Creatures Isa. 45.11 Thus saith the Lord the holy one of Israel and his Maker If a servant must not be frivolous before his Master when he is receiving his commands who dares be so before his Maker who can as easily reward or ruine us as I can turn over a leaf in this Bible This Himself gives for the reason of that dreadful curse Mal. 1.14 upon the Deceiver that having a Male in his flock offers to God a corrupt thing For I am a great King saith the Lord of Hosts and my name is dreadfull among the Heathen Which of you will be thinking of your wives or children or ground when you are offering a Petition to a great King or run after Feathers when he is saying his mind to you Thou takest God to be such a one as thy self or else thou wouldest never do it Remember a great God must be worshipped with profound veneration and the most serious affections A man must worship God as if he were in Heaven Oh if thou wert there among those myriads of Saints and Angels with what care and humility and instance wouldest thou pour out thy heart to him or hear his words to thee 2. The Holiness of God is another Reason who is so sacred that an unholy Thought is abomination to him most especially in his holy Service Who can by an eye of Faith behold the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up and his train filling the Temple And the Seraphinis crying one to another and saying Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of Hosts Isa. 6.1 2. and suffer his heart to be ravisht away with transitory toyes in such a Sacred presence Are the Seraphims amazed at his holiness and we untransported Their thoughts are continually terminated upon him And should ours be allwayes flinching from him The Holy Lord of Hosts will not brook it If you will not sanctifie him he will sanctifie himself If you that worship him will not bear witness by your serious attendance to his Holiness He must bear witness to it by his Judgements on You which indeed are not allwayes visible but ever certain not a man in the Congregation but the Holy God is Sanctified by him or upon him Little do we know what invisible dreadfull effects there are of this daily in our Congregations And if our dear Redeemer did not stand as a skreen between us and his wrath the best of us would quickly feel the effects of his Displeasure 3. The Omniscience of God is a valid reason against Distractions Heb. 4.13 All things are naked and opened to him with whom we have to deal not only naked on the outside of us but cut up and anatomised in the inside That sharp and piercing eye looks through and through us and neither doth or can look beside us Whither can I goe from thy spirit and whither can I flee from thy presence shall the Husband fix his eye on his Wife and she that while dart her glances on her Paramour Is this reasonable or tolerable Get out of his sight and trifle on Steal into some corner where he sees you not and be truants and spare not Be but an Eye-servant to God and wee 'l ask no more Be serious while He sees you dally not while he holds you the candle A curious Eye requires a carefull servant Object But this is spoken gratis I see no body but the Minister and People seeing is believing I know no body that seeth me Answ. 1. No more doest thou see that faculty by which thou seest Is there therefore no such faculty Is there no spirits because thou never sawest them when did you see the wind and yet you doubt not of it Nay hath not he declared to thee what is thy thought Amos 4.13 in many a Sermon 2. There is another eye by which Gods Ordinary-Presence is seen which thou hast not That is an eye of Faith which if fixed in thy heart would quickly make thee cry How dreadfull is this place This is no other than the house of God and the Gate of Heaven If an hundred credible persons affirm they saw a Great man in the Congregation you would believe them though not seen by you and would conclude it your own inadvertency Hundreds there daily are that do avouch they saw felt heard imbraced the gracious presence of God and therefore conclude it your Blindness not his Distance that you saw him not SECT II. THE second Reason is taken from the Nature of his Worship 1. It is Reasonable Worship not only consonant to the Rules of Reason and backed by the most Rational Principles but must be managed as a Rational Act. Now it is a most irrational thing to converse with God without an Heart This is a silly thing as Hos. 7.11 Ephraim is called a silly Dove without Heart A Dove without spirit and a silly Dove without reason or judgement God had rather hear the roaring of a Lyon than an heartless prayer He delights more in the chirping of birds than in singing of Psalms without understanding for these do what they can and so are accepted but bruitish service from a reasonable Creature is intolerable Is it reason you should cry out for the spirit and think on the flesh be hearkning about another world and ruminating on this your eyes directed to Heaven and your Heart in the ends of the Earth the tongue busie and the soul idle the knee devout and the thoughts loose there is no coherence no reason in this When ye work work and when ye pray pray and do it with understanding 1 Cor. 14.15 What it is then I will pray with the spirit and will pray with the understanding also I will sing with the spirit and will sing with the understanding also Consider that else thou art as a mad man before God and God hath no need of mad men if one should come to thee about business of life and death and after a word or two therein should run from one impertinent thing to another would you not think him mad If thy thoughts were put into words and mingled with thy prayers what strange mad prayers would they be 2. It is spiritual-worship and therefore you may not be distracted in it Joh. 4.23 24. The true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him Others may seek to worship the Father but the Father seeketh such to worship him to wit that worship in Spirit and in Truth In Spirit and so not like the formal Jews In Truth and so not like the ignorant Gentiles And then vers 24. God is a Spirit and must be worshipped Here 's Must and Shall and Reason for it As a spirit can do nothing at eating so a carkass can do nothing at praying The elegantest tongues on earth cannot take one stroak at prayer no the soul must be in it and the soul must
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
VI. The Causes of Distractions in God's Worship Sect. 1. 1. Secret Atheism 64. A Remedy thereof 67. Sect. 2. 2. The corruption of our Nature 68. It s Remedy 72. Sect. 3. 3. Vnpreparedness unto holy Duties 76. A Case of Conscience answered viz. What measure of Preparation is necessary before our ordinary Duties of Worship 77. Sect. 4. 4. Lukewarmness 82. Its Remedies 84. Sect. 5. 5. Worldy-mindedness 88. It s Remedy 91. Sect. 6. 6. Weakness of love to Christ and his Ordinances 95. Its Remedies 99. Sect. 7. 7. Want of Watchfulness 104. 1. Before Duties ibid. 2. In Duties 105. 3. After Duties 107. The Remedy thereof 108. Sect. 8. 8. A Beloved sin 110. Its Remedies 113. Sect. 9. 9. Satan 115. A Remedy 118. Sect. 10. 10. Vain Thoughts at other times 121. These 1. Displease and dis-ingage the Spirit of God ibid. 2. Dispose and naturalize the soul to these Thoughts 122. 3. Discourage us to the conquest and incourage us to the sin 124. 4. Infect the Memory 125. 5. Provoke God to give us up 126. The Remedies hereof 127. Sect. 11. 11. A divided heart in four respects 133. It s Remedy 136. Sect. 12. 12. An opinion that there is no great evil in them 139. It s Remedy 142. CHAP. VII The Evil of Distractions 145. 1. In their Nature Sect. 1. 1. They are sins against the first Table ib. Sect. 2. 2. They are heart-sins 147. Sect. 3. 3. They are sins in the special presence of God 148. Sect. 4. 4. They are sins about the most serious business 151. Sect. 5. 5. They are sins of hypocrisie 153. 2. In their Effects Sect. 6. 1. They alienate the heart from holy duties 156. Sect. 7. 2. They much affront the Majesty of God 158. Sect. 8. 3. They hinder the benefits of an holy duty 160. Sect. 9. 4. They deprive the soul of comfort 162. Sect. 10. 5. They grieve away the Holy Ghost 164. CHAP. VIII The Cure of Distractions 166. Sect. 1. 1. Dispel the Causes before specified 167. Sect. 2. 2. Bewail your former failings herein 169. Sect. 3. 3. Engage the Spirit of God in your assistance 174. Sect. 4. 4. Believe the Presence of God 178. Sect. 5. 5. Lay a Law upon your senses 184. A Note about whispering during the Worship of God 186. Sect. 6. 6. A watchful reflection and ejaculation 39â— Sect. 7. 7. Strength of Grace 195. How it should be gotten 201. CHAP. IX Encouragements under the burden of Distractions 204. Sect. 1. 1. They are consistent with Grace 206. Sect. 2. 2. Your case is not singular 208. Sect. 3. 3. Christs Intercession is without Distraction 209. Sect. 4. 4. Distractions may make us humble 211. Sect. 5. 5. God can make some sense out of such Prayers 213. Sect. 6. 6. There is grace and strength in Christ to help against them 215. Sect. 7. 7. A perfect riddance of them is the Happiness of Heaven 217. CHAP. X. Inferenâ—es from this Doctrine Sect. 1. 1. We have â—ause to mourn over our best duties 220. Sect. 2. 2. Omissions of duties are extreme dangerous 223. Sect. 3. 3. The grand Necessity of Watchfulness 226. Particularly in 1. Prayer 2. Hearing God's Word 3. Reading 4. Singing Psalms 5. Meditation 229. Sect. 4. 4. Great cause to bless God for freedom from Distractions 232. Sect. 5. 5. That Religion is an inward difficult and serious Business 234. Reader if you will read sense you must first correct these more material mistakes of the Press For points and accents and some literal faults common indulgence is desired PAge 2. line 22. read no part p. 11. l. 9. r. smell p. 24. Margin r. cedrenus Phorbante p. 25. l. ult r. sincerity p. 26. l. 13. after weak r. child p. 35. Marg. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 39. l. 8. r. Ordinance p. 43. l. ult r. every breaâ—h p. 71. l. 3. r. subtlest p. 86. Marg. r. nam si p. 137. l. 18. r. disturb p. 141. l. 4. r. caso l. 13. r. meer p. 148. l. 19. r. awake p. 158. l. 8. blot out of l. 23. r. stale p. 163. Marg. r. that reads p. 164. l. peâ—ult r. heavily p. 165. l. 12. r. somewhere p. 171. l. 2. r. our hearts p. 172. l. 20. positively p. 173. l. 9. r. poenitere p. 193. l. penulâ— r. these p. 195. l. 17. blot out all p. 197. l. 19. r. norâ—â— p. 201. l. 18. blot out as p. 205. l. 4. r. insnare l. 12. r. by l. 26. r. displease p. 207. l. 18. r. gadding p. 218. l. 2. r. unison p. 219. l. penult r. tenth p. 224. l. 21. r. 〈◊〉 CHAP. I. The Text explained The Doctrine proposed and a Distraction described SECTION I. 1 CORINTH 7.35 That you may attend upon the Lord without Distraction THe Apostle is a Casuist in this Chapter and the present Case is about Virginity and Marriage wherein I. He determines for the former vers 26. when the Church was in the bonds of Persecution it was not safe to be in the bond of Marriage II. He prevents mistakes vers 27 28. though the single man be fittest to suffer yet there is neither that sin nor misery on the married as to dissolve the sacred knot III. He offers Reasons for this Resolve 1. One from the crosses and troubles then attending the state of Marriage vers 28. Thorns as well as Roses 2. The other from the Cares that alwaies accompany it vers 32. For the Man now is his heart divided Before if I can but please the Lord and and contrive how to live comfortably with my God this is all my care and ambition Now the stream of my thoughts and affections is parted I must please and provide for my Wife vers 32 33. For the Woman now is her task doubled Before her whole aim was to please her Husband in Heaven Now must her designs and respects be for her earthly Husband also vers 34 Not that these several Relations are inconsistent but to provide for these new Duties and Temptations will distract the mind especially in the daies of Tryal IV. He qualifies his Counsel and explains himself vers 35. It is noâ— part of my meaning either to obtrude the Doctrine or Duty of Coelibate upon you that to avoid a strait you should run upon a sin but my motion is 1. For your profit my office and so my counsel is rather to profit than to please you 2. There is a comeliness or conveniency in it both states are alwaies lawful but the one may sometimes be more convenient And 3. My ultimate design is that you may chuse that state wherein you may best Attend upon the Lord without Distraction This the occasion and tendency of these words SECT II. FRom the general import of these words flows this Annotation That condition should be chosen by all that 's best for their souls Your outward condition must serve your inward condition and this life must
unprepared Heart To such an Heart the whole Duty is a Distraction When a vain and earthly Soul like a truant Scholar keeps out of his Masters sight out of choice and with content and is any where better than at his Lesson What little Rest would such a Soul find in Heaven Or what true delight can he take in the most holy presence of God above that can find no rest and sweetness in his presence below 3. Again some Distractions are long and do consist of a concatenation of vain thoughts when they do lodge in the heart The Lord still calling at the door and saying How long shall vain thoughts lodge within thee These do much alter the complexion of the Soul and argue too deep an habit of vanity therein It is a true saying Though we cannot hinder the Birds from flying over our heads yet we may disturb their roosting or making Nests in our hair So though we cannot well hinder the sudden suggestion of a vain thought yet we may trouble its quiet resting in the Soul Yet such strange subtilty is there in us that we can keep God in play a long time yea when our selves are employed in a Prayer and be tampering with the world or sin all the while the soul never coming in till the Amen of a Prayer do awaken us But other Distractions are but short only a step out of the way and in again and the soul catcheth the faster hold of God And indeed when the soul doth follow hard after God as every one should do in his service though it stumble as it often happens to the most earnest in the way yet it recovers to its advantage being more zealous after The fall of the former being like that of the Swine who lyes still in her mire The fall of the latter like the Sheep that falling riseth and runs the faster And thus you have seen the several kinds of Distractions which was the second general Head CHAP. III. To Attend on the Lord without Distraction is our Duty SECT I. IN the third place I shall prove that to Attend upon the Lord without Distraction is our Duty which will clearly follow by demonstrating 1. The Possibility of it 2. The Necessity of it First It is Possible thus to serve our God the sluggard it is true finds a Lyon in his way to every Duty and nothing is possible because nothing is welcome There is no Duty so easie but can pose the negligent none so hard but is facile through Divine grace to the diligent Perfection herein I assert not but that we may attain it in the substance and security thereof is proved 1. From the Precept of God The wise and merciful God commands nothing but he finds or makes it possible He most truly sayes Viam aut inveniam aut faciam His commands are not snares but Rules yea and Helps When a Master commands power and assistance waite not on his Commands the Servants strength must perform the Masters will but here are the commands of a Father which when they outstrip his childs strength are still accompanied with his own assistance and the chair which the weak cannot bring in he helps to fetch himself Now behold the Divine Precept 1 Sam. 12.24 Serve him in Truth with all your Heart What truth is there while we appear to serve the Lord and indeed do not think upon him at all Or how is that with all the Heart while there is not half nor any thereof many times while we can pray and plot and think and look and begin our Devotion only at the end of the Duty Our merciful Father will not impose an impossible Law upon us It may by accident become impossible but it is not so in it self 2. In regard of the Power of God it is possible Ours is the Duty but his is the strength God and his servant can do any thing When you look on a hard task and your heart fails you advance your eye of Faith and you will find God the strength of your heart Phil. 4.13 I can do all things through Christ that strengthneth me loe here the omnipotency of a worm If all things that is all my duty then this among the rest But you will say This was an Apostle a Person of great strength and Grace yet still the Acts were from the man but the Strength was from Christ for the same person saith 2 Cor. 3.5 Not that we are sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves but our sufficiency is of God Who though he be at the same time Terrible out of his holy places and darts his Curses on them that do his work negligently yet the God of Israel is he that giveth strength and power to his People Blessed be God Psal. 68.35 He gives that is he is ready to give it out but alas his stock lyes almost dead by him and none sues to him in good earnest His Power is at your service and therefore serve your selves of it 3. In regard of the Promise of God This is Possible To every command there is a Promise The command finds us work the Promise â—inds us strength As to this some think that clause in our Magna Charta Ezek. 11.19 of One Heart is intended this way wherein the Lord promiseth an united heart to his servants An hypocrite hath more hearts than one an heart for his pleasures an heart for his pride here and there his affections are stragling now saith God I will give one heart There is another Promise Jer. 32.40 I will put my fear into their hearts that they shall not depart from me neither in whole nor in part unless fault be in your selves Now these promises are Amen in Christ and do belong to every soul that is in Christ who may claim and have the benefit of them 4. Add hereunto the Experience of many servants of God who by an habit of holy watchfulness have attained to considerable strength against these Wandrings Hope of relief makes many complain of their Distractions when fear of Pride hinders them from divulging their attainments And that which by the grace of God is possible for others with the same grace is possible for you SECT II. SEcondly It is necessary and therefore no doubt our duty to Attend on God without Distractions It not only may be done but must be done You will say They are happy that can do it but they may be safe enough that cannot Thus the inside and substance of Religion is counted an high attainment but not Duty I shall shew therefore that this soul-attendance on the Lord is necessary 1. It is Necessary to the Essence or Being of the Duty As the soul is necessary to the Being of a man the body is no man but a Corps without it even so a solemn Duty with a wandring heart is but the Corps of a Duty Lam. 3.41 Let us lift up OVR HEARTS with our
hands to God in the Heavens The elevation of the hands signifies nothing without lifting up the heart with them If prayer be the lifting up of the heart what are words without the heart A man may spend the same time and the same words in a serious and in an heartless Duty and yet the latter stand for nothing for want of intenseness and attention Isa. 64.7 There is none that calleth on thy name because none stirreth up himself to take hold on thee If a man come to the service of God and do not excite and stir up his soul to exercise grace as a man will blow a dull fire his faith zeal and humility if he do not blow them up but suffer his Heart to run at randome the holy God counts all the rest as a Cypher without a figure it stands for nothing 2. It is necessary to comfort in the Duty The service of God is a most sweet pot of ointment of a most refreshing odour The gracious soul is refreshed therein as in a bed of Spices Distractions are the dead flies Eccles. 10.1 that dropping into this sweet ointment cause it to send forth a stinking savour displeasing to God and unpleasing to the soul. Where can the soul be better than with God what sweeter company than that which Angels keep or pleasant imployment than conversing in Heaven till a sort of wandring thoughts arise and like a black cloud quite hide the sweet beams of that Sun of Righteousness from the soul and then your comfort is gone The sweetness of musick consists in its harmony when the strings are out of tune or untuneably toucht it is but a harsh sound there is no musick wandring thoughts are like strings out of tune there is no musick in that Duty the Holy Ghost goes away and likes it not and the soul likes it not is weary of it there is no sweetness in that Duty It is a tried Maxime The more seriousness the more sweetness the neerer to God the warmer and merrier is the soul which inward comfort is some reward to the heart of a Christian when his particular suit is denyed so that IN keeping of Gods Commandments there is a great reward The choicest of the Spirits sealing comforts are bestowed in the lively service of God 3. It is necessary to the prosperity of a Duty Psal. 66.18 If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear my Prayer In Gods service the soul should be regarding God alone If I regard a Corruption instead of Christ If wâ—en some vain object presents it self I turn my back on God to treat with vanity the Lord will not hear me nor regard me We read 1 Sam. 1.13 of that gracious Hannah that she spake in her heart only her lips moved not her voice was not heard yet this wordless prayer did the business Lip-labour if no more is but lost labour The sweating and labouring of the heart prevails The Lord our God hath a book of remembrance for them that think on his name while he turns the deaf ear to them that cry Lord Lord and do not inwardly adore him In short thus saith the Lord God Ezek. 14.4 Every man Child or not Child that setteth up his Idols in his heart and cometh to the Prophet sits demurely before the Preacher I the Lord will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his Idols He that sets his heart on vanity vanity shall be his recompense If he will not affect his own Heart he shall never affect mine He that withdraws his Heart in asking will find the Lord to withdraw his Hand in giving what he asks 4. It is necessary to communion with Iesus Christ in a Duty Which though it be a Riddle to unregenerate men yet is the very business and next end of the Worship of God which if you lose that Duty is lost Jesus Christ calls Cant. 2.14 O my Dove let me see thy countenance let me hear thy voice for sweet is thy voice and thy countenance is comely Now if when he waits thus to be gracious you wait not for his grace and watch for the blessed appearances of the Holy Ghost you will lose that happiness you 'l lose your labour and at length your souls How are you troubled that you are abroad when some good customer comes to your shop It troubles you when that is bestowed with another that was intended for you O Sirs the spirit of God is a good Customer and when he comes and you are away you are absent to your loss and therefore keep at home the next time How unmannerly would it be for the Subject to knock at his Princes Chamber and knowing he is within and waits for him step away about some frivolous trifle when he hath done The Prince appears opens his royall door and calls but the Clown is gone How fairly may he shut his door against such a guest and make him dance attendance long enough before he see his face Ah how seldome do we see the face of God in an Ordinance or much endeavour it Psal. 63.8 My soul followeth hard after thee The Hebrew is glued to thee That soul and that alone that follows hard after God by the earnest intenseness of zeal and love that cannot be content without him that heart shall cleave to him and have rare communion with him Thus you may plainly see that to attend on the Lord without Distraction is a Duty which is the Third Point to be handled CHAP. IV. Reasons why we ought to Attend on the Lord without Distraction SECT I. THe fourth Point is to shew the Reasons for the Doctrine and Duty of Attending on the Lord without Distraction And they are drawn 1. From the Nature of God 2. From the Nature of his Worship 3. From the Nature of our condition 4. From the Nature of Distractions The first reason is taken from the Nature of God each of his Attributes plead for this especially 1. The greatness of God The greater the Personage the greater the Reverence and the more solemn your attendance is Hence Elihu cryes Job 37.19 Teach us what we shall say to him for we cannot order our speech by reason of darkness It is a bold adventure to speak to him what is it then to trifle with him wilt thou speak to God nay pray to God and not so much as look that way when thou speakest to him This is to put on him the robes and title of a King and use him like a slave A Prince may converse with two or three of his servants at a time but its Impudence for a servant to talk to two or three Princes at a time The great Iehovah can speak with thee and a thousand more and do all your errands at a time but alas thou art too poor a worm to entertain the great Iehovah and other matters at once We are his
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
a sinful thought any time of day That man must walk with God in the Day that will have God draw nigh to him at Night 2. These dispose and naturalize the soul to roving Habit is a second nature and it is almost as hard to wash an Ethiopian white as to break an evil custome Jer. 13.23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots then may ye also do or think good that are accustomed to Evil. If a man be used to ill company and link't in with them though he sometimes resolve better yet when they come away he must go with them against his purpose Perhaps you have resolved against these vain wandrings in Gods service but being us'd to them they call at door and take you captive away against your intention And therefore set up a constant watch against them for Religion is link't together in the power and practicals of it So that you must take all or leave all be a Christian allwayes and altogether or not at all It is said of that accursed Mahomet that he had used a Dove to come to his Ear and thence to eat her commons And so when the falling sickness surprized him his pigeon presently came to her repast which he feigned to be the holy Ghost or an Angel that told him the mysteries of his Religion my beloved if these fowls these evil Angels be used to your ear or heart they will come even in your most coelestial imployments and divert and distract you and hereby they become less strange and things that are familiar to us though ugly are not started at nay treble diligence will not dispel them if you give them ordinary entertainment If a way be made over your corn or ground and people used to come that way it must be an higher hedge than ordinary that must keep them off If vain thoughts have made a road over thy heart and use to come that way without controll it must be a very high and strong watch and resistance that will turn them by in holy Duties Prov. 35.28 He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a City that is broken down and without Walls 3. These vain thoughts at other times make us apprehend it more impossible to conquer and less sinfull to be conquered by them And when Distractions appear so powerful that there is no resisting them or so harmless that they are not worth our trouble to resist them then is a floodgate opened to let them in when once our courage is conquered or our Conscience is feared we are quite undone And thus you see that one sin ushers in another and the loosness of our heart at one time prepares it to be so another Even as you observe your Children 't is the comparison of one that hath the skill of simileâ—s they are more unruly before strangers or at times when they should be most demure than at other times and you are then more aware and troubled at their shrewd words and gestures than the whole year besides Alas It is not meerly that they are worse then but then you take more notice of it it is then most observeable and apparent though their carriage be much at one So it is with your Hearts O cry you I am more pestred with foolish thoughts in Prayer or Sermon than all the day or week besidesâ— Then my Heart is worst when it should be best Alas its naught all along it do's but as it is used to do only you observe it not at other times and now observe it a little and find it out but it s alwayes so 4. These do infect the memory and imprint such species and notions there as offer and produce themselves when we are in the service of God And so when a good man out of the good treasure of his heart should bring forth good things He stumbles upon the vain and unprofitable trash before laid up in his memory to the grieâ— of Gods spirit and hazard of his own The memory you know will most easily retain an impertinent story a filthy or foolish imagination a long time and then when an Idle heart hits upon it though God himself looks on that will run away with the heart and give both matter and strength to a long woful and wandring Distraction How doth the active Fancy in our sleep sometimes light upon some sorry thoughts we had in the day and take them by the end and spin them out into a very sinfull Dream and this Casuists say we are responsible for though it seem involuntary because we administred matter for it and remotely promoted it so we shall be found guilty before God even of our unwilling wandring in Gods service because we laid up for them before If we brew for them Satan will be sure to broach them 5. These idle thoughts at other times provoke God to give us up to our own inventions As that dreadful word Hos. 4.17 Ephraim is joyned to Idols let him alone Seeing he will be marryed to them and forsake me let him take them If a man be resolved upon Idols or any other sin God will not hinder him So when he finds the heart joyned taken up and pleased with vain thoughts Good motions knock and wait but are not accepted or heeded come and knock again with double earnestness How long shall vain thoughts lodge within thee but are not regarded sin and the heart are making merry within come and try once more open now or never And no answer nay now the Soul is joyned to these things let him alone Sleep on now and take thy rest Trouble him no more in his vain inventions So I gave them over Psal. 81.12 To their own hearts lust and they walked in their own counsels If they choose Hell before Heaven let them take it My Spirit shall not alwayes strive with man And now when the Soul is given up to a vagabond frame then thy weak purposes and faint watchfulness over it stand for nothing but are broken like Sampsons cords and a deluge of all manner of impertinencies breaks in and the Heart is prostituted to all temptations The Remedy against these idle thoughts out of Duties is 1. A right understanding what a vain thought is Though it sound somewhat harsh that all thoughts are either good or bad the matter of some being in itself indifferent yet if we consider the Principle and Tendency of them we shall hardly light upon one individual thought but it hath either the stamp of Good or Evil upon it It is certain that a wicked mans thoughts are all vain as they come from him neither flowing from a sanctified heart nor being directed to a Divine end Ah poor sinners your hearts are little worth the imaginations of them are materially or formally or finally evil only evil and that continually The sweetest words from corrupt lungs do stink in the nostrills of them that stand by and so your best
thoughts coming from corrupt hearts cannot be right in the sight of God And then for a gracious man it should seem every thought comes either from the old man or the New the regenerate or unregenerate part especially if we consider that there is hardly a thought but it may be resolved ultimately either into Christ or Self Let it therefore be concluded that every thought that is not suggested or directed by the Spirit of God and that no way conduceth to the glory of God the good of your neighbour nor the good of your own soul or body is a vain thought vain or void it might be spared it stands for nothing it s worse than nothing 2. Be throughly convinced that vain thoughts are Sins They are not free from the Law of God though they be free from the lash of man The Rabbins had a strange exposition of that Psa. 66.18 If I regard iniquity in my heart God will not hear me they read it thus If iniquity do but remain within the heart be not produced into act God will not regard it and so the Pharisees of the Decalogue as if God had only forbidden the outward acts of sin but there is nothing more contrary to the nature of God or of his Law or of the souls of men than this I wonder how they could over-look all these direct passages in the Old Testament Levit. 19.17 Thou shalt not hate thy Brother in thy heart Thou shalt not say in thy heart and innumerable such No no thoughts are words before God Ezek. 11.5 I know the things that come into your mind every of them What is sinâ— but a deviation or transgression of the Law of God and this is a woful thing Sin even in a thought is a woful thing Nay words and actions are as it were sins at second hand the very first life and freshest vigour of all ill is immediately inspired into the thoughts Hence it is that Peter adviseth Simon Magus to pray to God if it were possible that the thoughts of his heart might be forgiven him as though there lay the greatest guilt and deepest stain before God Alas one vain thought would bring down the highest Angel into the lowest Hell and that which would damn an Angel will damn thee except thou repent If millions of Angels have fallen by a sinful thought and yet thou standest under the guilt of many thank Free Grace and the Death of Christ for that but yet thy sin is still as bad and thou hadst need to cleanse the filthiness of the spirit as well as of the flesh 3. Daily winde up your spiritual watch and renew your Covenants with God in prayer Draw all your parts and faculties into Covenant Iob 31.1 I made a Covenant with my eyes Why then should I think upon a Maid Behold the blessed purity of this mans heart Neither eye nor thought of his should wander after a Maid and this he vows Though good purposes are the shifts of Hypocrites whose Covenants to God are like ropes of Sand broken as soon as made yet when they are accompanied with repentance for former falls and hearty indeavour for future performance no better sign of an upright Christian. Know that constant watchfulness is a duty that as Nature hath provided a cover for the eye so Grace hath prepared watchfulness for the soul and as it would be a fearful sight to see an eye without a lid it would soon be put out so it is a fearful and dangerous thing to keep a soul without its case without its watch Prov. 23.17 Let not thy heart envy or imitate sinners but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long not only at prayer-times but all the day long Be sure that every morning you sincerely and solemnly relieve your watch by new purposes and prayers and then when vain thoughts offer to come in you may say I have sworn and I will perform it that I will keep thy righteous Iudgements And labour that all your thoughts may hold weight with that excellent Scripture Phil. 4.8 Finally Brethren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are of good report if there be any virtue and if there be any praise think on these things 4. Repent thoroughly and heartily for them For as Humiliation without Reformation is a foundation without a building so Reformation without Humiliation is a building without a foundation which the next wind of temptation will throw down To wash the heart mark it must not be swept only in the brinish â—ears of Repentance is the way to dislodge vain thoughts from within you Jer. 4.18 If you felt the smart and bitter pangs of true Repentance to night for your vain thoughts it would affright and mortifie the heart from them to morrow you would have no mind to tamper with the vanities that cost you so dear The burnt child would dread the fire and the fresh remembrance of the heart-ach you had for these guests last day would bolt them out from coming in to day If our sins did cost us in David's sense broken bones we should not so easily sin again If the Scholar after his truanting stole to his place unobserv'd and uncorrected he will easily venture on his freaks again to morrow but if he tasted the Rod the smart he felt will somewhat warm and keep him from such follies again Ah Sirs our Repentance is easie and our confessions complements we forgive our selves ere God forgive us we can lick our selves whole without the cost of a tear or sigh and then we are ready for a sin again He that finds it easie to repent will not find it hard to sin Verbal Repentance will never cure you of real sins It is your sad thoughts that will prevent your vain ones and idle thoughts are best excluded by keeping the heart full of good ones SECT XI THe Eleventh Cause of wandring thoughts in the Ordinances of God is a divided heart James 1.6.8 For he that wavereth is like a wave of the Sea driven with the wind and tossed The forlorn picture of a roving heart carryed up and down as the wind of any temptation pleaseth The Cause ver 8. A double mind A double minded man is unstable in all his waies The word signifies one that hath two souls one that speaks with a double heart Psal. 12.2 Like that prophane Piece that bragged he had two souls in one body one for God the other for any thing that came This man is the unstable man in God's service off and on with God unfixed to his business knows not what he would have prayes and unprayes wants faith for the ballast of his soul and so is carried at the pleasure of every wave and then ver 7. is the misery oâ— this frame Let not this man think that he shall obtain any thing of the Lord that is
no purpose may not he justly say when I come next to meet you you'st know the difference between the Majesty of a King and the sordidness of a Scullion Just so poor soul do thou and I obtain leave to approach our heavenly Lord and King and when he expects the heart earnestly to sollicit her great affairs she is roving away and bestowed in the Kitchin or worse while the great and holy God stands waiting to be gracious What Father but would take it for a great indignity to see his Son stopping his ears or whistling or playing with Flyes while he is reading his last Will and Testament to him or giving him order about his greatest affairs And is not God greater than a Father and can he with his honour abate such a child his punishment if he do not humbly cry him mercy and study to offend no more Though divine vengeance be not alwaies so visible as a Parents Rod yet it is as real and more heavy A poor man cannot escape with his affronts of a great God SECT VIII THE third Effect of Distractions is That they hinder the benefits of an holy duty God seldom thinks of those prayers that we think not of our selves Isa. 64.7 And there is none that calleth on thy Name that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee The Lord counts such prayers as none at all when a man doth not stir up himself to his business non entis nulla est operatio That which in God's account hath no being can have no working The benefits of Ordinances are many and great they are like the medium to sensation as the air to the eye or ear there is no seeing nor hearing without it so are Ordinances to the soul they are the Conduits to convey God's grace to us and our desires to him when a dirty distraction gets in the Conduit is stopt and the soul starved And in this sense God's Name which should be most sacred and dear to us is most palpably taken in vain When we use a great solemnity to no effect magno conatu nugas agimus The wind and tide to serve and yet the soul to sleep the Mariner to be at Dice or Cards till the opportunity be lost what a great evil is thisâ— when our voyage is for life and death If you could by the expence of one serious hour gain a Lordship would you not be intense and earnest that hour would you not fume at the company that would divert you and disdain any ordinary business that would interrupt you O stay and let me alone this hour for I am busie Now by the cordial management of one serious hour in prayer reading hearing or meditation you may yea shall infallibly gain at least one grain of grace which is worth more than a Kingdom yea than a whole World And is not that an evil thing and bitter that then interrupts you and frustrates your gainful imployment whereby it comes to pass that you get nothing Pearls are dealing and you get nothing Orient graces in the hand of God ready to give and you none of them who would entertain that can be rid of such companions SECT IX THE fourth Effect of these Distractions is That they deprive the soul of its purest comforts The highest truest and purest joys and comforts meet the soul in the service of God Cant. 2.3 4. I sate under his shadow with great delight There are then delights and great ones too in the waies of God And his fruit was sweet to my tast If thou hast any spiritual tast his fruit will be sweet to it He brought me to the banquetting house God's house is his banquetting-house and every Ordinance is a rare Feast to the soul that doth spiritually manage it Now these idle wandrings of the heart first by their Disturbance then by their Guile do damp and deprive the soul of the comforts thereof Just as a black cloud doth hide from you the bright and warming beams of the Sun How often have you mist of those joyes of the Holy Ghost sweeter than the musick of the Spheres by these vain thoughts with what sweet content do you look back on a Duty where communion hath been held between God and you and what a folly is it to lose an hour and neither reap pleasure not profit by it There is fatness in God's house and Rivers of pleasures with him but he shall have leanness in his soul that gives way to these and of all those Rivers drinks not a drop not one drop of true comfort and pleasure O what an Heaven do negligent sinners lose how many gracious smiles blessed tokens coelestial raptures the dainty Diet of Angels and all through the idleness of the soul Psal. 63.5 My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness I am full brim full of joy and comfort my heart runs over and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips Now all these gleams of sweet comfort and refreshing are stollen away by these thievish Distractions For an upright heart and an attentive would seldom want the sweet comforts that usually accompany sincerity and seriousness He that can keep his meditations fixt on the right object his meditation shall be sweet and where should the Lord make his Servants joyful but in the house of prayer SECT X. THE fifth Effect of Distractions in the Worship of God is That they grieve away the Holy Ghost It is true what the blessed Apostle hath said Rom. 8.26 The Spirit helpeth our infirmities and so helps against these when they are but infirmities mourn'd for and striven against but when they are contracted habits then they grieve and quench the holy Spirit The Greek word in that Scripture signifies to take and heave up a thing over against you to heave with you I but now if our spirits instead of helping shrink away and heave none this promise will do us no good If we leave the business wholly to God's Spirit without our diligent co-operation he will leave it to our spirits without his divine co-operation The Holy Ghost will dwell only with an holy heart and these Idols in the heart do heartily trouble that sweet Spirit Ezek. 14.3 Son of man these men have set up their Idols in their heart and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face should I be inquired of at all by them Read on and you 'l see what consequence this is of What are worldly and sinful distractions but Idols in the heart what are abused objects of the eye or ear but the stumbling-blocks of iniquity before the face and how can the holy Spirit dwell in such a soul or abide such doings Luther somewhat sayes that the Holy Ghost dwells not in Babel but is Salem that is delights not in the heart where is nothing but confusion that 's the english of Babel but in the heart where there is quiet peace and freedom that
my prayer is not the beginning of my punishment Though these be but small like the Sand yet being many as the Sand how can I stand under them I am ashamed yea even confounded for these reproaches of my duties Nay then saies God that hearkens behind the curtains all this while Is Ephraim my dear Son is not he a pleasant child I will remember him I will have mercy upon him When thou art ripe for Hell in thy own eyes then art thou ripe for grace and glory in the eyes of God No man shall ever be overborn with a sin he hates Go my blessed Spirit that hast melted him and mend him that hast softened him strengthen him he that laments his sin shall never languish under it The sacrifice of a broken heart doth please him though the sacrifice of a broken Christ alone doth satisfie him 2. Dispositively grief at heart doth help forward the cure of distractions and that by softening the heart and so fitting the same for the impressions of God's will When the Wax is melted you may turn and mold it which way you will So when the soul is melted by grief for these sins God Almighty may easily be heard and his counsel will be taken And also this godly sorrow as was before observed doth so afflict and make a mans heart to ake and smart that he will take some pains to prevent the like anguish again When they knock at door you 'l say O these are they that cost me dear at such a time non emam tanti poeniteo I feel yet the sad impressions of my late affliction for them I found a pardon no easie enterprize nor Repentance so pleasing a potion to brew for it again I would not for all the world much less for one vain thought or two nor for a thousand worlds together be under that anger of God nor feel one drop of his scalding indignation which I have perceived for these offences O Sirs where godly sorrow is in the power of it what carefulness doth it work what zeal what indignation yea what revenge It makes sin lye like a Mountain upon the soul musters up all the aggravations of sin and sets them home on the heart O to sin in an Ordinance against such a God! in the midst of my greatest business after such conviction vows and promises of exactness before him To offend both Father Son and Holy Ghost at a clap heart of stone dost not melt yea to offend the Angels of Heaven which holy spirits turn away their faces at our vanities in the Assemblies yea and offend the Angels upon Earth God's Ministers while that which cost them most serious pains is spoken to the air to wound my own soul in the act of curing it and increase guilt when I am getting it cleared to play the Hypocrite before the face of God the Judge of Heaven and Earth O wretched man that I am O my sin is exceeding sinful lend a tear O rend an heart O thou most high A broken heart today will be a good preservative against a wandring heart to morrow SECT III. III. ENgage the holy Spirit of God in thine assistance Joh. 15.5 Without me ye can do nothing Supernatural work cannot be done without supernatural help You may and ought to do what a man can do that is compose your selves and guard your senses but you cannot do that which only a God can do that is fly up and fix your hearts in Heaven Rom. 8.26 We cannot pray for any thing for matter as we ought for the manner but the Spirit it self maketh intercession for us The Greek word signifies the Spirit over and above steps in and helps or as others makes vehement intercession for us We climb up the Ladder as well as we can towards Heaven but alas it wavers no stability till the Holy Ghost hold it at the top and draw and lift us up and then we get a sight of Heaven And you have resolved belike and been secure of a good frame but Prov. 28.26 He that trusteth to his own strength is a fool you have found no fixedness or liveliness in your spirits without the assistance of God He that prayes aright must pray in the Holy Ghost Jude v. 20 This also quickens and hears the soul whereby there is no room or leisure for distracted thoughts Hereby the soul is carried streight up to God and staies at nothing on this side Heaven yea by the Spirit 's blessed assistance Every thought is brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. O blessed frame when every thought is captivated to obey Christ there is none can deal with our spirits but the Spirit of God When the Word comes in the hand of the Spirit there is no avoiding it Then the reading one Chapter can convert as that Ioh. 1. did the learned Iunius yea of one verse as that 1 Tim. 1.15 did Mr. Bilney yea one sentence can comfort the heart as that Isa. 57.15 did the afflicted conscience of one that nothing else could satisfie thereby the soul is carried up as Mr. Tilleman the Martyr was in his devotions so that he saw or heard no body till after long search and great noise his persecutors took him up from his knees The heart is so carried upward to God that all the world looks as inconsiderable as a mote or atome at that time and not worth the thinking on And is entertained with that sweet content that it cannot wish to be any where else and therefore a by-thought is as unâ—welcom as base company to him that is busie with Nobles Beg therefore of God with earnest importunity at the entrance of every Ordinance for his holy Spirit and he hath said Luk. 11.13 He will give his Spirit to them that ask him Say Lord if thy Spirit go not with me let me go no further For as the Intercession of Christ is absolutely necessary for your acceptance so the Intercession of the Holy Ghost is necessary for your assistance The Spirit it self also making intercession for us with sighs that cannot be uttered Promise your heavenly Father that you will never willingly disoblige or grieve away his Spirit again Art thou dead cry Quicken me and I will call upon thy Name Is thy heart roving cry Unite my heart to fear thy Name Humbly plead his promise that he will put his Spirit and fear into your hearts that you shall never and if never then not in his solemn Ordinance depart from him and observe the gracious gales of the Spirit and when they clash not with the Rules of his holy Word lay hold on them and fall to duty It 's best rowing below when the wind blows fair above When thy heart is warm and in ure then do the business throughly And beware of grieving him between times let there be a coherence between prayer and practice let your whole life be of a piece lest he withdraw when you have most need of
of a gaddy temper that runs abroad and comes defiled home this is not done like a sanctified heart but it were a simple conclusion to draw hence certainly I am no child of God I have no true grace at all For alas the sweetest Rose hath its prickles the greatest wits have a spice of madness and the sincerest heart hath some vanity in it SECT II. II. THE second Incouragement is That your case is not singular Though the commonness of a Plague make it not the better or less mortal yet it shews that I am not alone miserable So although this consideration make not the sin less heinous yet it makes the affliction more tolerable Poor soul thou art not alone in thy complaints Go to all the Saints in an Assembly and they will all conclude there is none hath a more giddy heart than they and there 's few at the end of an Ordinance would be pleased that the rest should know the particulars of their stragling Though charity binds us in particular to hope better of every one than of our selves yet both God's Word and common experience tell us in general that the imaginations of the thoughts of men are evil continually And there is none thinks themselves so bad but there are found others that would be glad to change hearts with them some indeed are nearer the cure of this disease and do watch more narrowly and so have obtained more freedom than others but yet all are tainted with this infirmity and every man being convicted by his own conscience will go out of the Congregation one by one and there will not be a sinless man to cast a stone at thee SECT III. THE third Incouragement is That Christ's Intercession for thee is without distraction There was fire alwaies on the Altar though the sacrifices were intermitted His intercession is continual ours is interrupted What unspeakable comfort may a poor weak Christian take in this that Christ Iesus is every moment I say every moment presenting to the Father the unanswerable argument of his passion for the impetrating and obtaining pardon and grace to help him in time of need See Heb. 6.20 Heb. 3.25 Poor sinner thou art sometimes so dead that thou canst not pray to purpose so guilty thou dost hardly pray and oft so distracted thou thinkest thy prayers stand for nothing yet be not discouraged thy Mediator is sick of none of these diseases The holy Psalmist was sometimes as Psa. 77.4 so troubled that he could not speak yet then had he one to speak for him The sight of that precious glorified Son of of God doth infinitely please and prevail with his Father for us when we can hardly speak good sense for our selves I but how can I tell that he intercedes for me Answ. 1. Hast thou a good word to speak for him to men then hath he a good word to speak for thee to God And 2. Dost thou sigh and groan and speak for thy self as well as thou canst his intercession is to help our weakness not to excuse our laziness If some ignorant poor man that cannot say his errand but is often out in his business have a cordial friend that hath the grace of speaking and the favour to be heard undertake his business he needs not be discouraged so though you have much ado and be often out in your best resolved duties yet you have a friend in Court that hath the Art of it and the King's ear beside who ever liveth to make intercession for you and therefore do your best and never be discouraged SECT IV. THE fourth Incouragement is That distracted duties may keep you humble when as your perfect performances might make you proud It is written of Master Knox that on his death-bed after he had received many blows from Satan about his sins he was at last assaulted by him with this temptation viz. That sure God owed him a kindness for his upright and industrious labours until that 1 Cor. 4.7 was strongly imprinted on him What hast thou which thou hast not received Perhaps the Lord fore-saw that thy heart was ready to be fly blown with pride when thou dost well and therefore he suffers these distractions like Vultures to gnaw upon thy heart to keep thee humble Far be it from you to draw from hence an occasion to rest more securely in these sins That Knight was sirnamed Fortunate because being on a time in the deck of a ship a great wave came and took him off into the Sea and another wave took him and set him on the deck of another ship yet no man I trow would to obtain such a name be content that a wave should so hazard him Even so though God do sometimes make use of our infirmities to do us good yet let no man venture therefore to sin that grace may abound Because the Physician can so temper poison that it may do thee good wilt thou therefore venture to drink poison It is miraculous wisdom in God to do thee good hereby and it were miraculous folly in thee therefore to venture upon evil And with this caution I proceed and observe that it is a very hard thing to hear or pray exactly without some tang of spiritual pride after it And to prevent this God permits us to wander and lose our selves lest we should be lost he sees that it is easier for a man to fall into a lesser evil when he can turn it to a greater good than to attain a lesser good and hazard to fall into a greater evil O when a man sees so much dreggs in his very best duties such constant disapppointments such foolish impertinencies in his heart yea such wicked contrivances in the very presence of God O then what a wretched man am I surely I am more brutish than any man I am not worthy to come to thee nor think I my self worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof no such sinner on earth as I my best is very bad c Thus the soul is throughly humbled and brought to sit among the chief of sinners and spiritual pride rebuked SECT V. THE fifth Incouragement is That our God can gather some sense out of a distracted duty and do us some good by it Rom. 8.27 He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit 't is true of our spirit as well as of God's The great searcher of hearts knows what you came pregnant with what you meant though you mist it in the delivery He can tell what was written in the Letter though it did miscarry and will answer your godly meaning and over-look your unwilling failing Psal. 103.13 As a Father pitieth his Children so the Lord Why the child comes sometimes full of a suit to the Father and he is quite out in his tale has forgotten what he would have but the Father knoweth what he wants and what he would