find that in it which none ever found will it do more for thee than ever it did for any Believe its vanity upon God's Word ere thou try it by thy sad experience Get faith to suck vertue out of Christ's death to vanquish it For this is our victory 1 Ioh. 5.4 that overcometh the world even our faith Lay thee down with Christ in the grave by faith and say then What is the world Get faith to believe that eternal happiness which being once seen by that piercing eye would so disgrace the world that all the comforts of it would not weigh a straw in comparison of it If a man lived in the Sun what a poor mote would the whole earth look He that lives in Christ in Heaven by faith sees all the glories of the earth with a disdainful eye and cries Vanity of vanities all is vanity 2. You shall be helped against this disease by deep consideration of the folly and misery of such a frame of heart It 's folly for all that is gotten of the world with the neglect of the soul invasion of holy duties or by a carking worldly heart comes to thee in wrath will sink thee deeper in hell or if thou repent is most commonly some way consumed vix gaudet tertius haeres thy grand-child will rue it If we could penetrate the method of God's providence usually those losses you have in this beast or the other house or the like are the just value of what you have gotten by immoderate care hard dealing with others or unseasonable contrivance when your heart should have been better employed And then the misery of worldly-mindedness that it pierceth the heart through with many sorrows Sorrow and pain in getting sorrow and care in keeping sorrow and grief in losing The heart is never at perfect rest A man would not use his horse as a worldling doth his heart gives it no quiet or ease and all this to no purpose at all Hab. 2.13 The people labour in the very fire and weary themselves for very vanity and may not the consideration hereof be an effectual means to hate this humour and when it is once hated it is more than half discharged 3. Have recourse to God by prayer and therein see and bewail thy former madness solemnly vow to restore their right to every man thou hast wronged rather part like Zacheus with half thine estate than with thy whole soul and body and earnestly cry to the Lord to encline thy heart to his testimonies and not unto covetousness Psal. 119.36 Intreat your heavenly Father to give you an heavenly heart and if it come not at first asking it 's a gift worth going for again humbly tell him by vertue of that Covenant wherein you promised to forsake the world which you are now resolved to stick to his Majesty is bound to give you a mortifi'd and heavenly heart and you will never leave him till you have obtained it 4. Charm your hearts from worldly thoughts when you go to the worship of God Prov. 16.1 3. The preparation of the heart is from the Lord Commit thy ways to him and thy thoughts shall be established The Heathen left their shooes at the Temple doors to intimate that all earthly affections must be left behind you when you go to speak with God Do as that great States-man used who would lay off his Gown wherein he administred his Office when he went to worship God and say Lie there Lord Cecil implying he would take none of the cares of his Office into the presence of God So when you go to prayer reading or hearing lay aside the world and say Lie there house ye fields lie there lie there my cares till I have done with God So Abraham left his servants and asses Gen. 22.5 below the hill and took up nothing but an holy heart and the materials of his Sacrifice with him thither Keep still an eye upon your hearts and both watch and pray lest ye enter into temptation SECT VI. THe sixth cause of Distractions in the Worship of God is Weakness of love to Iesus Christ and consequently to his Ordinances Love unites the soul to its object as Faith is the bond of our mystical so Love is the bond of our moral union with Christ. The more love to Christ the more life in his service Cant. 8.6 Set me as a seal upon thy heart as a seal upon thy arm for love is strong as death Were your love more strong it would seal up both soul and body and unite them firmly unto Jesus Christ. Love marries the heart and eye to the object hence 't is there is not a distracting thought in heaven for there love is perfect they see and love and sing and praise and see enjoy and love for ever and ever The three Disciples Matth. 17.4 had but an half-quarter glimpse of that state but their love to their dearest Lord and his presence was so heightned that the world was forgotten Ierusalem below and all their friends and fellow-Disciples forgotten and they undone to abide there And if we could by the eye of faith see him that is invisible and perfectly love him O how hardly could we spare a by-thought in his presence and service no all the world would be forgotten comforts and crosses all sleep together while God and our soul were conversing in an Ordinance Whence is it that most men can work and care perpetually and no distractions divert them discourse their business most orderly without one alien thought drive on a bargain an hour together and think on nothing but what 's pertinent to their present business Why they love what they are about they like it well and so tongue and heart go together are wholely taken up therewith The jovial knot like their company and nothing shall distract them the servant comes about necessary business the master fumes that they will not let him alone the child comes and then the wife but he frets he rages And why all this why he loves his company 't is his delight his heaven Even so the Soul that hath a strong love to a precious Christ and his Ordinance-presence doth most heavily bear a distracting thought The devil cannot pluck him from Christ but the soul smarts and when there is this smart at parting that soul will part but seldom You have sometimes seen a sucking child that loves the mother and the breast most dearly how loth is it to leave it while it is hungry how eagerly and angrily it seeks and cries and catches hold again Here 's love Christ Iesus is the spring of all happiness and his Ordinances are his breasts and he that loves the Lord Jesus with all his soul and all his strength there he lies and sucks at the breasts of consolation This business knocks at door that trifle tempts him yet there he sticks and frowns away all his temptations His love is ardent Psal.
be busie too If we had only an Idol to serve the body were enough but God is a spirit and cannot be conversed with without the spirit yea and the whole spirit also Fond man that thinks with his narrow soul to deal with God and somewhat else who alone is immense and beyond our greatest capacity He must be taken up and goe out of the world in a sense that will get into Heaven The soul on the lip and the soul in the ear do rid work in the service of God 3. It is sweet work Psal. 138.5 Yea they shall sing in the wayes of the Lord for great is the glory of the Lord mark shall sing their spirits shall neither droop nor step aside He that attends on the Lord hath a most sweet imployment now the mind useth not to straggle at most rare musick or under an enchanting song Alexanders great soul yet is said exilire è convivio under the charms of Musick O the gracious presence of God! his sweet smiles and blessed love-tokens that can transport Angels sure they may ingage the heart of man and sufficiently fill it Read the Canticles and say then Is not converse with God an Heaven upon Earth and how far is Heaven from distracted thoughts sad and severe things afflict the mind It would flit from such subjects but sweet imployment ingages all the heart next dwelling in Heaven is the soul flying to Heaven in an Ordinance Our dryest Duties yield us least comfort The nearer the Sun the warmer More close to God more sweet you 'l find him and never more joyfull than in the House of Prayer SECT III. THe third reason is taken from the Nature of our Condition and that is this 1. We cannot live without God In him we live as to our natural life every 〈◊〉 is fetcht from Him so in our spiritual life the life of the soul is He that made it A world without a Sun is dark a body without a soul is dead but a soul withont God is dark is dead is damned It s true men feed and sing and make a shift without God in the World but he that lives truly lives by faith the other life Beasts live they eat and drink and work but know not God but if you will define the life of a soul God must be in the beginning in the midst and in the end of it 2. Our only way of communion with God is in an Ordinance This is the River the streams whereof make glad the heart Were a City besieged by mortal enemies round about and no relief to be conveyed but by the River that waters it how fatal to the City would the stopping of that River be that City must starve or yield The ordinary supplies that a Christian cannot be without come swimming down from Heaven through the Ordinances of God Distractions stop the River hinder Prayer from ascending to God hinder instruction from descending into the heart intercept commerce and starve the soul. The zeal of the Iews was eminent this way of whom Iosephus relates that when Pompeys Souldiers shot at the thickest of them in the siege of Ierusalem yet amidst those arrows did they go and perform their rites as though there had been peace why thy Prayer is the Embassador Distractions cut off the feet and Prov. 26.6 He that sendeth a message by the hand of a fool cutteth off the feet and drinketh damage A wandring Prayer is a message by the hand of a fool and that man is like to drink damage that useth it A man is a poor thing without God and God is not ordinarily met with but in an Ordinance 3. All our strength and Heart is too little for this business All our understanding too little to apprehend his rare perfections All our affections too weak and shallow to love imbrace and delight in him hence Mark 12.33 we are obliged to love and so to serve the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our strength that is with every faculty of the soul and with the utmost strength of every faculty Now if it be hard enough to climb the hill unto God with wings how shall we ascend with these weights about us or think to please with half an heart when the whole is too little for he is a great King and his name is dreadfull among the Heathen when all the water in the pool will but turn the Mill that Miller is a fool that by twenty Channels lets out the Water other wayes The intense and earnest heart is little enough to converse with God all the water in our Pool will but turn the Mill. What then can the remiss heart bring to pass and how unlikely are we to obtain with the great God with the negligent approaches of a trivial spirit with a little part of a little heart SECT IV. THe fourth Reason is taken from the Nature of Distractions 1. They divide the Heart and disable it wholly now a divided heart can do nothing at all Hos. 10.2 Their heart is divided now shall they be found faulty If one heart divided from another make a fault much more faulty is one heart divided within it self Hence it comes to pass that Satan offers as the false Mother did about the living Child 1 King 3.26 Let it be neither mine nor thine but divide it If he cannot block your way to the presence of God and make good his claim to the living Child as She would have done then with might and main he furthers all imaginable diversions to part the Soul and cryes Lord let it be neither thine nor mine but divide it well knowing that as the Child so the heart while intire is a living and lively heart but divide it and destroy it As he that runs at once after two Hares catches neither so two businesses at once spoils both He that thinks to treat the Creator and the creature at the same time enjoyes neither of them And thus the vain heart of man by over-doing undoes it self and reaching at two matters spoils them both 2. These Distractions frustrate the Ordinance and cause the great name of God to be taken in vain Instead of forcing the Hearers these do but beat the air and cannot reach the Heart of God because they never reach your own And this is one of the follies of a roving heart that it consumes as much time in a sensless as in a serious Duty and yet doth nothing in it brings nothing to pass And so the Holy God stands over the heedless sinner with Iobs words Job 16.3 When shall Vain words have an End I am weary with this tinkling Cymbal either pray in earnest or pray not at all hear in earnest or hear not at all As good not at all as never the better The service of God requires a man not a shadow yea all a man and more than a man our
1.2 His delight is in the Law of the Lord and then it follows in that Law doth he meditate day and night When prayer is your delight and not your task then you will dwell therein with complacence Psal. 43.4 Then will I go unto the altar of God unto God my exceeding joy Children are subject to look off their books because they delight not in them but when they are playing they do hoc agere But now when thy love is cool and weak thou lovest Christ and that 's all alass there 's little heart to him the soul comes heavily to him and having little delight and heavenly complacence in him is most easily drawn off with any distraction for where the treasure is there will the heart be also where God and Christ are a man's treasure his heart is with them He wakes and travels and cares but his heart is with them he runs through his business with all the haste that may stand with good speed that he may retreat to his heart which he left with God and then holy duties are the rest of his soul. And where the world or sin are a mans treasure his heart is with them also he reads and hears and prays but his heart is away the least noise business or whisper can fetch him away alas his love is cool and a drop of water will quench a spark of fire The Remedies of this weakness of love to Christ and his Ordinances are 1. Know him better and meditate more on his real excellencies Ignoti nulla cupido Cant. 5.9 What is thy Beloved more than another beloved Why ver 16. His mouth is most sweet yea he is altogether lovely or as the Heb. all of him is delights And then mark the reply chap. 6.1 We will seek him with thee The pure and orient Sun is no more than a glow-worm to the blind nor the fairest face than a Skeleton It is the eye that must affect the heart Come then open the eye of Faith and gaze on this heavenly object sit down and meditate who and what he is open but the sacred Cabinet of his Attributes every box full of most sweet perfumes each of his offices pregnant with true and transcendent comfort His actions his passion his words his works and above all his heart as full of Heaven as ever it can hold and full for thee the breast full running into the open mouth of faith the Fountain opened for thy sins and uncleanness The treasures of his grace free for thy supplies what heart can freez under such discoveries Nay stay and look at him on the cross calling thee arms stretched out to embrace thee heart opened to let thee in and deny him thy love if thou can And if once your hearts be inflamed with his love no small businesses shall keep you from his presence nor distract you in it 2. Get communion with Christ in his Ordinances As he said on another occasion Ioh. 4.10 If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is thou wouldest have asked and he would have given thee living water So I say if thou knewest what communion is with Christ thou wouldest ask after prayer and long for such opportunities Why what is communion with Christ Why for thy spirit to flie up into heaven among the celestial spirits and for Christ's Spirit to descend into thy heart And this makes an heaven upon earth 't is inexperience in this that makes us cool to Christ and holy duties strangeness makes company burthensome A King and a beggar a scholar and a clown cannot make company of one another So when there is a distance between God and the soul there is little longing for his Ordinance nor true delight in it Communion with Christ increases love and love to him promotes communion Cant. 8.1 O that thou wert my brother saith the Spouse the son of my mother there 's ardent love when I should find thee without I would kiss thee there 's communion yet should I not be despised If you did but see his power and glory your soul would be filled as with marrow and fatness and your mouth would praise him with joyful lips Psal. 63.2 5. One beam of his holiness love or mercy would so charm your hearts that you would be loth to part and long to meet again for how can it choose but transport a finite heart to see and feel the sweetest properties of the infinite God displayed before and graven on it When Moses was in near communion with God on the Mount no thinking of meat no cares about his tents below but there he is swallowed up and is content to melt in that Sun of light and heat and come down no more easie to count his distractions in the Mount O who can see the face of God and not be ravished therewithâ— who can behold the beauty of the Lord and not chuse to dwell in his presence all the days of a mans life 'T is communion with Christ Iesus that will warm your love to him and when the King brings you into his chambers you will be glad and rejoyce in him you will remember his love more than wine 3. Believe verily that you can be no where better no where so well as in an Ordinance this will content and please your minds in the Lord's service when you can be no where better for what company can be better than God's The chiefest Good must needs afford the choicest company who can impart such rare delights and sweet content as he can and where doth he communicate himself as in an Ordinance Say the world knocks at door and would have thee away can vanity entertain you like felicity can the world produce higher pleasures than he that made it Would sin come in and steal your hearts away can the chiefest evil create thee sweeter entertainment than the chiefest Good No no you are best where you are If the world could find you such another Deity somewhat might be yielded or give you security like God of the reality satisfaction and duration of its toys quarter-contents but alas there 's no shew for this you are best where you are I am conversing with the Lord of heaven and earth who can reward or ruin me in a moment I am sucking at the breast of the chiefest Good I am in the next employment to heaven in a corner of heaven I cannot look off yonder lovely One I will not leave I must not come down And this experience would enamour you of an Ordinance and deliver you from diversions in it you will sit down under his shadow with great delight when his fruit is sweet to your taste SECT VII THe seventh cause of wandring of the thoughts in the worship of God is want of watchfulness Matth. 26.41 Watch and pray are most necessary companions else shall we fall into temptation In those sad times of plague the faithful Guard stands at the City gates
and serious in his Sermon Martha good woman was highly cumbred and distracted with much serving Mary sate at her Saviour's feet and heard his word Saith Martha I think it much that my Sister must have all the Dainties and I all the Distractions Master rectifie this inequality Ah saith our Lord Martha Martha thou art cumbred or as the word signifies distracted about many things But one thing is needful Mary is imbarked in a most necessary affair and worldly cumber is improper for an heavenly business She that 's working for her soul hath work enough at that time Salvation Eternal salvation Eternal salvation of soul and body these are not things to dally about SECT V. THE fifth Evil of these rovings of heart is That they are sins of Hypocrisie And there can be no little evil in the sin of Hypocrisie What is Hypocrisie Matth. 15.7 8. But the Honour of the lips and the Distance of the heart vox preterea nihil as it is said of the Nightingale a sound of words and no soundness in the heart that 's Hypocrisie of all sins most odious unto God and man And though the purpose of the heart be wanting to make it formal and full Hypocrisie yet a custom in these will beget that at length and he that useth to lye in jest will come at length to lye in earnest Hos. 11.12 Ephraim compasseth me about with lyes Oh how often may the Lord say over us these people compass me about with lyes What a Generation of Vipers are here like the Viper that 's speckled without and poisonous within Moses took a vail when he spake to Israel and put it off when he spake to God But the Hypocrite doth quite contrary he shews his best to men his worst to God but the Lord sees both the vail and the face and it 's hard to say whether he hates more the vail of dissimulation or their face of wickedness This 't is a disappointing of God in a sense a deceiving of him Mal. 1.4 Cursed be the deceiver that hath in his flock a Male and voweth and sacrificeth to God a corrupt thing Yea sayes God you have in your flock a Male you can be serious when you will but a corrupt thing it seems will serve my turn you disappoint me you deceive me you appoint a meeting between an heart and me and here I come and the heart is gone you knock at my door with great earnestness and when I come the heart is gone you are deceivers and deserve my curse If this be not repented and reformed such deceitful Hypocrites must carry away no blessing of mine but a curse A prayer though but of forty words sincerely made and felt every syllable shall prevail more with God than a long Oration with half an heart and the meanest Sermon heard with a prepared humble and attentive heart shall receive a greater blessing than a better sermon with a worser heart for God is a spirit and shews do work nothing with him he that seems to serve him and doth not exasperates him the more An eye to Heaven and an heart for Hell an humble knee and a haughty spirit a serious posture and a frivolous soul are abominable to the Lord SECT VI. IN the next place the Evil of Distractions is seen in the Effects whereof these are some First They do alienate the heart from holy duties When we miss of God we have small mind to his service again It is the comparison of a learned Divine when there is no marow in the bone we quickly throw the bone away even so when the sweet injoyment of God is not found in an Ordinance which is lost by the roving heart we shall ere long cast away that Ordinance except shame or custom restrain us Now when the soul cares not for prayer or other Ordinances it is a sad effect the Lord may say to thee with more right and reason than Dalilah did Iudg. 16.15 How canst thou say I love thee when thine heart is not with me What love is that without an heart where the affection is there the cogitation will be also I may truly invert this and say where the heart is not before there love will not come after Let all the soul be seriously bestowed in any duty of prayer singing reading or hearing and you will be loth to leave that duty and long to be at it again O the sweetness therein and love thereunto Psal. 119.93 I shall never forget thy precepts for with them thou hast quickened me Oh when shall I come and appear before God! O that every day were a Sabbath then should I be well as said that famous Instance of Practical Piety Hence with a gracious heart one duty prepares and gets a stomach for another But you shall find when the heart is out of tune and beating about the bush and not half quarter of it with God O then it is the most wearisome imployment in the world A man had rather thresh than pray that hath his heart in the Barn when he is in prayer And there is no lively desires or longings of soul to that business wherein he felt so little of God Hence it is so hard to get a worldly family to get together to prayer Alas the duty is a distraction to them when they come they still leave their hearts behind them you can make them no penny-worth of an Ordinance whose hearts do usually run out of an Ordinance SECT VII THE second Effect of Distractions is That they much affront the Majesty of God It was an high affront to God Act. 7.39 that his people after they had had experience of him yet in their hearts turned back into Egypt This is the wisdom of a roving heart they say Come we like not this blessed presence of nor work in our hearts let 's walk into the world again Ezek. 11.21 But as for them whose heart walketh after the heart of their detestable things I will recompence their way upon their own heads saith the Lord God Here one detestable thing offers it self and there another for every thing that draws the heart from God its chief good is therein detestable Now when the heart walks after them that is the right vein of distractions Where the heart walks after every trifle that puts up finger he shall have enough of his waies saith the Lord. Must I stand for a staâ—e when he is aiming at other matters must the great God wait on a simple Worm till he can be at leisure to speak with him shall the worst of evils be courted while the chief of goods is slighted and yet even then pretend to service As if some miserable Scullion at the Court had made great means to possess the King with his low condition and when the King is come to speak with him he lyes sweeping the sink or scouring the spit and there lets his Prince wait on him to
it Phil 4.13 I can do all things through Christ. God and his servant can do any thing SECT VIII THe eighth cause of distractions in holy duties is A beloved sin When the soul hath espoused some bosome lust the thoughts be you never so busie will be warping towards it though God himself look on Ier. 4.14 O Ierusalem wash thy heart from wickedness how long shall vain thoughts lodge within thee When wickedness is in the heart vain thoughts will be in thy duties they will enter yea they will lodge within thee A beloved sin is like a byass on the bowl though you throw it out never so streight yet the byass will draw it off that way do what you can so is a beloved sin unto the soul aim you with utmost skill yet there is a secret load stone in it that attracts the heart and makes that prayer to end in hell that began in heaven Either sin and you must be at a distance or God and you will The soul that is in league with sin dare not come at God dare not look at him dare not think on him and what must that man think on in a duty that dare not think seriously on God As that penitent Father speaks in his confessions An unmortifi'd soul like the husband of a scolding wife had rather be any where than at home and makes many a sad bargain abroad because he hath no comfort at home with his wife so such an heart chooses to be thinking of any thing rather than God alas matters are not straight between them the poison of sin is in him and he hugs that abhominable thing which God hates the Thief had rather go forty miles another way than come near the Judge God is an offended Judge to a wilful sinner and he cares not for ever coming near him Hence Heb. 10.22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience He that comes to God with a true upright honest heart being sprinkled from an evil conscience may draw near to God in full assurance of faith whereas guilt clouds clogs and distracts the soul. So that you see both the guâ—lt and power of a bosom sin furnish us with too much cause of distractions Sin That would have all the heart and God He will have all or nothing It 's such an offering that is a whole burnt-offering that the Lord delights in As no subject is capable of two contrary qualities in the intense degree as heat and cold may be both in the same hand but not in their intense degrees so the heart of man cannot entertain Christ and corruption light and darkness except the one be loved and served superlatively above the other Psal. 66.18 If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me God first stops his ear above and then the sinners mouth below that regards iniquity that likes loves approves or gives it rest and quiet in the soul. Indeed God neither regards him nor doth such a soul regard God He must love God that is lively in his service Iob 27.10 Will he delight himself in the Almighty will he always call upon God will he always he may now and then send a thought that way in his special need but not always there 's difference between converse and communion One may have converse or traffick with a stranger upon occasion but communion is with a friend there 's visits of pure kindness an hypocrite may have some converse or trading with God for necessaries but sweet communion constant calling on God and serious duties he can never enjoy and follow that loves any sin before the chiefest Good The Remedies against a beloved sin are briefly these two 1. Consideration sit down and think what real good this sin hath ever done thee Think what hurt it hath done thee and others and what fruit but shame and death it brings to any Thy dearest sin is but sin which is the worst thing in the world and its masks and disguises being laid aside more ugly than the devil more horrid than hell it self And think the more thou lovest it the more God hates it and his rage and jealousie is increased with the increase of thy desires Think how many prayers it hath lost thee how many mercies it hath poison'd to thee how many smiles it hath clouded besides what unutterable sufferings it hath inflicted upon Christ and is preparing for thee in hell Consider that thou maist have as much joy happiness and true comfort without it and all converted sinners confess that Jesus Christ hath been better to them than all their sins and if you may have as good injoyments or better to have Christ with them and Heaven after them will not make them worse 2. Supplication Kneel down and pray with faith in the uprightness of your hearts for strength from above All the strength of Heaven is engag'd by prayer He that heartily sets himself against his sin by prayer cannot but dislike it and when it is truly disliked its heart is broken Augustine complains that when he in his unconverted estate begged a divorce from his sin his heart was afraid lest God should hear his prayers Beware lest your hearts secretly cry Spare when your tongues openly cry Lord kill and crucifie my corruption but do thou bonâ fide pull on earth and the Lord will bono Spiritu pull from Heaven and rent thy sin and soul asunder Otherwise as the Poets tell us of Hippomanes that running with Atalanta for victory he conquered by throwing golden apples down which Atalanta stooping to take up lost the prize so Satan seeing the soul running heaven-ward in God's service will throw down the gilded temptations of a beloved sin stop it in its carreer and hazard the prize of eternal glory SECT IX A Ninth cause of Distractions in the Worship of God is Satan And this he doth sometimes more remotely by throwing in some cross business before Duties whereby the soul is unhinged some body or Letter with business just before prayer or some passionate distempering passages in the family whereby to lay matter ready for our discomposure and wandrings in the following duties Sometimes he approaches nearer and by presenting and occasioning objects to our senses in God's Worship draws off the heart He can stay One long from the Congregation that Another may be distracted in observing him coming in and so wounds two and sometimes twenty at a blow Satan is not idle when this and that child are restless and unquiet in the family whereby perhaps all in the family lose the passages that would most profit them He can create a further distraction by every pillar and part of the structure and every person in the congregation and can be content you read sentences on the walls to hinder and divert your sâ—uls from the sentences in the pulpit
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
If thou wouldst believe that every word spoken by thee or to thee is written with what care and conscience wouldst thou pray and hear And be sure there is one among you that takes notes of all who will give to every man according to his works whom to see and feel in an Ordinance will quit you from Distractions SECT V. V. LAY a Law upon your senses Beg of God to sanctifie them as they are all Pensioners to Satan by nature and comploâ—ment so bring them all into Covenant with God that ye may be sanctified in soul and body and spirit Give them to him use them for him Is is said Prov. 17.24 The fools eyes are in the ends of the Earth Any new face that comes in any antick garb any noise about every head that moves every leaf that stirs commands the eyes and heart of a fool but that while Prov. 4.25 Let thy eyes look straight on and let thine eye-lids look straight before thee Compose thy eyes in that devout and heavenly posture that whatever falls out thou mayest hoc agere keep to thy business without wavering For the heart is used to walk after the eye Job 31.7 To the undoing of the soul. It is a precept among the Rabbins that if a Jew be at prayer though a Serpent come and bite him yet he must not stir till he hath done his duty Satan that old Serpent will be nibling at thy heel with one vain suggestion or other but go thou through with thy business and let God alone with him In Prayer then fix thy eyes Heaven-ward and let nothing divert them till the prayer be done This will shew that thou wouldst lift thy heart thither if thou couldst and will prevent many an impertinent distraction that comes in by the eye If any deride thee for this doubt thou not of good company Psal. 123.1 Unto thee do I lift up my eyes O thou that dwellest in the Heavens Let your ears be as good as stopt to every thing besides your work And the lifting up your craving hands will not be unprofitable to this end for you will find them to flagg when the heart knocks off from its business whereby you may be advertised to come in again Lam. 3.41 Let us lift up our hearts WITH OUR HANDS unto God in the Heavens And let your prayers be vocal if it may be for the voice both helps to fix the thoughts and raise the affections the want whereof we discern in meditation In hearing of God's Word let the eye be chained to the Preacher with the greatest attention and reverence as if you saw an Angel in the Pulpit or Christ himself And beware lest your needless complements to men be interpreted a neglect to God 'T is small manners to be complementing the Kings Servants in his Presence chamber till you have done your homage to the King Do your work with God 't is time enough to perform your civilities to men when that is done Look then to God from him is thy expectation with him is thy business Luk. 4.20 The eyes of all them that were in the Synagogueâ— were FASTENED on him And therein also let your ears be only open Heaven-ward Lord to deal with thee I am come and thou shalt have all my soul and body and all And here I cannot but digress a little but it is to cure a more criminal digression which is that frequent Abuse of Whispering and talking to one another in the service of God which except it be upon such instant indispensable business as cannot be ordered before or after the Ordinance is a sin in an high degree and that 1. Because it brings a guilt and distraction upon two at once If a vain thought there be so evil as you have heard how criminal then is this that involves you both yea perhaps occasions a distraction to twenty more that observe you And the guilt of all their vain thoughts on that occasion will be charged on your account according to the equity of that Law Exod. 21.23 2. Because this hath more of Affront in it Thy heart testifies to God's face that thou dost despise his presence Who but an impudent Renegade would while the King is laying down terms of mercy and honour to him be talking and laughing with his companions at some uncouth Courtier that comes in and who but an implicit Atheist shall be whispering with his neighbour about any thing while the King of Heaven and Earth is treating with him about Eternity You hold it no piece of good manners while any man is speaking to you especially if he be your superiour to neglect him so far as to turn from him to discourse another nay if the most necessary business call you away you apologize for your diversion and crave pardon And shall you dare while your Maker is in conference with you to confront him with an open parle with others This is an high affront if you consider it well 3. This hath more offence in it An offence to the Preacher that hath taken much pains to prepare that which you will not take pains to hear or else imply it is not worth the hearing An offence to the Congregation that sees it who must needs if they fear Godâ— be troubled at so publick a fault An offence to the Angels that while they stoop down to look into the mysteries opened in the Church see you sleight them so notoriously An offence to your own souls that perhaps in that moment miss of what would most have done them good O therefore Christian Reader mourn for thy misbehaviour this way and amend it for time to come lest God refuse to treat with thee that triflest thus in thy treating with him Remember it 's work enough for a poor man to converse with a great God He needs no other business to fill his hands And then in Meditation you must also compose your senses There shut your eye and ear and sequester your self wholly to the contemplation of things invisible The least sight or sound will here distract Any thing yea nothing will throw us off the hinges in this duty indeed it is said of Isaac Gen. 24.63 That he went forth in the field in the evening-â—ide to meditate And in that kind of meditation where the rise and subject matter is sensible there the senses must be active and busie but I think in other cases the outward senses may stand aside and let the soul alone without them we are never more sensible than when we use no outward sense at all And lastly in communicating at the Lord's-table there fix both your eyes on the sacred elements until the eye have affected the heart to feel what Christ felt to die in his death and looking on him whom you have pierced you mourn for him with a superlative sorrow And then look at those sacred signs with an eye of Faith till virtue come from that brazen Serpent to cure your sin-stung