could dwell day and night upon its knees when once its delights loves and desires are ingaged What 's the reason your hearts are so shufling especially in secret duties why are you ready to be gone almost as soon as you are come into the presence of God but because your affections are not ingaged 7. Help Mourn over the matter to God and call in assistance from Heaven when vain thoughts assault thy heart in duty When the messenger of Satan buffeted Paul by wicked injections as is supposed he goes to God and mourns over it before him 2 Cor. 12. 8. never slight wandring thoughts in duty as small matters follow every vain thought with a deep sigh turn thee to God with such words as these Lord I came hither to speak with thee and here a busie Devil and a vain heart conspiring together have set upon me O my God what an heart have I shall I never wait upon thee without distraction when shall I enjoy an hour of free communion with thee help me my God this once do but display thy glory before mine eyes and my heart shall quickly be recovered Thou knowest I came hither to enjoy thee and shall I goe away without thee See how the heart of thy poor child works towards thee strives to get near thee but cannot my heart is a ground come thou north wind blow south wind O for a fresh gale now â—rom thy Spirit to set my affections afloat couldst thou but thus affectionately bewail thy distractions to God thou mightest obtain help and deliverance from them He would say to Satan and thine imperious lusts as Ahashuerus said of Haman what will he force the Qâ—een before my face who are these that set upon my child in my work and presence 8. Help Look upon the success and sweetness of thy duties as very much depending upon the keeping of thy heart close with God in them These two things the success and sweetness of duty are as dear to a Christian as his two eyes and both of these must necessarily be lost if the heart be lost in duty Iob 35. 13. Surely God heareth not vanity neither doth the Almighty regard it the promise is made to an heart ingaged Ier. 29. 13. Then shall you seek me and find me when ye shall search for me with all your heart Well then when thou findest thy heart under the power of deadness and distraction say to thy Soul O what doe I lose by a careless heart now my praying times are the choicest parts the golden spots of all my time could I but get up this heart with God I might now obtain such mercies as would be matter for a song to all eternity 9. Help Look upon it as a great discovery of the sincerity or hypocrisie of your hearts according as you find them carefull or careless in this matter Nothing will starâ—le an upright hearâ— more than this What shall I give way to a customary wandring of heart from God shall the spot of the hypocrit appear upon my Soul they indeed can drudge on in the round of duty never regarding the frames of their hearts Ezek. 33. 31 32. but shall I doe so when men come into the presence chamber and the King is not there they bow to the empty chair O never let me be satisfied with empty duties never let me take my leave of a duty untill mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of hosts 10. Help Lastly 't will be of special use to keep thine heart with God in duties to consider what influence all thy duties havâ— into thine eternity These are your seed time and what you sow in your duties in this world you must look to reap the fruit of it in anâ—ther world Gal. 6. 7. 8. if you sow to the flesh of that you shall reap corruption but if to the spirit life everlasting O my Soul answer seriously wouldst thou be willing to reap the fruit of vanity in the world to come darest thou say when thy thoughts are roving to the ends of the earth in duty when thou scarce mindest what thou sayest or hearest now Lord I am sowing to the Spirit now I am providing and laying up for eternity now I am seeking for glory honour and immortaliy now I am striving to enter in at the strait gate now I am taking the kingdom of Heaven by an holy violence O such a consideration as this should makâ— the multitudes of vain thoughts that preâ—s in upon thy heart in duty to flie seven ways before it and thus I have shewn you how to keep your hearts in the times of duty 7. Season The seventh season calling for more than common diligence to keep the heart is when we receive injuries and abuses from men such is the depravedness and corruption of man in his collapsed state that homo homini lupus one man is become a wolf a Tyger to anoâ—her thâ—y are as the Prophet complains Hab. 1. 14. as the fishes of the sea and as the creepâ—ng things that have no ruler over them and as wicked men are cruel and oppressive one to another so they conspire together to abuse and wrong the people of God as the same Prophet complains v. 13. the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he Now when we are thus abused and wroâ—ged 't is hard to keep the heart from revengful motions to make it meekly and quietly to commit the cause to him that judgeth righteously to exercise no other affection but pity towards them that abuse us Surely the Spirit that is in us lusteth to revenge but it must not be so you have choice helps in the Gospel to keep down your hearts from such sinful motions against your enemies and to sweeten your imbitter'd Spirits the seventh case therefore shall be this 7. Case How a Christian may keep his heart from revengful motions under the greatest injuries and abuses from men The gospel indeed allows a liberty to vindicate our innocency and assert our rights but not to vent our corruptions and invade Gods right when
must measure our love not by a violent motion of it now and then but by the depth of the root and constancy of its actings because David was so passionately moved for Absalom â—oaâ— concludes that if he had lived and all the people dyed it would have pleased him well 2 Sam. 19. 7. but that was argued more like a Souldier then a Logician 2. Quer. If you indeed love the creature for its self if you make it your end and religion but a means then the conclusion is rightly drawn upon you But if you love the creature in reference to God and see nothing in it seperated from him though sometimes your affections offend in the excess this is consistent with sincere love to God To love the creature inordinately i. e. to put it in Gods room and make it a mans end this is the love of a carnal heart to love it immoderately that is to let out more affection to it then we ought is sometimes the sin of the best hearts 3. Quer. Have not many Souls feared as you do that when Christ and creatures should stand as competitors in some eminent tryal they should forsake Christ rather then the creature and yet when brought to that Dilemma have been able to cast all the world at their heels for Christ Many of the Martyrs had such fears and thus they were satisfied the prevalency of love is best seen at parting there may be more love to Christ in thy Soul then thou art now aware of and if God bring thee to such a pinch thou mayest see it 4. A fourth ground of these sad conclusions is from hence that we find our hearts sometimes more straitned in private then in publick duties Oh if my Soul were sincere its actings in duty would be uniform I fear I am but a Pharisee upon this ground 't is sad indeed we should at any time find our hearts straitned in private But 1. Quer. Do not all thine inlargements in duty whether publick or private depend upon the Spirit who is the Lord of influences and according as he gives out or holds back those influences so art thou inlarged or straitned And what if sometimes he please to give that in a publick which he with-holds in a private duty as long as thy Soul is satisfied in neither without Communion with God and the straitness of thy heart is indeed its burden doth that argue thee to be an hypocrite 2. Quer. Dost thou not make conscience of private duties and set thy self as before the Lord in them Indeed if thou live in the constant neglect or careless performance of them if thou art curious about publick and careless about private duties that would be a sad sign but when you have conscientiously performed and often met with God in them it will not follow you are insincere because that communion is sometimes interrupted Besides 3. Quer. May there not be something at sometimes in a publick which is wanting in a private duty to raise and advantage thine affections God mâ—y sometimes make use of the melting affections of them with whom thou hearest or prayest as petty instruments to move thy affections this advantage is wanting in private therefore from hence the case so standing no such inferrence can be drawn 5. Another ground is from those horrid injections of Satan with which the Soul is greatly perplexed by these I may see what an heart I have can grace be where these are Yes grace may be where such thoughts are though not where they are lodged and consented to dost thou cry out under the burden enter thy protest in Heaven against them strive to keep up holy and reverend thoughts of God then t is a rape not a voluntary prostitution 6. The last ground of these sad conclusions is the Lords long silence and seeming denyal of our long depending suits and prayers O if God had any regard to my Soul he would have heard my cryes before now but I have no answer from him therefore no interest in him But stay doubting Soul 1. Quer. Have not many Saints stumbled upon this stone before thee Psal. 31. 22. I said in my hast I am cut off from before thine eyes nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplication So the Church Lam. 3. 44. Thou coverest thy self with a cloud that our prayers should not pass through Ionah 2. 4. Then said I I am cast out of thy sight and may not you be mistaken in this matâ—er as well as they 2. Quer. Though Gods abhorring and final rejecting prayer be an argument of his abhorring the person that prayes yet dare we conclude so from a meere suspension of the answer God may bear long with his own elect that cry unto him day and night Luk. 18. 7. 3. Quer. Can you deny but that there are some signs appearing in your Souls even whilest God suspends his answer that argue your prayers are not rejected by him as 1 Though no answer come yet you are still resolved to wait you dare not say as that prophane wretch did 2 Kings 6. 33. This evil is of the Lord why should I wait for him any longer 2 You can clear and justifie God still and lay the reason and cause of his silence upon your selves So did David Psal. 22. 2 3. O my God I cry in the day time and thou hearest not and in the night and am not silent but thou art holy c. 3 The suspension of Gods answer makes you inquisitive into your own hearts what evils are there that obstruct your prayers So the Church Lam. 3. 8. He shutteth out my prayer and how doth this work you may see v. 40. Let us search and try our ways well then neither from hence may you conclude that God hath no love for your Souls And thus I have shewn you how to keep your hearts in a dark and doubting season from those desperate conclusions of unbelief God forbid any false heart should incourage it self from these things t is our unhappiness that when we give Saints and sinners their proper portions that each of them are so prone to take up the others part 11. Season The eleventh special season calling for this diligence to keep our hearts is when sufferings for Religion come to an height then look to your hearts Matth. 24. 8 9 10. All these are the beginning of sorrows and they shall deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you and ye shall be hated of all nations for my names sake and THEN shall many be offended When sufferings for religion grow hot then blessed is he that is not offended in Christ troubles are then at an height 1 When a mans neerest friends and relations forsake and leave him Micah 7. 5 6. 2 Tim. 4. 16. When a man is ingaged alone 2 When it comes to resisting to blood Heb. 12. 4. 3 When temptations are presented to us in our sufferings Heb. 11. 37. 4 When eminent persons for
the view of the world 2. Why I direct it particularly to you First for the publication of it take this sincere and brief account that as I was led to this subject by a special providence so to the publication of it by a kind of necessity the providence at first leading me to it was this A dear and choyce friend of my intimate acquaintance being under much inward trouble upon the account of some special heart disorder opened the case to me and earnestly requested some rules and helps in that particular whilst I was bending my thoughts to that special case divers other cases of like importance some of which were dependent upon that under consideration occurred to my thoughts and this scripture which I have insisted upon presented it self asa fit foundation for the whole discourse which being lengthned out to what you see divers friends requested me to transcribe for their use divers of the cases here handled and some others begd me to publish the whole to which I was in a manner necessitated to save the pains of transcribing which to me is a very tedious and tiresome work and just as I had almost finished the copy an opportunity presented and that somewhat strangely to make it publick So that from first to last I have been carried beyond my first intentions in this thing Ob. If any say the world is even cloyed with books and therefore though the discourse be necessary yet the publication is needless Sol. 1. I answer there are multitudes of books indeed and of them many concern not themselves about root truths and practical godliness but spend their strength upon impracticable notions and frivolous controversies many also strike at root truths and endeavour to undermine the power of godliness and some there are that nourish the root and tend to clear and confirm to prepare and apply the geart truths of the gospel that they may be bread for souls to live and feed on now though I could wish that those that have handled the pen of the scribe had better imployed their time and pains then to obtrude such useless discourses upon the world yet for books of the latter rank I say that when husbandmen complain of too much corn let Christians complain of too many such books 2. And if you be so highly conceited of your own furniture and ability that such books are needless to you if you let them alone they will doe you no hurt and other poor hungry souls will be glad of them and bless God for what you despise and leave Ob. If it be said that several of the cases here handled touch not your condition I answer Sol. 1. That which is not your condition may be anothers condition If you be placed in an easie full and prosperous state and so have no need of the helps here offered to support your heart under pinching wants others are forced to live by faith for every daies provision If you be dandled upon the knee of providence some of your Brethren are under its feat If you have inward peace and tranquility of Spirit and so need not the Councels here given to ward off those desperate conclusions that poor afflicted souls are ready to draw upon themselves at such a time yet it may be a word in season to them and they may say as David to Abigail blessed be thou of the Lord and blessed be thy advice 2. That may be your condition shortly which is not your condition for present say not thy Mountain stands strong thou shalt never be moved there are changes in the right hand of the most High and then those truths which are little more esteemed than Hedge fruits will be as Aples of Gold in Pictures of Silver In Jer. 10. 11. The Prophet there teaches the Jews who then divelt in their own Houses how to defend their Religion in Babylon and what they should say to the Caldeans there and therefore that verse is written in Caldee So much for the reasons of its Publication Next for the Dedication of it to you I was induced thereto by the Consideration 1. Of the relation I have to you above all the people in the world I look upon my gifts as yours my time as yours and all the Talents I am entrusted with as yours It is not with you as with a woman whose Husband is dead and so is freed from the Law of her Husband the relation still continues and so do all the mutual duties of it 2. By the consideration of my necessitated absence from you I would not that personal absence should by insensible degrees untwist as usually it doth the cord of friendship and therefore have endeavoured as absent friends use to do to preserve and strengthen it by this small remembrance It was Vespatian's answer to Apollonius when be desired access for two Philosophers My Doors said Vespatian are alwaies open to Philosophers but my very Breast is open to thee I cannot say with him my Doors are open for the free access of friends being by a sad Providence shut against my self But this I can say my very breast is still open to you you are as dear to me as ever 3. Another inducement and indeed the main was the perpetual usefulness and necessity of these truths for you which you will have continual need of and I know few of you have such happy memories to retain and I cannot be alwaies with you to inculcate these things but litera scripta manet I was willing to leave this with you as a Legacy as a testimony of sincere love for and care over you This may councel and direct you when I cannot I may be rendred useless to you by a civil or natural Death but this will out live me and Oh that it may serve your souls when I am silent in the Dust To hasten now to a conclusion I have only these three requests to you which I carnestly beseech you not to deny me Yea I charge you as ever you hope to appear with comfort before the great Shepherd do not dare to slight these requests 1. Above all other studies in the world study your own hearts waste not a minute more of your precious time about frivolous and sapless controversies it is repoted even of Bellarmine how truely I examine not quod à studiis scholasticae theologiae averteretur ferè nauseabundus quoniam succo carebant liquidae pietatis i. e. â—e turned with loathing from the study of School Divinity because it wanted the sweet juice of piety I had rather it should be said of you as one said of Swinckfeedius He wanted a regular head but not an honest heart then that you should have regular heads and irregular hearts My dear Flock I have according to the grace given me laboured in the course of my ministry among you to feed you with the heart strengthening bread of practical doctrine and I do assure you it is far better you should
when I consider 1 that their mercies have greatly humbled them the higher God hath raised them the lower they have laid themselves before God Thus did Iacob when God had given him much substance Gen. 32. 5 10 And Iacob said I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies and all the truth which thou hast shewed thy servant for with my staff 〈◊〉 passed over this Iordan and now am become two Bands And thus it was with holy David 2 Sam. 7. 18. When God had confirmed the Promise to him to build him an house and not reject him as he did Saul he goes in before the Lord and saith who am I and what is my Fathers house that than hast brought me hitherto and so indeed God required Deut. 26. 5. when Israel was to bring to God the first fruits of Canaan they were to say A Syrian ready to perish was my father c. Do others raise God the higher for raising them and the more God raises me the more shall I abuse him and exalt my self Oh what a sad thing is this 2 others have freely ascribed the glory of all their injoyments to God and magnified not themselves but him for their mercies So David 2 Sam. 26. 26. Let thy name be magnified and the house of thy servant be established He doth not fly upon the mercy and suck out the sweetness of it looking no farther than his own comfort no he cares for no mercy except God be magnified in it So Psal. 18. 2. when God had delivered him from all his enemies the Lord saith he is my strength and my rock he is become my salvation They did not put the Crown upon their own heads as I do 3 The mercies of God have been melting mercies unto others melting their Souls in love to the God of their mercies So Hannah 1 Sam. 2. 1. when she received the mercy of a Son my soul saith she rejoyceth in the Lord not in the mercy but in the God of the mercy And so Mary Luke 1. 46. My soul doth magnify the Lord my spirit rejoyceth in God my Saviour the word signifies to make more room for God Their hearts were not contracted but the more inlarged to God 4 the mercies of God have been mighâ—y restraints to keep others from sin So Ezra 9. 13. Seeing thou our God hast given us such a deliverance as this should we again break thy Commandments ingenious Souls have felt the force of the obligations of love and mercy upon them 5 to conclude the mercies of God to others have been as oyle to the wheels of their obedience and made them fitter for service 2 Chro. 17. 5. Now if mercies work contrarily upon my heart what cause have I to be afraid that they come not to me in love I tell you this is enough to damp the Spirit of any Saint to see what sweet effects they have had on others and what sad effects on him 2. Season The second special Season in the life of a Christian requiring more than a common diligence to keep his heart is the time of adversity when providence frowns upon you and blasts your outward comforts then look to your hearts keep them with all diligence from repining against God or fainting under his hand for troubles though sanctified are troubles still even sweet bryar and holy thistle have their prickeles Ionah was a good man and yet how pettish was his heart under affliction Iob was the Mirrour of patience yet how was his heart discomposed by trouble you will find it as hard to get a composed spirit under great afflictions as it is to fix Quicksilver Oh the hurries and tumults which they occasion even in the best hearts well then the second Case will be this 2. Case How a Christian under great afflictions may keep his heart from repining or desponding under the hand of God Now there are nine special helps I shall here offer to keep thy heart in this condition and the first shall be this To work upon your hearts this great truth 1. That by these cross Providences God is faithfully pursuing the great design of electing love upon the Souls of his people and orders all these afflictions as means sanctified to that end Afflictions fall not out by Casualty but by Counsel Iob 5. 6. Eph. 1. 11. by this Counsel of God they are ordained as means of much spiritual good to Saints Isai. 27 9. By this shall the iniquity of Iacob be purged c. Heb. 12. 10. But he for our profit c. Rom. 8. 28. all things work together for good they are Gods workmen upon our hearts to pull down the pride and carnal security of them and being so their nature is changed they are turnâ—d into blessiâ—gs and benefits Psal. 119 71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted And sure then thou hast no reason to quarrel with but rather to admire that God should concern himself so much in thy good to use any means for the accomplishing of it Philip. 3. 11. Paul could bless God if by any means he might attain the resurrection of the dead my brethren saith Iames count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations 1 Iam. 2. 3. My father is about a design of love upon my soul and do I well to be angry with him all that he doth is in pursuance of and reference to some eternal glorious ends upon my Soul O 't is my ignorance of Gods design that makes me quarrel with him he saith to thee in this case as to Peter What I do thou knowest not now but hereafter thou shalt know it 2. Help Though God hath reserved to himself a liberty of afflicting his people yet he hath tyed up his own hands by promise never to take away his loving kindness from them Can I look that Scripture in the face with a repining diâ—contented spirit 2 Sam. 7. 14. I will be his father and he shall be my Son if he commit iniquity I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the stripes of the children of men nevertheless my mercy shall not depart away from him O my heart my naughty heâ—rt dost thou well to be discontented when God hath given thee the whole tree with all the clusters of comfort growing on it because he suffers the wind to blow down a few leaves Christians have two sorts of goods the goods of the throne and the goods of the foot stoole moveables and immoveables if God have secured these never let my heart be troubled at the loss of those indeed iâ— he had cut off his love or discovenanted my Soul I had reason to be cast down but this he hath not he cannot do 3. Help It is of marvellous efficacy to keep the heart from sinking under affliction to call to mind that thine own father hath the ordering of them not a Creature moves hand or tongue against thee but by his permission Suppose the cup be a
bitter cup yet 't is the cup which thy Father hath given thee to drink and canst thou suspect poison to be in that cup which he delivers thee foolish man put home the case to thine own heart consult with thine own bowels canst thou find in thy heart to give thy Child that which would hurt and undoe him no thou wouldst as soon hurt thy self as him If thou then being evil knowest how to give good gifts to thy children how much more doth God Math. 7. 11. the very consideration of his nature a God of love pity and tender mercies or of his relation to thee as a father husband friend might be security enough if he had not spoken a word to quiet thee in this case and yet you have his word too Ier. 25. 6. I will doe you no hurt You lye too near his heart to hurt you nothing grieves him more than your groundless and unworthy suspicions of his designs doe would it not grieve a faithful tender hearted Physician when he hath studied the case of his Patient prepared the most excellent receipts to save his life to hear him cry out Oh he hath undone me he hath poisoned me because it gripes and pains him in the operation O when will you be ingenious 4. Help God respects you as much in a low as in a high condition and therefore it need not so much trouble you to be made low nay to speak home he manifests more of his love grace and tenderness in the time of affliction than prosperity as God did not at first chuse you because you were high so he will not forsake you because you are low men may look shie upon you and alter their respects as your condition is altered when providence hath blasted your estates your summer friends may grow strange as fearing you may be troublesom to them but will God doe so No no I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Heb. 13. 5. indeed if adversity and poverty could bar you from access to God it were a sad condition but you may go to God as freely as ever my God saith the Church will hear me Micah 7. poore David when stript out of all earthly comforts could yet incourage himself in the Lord his God and why cannot you Suppose your husband or child had lost all at Sea and should come to you in raggs could you deny the relation or refuse to entertain him if you would not much less will God Why then are you so troubled though your condition be changed your fathers love and respects are not changed 5. Help And what if by the loss of outward comforts God will preserve your souls from the ruining power of temptation sure then you have little cause to sink your hearts by such sad thoughts about them Are not these earthly injoyments the things that make men shrink and warp in times of tryal for the love of these many have forsaken Christ in such an hour Matth. 19. 22. he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions and if this be Gods design what have I done in qâ—arrelling with him about it We see Marriners in a storm can throw over board rich bayles of silk and precious things to preserve the vessel and their lives with it and every one saith they act prudently we know 't is usual for Souldiers in a Citty besieged to batter down or burn the fairest buildings without the walls in which the enemy may shelter in the siege and no man doubts but ' its wisely done such as have gangrened leggs or arms can willingly stretch them out to be cut off and not only thank but pay the Chirurgion for his pains and must God only be repined at for catting over what would sink you in a storm or pulling down that which would advantage your enemy in the siege of temâ—tation for cutting off what would endanger your everlasâ—â—ng life O inconsiderate ingrateful man are not these things for which thou grievest the very things that have ruined thousands of Souls well what Christ doth in this thou knowest not now but hereafter thou mayest 6. Help it would much stay the heart under adversity to consider that God by such humbling providences may be accomplishing that for which you have long prayed and waited and should you be troubled at that say Christian hast thou not many prayers depending before God upon such accounts as these that he would keep thee from sin discover to thee the emptiness and insufficiency of the Creature that he would kill and mortifie thy lusts that thy heart may never find rest in any injoyment but Christ why now by such humbling and impoverishing strokes God may be fulfilling thy desire wouldst thou be kept from sin lo he hath hedged up thy way with thorns Wouldst thou â—ee the creatures vanity thy affliction is a fair glass to discover it for the vanity of the creature is never so effâ—ctually and sensibly discovered as in our own experience of it wouldst thou have thy corruptions mortified this is the way Now God takes away the food and fewel that maintain'd them for as prosperity begat and fed them so adversity when sanctified is a means to kill them Wouldst thou have thy heart to rest no where but in the bosom of God what better way canst thou imagine providence should take to accomplish thy desire than by pulling from under thy head that soft pillow of creature delights on which thou restedst before and yet thou fret at this peevish child how dost thou exercise thy Fathers patience if he delay to answer thy prayers thou art ready to say he regards thee not if he doe that which really answers the scope and main end of them but not in the way thou expectâ—dst thou quarrellest with him for that as if instead of answering he were crossing all thy hopes and aimes is this ingenious is it not enough that God is so gracious to doe what thou desirest but thou must be so impudent to exspect he should doe it in the way which thou prescribest 7. Help Again it may stay thy heart if thou consider That in these troubles God is about that work which if thou didst see the design of thy Soul would rejoyce We poor creatures are bemisted with much ignorance and are not able to discern how particular providences work towards Gods end and therefore like Israel in the wilderness are often murmuring because providence leads us about in a howling desart where we are expâ—sed to straits though yet then he led them and is now leading us by the right way to a City of habitations if you could but see how God in his secret Counsel hath exactly laid the whole plot and design of thy salvation even to the smallest means and circumstances this way and by these means such a one shall be saved and by no other such a number of afflictions I appoint for this man at this time and in this order they shall befall him thus and
which the grounds of doubting our sincerity may be reduced 1 Gods carriage towards the Soul either in the time of some extraordinary affliction or of some long and sad desertion Or 2 The souls carriage towards God And here it usually argues against the truth of its own graces either 1 From its relapses into the same sins from which it hath formerly risen with shame and sorrow Or 2 From the sensible declining of its affections from God Or 3 From the excess of the affections towards creature-comforts and enjoyments Or 4 From its enlargements in publick and often straitnings in private Duties Or 5 From some horrid injections of Satan with which the soul is greatly perplexed Or Lastly From Gods silence and seeming denial of its long depending Suits and Prayers These are the common grounds of those sad conclusions Now in order to the establishment and support of the heart in this condition it will be necessary 1. That you be acquainted with some general Truths which have a tendency to the settlement of a trembling and doubting Soul 2. That you be rightly instructed about the forementioned Particulars which are the grounds of your doubting The general truths requisite for poor doubting souls to be acquainted with are these 1. That every working and appearance of hypocrisie doth not presently prove the person in whom it is to be an hypocrite You must carefully distinguish between the presence and predominancy of hypocrisie there are remains of deceitfulness in the best hearts David and Peter had sad experience of it yet the standing frame and general bent of the heart being upright it did not denominate them hypocrites 2. That we ought as well to hear what can be said for us as against us It is the sin of upright hearts sometimes to use an over rigid and merciless severity against themselves they do not indifferently consider the case of their own souls it is in this case as Solomon speaks in another Prov. 13. 7. There is that maketh himself rich and yet hath nothing and there is that maketh himself poor and yet hath great riches 'T is the damning sin of the self flattering hypocrite to make his condition better then 't is and it is the sin and folly of some upright ones to make their condition worse then indeed it is Why should you be such enemies to your own peace to read over the evidences of Gods love to your Souls as a man doth a book which he intends to confute why doe you study to find evasions to turn off those comforts which are due to you 't is said of Ioseph that he was minded to put away his espoused Mary not knowing that that holy thing which was conceived in her was by the holy ghost and this may be your case A third truth is this 3. That many a Saint hath charged and condemned himself for that which God will never charge him with nor condemn him for Why hast thou hardned our heart from thy fear saith the Church Isai. 63. 17. and yet the verse before manifests that their hearts were not so hardned godly Bradford wrote himself an hypocrite a painted sepulchre yet doubtless God acquitted him of that charge 4. Every thing which is a ground of grief to the people of God is not a sufficient ground of questioning their sincerity There are many more things to trouble you then there are to stumble you if upon every slip and failing through infirmity you should question all that ever was wrought upon you your life must be made up of doubtings and fears you can never attain a setled peace nor live that life of praise and thankfulness the gospel calls for 5. The Soul is not at all times fit to pass judgment upon its own condition To be sure in the dark day of desertion when the Soul is benighted and in the stormy day of temptation when the Soul is in a hurry 't is utterly unfit to judge its estate examine your hearts upon your beds and be still Psal. 4. This is rather a season for watching and resisting then for judging and determining 6. That every breach of peace with God is not a breach of Covenant with God The wife hath many weaknesses and failings often grieves and displeases her husband yet in the main is faithful and truly loves him these failings may cause him to alter his carriage but not to withdraw his love or deny his relation Return O back-sliding Israel for I am married unto you 7. Lastly what ever our sin or trouble be it should rather drive us to God then from God Pardon my sin for it is great Psal. 25. 11. Suppose it be true that thou hast â—o and so sinned that thou art thus long and sadly deserted yet 't is a false inference that therefore thou shouldest be discouraged as if there were no help for thee in thy God When you have well digested these seven establishing truths if still the doubt remain then consider what may be replyed to the particular grounds of those doubts As 1. You doubt and are ready to conclude the Lord hath no regard or love for your Souls because of some extraordinary affliction which is come upon you but I would not have thy Soul so to conclude till thou be able satisfactorily to answer those three questions 1. Quest. If great troubles and afflictions be marks of Gods hatred why should not impunity and constant prosperity be tokens of his love for contrariorum contraria est ratio consequentia of contrary things there is a contrary reason and consequence but is this so indeed or saith not the scripture quite otherwise Prov. 1. 32. The prosperity of fools destroy them So Psal. 73. â— 2. Quest. Dare I draw the same conclusion upon all others that have been as much yea more afflicted then my self if this argument conclude against thee then so it doth against every one in thy condition yea the greater the affliction of any Child of God hath been the more strongly the argument still concludes and then wo to David Iob Heman Paul and all that have been afflicted as they were 3. Quest. Had God exempted you only from those troubles which all other his people â—eel would not that have been a greater ground of doubting to you then this especially since the scripture saith Heb. 12. 8. If ye be without chastnings whereof all are partakers then are ye bastards and not sons O how is our Father put to it by froward Children if he afflicts then one crys he loves me not if he exempt from affliction others question his love upon that ground Surely you have other work to do under the rod then thiâ— 2. Or do you rashly infer the Lord hath no love for you because he hides his face from you that your condition is miserable because dark and uncomfortable before you draw such rash conclusions see what answer you can give to these 4. following queries 1. Quer. If any action of God
towards his people will bear a favourable as well as an harsh and severe construction why should not his people interpret it in the best sense And is not this such may he not have a design of love as well as of hatred in this dispensation may he not depart for a season and not for ever yea that he might not depart for ever you are not the first that have mistaken Gods ends in desertion Isai. 49. 14. Sion said the Lord hath forsaken me my God hath forgotten me was it so indeed nothing less v. 15. can a mother forget c. 2. Qâ—er Do you find the marks of an absolute total and final desertion upon your own Spirits that you are so apt to conclude yours to be such Do you find your heart inclined to forsake God have you lost your conscientious tenderness in point of sin if so Sad characters appear upon you indeed but if in this dark hour you are as tender of sin as ever as much resolved to cleave to God as ever I cannot I will not forsake God let him do what he will with me oh no I cannot If your hearts work thus it can be but a partial limited and temporary desertion by this he still keeps his interest in your hearts a sure sign he will return and visit you again 3. Quer. Is sence and feeling a competent judge of Gods actions and designs Or may a man safely rely upon its testimony after so many discoveries of the fallibility of it is this a sound argument if God had any love for my Soul if it were not quite gone I should feel it now as well as in former times but I cannot feel it therefore it s quite gone Do not you know the Sun still keeps on his course in the Heavens even in full and closs weather when you cannot see it and may it not be so with the love of God read Isai. 50. 10. may I not as well conclude in winter when the flowers have hid their beautiful heads under ground they are quite dead and gone because I cannot find them in December where I saw them in May 4. Quer. Think you the Lord cares not to break his childrens hearts and his own promise too hath he no more regard to either if he return no more these must be the consequents Isai. 57. 16 17. Heb. 13. 5. Well then from Gods carriage towards you either in â—ffliction or desertion no such discouraging heart sinking conclusions can be inferr'd Next let us see whether they may not be inferr'd from our carriage towards God and here the principal grounds of doubting are such as these 1. I have fallen again into the same sin from which I have formerly risen with repentance and resolution therefore my sinning is customary sinning a spot that is not the spot of Gods children hence the upright Soul trembles upon this t is ready to affirm that all its former humiliations for and oppositions unto sin were but acts of hypocrisie But stay poor trembling heart 1. Quer. If this be so how comes it to pass that Christ put such a favourable construction upon the Disciples sleeping the third time when he had as often reproved them for it Maâ—â—h 26. 40 41. And how is it that we find in Scripture so many promises made not only to the first sins but also to the backslidings of Gods people Ier. 3. 22. Hose 14. 4. 2. Quer. Is not your repentance and care renued as often as your guilt is renued Yea the oftner you sin the more you are troubled it is not so in customary sinning the rise whereof Bernard excellently discovers Lib. de Consâ— 1 saith he when a man p. 1109. accustomed to good sinneth grieviously it seems importable yea he seems to descend alive into hell 2 In process of time it seems not importable but heavy and betwixt importable and heavy there is no small descent 3 Next it becomes light his conscience smites but faintly and he feels not the stripes of it 4 Then there is not only a total insensibleness of it but that which was bitter and displeasing is now become sweet and pleasing in some degree 5 Then t is turned into custom and not only pleases but daily pleases Lastly custom is turned into nature he cannot be pull'd away from it but defends and pleads for it this is customary sinning this is the way of the wicked but the quite contrary is our condition 3. Quer. Are you sure from Scripture grounds that a good man may not relapse again and again into the same sin 'T is true as for gross sins they do not use to relapse into them David committed adultery no more Paul persecuted the Church no more Peter denyed Christ no more but I speak of ordinary infirmities Iobs friends were good men yet saith he Chap. 19. 3. These ten times have ye reproached me So then no such conclusions follow from this first ground of doubting 2. The second ground is the declining and withering of our affections to spiritual things O saith the upright Soul if ever I had been planted a right seed I should have been as a green olive tree in the house of my God but my branches wither therefore my root is naught But stay 1. Qâ—er May you not be mistaken about the decay of grace and fading of your affections What if they be not so quick and ravishing as at first may not that be recompensed in the spirituality and solidity of them â—ow 1 Phil. 9. I pray God your love may abound more and more in all judgment it may be more solid though not so ferverous or do you not mistake by looking forward to what you would be rather then backward to what once you were 't is a good note of Ames we discern the growth of grace as the growth of plants which we perceive rather crevisse quam crescere to have grown then to grow 2. Quer. But grant it be so indeed as you affirm must it needs follow that the root of the matter is not in you Davids last waies are distinguished from his first 2 Chr. 17. 3. and yet both first and last a holy man The Church of Ephesus is charged by Christ for leaving her first love and yet a golden Candlestick many precious Saints in that Church Rev. 2. 2 3 4. 3. A third ground of these sad conclusions is the excess of our affections to some creature injoyments I fear I love the creature more than God and if so my love is but hypocritical I sometimes feel stronger and more sensible motions of my heart to some earthly comforts then I do to heavenly objects therefore my Soul is not upright in me But stay Soul 1. Quer. May not a man love God more solidly and strongly then the Creature and yet his affections to the creatures be sometimes moved more violently and sensibly then toward God as rooted malice argues a stronger hatred then a sudden though more violent passion so we
Christian recover his first love how may the heart be preserved from unseasonable thoughts in duty how may a bosome sin be discovered and mortified c. Would not this have tended more to the credit of religion and comfort of your Souls O t is time to repent and be ashamed of this folly when I read what Suarez a Papist said who wrote many Tomes of disputations that he prised the time he set apart for the searching and examining of his heart in reference to God above all the time that ever he spent in other studies I am ashamed to find the professors of this age yet insensible of their folly shall the Conscience of a Suarez feel a relenting pang for strength and time so ill imployed and shall not yours this is it your Ministers long since warned you of your spiritual nurses were afraid of the rickets when they saw your heads only to grow and your hearts to wither O when will God beat oâ—r swords into plowshares I mean our disputes and contentions into practical godliness 2 Another cause of neglecting our heart hath been earthly incumbrances the heads and hearts of many have been filled with such a crowd and noise of worldly business that they have sadly and sensibly declined and withered in their zeal love and delight in God in their heavenly serious and profiâ—able way of conversing with man O how hath this wilderness intangled us our discourses and conferences nay our very prayers and duties have a tang of it we have had so much work without doors that we have been able to doe but little within It was the sad complaint of an holy one O saith he t is sad to think how many precious opportunities I have lost how many sweet motions and admonitions of the Spirit I have posted over unfruitfully and made the Lord to speak in vain in the secret illapses of his Spirit the Lord hath called upon me but my worldly thoughts did still lodge within me and there was no place in my heart for such calls of God surely there is a way of injoying God even in our worldly imployments Gâ—d would never have put us upon them to our loss Enoch walked with God and begat sons and daughters Gen. 5. 19. He walked with God but did not retire and seperate himself from the things of this life and the Angels that are imployed by Christ in the things of this world for the Spirit of the living creatures is in the wheels they are finite creatures and cannot be in a twoâ—old ubi at one time yet they lose nothing of the beatifical vision all the time of their administration for Matâ—h 18. 10. their Angels even whilest they are imployed for them Behold the face of their father which is in heaven We need not lose our visions by our imployments if the fault were not our own alas that ever Christians who stand at the doore of eternity and have more work upon their hands then this poor moment of interposing time is sufficient for should yet be filling both our heads and hearts with trifles 3. Hence also I infer for the awakening of all that if the keeping of the heart be the great work of a Christian then there are but few real Christians in the world Indeed if every one that hath learned the dialect of Christianity and can talke like a Saint if every one that hath giâ—ts and parts and by the common assisting presence of the Spirit can preach pray or discourse like a Christian in a word if such as associate themselves with the people of God and delight in ordinances might pass for Christians the number then is great But alas to what a small number will they shrink if you judge them by this rule how few are there that make Conscience of keeping their hearts watching their thoughts judging their ends c. O there be but few closet men among professors t is far easier for men to be reconciled to any duties in religion then to these the prophane part of the world will not so much as touch with the outside of religious duties much less to this and for the hypocrit though he be polite and curious about those externals yet you can never perswade him to this inward work this difficult work this work to which there is no inducement by humane applause this work that would quickly discover what the hypocrit cares not to know so that by a general consent this heart work is left to the hands of a few secret ones and I tremble to think in how few hands it is II. Vse for Exhortation IF the keeping of the heart be so important a business if such choice advantages â—ccrew to you thereby if so many dear and precious interests be wrapt up in it then let me call upon the people of God every where to fall close to this work O study your hearts watch your hearts keep your hearts away with fruitless controversies and idle questions away with empty names and vain shews away with unprofitable discourse bold censures of others turn in upon your selves get into your closets and now resolve to dwell there you have been strangers to this work too long you have kept others vineyards too long you have trifled about the borders of religion too long this world hath deteined you from your great work too long will you now resolve to look better to your hearts will you haste and come out of the crowds of business and clamours of the world and retire your selves more then you have done O that this day you would resolve upon it Reader methinks I should prevail with thee all that I beg for is but this that thou wouldst step aside a little oftner to talk with God and thine own heart that thou wouldst not suffer every trifle to divert thee that thou wouldest keep a more true and faithful account of thy thoughts and affections that thou wouldst but seriously demand of thine own heart at least every evening O my heart where hast thou been to day whether hast thou made a rode to day if all that hath been said by way of induccment be not enough I have yet more motives to offer you and the first is this 1. Motive The studying observing and diligent keeping of your own hearts will marvellously help your understanding in the deep mysteries of Religion An honest well experienced heart is a singular help to a weak head such a heart will serve you in stead of a Commentary upon a great part of the Scriptures by this means you shall far better understand the things of God than the learned Rabbies and profound Doctors if graceless and unexperienced ever did you shall not only have a more clear but a more sweet perception and gust of them a man may discourse orthodoxly and profoundly of the nature and effects of faith the troubles and comforts of Conscience the sweetness of Communion with God that never felt the efficacy and sweet
majestick beams of holiness shining from their heavenly and serious conversations shall awe the world and command reverence from all that are about them when they shall warm the hearts of those that come nigh them so that men shall say God is in these men of a truth Well such a time may again be exspected according to that promise Isai. 60. 21. The people shall be all righteous But till we fall closer to this great work of keeping our hearts I am out of hopes to see those blessed daies I cannot exspect better times till God give better hearts doth it not grieve you to see what a scorn religion is made in the world what objects of contempt and scorn the professors of it are made in the world Professors would you recover your credit would you again obtain an honourable testimony in the Consciences of your very enemies then keep your hearts watch your hearts t is the loosness frothiness and earthliness of your hearts that â—ath made your lives so and this hath brought you under contempt of the world you first lost your sights of God and communion with him then your heavenly and serious deportment among men and by that your interest in their Consciences O then for the credit of religion for the honour of your profession keep your hearts 7. Mot. By diligence in keeping our hearts we should prevent and remove the fatal scandals and stumbling blocks out of the way of the world Wo to the world saith Christ because of offences Matth. 18. 7. doth not shame cover your faces doe not your hearts bleed within you to heare of the scandalous mâ—scarriages of many loose professors could you not like Shem and Iaphet goe backward with a garment to cover the shame of many professors how is that worthy name blasphemed 2 Iames 7. 2. Sam. 12. 13 14. the hearts of the righteous sadned Psal. 25. 3. Ezek. 36. 20. by this the world is fearfully prejudiced against Christ and religion the bonds of death made fast upon their Souls those that had a general love and likeing to the ways of God staâ—tled and quite driven back and thus Soul bloud is shed wo to the World Yea how are the Consciences of fallen professors plunged and even overwhelmed in the deeps of trouble God inwardly excommunicating their Souls from all comfortable fellowship with himself and the joys of his salvation infinite are the mischiefs that come by the scandalous lives of professors And what is the true cause and reason of all this but the neglecting of their hearts were our hearts better kept all this would be prevented had David kept his heart he had not broken his bones a neglected careless heart must of necessity produce a disorderly scandalous life I thanke God for the freedome and faithfulness of a reverend brother in shewing professors their manifold miscarriages and from my heart doe wish that when their wounds have been throughly searched by that probe God would be pleased to heal them by this Plaister O professors if ever you will keep religion sweet if ever you hope to recover the credit of it in the world keep your hearts either keep your hearts or lose your credit keep your hearts or lose your comforts keep your hearts least ye shed Soul bloud what words can express the deep concernments the wonderful consequences of this work every thing puts a necessity a solemnity a beauty upon it 8. Mot. An heart well kept will fit you for any condition God casts you into or any service he hath to use you in He that hath learnt how to keep his heart lowly is fit for prosperity and he that knows how to use and apply to it Scripture promises and supports is fit to pass through any adversity he that can deny the pride and selfishness of his heart is fit to be imployed in any service for God such a man was Paul he did not only spend his time in preaching to others in keeping others vineyards but he lookt to himself kept his own vineyard 1 Cor. 9. 27. Least when I have preached to others I my self should be a cast away and what an eminent instrument was he for God he could turn his hand to any work he could dexterously manage both an adverse and prosperous condition I know how to abound and how to suffer want let the people deifie him it moves him not unless to indignation Let them stone him he can bear it if a man purge himself from these saith he 2 Tim. 2. 21. He shall be a Vessel unto honour sanctified and meet for the masters use and prepared unto every good work First the heart must be purged and then t is prepared for any service of God when the heart of Isaiah was purified which was the thing signified by the touching of his lips with a coal from the Altar Isai. 6. 7. then he was fit for Gods work here am I send me v. 8. a man that hath not learned to keep his heart put him upon any service for God and if it be attended with honour it shall swell up and overtop his spirit if with suffering it will exanimate and sink him Jesus Christ had an instrumental fitness for his fathers work above all the servants that ever God imployed he was zealous in publick work for God so zealous that sometimes he forgat to eat bread yea that his friends thought he had been besides himself but yet he so carried on his publick work as not to forget his own private communion with God and therefore you read in Matth. 14. 23. that when he had been labouring all day yet after that he went up to a mountain apart to pray and was there alone O let the keepers of the vineyards look to their own vineyard we shall never be so instrumental to the good of others as when we are most diligent about our own Souls 9. Mot. If the people of God would more diligently keep their hearts how exceedingly would the communion of Saints be thereby sweetnedâ— How goodly then would be thy tents O Iacob and thy tabernacles O Israel then as t is prophesied of the Jews Zech. 8. 23. Men would say we will go with you for we have heard that God is among you T is the fellowship your Souls have with the Father and with the Son that draws out the desires of others after fellowship with you 1 Ioh. 1. 3. I tell you if Saints would be perswaded to take more pains and spend more time about their hearts there would quickly be such a divine lustre upon the face of their coversations that men would account it no small priviledge to be with or near them T is the pride passion and earthliness of our hearts that hath spoiled Christian fellowship whence is it that when Christians meet they are often jarring and contending but only their unmortified passions whence are their uncharitable censures of their brethren but only from self ignorance why are they so rigid
thou art troubled about their bodies and outward condition why should not that word satisfy thee Ier. 49. 11. Leave thy fatherless children to me I will keep them alive and let thy Widows trust in me Luther in his last Will and Testament hath this expression Lord thou hast given me wife and children I have nothing to leave them but I commit them unto thee O Father of the fatherless and judge of widows nutri serva doce nourish keep and teach them or art thou troubled for their Souls thou canst not convert them if thou shouldst live and God can make thy prayers and counsels to live and take place upon them when thou art dead 2. Obj. I would fain live to doe God more service in the world Sol. Well but if he have no more service for thee to doe here why shouldst thou not say with David if he have no delight to use me any farther here am I let him doe what seemeth him good in this world thou hast no more to doe but he is calling thee to an higher service and imployment in Heaven and what thou wouldest doe for him here he can doe that by other hands 3. Obj. I am not yet fully ready I am not as a bride compleatly adorned for the bridegroom Sol. 1. Thy justification is compleat already though thy sanctification be not so and the way to make it so is to dye for till then it will have its defects and wants 4. Obj. O but I want assurance if I had that I could dye presently Sol. 1. Yea there it sticks indeed but then consider that an hearty willingness to leave all the world to be freed from sin and be with God is the next way to that desired assurance no carnal person was ever willing to dye upon this ground And thus I have finished those cases which so nearly concern the people of God in the several conditions of their life and taught them how to keep their hearts in all I shall next apply the whole I. Vse of Information YOU have heard that the keeping of the heart is the great work of a Christian in which the very Soul and life of Religion consists and without which all other duties are of no value with God hence then I shall infer to the consternation of hypocrites and formal Professors 1. That the pains and labours which many persons have taken in religion is but lost labour and pains to no purpose such as will never turn to account Many great services have been performed many glorious works are wrought by men which yet are utterly rejected by God and shall never stand upon record in order to an eternal acceptation because they took no heed to keep their hearts with God in those duties this is that fatal rock upon which thousands of vain professors split themselves eternally they are curious about the externals of religion but regardless of their hearts O how many hours have some Professors spent in hearing praying reading conferring and yet as to the main end of religion as good they had sate still and done nothing for all this signifies nothing the great work I mean heart work being all the while neglected tell me thou vain professor when didst thou shed a teare for the deadness hardness unbelief or earthliness of thy heart thinkst thou such an easie religion can save thee if so we may invert Christs words and say wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to life and many there be that goe in thereat hear me thou self deluding hypocrit thou that hast put of God with hartless duties thou that hast acted in religion as if thou hadst been blessing an Idol that could not search and discover thy heart thou that hast offered to God but the skin of the sacrifice not the marrow fat and inwards of it how wilt thou abide the coming of the Lord how wilt thou hold up thy head before him when he shall say O thou dissembling false hearted man how couldst thou profess religion with what face couldst thou so often tell me thou lovedst me when thou knewest all the while in thine own conscience that thine heart was not with me O tremble to think what a fearful judgment it is to be given over to a heedless and careless heart and then to have religious duties in stead of a rattle to quiet and still the Conscience 2. Hence I also infer for the humiliation even of upright hearts that unless the people of God spend more time and pains about their hearts then generally and ordinarily they do they are never like to do God much service or be owners of much comfort in this World I may say of that Christian that is remiss and careless in keeping his heart as Iacob said of Reuben Thou shalt not excel It grieves me to see how many Christians there are that go up and down dejected and complaining that live at a poor low rate both of service and comfort and how can they expect it should be otherwise as long as they live at such a careless rate O how little of their time is spent in the closet in searching humbling and quickning their hearts You say your hearts are dead and doe you wonder they are so as long as you keep them not with the fountain of life if your bodies had been diated as your Souls have been they would have been dead too never expect better hearts till you take more pains with them qui â—ugit molam fugit farinam he that will not have the sweat must not expect the sweet of Religion O Christians I fear your zeal and strength hath run in the wrong chaâ—nel I fear most of us may take up the Churches complaint Cant. 1. 6. They have made me the keeper of the Vineyards but mine own Vineyard have I not kept Two things have eaten up the time and strength of the Professors of this Generation and sadly diverted them from heart work 1 Fruitless controversies started by Sathan I doubt not to this very purpose to take us off from practical godliness to make us puzzle our heads when we should be searching our hearts O how little have we minded that of the Apostle Heb. 13. 9. T is a good thing that the heart be established with Grace and not with meats i. e. with disputes and controversies about meats which have not profited them that have been occupied therein O how much better is it to see men live exactly then to hear them dispute subtilly these unfruitful questions how have they rendred the Churches wasted time and spirits and called Christians off from their main business from looking to their own vineyard what think you Sirs had it not been better if the questions ventilated among the people of God of late days had been such as these how shall a man discern the special from the common operations of the Spirit how may a Soul discern its first declineings from God how may a backsliding