LIBRARY
Brigham Young University
/
The Personal Library of
Professor M. Wilford Poulson
Given In His Memory By
Marion W. Poulson
Ardis P. Soulier
Helen P. Whiting
Robert L. Poulson
Jennie Lin P. Strong
Earle A. HoUingshead
Nola Marie H. Hemingway
ly
VB.XI ASZSIl
ON
KEEPIIKTO TH£ HEART.
SELECTED FROM THE WORKS OF
THE REV. JOHN ELAVEL
The style adapted to the present state of improvemeDt*
PUBLISHED BY THE
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY,
NO. 130 NASBAU.STREET, NEW-YORK.
D. FanshaW) Printer.
CONTBXTTS.
Page.
The text explained, 5
Duties included in keeping the heart, - - - 10
Reasons why this should be the great business of life, 12
PARTICULAR SEASONS.
1. The time of prosperity, 25
2. The time of adversity, 31
3. The time of Zion*s troubles, - - - - 38
4. The time of danger and public distraction, - 45
5. The time of outward wants, .... 55
6. The season of duty, 65
7. When we receive injuries and abuses from men, 72
8. When we meet with gi eat trials, - - - 77
9. The hour of temptation, 80
10. The time of doubting and spiritual darkness, • 83
11. When sufferings for religion are laid upon us, - 91
12. When sickness warns that death is near, - - 94
IMPROVEMENT.
To hypocrites and formal professors, - - - - 98
To the people of God, 99
Two things which consume the time and strength of
professors, 99
Exhortation to hearty engagedness in keeping the heart, 102
Ten motives by way of inducement, - - - - 102
ON
KEEPING THE HEART.
KEEP THY HEART WITH ALL DILIGENCE, FOR OUT OP IT
ARE THE ISSUES OF LIFE. — Provcrbs, 4: 23.
The heart of man is his worst part before it be regene-
rated, and the best afterward ; it is the seat of principles,
and the fountain of actions. The eye of God is, and the
eye of the Christian ought to be, principally fixed upon it.
The greatest difficulty in conversion, is to win the
heart to God ; and the greatest difficulty after conversion,
is to keep the heart with God. Here lies the very force
and stress of religion ; here is that which makes the
way to life a narrow way, and the gate of heaven a
strait gate. Direction and help in this great work are
the scope of the text: wherein we have,
I. An exhortation, "Keep thy heart with all dili-
gence."
II. The reason or motive enforcing it, "For out of it
are the issues of life."
In the exhortation I shall consider,
Firsts The matter of the duty.
Secondly, The manner of performing it.
1. The matter of the duty: Keq) thy heart. Heart
is not here taken properly for the noble part of the body,
which philosophers call " the first that lives and the last
that dies;" but by heart, in a metaphor, the Scripture
sometimes represents some particular noble faculty of the
soul. In Rom. 119 : 11, it is put for the imderHanding ;
6 ON KEEPING THE HEART.
their foolish hearty that is, their foolish understanding
was darkened. Psalm 119: 11, it is put for the memo-
ry ; "Thy word have I hid in my heart ;" and 1 John
3 : 10, it is put for the conscience, which has in it both
the light of the understanding and the recognitions of
the memory ; if our heart condemn us, that is, if our
conscience, whose proper office it is to condemn.
But in the text we are to take it more generally, for the
whole soul, or inner man. What the heart is to the body,
that the soul is to the man ; and what health is to the
heart, that holiness is to the soul. The state of the
whole body depends upon the soundness and vigor of
the heart, and the everlasting state of the whole man
upon the good or ill condition of the soul.
By keeping the heart, understand the diligent and
constant^ use of all holy means to preserve the soul from
sin, and maintain its sweet and free communion with
God. Lavater on the text will have the word taken
from a besieged garrison, beset by many enemies with-
out, and in danger of being betrayed by treacherous
citizens within, in which danger the soldiers, upon pain
of death, are commanded to watch ; and though the ex-
pression. Keep thy heart, seems to put it upon us as our
V70rk, yet it does not imply a sufficiency in us to do it.
We are as able to stop the sun in its course, or to make
the rivers run backward, as by our own skill and power
to rule and order our hearts. We may as well be our
own saviors as our own keepers ; and yet Solomon
speaks properly enough when he says. Keep thy heart ,
because the duty is ours, though the power is of God ;
what power we have depends upon the exciting and as-
" I say co;?s^«w<, for the reason added in the text extends the
duty to all the states and conditions of a Christian's life, and
makes it binding always. If the heart must be kept, because
out of it are the issues of life, then as long as these issues of life
do flow out of it, we are obliged to keep it.
ON KEEPING THE HEART. /
eisting strength of Christ. Grace within us is beholden
to grace without us. " Without me ye can do nothing."
So much for the matter of the duty.
2. The manner of performing it is with all diligence.
The Hebrew is very emphatical ; keep with all keeping,
or, keep, keep ; set double guards. This vehemency of
'expression with which the duty is urged, plainly im-
plies how difficult it is to keep our hearts, how dange-
[ rous to neglect them !
The motive to this duty is very forcible and weighty :
'' For out of the heart are the issues of life." That is,
the heart is the source of all vital operations ; it is the
spring and original of both good and evil, as the spring*
in a watch that sets all the wheels in motion. The heart
is the treasury, the hand and tongue but the shops;
what is in these, comes from that ; the hand and tongue
always begin where the heart ends. The heart contrives,
and the members execute : " a good man, out of the good
treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is good j
and an evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart,
bringeth forth that which is evil : for of the abundance
of the heart his mouth speaketh." So then, if the heart
err in its work, these must miscarry in theirs ; for heart
errors are like the errors of the first concoction, which
cannot be rectified afterward ; or like the misplacing and
inverting of the stamps and letters in the press, which
must cause so many errata in all the copies that are
printed. O then how important a duty is that which
is contained in the following
Proposition. — The keeping and right managing of
the heo.rt in every condition, is one great business of a
Christianas life.
What the philosopher says of waters, is as properly
applicable to hearts ; it is hard to keej) them within any
bounds. God has set limits to them, yet how frequently
8 ON KEEPING THE HEART.
do they transgress not only the bounds of grace and reli-
gion, but even of reason and common honesty ? This is
that which affords the Christian matter of labor and
watchfulness, to his dying day. It is not the cleaning of
the hand that makea the Christian, for many a hypo-
crite can show as fair a hand as he 5 but the purifying,
watching, and right ordering of the heart ; this is the
thing that provokes so many sad complaints, and costs so
many deep groans and tears. It was the pride of Heze-
Idah's heart that made him lie in the dust, mourning
before the Lord. It was the fear of hypocrisy's invading
the heart that made David cry, "Let my heart be sound
in thy statutes, that I be not ashamed." It was the sad
experience he had of the divisions and distractions of his
own heart in the service of God, that made him pour out
the prayer, " Unite my heart to fear thy name."
The method in which I propose to improve the propo-
sition is this :
First, I shall inquire what the keeping of the heart
supposes and imports.
Secondly, Assign divers reasons why Christians must
make this a leading business of their lives.
Thirdly, Point out those seasons which especially call
for this diligence in keeping the heart.
Fourthly, Apply the whole.
First, I am to consider what tlie keeping of the heart
supposes and imports.
To keep the heart, necessarily supposes a previous work
of regeneration, which has set the heart right, by giving
it a new spiritual inclination , for as long as the heart is
( not set right by grace as to its habitual frame, no means |
can keep it right with God. Self is the poise of the un-
renewed heart, which biasses and moves it in all its de-
signs and actions; and as long as it is so, it is impossible
that any external means should keep it with God.
ON KEEPING THE HEART. 9
Man, originallyj was of one constant, uniform frame
of spirit, held one straight and even course; not one
thought or faculty was disordered: his mind had a
perfect knowledge of the requirements of God, his will
a perfect compliance therewith ; all his appetites and
powers stood in a most obedient subordination.
Man, by the apostacy, is become a most disordered
and rebellious creature, opposing his Maker, as the First
Cmtse, by self-dependence ; as the Chief Good, by self-
love; as the Highest Lord, by self-will; and as the Last
End^ by self-seeking. Thus he is quite disordered, and
all his actions are irregular. But by regeneration the dis-
ordered soul is set right ; this great change being, as the
Scripture expresses it, the renovation of the soul after
the image of God, in which self-dependence is removed
by faith ; self-love, by the love of God ; self-will, by sub-
jection and obedience to the will of God ; and self seek-
ing by self-denial. The darkened understanding is il-
luminated, the refractory will.sweetly subjected, the re-
bellious appetite gradually conquered. Thus the soul
which sin had universally depraved, is by grace restor-
ed. This being pre-supposed, it will not be difficult to
apprehend what it is to keep the heart, which is nothing
but the constant care and diligence of such a reneived man
to preserve his soul in that holy frame to which grace
has raised it. For though grace has, in a great measure,
rectified the soul, and given it an habitual heavenly tem-
per ; yet sin often actually discomposes it again ; so that
even a gracious heart is likea musical instrument, which
though it be exactly tuned, a small matter brings it out
of tune again ; yea, hang it aside but a little, and it will
need setting again before another lesson can be played
upon it. If gracious hearts are in a desirable frame
in one duty, yet how dull, dead, and disordered when
they come to another I Therefore every duty needs
10 ON KEEPING THE HEART.
a particular preparation of the heart. "If thou prepare
thine heart and stretch out thine hands toward him,"
&c. To keep the heart then, is carefully to preserve it
from sin, which disorders it ; and maintain that spiritual
frame which fits it for a life of communion with God.
This includes in it six particulars.
1. Frequent observation of the frame of the heart.
Carnal and formal persons take no heed to this ; they
cannot be brought to confer with their own hearts : there
are some people who have lived forty or fifty years in
the world, and have had scarcely one hour's discourse
with their own hearts. It is a hard thing to bring a
man and himself together on such business; but saints
know those soliloquies to be very salutary. The hea-
then could say, " the soul is made wise by sitting still
in quietness." Though bankrupts care not to look in-
to their accounts, yet upright hearts will know whether
they go backward or forward. "I commune with
mine own heart," says David. The heart can never
be kept until its case be examined and understood.
2. It includes deep humiliation for heart evils and dis-
orders; thus Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride
of his heart. Thus the people were ordered to spread
forth their hands to God in prayer, realizing the plague
of their own hearts. Upon this account many an up-
right heart has been laid low before God ; ' O what an
heart have I? Saints have in their confession pointed
at the heart, the pained place : ' Lorcl^ here is the loound?
It is with the heart well kept, as it is with the eye ; if
a small dust get into the eye it will never cease twink-
ling and watering till it has wept it out: so the upright
heart cannot be at rest till it has wept out its troubles
and poured out its complaints before the Lord.
3. It includes earnest supplication and instant prayer
for purifying and rectifying grace when sin has defiled
ON KEEPING THE HEART. 11
and disonlered the heart. " Cleanse thou me from secret
faults." " Unite my heart to fear thy name." Saints
have always many such petitions before the throne of
God's grace ; this is the thing which is most pleaded by
them with Grod. When they are praying for outward
mercies, perhaps their spirits may be more remiss ; but
when it comes to the heart's case, they extend their spi-
rits to the utmost, fill their mouths with arguments, weep
and make supplication: ' O for a better heart! O for a
heart to love God more 5 to hate sin more; to walk more ^
evenly with God. Lord ! deny not to me such a heart,
whatever thou deny me : give me a heart to fear thee,
to love and delight in thee, if I beg my bread in desolate
places.' It is observed of an eminent saint, that when he
was confessing sin, he would never give over confessing
until he had felt some brokenness of heart for that sin ;
and when praying for any spiritual mercy, would never
give over that suit till he had obtained some relish of that
mercy.
4. It includes the imposing of strong engagements
upon ourselves to walk more carefully with God, and
avoid the occasions whereby the heart may be induced
to sin. Well advised and deliberate vows are, in some
cases, very useful to guard the heart against some spe-
cial sin. " I have made a covenant with mine eyes,"
says Job. By this means holy men have overawed
their souls, and preserved themselves from defilement.
5. It includes a constant and holy jealousy over our
own hearts. Q,uickslghted self-jealousy is an excellent
preservative from sin. He that will keep his heart, must
have the eyes of the soul awake and open upon all the
disorderly and tumultuous stirrings of his affections ; if
the affections break loose, and the passions be stirred, the
soul must discover it, and suppress them before they get
to a height. ^ my soul, dost thou well in this ? my
1^ ON KEEPIXQ TH£ HEART.
tumultuous thoughts and passions, where is your com*
mission V Happy is the man that ihus feareth always.
By this tear of the Lord it is that men depart from evil,
shake off sloth, and preserve themselves from iniquity.
He that will keep his heart must eat and drink with fear,
rejoice with fear, and pass the whole time of his sojourn-
ing here in fear. All this is little enough to keep the heart
from sin.
6. It includes the realizing of God's presence with u.«,
and setting the Lord always before us. This the people
have found a powerful means of keeping their hearts up-
right, and awing them from sin. When the eye of our
faith is fixed upon the eye of God's omniscience, we dare
not let out our thoughts and affections to vanity. Holy
Job durst not suffer his heart to yield to an impure, vain
thought , and what was it that moved him to so great
circumspection 7 He tells us, " Doth not He see my
ways, and count all my steps ?"
In such particulars as these do gracious souls express
the care they have of their hearts. They are careful to
prevent the breaking loose of the corruptions in time of
temptation ; careful to preserve the sweetness and com-
fort they have got from God in any duty. This is tht)
work, and of all works in religion it is the most difficult,
constant, and important work.
1. It is the hardest work. Heart- work is hard work/
indeed. To shufHe over religious duties with a loose and ^i
heedless spirit, will cost no great pains ; but to set thyself;
before the Lord, and tie up thy loose and vain thoughts to ^!
a constant and serious attendance upon him ; this will
cost thee something. To attain a facility and dexterity
of language in prayer, and put thy meaning into apt and
decent expressions, is easy ; but to get thy heart broken
\ for sin, while thou art confessing it : melted with free
grace while thou art blessing God for it; to be really
ON KEEPING THE HEART. 13
ashamed and humbled through the apprehensions of
God's infinite holiness, and to keep thy heart in this frame,
not only in, but after duty, will surely cost thee some
groans and pains of soul. To repress the outward acts
of sin, and compose the external part of thy life in a
laudable manner, is no great matter ; even carnal per-
sons, by the force of common principles, can do this : but
to kill the root of corruption within, to set and keep up an
holy government over thy thoughts, to have all things
lie straight and orderly in the heart, this is not easy.
2. It is a constant work. The keeping of the heart is a
work that is never done till life is ended. There is no
time or condition in the life of a Christian which will
soffer an intermission of this work. It is in keeping watch
over our hearts, as it was in keeping up Moses' hands
while Israel and Amaiek were fighting. No sooner do
the hands of Moses grow heavy and sink down, than
Amaiek prevails. Intermitting the watch over their own
hearts for but a few minutes, cost David and Peter many
a sad day and night.
3. It is the most important business of a Christian's
life. Without this we are but formalists in religion : all
our professions, gifts and duties signify nothing. " My
son, give me thine heart," is God's request. God is
pleased to call that a gift which is indeed a debt; he
will put this honor upon the creature, to receive it from
him in the way of a gift ; but if this be not given him, he
regards not whatever else you bring to him. There is
only so much of worth in what we do, as there is of heart
in it. Concerning the heart, God seems to say, as Joseph
of Benjamin, " If you bring not Benjamin with you, you
shall not see my face." Among the Heathen, when the
beast was cut up for sacrifice, the first thing the priest
looked upon was the heart ; and if that was unsound and
worthless the sacrifice was rejected. God rejects all du-
2
14 ON KEEPING THE HEART.
ties (how glorious soever in other respects) which are oC^
fered him without the heart. He that performs duty with-
out the heart, that is, heedlessly, is no more accepted with
God than he that performs it with a double heart, that
is, hypocritically.
Thus I have briefly considered what the keeping of the
heart supposes and imports. I proceed,
Secondly^ To assign divers reasons why Christians
must make this the great business of their lives.
The importance and necessity of making this our great
business will manifestly appear from several considera-
tions.
1. The glory of God is much concerned. Heart-evils
are very provoking evils to the Lord. The Schools cor-
rectly observe, that outward sins are " sins of great infa-
my ;" but that the heart sins are " sins of deeper guilt."
How severely has the great God declared his wrath from
heaven against heart-wickedness ! The crime for which
the old world stands indicted is heart-wickedness ! " God
saw that every imagination of their hearts was only evil,
and that continually;" for which he sent the most dreadful
judgments that were ever inflicted since time began.
We find not their murders, adulteries, blasphemies,
(though they were defiled with these) particularly alleg-
ed against them ;/but the evils of their hearts. -That by
which God was so provoked as to give <up his peculiar
inheritance into the enemy's hand, was the evil of their
hearts. " O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wicked-
ness, that thou mayest be saved ; how long shall thy vain
thoughts lodge within thee ?"
Of the wickedness and vanity of their thoughts God
took particular notice ; and because of this the Chal-
deans must come upon them, " as a lion from his thicket,
and tear them to pieces."/t'or the sin of thoughts it was
that God threw down the fallen angels from heaven, 'and
ON Kt'EPING THE HEART. 15
8till keeps them in "everlasting chains" to the judg-
ment of the great day; by which expression is not
obscurely intimated some extraordinary judgment to
which they are reserved ; as prisoners that have most
irons laid upon them may be supposed to be the greatest
malefactors. And what was their sin ? Spiritual wick-
edness. Merely heart-evils are so provoking to God, that
for them he rejects with indignation all the duties that
some men perform. " He that killeth an ox is as if he
slew a man ; he that sacrifices a lamb, as if he cut off a
dog's neck ; he that ofTereth an oblation, as if he offered
swine's blood ; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed
an idol." In what words could the abhorrence of a crea-
ture's actions be more fully expressed by the holy God ?
Murder and idolatry are not more vile in his account,
than their sacrifices, though materially such as himself
appointed. And what made their sacrifices so vile ? The
following words inform us: "Their soul delighteth in
their abominations."
Such is the vileness of mere heart-sins, that the Scrip-
tures sometimes intimate the difficulty of pardon for them.
The heart of Simon Magus was not right, he had base
thoughts of God, and of the things of God: the apostle
bade him "repent and pray, if perhaps the thoughts of
his heart might be forgiven him." O then never slight
heart evils ! for by these God is highly wronged and
provoked. For this reason let every Christian keep his
heart with all diligence.
2. The sincerity of our profession much depends upon
the care we exercise in keeping our hearts. Most cer-
tainly, that man who is careless of the frame of his
heart, is but a hypocrite in his profession, however emi-
nent he be in the externals of rehgion. We have a
striking instance of this in the history of Jehu. " But
Jehu took no heed to walk in the ways of the Lord God
16 ON KEEPING THE HEART.
of Israel with his heart." The context gives an account
of the great service performed by Jehu against the house
of Ahab and Baal, and also of the great temporal re-
ward given him by God for that service, even that
his children, to the fourth generation, should sit upon
the throne of Israel. Yet in these words Jehu is cen-
sured as a hypocrite: though God approved and re-
warded the work, yet he abhorred and rejected the per-
son that did it, as hypocritical. Wherein lay the hypo-
crisy of Jehu? In this; he took no heed to walk in the
ways of the Lord with his heart ; that is, he did all in-
sincerely and for selfish ends : and though the work he
did was materially good, yet he, not purging his heart
from those unworthy selfish designs in doing it, was a
hypocrite. And though Simon Magus appeared such a
person that the apostle could not regularly reject him,
yet his hypocrisy was quickly discovered. Though he
professed piety and associated himself with the saints^
he was a stranger to the mortification of heart-sins. " Thy
heart is not right with God." It is true, there is great
difference between Christians themselves in their dili-
gence and dexterity about heart work ; some are more
conversant with, and more successful in it than others :
but he that takes no heed to his heart, that is not careful
to order it aright before God, is but a hypocrite. " And
they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit
oefore thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but
they will not do them : for with their mouth they show
much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousnese."
Here was a company of formal hypocrites, as is evident
from that expression, as my people; like them, but not
of them. And what made them so ? Their outside was
fair ; here were reverent postures, high professions, much
seeming delight in ordinances; *4hou art to them as a
lovely song :" yea, but for all that they kept not their
ON KEEPING THE HEART. 1^
hearts with God in those duties; their hearts were com-
manded by their lusts, they went after their covetousness.
Had they kept their hearts with God, all had been well:
but not regarding which way their hearts went in duty
there lay the essence of their hypocrisy. '
If any upright soul should hence infer, 4 am a hypo-
crite too, for many times my heart departs from God in
duty ; do what I can, yet I cannot hold it close with
Godj' I answer, the very objection carries in it its own
solution. Thou sayest, ^Do what I can, yet I cannot keep
my heart with God.' Soul, ifthoudoest what thou canst,
thou hast the blessing of an upright, though God sees
good to exercise thee under the affliction of a discom-
posed heart.
There still remains some wildness in the thoughts and
fancies of the best to humble them ; but if you find a
care before to prevent them, and opposition against them
when they come, and grief and sorrow afterward, you
find enough to clear you from the charge of reigning
hypocrisy. This precaution is seen partly In laying up
the word in thy heart to prevent them. " Thy word
have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against
thee." Partly in your endeavors to engage your heart
to God ; and partly in begging preventing grace from
God m your commencement of duty. It is a good sign
to exercise such precaution. And it is an evidence of
uprightness, to oppose these sins in their first rise "I
hate vain thoughts." "The spirit lusteth against the
flesh. Thy grief also discovers the uprightness of thy
heart. If with Hezekiah thou art humbled for the evils
of thy heart, thou hast no reason, from those disorder^
to question the integrity of it; but to suffer sin to lodffe
quietly in the heart, to let thy heart habitually and un-
controlledly wander from God, is a sad, a dangerous
symptom indeed.
18 ON KEEPING THE HEART.
3. The beauty of our conversation arises from the
heavenly frame of our spirits. There is a spiritual lus-
tre and beauty in the conversation of saints. " The
righteous is more excellent than his neighbor ;" saints
shine as the lights of the world ; but whatever lustre and
beauty is in their lives, comes from the excellency of their
spirits ; as the candle within puts lustre upon the lantern
in which it shines. It is impossible that a disordered and
neglected heart should ever produce well ordered con-
versation; and since (as the text observes) the issues or
Btreams of life flow out of the heart as their fountain, it
must follow, that such as the heart is, the life will be.
Hence 1 Peter, 2 : 12, "Abstain from fleshly lusts— having
your conversation honest," or beautiful, as the Greek
word imports. So Isaiah, 55 : 7. " Let the wicked forsake
his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts." His
way^ denotes the course of his life ; his thoughts^ the
lirame of his heart : and therefore since the course of his
life flows from his thoughts, or the frame of his heart,
both, or neither will be forsaken. The heart is the source
of all actions ; these actions are virtually and radically
contained in our thoughts; these thoughts being once
made up into affections, are quickly made out into suita-
ble actions. If the heart be wicked, tlien, as Christ says,
" Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders," &c.
Mark the order : first, wanton or revengeful thoughts ;
then unclean, or murderous practices. And if the heart
be holy, then it is as with David : " My heart is inditing
a good matter — I speak of the things which I have made,
my tongue is as the pen of a ready writer." Here is a
life richly beautified with good works, some ready made —
I will speak of the things which I have made; others
making — my heart is inditing ; both proceed from the
J»e'"ivenly frame of his heart. Put the heart in frame,
and the life will quickly discover that it is so. It is not
ON KEEPING THE HEART. 19
very difficult to discern, by the performances and converse
of Christians, what frames their spirits are in. Take a
Christian in a good frame, and how serious, heavenly
and profitable will his conversation and religions exer-
cises be ! what a lovely companion is he during the
continuance of it ! it would do any one's heart good to be
with him at such a time. " The mouth of the righteous
speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment ;
the law of his God is in his heart." When the heart is
up with God, and full of God, how dexterously will he
insinuate spiritual discourse, improving every occasion
and advantage to some heavenly purpose ! Pew words
then run to waste. And what can be the reason that the
discourses and duties of many Christians are become so
frothy and unprofitable, their communion both with God
and with one another becomes as a dry stalk, but this,
their hearts are neglected ? Surely this must be the
reason of it, and it is an evil greatly to be bewailed.
Thus the attracting beauty that was wont to shine, from
the conversation of the saints, upon the faces and con-
sciences of the world, (which, if it did not allure and
bring them in love with the ways of God, at least left a
testimony in their consciences of the excellency of those
m-en and of their ways,) is in a great measure lost, to the
unspeakable detriment of religion. Time was, when
Christians conducted in such a manner that the world
stood gazing at them. Their life and language were
of a different strain from those of others, their tongues
discovered them to be Galileans wherever they came.
But now, since vain speculations and fruitless controver-
sies have so much obtained, and heart-work, practical
godliness, is so much neglected among professors, the
case is sadly altered : their discourse is become like other
men's ; if they come among you now, they may " hear
every man speak in his own language." Afad I have
20 ' ON KEEPING THE HEART.
little hope to see this evil redressed, and the credit of
religion repaired, till Christians do their first works, till
they apply again to heart-work : when the salt of
heavenly-mindedness is cast into the spring, the streams
will run more clear and more sweet.
4. The comfort of our souls much depends upon the
keeping of our hearts ; for he that is negligent in at-
tending to his own heart, is, ordinarily, a great stranger
to assurance, and the comforts following from it. Indeed
if the Antinomian doctrine were true, which teaches you
to reject all marks and signs for the trial of your condi-
tion, telhng you that it is the Spirit that immediately as-
sures you, by witnessing your adoption directly, without
them ; then you might be careless of your hearts, yea,
strangers to them, and yet no strangers to comfort : but
since both Scripture and experience confute this, I hope
you will never look for comfort in this unscriptural way.
I deny not that it is the work and office of the Spirit to
assure you ; yet I confidently affirm, that if ever you at-
tain assurance in the ordinary way wherein God dis-
penses it, you must take pains with your own hearts.
You may expect your comforts upon easier terms, but I
am mistaken if ever you enjoy them upon any other :
give all diligence ; prove yourselves ; this is the scrip-
tural method. A distinguished writer, in his treatise on
the covenant, tells us that he knew a Christian who, in
the infancy of his Christianity, so vehemently panted af-
ter the infallible assurance of God's love, that for a long
time together he earnestly desired some voice from hea-
ven ; yea, sometimes walking in the solitary fields, ear-
nestly desired some miraculous voice from the trees and
stones there : this, after many desires and longings, was
denied ; but in time a better was afforded in the ordi-
nary way of searching the word and his own heart. An
instance of the like nature another learned person gives
ON KEEPING THE HEART. 21
US of one that was driven by temptation upon the very
boraers of despair; at last, being sweetly settled and as-
sured, one asked him how he attained it ; he answered,
" Not by any extraordinary revelation, but by subjecting
my understanding to the Scriptures, and comparing my
heart with them." The Spirit, indeed, assures by wit-
nessing our adoption ; and he witnesses in two ways.
One way is, objectively, that is, by producing those gra-
ces in our souls which are the conditions of the promise;
and so the Spirit, and his graces in us, are all one : the
Spirit of God dwelling in us, is a nark of our adoption.
Now the Spirit can be discerned, rot in his essence, but
in his operations; and to discern these, is to discern the
Spirit ; and how these can be dif cerned without serious
searching and diligent watching, of the heart I cannot
imagine. The other way of the Spirit's witnessing is
effectively, that is, by irradiating the soul with a grace
discovering light, shining upon his own work ; and this,
in order of nature, follows the former work : he first in-
fuses the grace, and then opens the eye of the soul to
see it. Now, since the heart is the subject of that infus-
ed grace, even this way of the Spirit's witnessing in-
cludes the necessity of carefully keeping our own hearts.
For,
1. A neglected heart is so confused and dark, that the
little grace which is in it is not ordinarily discernible :
the most accurate and laborious Christians sometimes
find it difficult to discover the pure and genuine work-
ings of the Spirit in their hearts. How then shall the
Christian who is comparatively negligent about heart-
work, be ever able to discover grace ? Sincerity ! which
is the thing sought, lies in the heart like a small piece of
gold on the bottom of a river ; he that would find it
must stay till the water is clear, and then he will see it
eparkling at the bottom. That the heart may be clear
22 ON KEEPING THE HEART.
and settled, how much pains and watching, care ana
diligence, are requisite !
2. God does not usually indulge negligent souls with
the comforts of assurance ; he will not so much as seem
to patronize sloth and carelessness. He will give assur-
ance, but it shall be in his own way ; his command hath
united our care and comfort together. Those are mistaken
who think that assurance may be obtained without la-
bor. Ah ! how many solitary hours have the people of
God spent in heart-examination I how many times have
they looked into the word, and then into their hearts !
Sometimes they thought they discovered sincerity, and
were even ready to draw forth the triumphant conclu-
sion of assurance ; then comes a doubt they cannot
resolve, and destroys it all : many hopes and fears,
doubtings and reasonings, they have had in their own
breasts before they arrived at a comfortable settlement.
But suppose it possible for a careless Christian to attain
assurance, yet it is impossible for him long to retain it ;
tor it is a thousand to one if those whose hearts are filled
with the joys of assurance, long retain those joys, unless
extraordinary care be used. A little pride, vanity, or
carelessness will dash to pieces all that for which they
have been a long time laboring in many a weary duty.
Since then the joy of our life, the comfort of our souls,
rises and falls with our diligence in this work, keep your
heart with all diligence.
5. The improvement of our graces depends on the
keeping of our hearts. I never knew grace to thrive in
a careless soul. The habits and roots of grace are
planted in the heart ; and the deeper they are rooted
there, the more flourishing grace is. In Eph. 3 : 17, we
read of being " rooted " in grace ; grace in the heart is
the root of every gracious word in the mouth, and of
every hojy work in the hand. It is true, Christ is the
ON KEEPING THE HEART* 2B
root of a Christian, but Clirist is the originating root, and
grace a root originated, planted, and influenced by
Christ ; accordingly, as this thrives under divine influ-
ences, the acts of grace are more or less fruitful or vigo-
rous. Now, in a heart not kept with care and diligence,
these fructifying influences are stopt and cut off*— multi-
tudes of vanities break in upon it, and devour its strength ;
the heart is, as it were, the inclosure, in which multi-
tudes of thoughts are fed every day ; a gracious heart,
diligently kept, feeds many precious thoughts of God in
a day. "How precious are thy thoughts unto me, O
God I how great is the sum of them 1 If I should count
them, they are more in number than the sand : when I
awake, I am still with thee." And as the gracious heart
nourishes them, so they refresh and fc^ast the heart. " My
soul is filled as with marrow and fatness while I think
upon thee," &c. But in the disregarded heart, multi-
tudes of vain and foolish thoughts are perpetually work-
ing, and drive out those spiritual thoughts of God by
which the soul should be refreshed. Besides, the careless
heart pi-ofits nothing by any duty or ordinance it performs
or attends upon, and yet these are the conduits of heaven,
whence grace is watered and made fruitfiil. A man
may go with a heedless spirit from ordinance to ordi-
nance, abide all his days under the choicest teaching,
and yet never be improved by them ; for heart-neglect
is a leak in the bottom — no heavenly influences, however
rich, abide in that soul. When the seed falls upon the
heart that lies open and common, like the highway, free
for all passengers, the fowls come and devour it. Alas !
it is not enough to hear, unless we take heed how we
hear ; a man may pray, and never be the better, unless
he watch unto prayer. In a word, all means are blessed
to the improvement of grace, according to the care and
strictness we use in keeping our hearts in them.
24 ON KEEPING THE HEART.
6. The stability of oar souls in the hour of temptation
depends upon the care we exercise in keeping our hearts.
The careless heart is an easy prey to Satan in the hour
of temptation ; his principal batteries are raised against
the heart ; if he wins that he wins all, for it commands
the whole man : and alas ! how easy a conquest is a
neglected heart ! It is not more difficult to surprise such
a heart, than for an enemy to enter that city whose gates
are open and unguarded. It is the watchful heart that
discovers and suppresses the temptation before it comes
to its strength. Divines observe this to be the method in
which temptations are ripened and brought to their full
strength. There is the irritation of the object, or that
power it has to provoke our corrupt nature ; which is
either done by the real presence of the object, or by
epeculation when the object (though absent) is held out
by the imagination before the soul. Then follows the
motion of the appetite, which is provoked by the fancy
representing it as a sensual good. Then there is a con-
sultation in the mind about the best means of accomplish-
ing it. Next follows the election, or choice of the will.
And lastly, the desire, or full engagement of the will to
it. All this may be done in a few minutes, for the debates
of the soul are quick and soon ended : when it comes
thus far, the heart is won, Satan hath entered victo-
riously and displayed his colors upon the walls of that
royal fort ; but, had the heart been well guarded at first,
it had never come to this — the temptation had been stop-
ped in the first or second act. And indeed there it is
stopped easily ; for it is in the motion of a soul tempted
to sin, as in the motion of a stone falling from the brow
of a hill — it is easily stopped at first, but when once it is
get in motion "it acquires strength by descending."
Therefore it is the greatest wisdom to observe the first
motions of the heart, to check and stop sin there. The
OK KEEPING THE HEART. 25
motions of sin are weakest at first ; a little care and
watchfulness may prevent mucli mischief now ; the
careless heart not heeding this, is brought within the
power of temptation, as the Syrians were brought blind-
told into the midst of Samaria, before they knew where
they were.
I hope that these considerations satisfy my readers that
it is important to keep the heart with all diligence. 1
proceed,
Tkirdly^ To point out those special seasons in the life
of a Christian which require our utmost diligence in
keeping the heart. Though (as was observed before)
the duty is always binding, and tliere is no time or con-
dition of lile in which we may be excused from this
work ; yet there are some signal seasons, critical hours,
requiring more than common vigilance over the heart.
1. The first season is the time of prosperity, when
Providence smiles upon us. Now, Christian, keep thy
heart with all diligence ; for it will be very apt to grow
secure, proud and earthly. "To see a man humble in
prosperity,"(says Bernard, ) " is one of the greatest rarities
in the world." Even a good Hezekiah could not hide
a vain-glorious temper in his temptation; hence that
caution to Israel : " And it shall be, when the Lord thy
God shall have brought thee into the land which he
sware to thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob,
to give thee great and goodly cities which thou buildest
not, and houses full of all good things which thou filledst
not," &c. " then beware lest thou forget the Lord." So
indeed it happened : for " Jeshurun waxed fat and kick-
ed." How then may a Christian keep his heart from
pride and carnal security under the smiles of Providence
and the confluence of creature-comforts ?
There are several helps to secure the heart from the
dangerous snares of prosperity.
26 ON KEEPING THE HEART.
1, Consider tlie dangerous ensnaring temptations at-
tending a pleasant and prosperous condition* Few, very
few of those that live in the pleasures of this world,
escape everlasting perdition. " It is easier " (says Christ)
" for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than
for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven/'
" Not many mighty, not many noble are called."
We have great reason to tremble, when the Scripture
tells us in general that few shall be saved ; much more
when it tells us, that of that rank of which we are, but
few shall be saved. When Joshua called all the tribes
of Israel to cast lots for the discovery of Achan, doubtless
Achan feared ; when the tribe of Judah was taken, his
fear increased ; but when the family of the Zarhites was
laken, it was time to tremble. So when the Scriptures
come so near as to tell us that of such a class of men very
few shall escape, it is time to be alarmed. " I should won-
der" (says Chrysostom) "ifany of the rulers be saved."
O how many have been wheeled to hell in the chariots
of earthly pleasures, while others have been whipped to
heaven by the rod of affliction ! How few, like the daugh-
ter of Tyre, come to Christ with a gift ! How few among
the rich entreat his favor !
2. It may keep one more humble and watchful in pros
perity, to consider that among Christians many have been
much the worse for it. How good had it been for some
of them, if they had never known prosperity ! When
they were in a low condition, how humble, spiritual and
heavenly they were ! but when advanced, what an appa-
rent alteration has been upon their spirits ! It was so
with Israel ; when they were in a low condition in the
wilderness, then Israel was " holiness to the Lord ;" but
when they came into Canaan and were richly fed, their
language was, " We are lords, we will come no more
unto thee.'' Outward gains are ordinarily attended with
ON KEEPING THE HEART. 27
inward losses ; as in a low condition their civil em-
ployments were wont to have a savor of their religious
duties, so in an exalted condition their duties com-
monly have a savor of the world. He, indeed, is rich
in grace whose graces are not hindered by his riches.
There are but few Jehosaphats in the world, of whom
it is said, " He had silver and gold in abundance, and
his heart was lifted up in the way of God's com-
mands." Will not this keep thy heart humble in pros-
perity, to think how dearly many godly men have
paid for their riches ; that through them they have
lost that which all the world cannot purchase ?
3. Keep down thy vain heart by this consideration ;
God values no man the more for these things. God
values no man by outward excellencies, but by inward
graces ; they are the internal ornaments of the Spirit,
which are of great price in God's sight. God de-
spises all worldly glory, and accepts no man's per-
son ; " but in every nation, he that feareth God and
worketh righteousness is accepted of him." Indeed,
if the judgment of God went by the same rule that
man's does, we might value ourselves by these things,
and stand upon them : but so much every man is, as
he is in the judgment of God. Does thy heart yet
swell, and will neither of the former considerations
keep it humble ?
4. Consider how bitterly many dying persons have
bewailed their folly in setting their hearts upon these
things, and have wished that they had never known
Itiem. How dreadful was the situation of Pius Quin-
tus, who died crying out despairingly, " When I was
in a low condition I had some hopes of salvation ;
when I was advanced to be a cardinal, I greatly
doubted ; but since I came to the popedom I have no
28 ' ON KEEPING THE HEART.
hope at all." An author also tells its a real, but sad
story of a rich oppressor, who had scraped np a great
estate for his only son : when he came to die he
called his son to him, and said, " Son, do you indeed
love me ?" The son answered that " Nature, besides
his paternal indulgence, obliged him to that." " Then
(said the father) express it by this: hold thy finger
in the candle as long as I am saying a prayer." The
son attempted, but could not endure it. Upon that
the father broke out into these expressions : " Thou
canst not suffer the burning of thy finger for me ; but
to get this wealth I have hazarded my soul for thee,
and must burn, body and soul, in hell, for thy sake ;
thy pains would have been but for a moment, but mine
will be unquenchable fire."
5. The heart may be kept humble by considering
of what a clogging nature earthly things are to a soul
heartily engaged in the way to heaven. They shut
out much of heaven from us at present, though they
may not shut us out of heaven at last. If thou con-
sider thyself as a stranger in this world, traveling for
heaven, thou hast then as much reason to be delighted
with these things as a weary horse has to be pleased
with a heavy burden. There was a serious truth in
the atheistical scoff of Julian • when taking away the
Christians' estates, he told them '' it was to make
them more fit for the kingdom of heaven."
6. Is thy spirit still vain and lofty? Then urge
upon it the consideration of that awful day of reckon-
ing, wherein, according to our receipts of mercies,
shall be our account for them. Methinks this should
awe and humble the vainest heart that ever was in the
breast of a saint. Know for a certainty that the Lord
records all the mercies that ever he gave thee, from
ON KEEPING THE HEART. 29
the beginning to the end of thy life. " Remember,
O my people, from Shittim unto Gilgal," &c. Yes,
they are exactly numbered and recorded in order to
an account ; and thy account will be suitable : " To
whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be re-
quired." You are but a steward, and your Lord will
come and take an account of you ; and what a great
account have you to make, who have much of this
world in your hands ! What swift witnesses will
your mercies be against you, if this be the best fruit
of them !
7. It is a very humbling reflection, that the mercies
of God should work otherwise upon my spirit than
they used to do upon the spirits of others to whom
they come as sanctified mercies from the love of God.
Ah, Lord ! what a sad consideration is this ! enough
to lay me in the dust, when I consider :
(L) That their mercies have greatly humbled them ,
the higher God has raised them, the lower they have
laid themselves before him. Thus did Jacob when
God had given him much substance. " And Jacob
said, I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies,
and all the truth which thou hast showed thy servant;
for with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and am
now become two bands." Thus also it was with holy
David ; when God had confirmed the promise to him,
to build him a house, and not reject him as he did Saul,
he goes in before the Lord and says, " Who am I, and
what is my father's house, that thou hast brought me
hitherto ?" So indeed God required. When Israel
brought to him the first fruits of Can«ian, they were
to say, " A Syrian ready to perish was my father,"
&c. Do others raise God the higher for his raising
them ? and the more God raises me, the more shall I
3*
30 ON KEEPING THE HEART.
abuse him and exalt myself? O how wicked is such
conduct as this !
(2.) Others have freely ascribed the glory of all their
enjoyments to God, and magnified not themselves, but
him, for their mercies. Thus says David, " Let thy
name be magnified and the house of thy servant be
established." He does not fly upon the mercy and
suck out its sweetness, looking no further than his own
comfort: no, he cares for no mercy except God be
magnified in it. So when God had delivered him from
all his enemies, he says, " The Lord is my strength
and my rock, he is become my salvation." Saints of
old did not put the crown upon their own heads as I
do by my vanity.
(3.) The mercies of God have been melting mercies
unto others, melting their souls in love to the God of
their mercies. When Hannah received the mercy of
a son, she said, " My soul rejoiceth in the Lord ;" not
in the mercy, but in the God of the mercy. So also
Mary : '• My soul doth magnify the Lord ; my spirit
rejoiceth in God my Savior." The word signifies to
make more room for God ; their hearts were not con-
tracted, but the more enlarged to God.
(4.) The mercies of God have been great restraints
to keep others from sin. " Seeing thou, our God, hast
given us such a deliverance as this, should we again
break thy commandments?" Ingenuous souls have
felt the force of the obligations of love and mercy
upon them.
(5.) The mercies of God to others have been as oil
to the wheels of their obedience, and made them more
fit for service. Now if mercies work contrarily upon
my heart, what cause have I to be afraid that they come
not to me in love ! It is enough to damp the spirits
ON KEEPING THE HEART. 81
of any saint, to see what sweet effects mercies have
had upon others, and what bitter effects upon him.
II. The second season in the life of a Christian, re-
quiring more than common dihgence to keep his heart,
is the time of adversity. When Providence frowns
upon you, and blasts your outward comforts, then
look to your heart 5 keep it with all diligence from
repining against God, or fainting under his hand ; foi
troubles, though sanctified, are troubles still. Jonah
was a good man, and yet how fretful was his heart
under affliction ! Job was the mirror of patience, yet
how was his heart discomposed by trouble ! You will
find it hard to get a composed spirit under great afflic-
tions. O the hurries and tumults which they occasion
even in the best hearts ! — Let me show you, then, how
a Christian under great afflictions may keep his heart
from repining or desponding, under the hand of God.
I will here offer several helps to keep the heart in
this condition.
1. By these cross providences God is faithfullj*
pursuing the great design of electing love upon the
souls of his people, and orders all these afflictions as
means sanctified to that end. Afflictions come not by
casualty, but by counsel. By this counsel of God they
are ordained as means of much spiritual good to saints.
" By this shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged," &c.
" But he for our profit," &c. " All things work together
for good," &c. They are God's workmen upon our
hearts, to pull down the pride and carnal security of
them ; and being so, their nature is changed ; they are
turned into blessings and benefits. " It is good for me
that I have been afflicted," says David. Surely then
thou hast no reason to quarrel with God, but rather to
wonder that he should concern him.self so much in thy
32 ON KEEPING THE HEART.
good as to use any means for accomplishing it. Paul
could bless God if by any means he might attain the
resurrection of the dead. " My brethren," says James,
" count it all joy when you fall into divers tempta-
tions." * My Father is about a design of love upon my
§oul, and do I well to be angry with him 1 AH that
he does is in pursuance of, and in refeience to some
eternal, glorious ends upon my soul. It is my igno-
rance of God's design that makes me quarrel with
him.' He says to thee in this case, as he did lo Peter,
" What I do, thou knowest not now, but thou shalt
know hereafter."
2. Though God has reserved to himself a liberty of
afflicting his people, yet he has tied up his own hands
by promise never to take away his loving kindness
from them. Can I contemplate this scripture with a
repining, discontented spirit: "I will be his Father,
and he shall be my son : if he commit iniquity, I will
chasten him with the rod of man, and with the stripes
of the children of men : nevertheless my mercy shall not
depart away from him." O my heart, my haughty
heart ! dost thou well to be discontent, when God has
given thee the whole tree, with all the clusters of com-
fort growing on it, because he suffers the wind to blow
down a few leaves ? Christians have two kinds of
goods, the goods of the throne and the goods of the
footstool: immoveables and moveables. If God has
secured those, never let my heart be troubled at the
loss of these : indeed, if he had cut off his love, or dis-
covenanted my soul, I had reason to be cast down ;
but this he hath not done, nor can he do it.
3. It is of great efficacy to keep the heart from sink-
ing under afflictions, to call to mind that thine own
Father has the ordering of them. Not a creature moves
ON KEEPING THE HEART. 33
hand or tongue against thee but by his permission.
Suppose the cup be bitter, yet it is the cup which thy
Father hath given thee ; and' canst thou suspect poison
to be in it? Foolish man, put home the case to thine
own heart ; canst thou give thy child that which would
ruin him ? No ! thou wouldst as soon hurt thyself as
him. "If thou then, being evil, knowest how to give
good gifts to thy children," how much more does God !
The very consideration of his nature as a God of love,
pity, and tender mercies ; or of his relation to thee as a
father, husband, friend, may be security enough, if he
had not spoken a word to quiet thee in this case ; and
vet you have his word too, by the prophet Jeremiah :
"I will do you no hurt." You lie too near his heart
for him to hurt you ; nothing grieves him more than
your groundless and unworthy suspicions of hisdesigns.
Would it not grieve a faithful, tender-hearted physician,
when he had studied the case of his patient, and pre-
pared the most excellent medicines to save his life, to
hear him cry out, ^ O he has undone me ! he has poi-
soned me!' because it pains him in the operation? O
when will you be ingenuous?
4. God respects you as much in a low as in a high
condition ; and therefore it need not so much trouble
you to be made low ; nay, he manifests more of his
love, grace and tenderness in the time of affliction than
in the time of prosperity. As God did not at first
choose you because you were high, he will not now for-
sake you because you are low. Men may look shy
upon you, and alter their respects as your condition
is altered ; when Providence has blasted your estate,
your summer-friends may grow strange, fearing you
may be troublesome to them; but will God do so?
No, no : " I will never leave thee nor forsake thee "
34 ON KEEPING THE HEART.
says he. If adversity and poverty could bar you from
access to God, it were indeed a deplorable condition :
but, so far from this, you may go to him as freely as
ever. " My God will hear me," says the church. Poor
David, when stripped of all earthly comforts, could en-
courage himself in the Lord his God ; and why cannot
you ? Suppose your husband or son had lost all at
sea, and should come to you in rags ; could you deny
the relation, or refuse to entertain him ? If you would
not, much less will God. Why then are you so troub-
led ? Though your condition be changed, your Fa-
ther's love is not changed.
5. What if by the loss of outward comforts God
preserves your soul from the ruining power of tempta-
tion? Surely then you have little cause to sink your
heart by such sad thoughts. Do not earthly enjoy-
ments make men shrink and warp in times of trial?
For the love of these many have forsaken Christ in
such an hour. The young ruler " went away sor-
rowful, for he had great possessions." If this is God's
design, how ungrateful to murmur against him for it !
We see mariners in a storm can throw over board the
most valuable goods to preserve their lives. We know
it is usual for soldiers in a besieged city to destroy the
finest buildings without the walls in which the enemy
may take shelter ; and no one doubts that it is wisely
done. Those who have mortified limbs willingly stretch
them out to be cut off, and not only thank, but pay the
surgeon. Must God be murmured against for casting
over that which would sink you in a storm ; for pulling
down that which would assist your enemy in the siege
of temptation ; for cutting off what would endanger
your everlasting life? O, inconsiderate, ungrateful
man I are not these things for which thou grievest, the
very things that have ruined thousands of souls?
ON KEEPING THE HEART. 35
6. It would much support Ihy heart under adversity,
to consider that God by such humbling providences
may be accomplishing that for which you have long
prayed and waited. And should you be troubled at
that ? Say, Christian, hast thou not many prayers
depending before God upon such accounts as these:
that he would keep thee from sin ; discover to thee the
emptiness of the creature ; that he would mortify and
kill thy lusts ; that thy heart may never find rest in
any enjoyment but Christ? By such humbling and
impoverishing strokes God may be fulfilling thy de-
sire. Wouldst thou be kept from sin ? Lo^ he hath
liedged up thy way with thorns. Wouldst thou see the
creature's vanity ? Thy affliction is a fair glass to dis-
cover it; for the vanity of the creature is never so ef-
fectually and sensibly discovered, as in our own expe-
rience. Wouldst thou have thy corruptions mortified 1
This is the way : to have the food and fuel removed
that maintained them ; for as prosperity begat and fed
them, so adversity, when sanctified, is a means to kill
them. Wouldst thou have thy heart rest no where
but in the bosom of God ? What better method could
Providence take to accomplish thy desire than pulling
from under thy head that soft pillow of creature-de-
lights on which you rested before ? And yet you fret
at this : peevish child, how dost thou try thy Father's
patience ! If he delay to answer thy prayers, thou art
ready to say he regards thee not ; if he does that which
really answers the end of them, though not in the way
which you expect, you murmur against him for that ;
as if, instead of answering, he were crossing all thy
hopes and aims. Is this ingenuous? Is it not enough
that God is so gracious as to do what thou desirest :
must thou be so impudent as to expect him to do it in
the way which thou prescribest ?
do ON KEEPING THE HEART.
7. It may support thy heart, to consider that ifi
these troubles God is performing that work in which
thy soul would rejoice, if thou didst see the design of
it. We are clouded with much ignorance, and are not
ahle to discern how particular providences tend to the
fulfillment of God's designs ; and therefore, like Israel
in the wilderness, are often murmuring, because Provi-
dence leads us about in a howling desert, where we arc
exposed to difficulties ; though then he led them, and
is now leading us, hy the right way to a city of habita-
tions. If you could but see how God in his secret
counsel has exactly laid the whole plan of your salva-
tion, even to the smallest means and circumstances ;
could you but discern the admirable harmony of divine
dispensations, their mutual relations, together with
the general respect they all have to the last end ; had
you liberty to make your own choice, you would,
of all conditions in the world, choose that in which you
now are. Providence is like a curious piece of tapes-
try made of a thousand shreds, which, single, appear
useless, but put together, they represent a beautiful his-
tory to the eye. As God does all things according to the
counsel of his own will, of course this is ordained as
the best method to effect your salvation. Such an one
has a proud lieart^ so many himihling providences 1
appoint for him ; such an one has o.n earthly hear't, so
many impoverishing providences for him. Did you
but see this, I need sky no more to support the most
dejected heart.
8. It would much conduce to the settlement of
your heart, to consider that by fretting and discontent
you do yourself more injury than all your afflictions
could do. Your own discontent is that which arms
vour troubles with a sting; you make your burden
ON KEEPING TKE KEART* 9?
heavy by struggling under it. Did you but lie quietly
under the hand of God, your condition would be mucii
more easy than it is. " Impatience in the sick occa-
sions severity in the physician." This makes God al-
ilict the more, as a Taiher a stubborn child that receiver*
not correction. Beside, it unfits the soul to pray over
its troubles, or receive the sense of tliat good \vhic]i
God intends by them. Aiihction is a pill, which, being
wrapt up in patience and quiet submission, may be ea-
sily swallowed ; but discontent chews the pill, and so
embitters the soul. God throws away some comfort
which he saw would hurt you, and you will throw
hway your peace after it; he shoots an arrow which
sticks in your clothes, and was never intended to hun^
but only to drive you from sin, and you will thrust it
deeper, to the piercing of 370ur very heart, by despon-
dency and discontent.
9. If thy heart (like that of Rachel) still refusen
to be comforted, then do one thing more : compare the
condition thou art now in, and with which thou art so
much dissatisfied, with the condition in which others
are, and in which thou deservest to be. 'Others are
roaring in flames, howling under the scourge of ven-
geance ; and among them I deserve to be. O my soul I
is this hell ? is my condition as bad as that of the damn-
ed? what would thousands now in hell give to ex-
change conditions with me !' I have read (says an au-
thor) that when the Duke of Conde had voluntarily
subjected himself to the inconveniences of poverty, he
w^s one day observed and pitied *by a lord of Italy,
who from tenderness wished him to be more careful
of his person. The good duke answered, " Sir, be not
troubled, and think not that I suffer from want; for I
send a harbinger before me. who makes ready mv
4 '
^ ON KEEPING THE HEART.
lodgings and takes care that I be royally entertained.''
The lord asked him who was his harbinger 1 He an-
swered, " The knowledge of myself, and the considera-
tion of what I deserve for my sins, which is eternal
torment; when with this knowledge I arrive at my
lodging, however unprovided I find it, methinks it is
much better than I deserve. JVhy doth ike living man
complain?'^ Thus the heart may be kept from de-
sponding or repining under adversity.
HI. The Ihird season calling for more than ordina-
ry diligence to keep the heart is the time of Zion's
troubles. When the Church, like the ship in which
Christ and his disciples were, is oppressed and ready
to perish in the waves of persecution, then good souls
are ready to be shipwrecked too, upon the billows of
their own fears. It is true, most men need the spur
rather than the reins in this case; yet some men sit
down discouraged under a sense of the Church's trou-
bles. The loss of the ark cost Eli his life; the sad
posture in which Jerusalem lay made good Nehemi-
ah's countenance change in the midst of all the plea-
sures and accommodations of the court. But though
God allows, yea, commands the most awakened appre-
hensions of these calamities, and in " such a day calls
to mourning, weeping, and girding with sackcloth,"
and severely threatens the insensible; yet it will not
please him to see you sit like pensive Elijah under the
juniper tree. " Ah, Lord God ! it is enough, take away
my life also." No : a mourner in Zion you may and
ought to be, but a self-tormentor you mu«t not be;
complain to God you may, but complam of God
(though but by the language of your actions) you
must not.
Now let us inquire how tender hearts may be re-
ON KEEPING THE HEART. v>9
Sieved and supported, when tliey are even overwhelm-
ed with the burdensome sense of Zion's troubles? I
grant it is hard for him who preferreth Zion to his chief
joy, to keep his heart that it sink not below the due
sense of its troubles ; yet this ought to, and may be
done, by the use of such heart-establishing directions
as these :
I. Settle this great truth in your heart, that no trou-
ble befalls Zion but by the permission of Zion's God
and he permits nothing out of which he will not ulti-
mately bring much good to his people. Comfort may
be derived from reflections on the permitting as well
as on the commanding will of God. " Let him alone,
it may be God hath bidden him." "Thou couldst
have no power against me, except it were given thee
from above." It should much calm our spirits, that it
is the will of God to suffer it ; and that, had he not suf-
fered it, it could never have been as it is. This very
consideration quieted Job, Eli, David, and Hezekiah.
That the Lord did it was enough to them : and why
should it not be so to us ? If the Lord will have Zion
ploughed as a field, and her goodly stones lie in the
dust ; if it be his pleasure that Anti-Christ shall rage
yet longer and wear out the saints of the Most High ;
if it be his will that a day of trouble, and of treading
down, and of perplexity by the Lord God of Hosts,
shall be upon the valley of vision, that the wicked
shall devour the man that is more righteous than he ;
what are we that we should contend with God ? It is
fit that we should be resigned to that Will whence we
proceeded, and that He that made us should dispose of
us as he pleases : he may do what seemeth him good
without our consent. Doth poor man stand upon
equal ground^ that he may capitulate with his Creator;
40 ON KEEPING THE HEART.
or that God should render him an account of any of
his matters 1 That we be content, however God may
dispose of us, is as reasonable as that we be obedient,
whatever he may require of us. But if we pursue this
argument farther, and consider that God's permissions
alt meet at last in the real good of his people, this will
much more quiet our spirits. Do the enemies carry
away the best among the people into captivity? This
looks like a distressing providence; but God sends
them thither for their good. Does God take the Assy-
rian as a statT in his hand to beat his people with?
The end of his so doing is, " that he may accomplish
his whole work upon Mount Zion." If God can bring
much good out of the greatest evil of sin, much more
out of temporal afflictions; and that he will, is as evi-
dent as that he can do so. For it is inconsistent with
The wisdom of a common agent to permit any thing
(w^hieh he might prevent if he pleased) to cross his
great design; and can it be imagined that the most
wise God should do so? As, then, Luther said to Me-
lancthon, so say I to you : "Let iniinite wisdom, power
and love alone ;" for by these all creatures are swayed,
and ail actions guided, in reference to the church. It
is not our work to rule the v/orld, but to submit to
Him that does. The motions of Providence are all ju-
dicious, the wheels are full of eyes : it is enough that
the alTairs of Zion are in a good hand.
2. Ponder this heart-snpporting truth : how many
troubles soever are upon Zion, yet her King is in her.
What! hath the Lord forsaken his churches? has he
sold them into the enemy-s hands? Does he not re-
gard what evil befalls them, that our hearts sink thus?
Is it not shamefully undervaluing the great God, and
itoo much magnifying poor impotent man, to fear and
ON K£KPINO THE HEART. 41
tremble at creatures while God is in the midst of us?
The church's enemies are many and mighty : let that
be granted, yet that argument with which Caleb and
Joshua strove to raise their own hearts, is of as much
force now as it was then: " The Lord is with us, fear
them not." A historian tells us, that when Antigonus
overheard his soldiers reckoning how many their ene-
mies were, and so discouraging one another, he sud-
denly stepped in among them with this question, "And
how many do you reckon me for?" Discouraged
souls, how many do you reckon the Lord for? Is he
not an overmatch for all his enemies ? Is not one Al-
mighty more than many mighties? "If God be for
us, who can be against us?" What think you was the
reason of that great examination Gideon made ? He
questions, he desires a sign, and after that, another:
and what was the end of all this, but that he might be
sure the Lord was with him, and that he might but
write this motto upon his ensign : The sword of the
Ij&rd and of Gideon, So if you can be well assured
the Lord is with his people, you will thereby rise above
all your discouragements : and that he is so, you need
not require a sign from heaven ; lo, you have a sign
before you, even their marvellous preservation amidst
all their enemies. If God be not with his people, how
is it that they are not swallowed up quickly? Do their
enemies want malice, power, or opportunity ? No, but
there is an invisible hand upon them. Let then his
presence give us rest; and though the mountains be
hurled into the sea, though heaven and earth mingle
together, fear not; God is in the midst of Zion, she
shall not be moved.
3. Consider the great advantages attending the peo-
ple of God in an afflicted condition. If a low and an
4*
42
ON KEEPING THE HEAET>
aMlcted state in the world be really best for the church,
then your dejection is not only irrational, but ungrate-
ful. Indeed if you estimate the happineiss of the church
by its worldly ease, splendor and prosperity, then such
times of affliction will appear to be unfavorable; but
if you reckon its glory to consist in its humility,
faith, and heavenly- mindedness, no condition so much
abounds with advantages for these as an afflicted con-
dition. It was not persecutions and prisons, but vvorld-
liness and wantonness that poisoned the church : nei-
ther was it the earthly glory of its professors, but the
blood of its martyrs that was the seed of the church.
1'he posver of godliness did never thrive better than in
affliction, and was never less thriving than in times of
greatest prosperity : when " we are left a poor and an
afilicted people, then we learn to trust in the name of
the Lord." It is indeed for the saints' advantage to be
weaned from love of, and delight in, ensnaring earth-
ly vanities; to be quickened and urged forward with
more haste to heaven ; to have clearer discoveries of
their own hearts ; to be taught to pray more fervently,
frequently, spiritually; to look and long for the rest to
come more ardently. If these be for their advantage,
experience teaches us that no condition is ordinarily
blessed with such fruits as these, like an afflicted con-
dition. Is it well then to repine and droop, because
your Father consults the advantage of your soul ra-
ther than the gratification of your humors? because
he will bring you to heaven by a nearer way than you
are willing to go? Is this a due requital of liis love,
wlio is pleased so much to concern himsell in your
welfaie— who does more for you than he will do for
thousands in the world, upon whom he will not lay a
rod, dispense an affliction to them for their good ? But
ON KEEPING THE HEART. 43
alas! we judge by sense, and reckon things good or
^vilj according to our present taste.
4. Take heed that you overlook not the many pre-
cious mercies which the people of God enjoy amidst
all their trouble. It is a pity that our tears on account
of our troubles should so blind our eyes that we should
not see our mercies. I will not insist upon the mercy
of having your life given you for a prey; nor upon
the many outward comforts which you enjoy, even
above what were enjoyed by Christ and his precious
servants, of whom the world was not worthy. But
what say you to pardon of sin ; interest in Christ; the
covenant of promise; and an eternity of happiness in
the presence of God, after a few days are over? O
that a people entitled to such mercies as these should
droop under any temporal affliction, or be so much
concerned for the frowns of men and the loss of trifles.
You have not the smiles of great men, but you have
the favor of the great God ; you are perhaps diminished
in temporal, but you are tiiereby increased in spiritual
and eternal goods. You cannot live; so plentifully as
before ; but you may live as heavenly as ever. Will
you grieve so much for these circumstances as to for-
get your substance? Shall light troubles make you
forget weighty mercies? Remeir.ber the true riches
of the church are laid out of the reach of all enemies.
What though God do not in his outward dispensations
distinguish between his own and others? Yea, what
though his judgments single out the best, and spare
the worst? What though an Abel be killed in love,
and a Cain survive in hatred ; a bloody Dionysius die
in his bed, and a good Josiah fall in battle? What
though the belly of the wicked be filled with hidden
treasures, and the teeth of the saints with gravel-
44 ON KEEPING THE HEART.
Stones ? Still there is much matter of praise ; for decU
ivg love has distinguished, though common ^providence
has not : and while prosperity and impunity slay the
wicked, even slaying and adversity shall benefit and
save the righteous.
5. Believe that how low soever the church be plung-
ed under the waters of adversity, she shall assuredly
rise again. Fear not ; for as surely as Christ arose
the third day, notwithstanding the seal and watch up-
on him ; so surely Zion shall arise out of all her
troubles, and lift up her victorious head over all her
enemies. There is no reason to fear the ruin of that
people who thrive by their losses and multiply by be-
ing diminished. Be not too hasty to bury the church
before she is dead; stay till Christ has tried his skill,
before you give her up for lost. The bush may be all
in a flame, but shall never be consumed ; and that be-
cause of the good will of Him that dwelleth in it.
6. Remember the instances of God's care and ten-
derness over his people in former difficulties. For
above eighteen hundred years the Christian church
has been in affliction, and yet it is not consumed;
many a wave of persecution has gone over it, yet it is
not drowned ; many devices have been formed against
it, hitherto none of them has prospered. This is not
the first time that Hamans and Ahithophels have
plotted its ruin ; that a Ilerod has stretched out his
hand to vex it ; still it has been preserved from, sup-
ported under, or delivered out of all its troubles. Is it
not as dear to God as ever ? Is he not as able to save
it now as formerly ? Though we know not whence
deliverance should arise, " yet the Lord knoweth how
to deliver the godly out of temptations."
7. If you can derive no comfort from any of these
ON KEEPING THE HEART. 45
considerations, try to draw some out of yonr very
trouble. Surely this trouble of yours is a good evi-
dence of your integrity. Union is the ground of sym-
pathy : if you had not some rich adventure in that
ship, you would not tremble as you do when it is in
danger. Beside this frame of spirit may afford you
this consolation, that if 3''ou are so sensible of Zion's
trouble, Jesus Christ is much more sensible of and so-
licitous about it than you can be; and he will have an
eye of favor upon them that mourn for it.
IV. The fou7^th seasoji, requiring our utmost dili-
gence to keep our hearts, is the time of danger and
public distraction. In such times the best hearts are
too apt to be surprised by slavish fear. If Syria be
confederate with Ephraim, how do the hearts of the
house of David shake, even as the trees of the wood
which are shaken with the wind. When there are omi-
nous signs in the heavens, or the distress of nations
with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring ; then
the hearts of men fail for fear, and for looking after
those things which arc coming on the earth. Even a
Paul may sometimes complain of " figlitings within,
when there are fears without."
But. my brethren, these things ought not so to be ;
saints should be of a more elevated spirit ; so was David
when his heart was kept in a good frame : " The
Lord is my light and my salvation ; whom shall I fear?
the Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I
be afraid?" Let none but the servants of sin be the
slaves of fear; let them that have delighted in evil fear
evil. Let not that which God has threatened as a
judgment upon the wicked, ever seize upon the hearts
of the righteous. " I will send faintness into their
hearts in the land of their enemies, and the sound of
40 ON KEEPING THE HEART.
a shaking leaf shall chase them." What poor spirit-
ed men are those, to fly at a shaking leaf! A leaf
makes a pleasant, not a terrible noise ; it makes indeed
a kind of natural music : but to a guilty conscience
even the whistling leaves are drums and trumpets !
^' But God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of
love and of a sound mind." A sou7id mind^ as it
stands there in opposition to fear^ is an unwounded
conscience not weakened by guilt: and this should
make a man as bold as a Jion. I know it cannot be
said of a saint, as God said of leviathan^ that he is
made without fear ; there is a natural fear in every
man, and it i^ as impossible to remove it wholly, as to
remove the body itself. Fear is perturbation of the
mind, arising from the apprehension of approaching
danger ; and as long as dangers can approach us, we
shall find some perturbations within us. It is not my
purpose to commend to you a stoical apathy, nor yet to
dissuade you from such a degree of cautionary pre-
ventive fear as may fit you for trouble and be service-
able to your soul. There is a provident fear that
opens our eyes to foresee danger, and quickens us to
a prudent and lawful use of means to prevent it : such
was Jacob's fear, and such his prudence when expect-
ing to meet his angry brother Esau. But it is the fear
of diffidence, from which I would persuade you to
keep your heart ; that tyrannical passion which invades
the heart in times of danger, distracts, weakens and
unfits it for duty, drives men upon unlawful means,
and brings a snare with it.
Now let us inquire how a Christian may keep his
heart from distracting and tormenting fears in times
of great and threatening dangers. There are several
excellent rules for keeping the heart from sinful fear
when imminent dangers threaten us.
ON KEEPLNG THE HEART. 47
1. Look upon all creatures as in the hand of God,
who manages them in all their motions, limiting, re-
straining and determining them at his pleasure. Get
this great truth well settled by faith in your heart, and
it will guard you against slavish fears. The first
chapter of Ezekiel contains an admirable draught of
Providence : there you see the living creatures who
move the wheels (that is, the great revolutions of things
liere below) coming unto Christ, who sits upon the
throne, to receive new instructions from him. In
Revelations, 6th chapter, you read of white, black, and
red horses, which are but the instruments God employs
in executing judgments in the world, as wars, pesti-
lence, and death. When these horses are prancing and
trampling up and down in the world, here is a con-
sideration that may quiet our hearts; God has the
reins in his hand. Wicked men are sometimes like
mad horses, they would stamp the people of God un-
der their feet, but that the bridle of Providence is in
their mouths. A lion at liberty is te''»*ible to meet, but
who is afraid of a lion in the keeper's hand ?
2. Remember that this God in whose hand are all
creatures, is your Father, and is much more tender of
you than you § re, or can be, of yourself. " He that
toucheth you, toucheth the apple of mine eye." Let
me ask the most timorous woman whether there be
not a great difference between the sight of a drawn
sword in the hand of a bloody ruffian, and of the same
sword in the hand of her own tender husband ? As
great a difference there is between looking upon crea-
tures by an eye of sense, and looking on them, as in
the hand of your God, by an eye of faith. Isaiah, 54: 5,
is here very appropriate : " Thy Maker is thine hus-
band, the Lord of hosts is his name ;" he is Lord of all
48 ON KEEPING THE HEART.
the hosts of creatures. Who would be afraid to pass
through an army, though all the soldiers should turn
their swords aad guns toward him, if the commander
of that army were his friend or father? A religious
young man being at sea with many other passengers in
a great storm, and they being half dead with fear, he
only was observed to be very cheerful, as if he were
but little concerned in that danger ; one of them de-
manding the reason of his cheerfulness, " 0," said he,
" it is because the pilot of the ship is my Father !"
Consider Christ first as the King and supreme Lord
over the providential kingdom, and then as your head,
husband and friend," and you will quickly say, " Re-
turn unto thy rest, O my soul." This truth will make
you cease trembling, and cause you to sing in the
midst of danger, " The Lord is King of all the earth,
sing ye praise with understanding." That is, 'Let
every one that has understanding of this heart-reviv-
ing and establishing doctrine of the dominion of our
Fatli'^r over all creatures, sing praise.'
3. UA**ge upon your heart the express prohibitions of
Christ in this case, and let your heart stand in awe of
the violation of them. He hath charged you not to
fear; " When we shall hear of wars and commotions,
see that ye be not terrified." " In nothing be terrified
by your adversaries." In Matthew, 10th, and within the
compass of six verses, our Savior commands us thrice,
" not to fear man." Does the voice of a man make
thee to tremble, and shall not the voice of God ? If
thou art of such a timorous spirit, how is it that thou
fearest not to disobey the commands of Jesus Christ ?
Methinks the command of Christ should have as much
power to calm, as the voice of a poor worm to terrify
thy heart, " I, even I, am he that comforteth you :
ON KEEPING THE HEAllT. 49
who art thou, that thou shouldst be afraid of a man
that shall diCj and of the son of man that shall be made
as the grass, and forgettest the Lord thy Maker?"
We cannot fear creatures sinfully till we have forgot-
ten God: did we remember what he is, and what he
has said, we should not be of such feeble spirits.
Bring thyself then to this reflection in times of danger :
'If I let into my heart the slavish fear of man, I must
let out the reverential awe and fear of God ; and dare
I cast off the fear of the Almighty for the frowns of a
man ? shall I lift up proud dust above the great God ?
shall I run upon a certain sin, to shun a probable
danger?' — O keep thy heart by this consideration I
4. Remember how much needless trouble your vain
fears have brought upon you formerly: "And hast
feared continually because of the oppressor, as if he
were ready to devour ; and where is the fury of the
oppressor ?" He seemed ready to devour, yet you are
not devoured. I have not brought upon you the thing
that you feared ; you have wasted your spirit, disor-
dered your soul, and weakened your hands to no pur-
pose: you might have all this while enjoyed your
peace, and possessed your soul in patience. And here
I cannot but observe a very deep policy of Satan in
managing a design against the soul by these vain fears.
I call them vain, with reference to the frustration of
them by Providence ; but certainly they are not in
vain as the end at which Satan aims in raising them ;
for herein he acts as soldiers do in the siege of a gar-
rison, who to wear out the besieged by constant
watchings, and thereby unfit them to make resistance
when they storm it in earnest, every night rouse them
with false alarms, which though they come to nothing,
yet remarkably answer the ultimate design of the
5
BO ON KEEPING THE ttEARt
enemy.--0 when will you beware of Satan's devices 1
5. Consider solemnly, that though the things you
fear should really happen, yet there is more evil in
your own fear than in the things feared: and that,
not only as the least evil of sin is worse than the
greatest evil of suffering; but as this sinful fear has
really more trouble in it than there is in that condition
of which you are so much afraid. Fear is both a mul-
tiplying and a tormenting passion ; it represents
troubles as much greater than they are, and so tor-
tures the soul much more than the suffering itself. So
it was with Israel at the Red Sea; they cried out and
were afraid, till they stepped into the water, and then
a passage was opened through those waters which
they thought would have drowned them. Thus it is
with us ; we, looking through the glass of carnal fear
upon the waters of trouble, the swelUngs of Jordan,
cry out, * O they are unfordable; we must perish in
them !' But when we come into the midst of those
floods indeed, we find the promise made good : " God
will make a way to escape." Thus it was with a bless-
ed martyr ; when he would make a trial by putting his
finger to the candle, and found himself not able to en-
dure that, he cried out, " What ! cannot I bear the
burning of a finger? How then shall I be able to bear
the burning of my whole body to-morrow ?" Yet
when that morrow came he could go cheerfully into
the flames with this scripture in his mouth : ^' Fear
not, for I have redeemed thee ; I have call-ed thee by
thy name, thou art mine ; when thou passest through
ihe waters I will be with you ; when thou walkest
through the fire thou shalt not be burnt."
6. Consult the many precious promises which are
written for your support and comfort in all dangers.
ON KEEPING TUC HEART. 51
These are your refuges to which you may fly and be
safe when the arrows of danger fly by night, and de-
struction wasteth at noon-day. There are particular
promises suited to particular cases and exigencies;
there are also general promises reaching all cases and
conditions. Such as these: " All things shall work to-
gether for good," &c. " Though a sinner do evil an
hundred times and his days be prolonged, yet it
shall be well with them that fear the Lord," &c. Could
you but believe the promises your heart should be
established. Could you but plead them with God as
Jacob did, (" Thou saidst, I will surely do thee good,"
«&c.) they would relieve you in every distress.
7. Quiet your trembling heart by recording and con-
sulting your past experiences of the care and faithful-
ness of God in former distresses. These experiences
are food for your faith in a wilderness. By this Da-
vid kept his heart in lime of danger, and Paul his. It
was answered by a saint, when one told him that his
enemies waylaid him to take his life: " If God take
no care of me, how is it that I have escaped hitherto?"
You may plead with God old experiences for new
ones : for it is in pleading with God for new deliver-
ances, as it is in pleading for new pardons. Mark
how Moses pleads of that account with God. "Pardon,
I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people, as thou hast
forgiven them from Egypt until now." He does not
say as men do, * Lord, this is the first fault, thou hast
not been troubled before to sign their pardon :' but,
*Lord, because thou hast pardoned them so often, I
beseech thee pardon them once again.' So in new
difficulties let the saint say, 'Lord, thou hast often
heard, helped and saved, in former years; therefore
now help again, for with thee there is plenteoijs re-
demption, and thine ai'm is not shortened.'
52 ON KEEPING THE HEART.
8. Be well satisfied that you are in the way of your
duty, and that will beget holy courage in times of
danger. "Who will harm you if you be a follower
of that which is good?" Or if any dare attempt to
harm you "you may boldly commit yourself to God
in well-doing." It was this consideration that raised
Luther's spirit above all fear: "In the cause of God
(said he) I ever am, and ever shall be stout: herein I
assume this title, "I yield to none." A good cause
will bear up a man's spirit. Hear the saying of a hea-
then, to the shame of cowardly Christians : when the
emperor Vespasian had commanded Fluidus Priseus
not to come to the senate, or if he did come, to speak
nothing but what he would have him ; the senator re-
turned this noble answer, "that he was a senator, it
was fit he should be at the senate ; and if being there;
lie were required to give his advice, he would freely
speak that which his conscience commanded him."
The emperor threatening that then he should die ; he
answered, " Did I ever tell you that I was immortal ?
Do what you will, and I will do what I ought. It is in
your power to put me to death unjustly, and in my
power to die with constancy." Righteousness is a
breastplate: let them tremble whom danger finds out
of the way of duty.
9. Get your conscience sprinkled with the blood of
Christ from all guilt, and that will set 3''our heart above
all fear. It is guilt upon the conscience that softens
and makes cowards of our spirits : "the righteous are
bold as a lion." It was guilt in Cain's conscience that
made- him cry, "Every one that findeth me will slay
me." A guilty conscience is more terrified by ima-
gined dangers, than a pure conscience is by real ones.
A guilty sinner carries a witness against himself in
ON KEEPING THE HEART. ^l
his own bosom. It was guilty Herod cried out, '-John
Baptist is risen from the dead." Such a conscience is
the devil's anvil, on wliich he fabricates all those
swords and spears with which the guilty sinner pierc-
es himself. Guilt is to danger, what fire is to gun-
powder: a man need not fear to walk among many
barrels of powder, if he have no fire about him.
10. Exercise holy trust in times of great distress.
Make it your business to trust God with your life and
comforts, and then your heart will be at rest about
them. So did David, "At what time I am afraid I will
trust in thee;" that is, *Lord, if at any time a storm
arise, I will shelter from it under the covert of thy
wings.' Go to God by acts of faith and trust, and ne-
ver doubt that he will secure you. "Thou wilt keep
him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee,
because he trusteth in thee," says Isaiah. God is
pleased when you come to him thus : ' Father, my life,
my liberty and my estate are exposed, and I cannot
secure them ; O let me leave them in thy hand. The
poor leavei/i himself with thee; and does his God fail
him ? No, thoic art the helper of the fatherless : that is,
thou art the helper of the destitute one, that has none
to go to but God. This is a comforting passage, " He
shall not be afraid of evil tidings, his heart is fixed,
trusting in the Lord;" he does not say, his ear shall
be preserved from the report of evil tidings, he may
hear as sad tidings as other men, but his heart shall
be kept from the terror of those tidings ; his heart is
fixed,
I. Consult the honor of religion more, and your
personnl safety less. Is it for the honor of religion
(think you) that Christians should be as timorous as
hares to start at every sound ? Will not this tempt the
5»
54 ON KEEPING THE HEART.
world to think, that whatever you talk, yet your prin-
ciples are no better than other men's? What mis-
chief may the discovery of your fears before them
do ! It was nobly said by Nehemiah, " Should such a
man as I flee? and who, being as I am, would flee?"
Were it not better you should die than that the world
should be prejudiced against Christ by your examplo?
For alas! how apt is the world (who judge more by
what they see in your practices than by what they
understand of your principles) to conclude from your
timidity, that how much soever .you commend faith
and talk of assurance, yet you dare trust to those
things no more than they, when it comes to the trial.
O let not your fears lay such a stumbling-block before
the blind world.
12. He that would secure his heart from fear, must
first secure the eternal interest of his soul in the hands
of Jesus Christ. When this is done, you may say,
*Now, world, do thy worst!' You will not be very so-
licitous about a vile body, when you are once assured
it shall be well lo all eternity with your precious soul.
" Fear not them (says Christ) that can kill the body,
and after that have no more that they can do." The
assured Christian may smile with contempt upon all
his enemies, and say, ^Is this the worst that you can
do?' What say you. Christian? Are you assured
that your soul is safe; that within a few moments of
your dissolution it shall be received by Christ into an
everlasting habitation? If you be sure of that, nevei
trouble yourself about the instrument and means of
your death.
13. Learn to quench all slavish creature-fears in the
reverential fear of God. This is a cure by diversion.
It is an exercise of Christian wisdom to turn those
ON KEEPING THE HEART. 65
passions of the soul which most predominate, into
spiritual channels: to turn natural anger into spiritual
zeal, natural mirth into holy cheerl'ulness, and natural
fear into a holy dread and awe of God. Tliis method
of cure Christ prescribes in the 10th of Matthew;
similar to which is Isaiah, 8: 12, 13, "Fear not their
fear." 'But how shall we help it?' "Sanctify the
Lord of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and
let him be your dread." Natural fear may be allayed
for the present by natural reason, or the removal of
the occasion ; but then it is like a candle blown out by
a puff of breath, which is easily blown in again : but
if the fear of God extinguish it, then it is like a candle
quenched in water, which cannot easily be rekindled.
14. Pour out to God in prayer those fears which
the devil and your own unbelief pour in upon you in
times of danger. Prayer is the best outlet to fear:
where is the Christian that cannot set his seal to this
direction? I will give you the greatest example to
encourage you to compliance, even the example of Je-
sus Christ. When the hour of his danger and death
drew nigh, he went into the garden, separated from
his disciples, and there wrestled mightily with God in
prayer, even unto agony ; in reference to which the
apostle says, "who in the days of his flesh, when he
had offered up prayers and supplications, with strong
cries and tears, to him that was able to save from
death, and was heard in that he feared." He was
heard as to strength and support to carry him through
it; though not as to deliverance, or exemption from it.
O '.hat these things may abide with you, and be re-
duced to practice in these evil days, and that many
trembling souls may be established by them.
Y. The fifth season, requiring diligence in keeping
56 ON KEEPING THE HEART.
the heart, is the time o( oiUward wants. Although at
such times we should complain to God, not o/'God, (the
throne of grace being erected for a " time of need,")
3^et when the waters of relief run low, and want begins
to press, how prone are the best hearts to distrust the
fountain ! When the meal in the barrel and the oil in
the cruse are almost spent, our failh and patience too
are almost spent. It is now difficult to keep the proud
and unbelieving heart in a holy quietude and sweet
submission at the foot of God. It is an easy thing to
talk of trusting God for daily bread, while we have a
full barn or purse; but to say as the prophet, " Though
the fig-tree should not blossom, neither fruit be in the
vine, «&c. yet will I rejoice in the Lord:" surely this
is not easy.
Would you know then how a Christian may keep
his heart from distrusting God, or repining against him,
when outward wants are either felt or feared ?--The
case deserves to be seriously considered, especially
now, since ii seems to be the design of Providence to
empty the people of God of their creature fullness, and
acquaint them with those difficulties to which hitherto
they have been altogether strangers. To secure the
heart from the dangers attending this condition, these
considerations may, through the blessing of the Spirit,
prove effectual.
I. If God reduces you to necessities, he therein
deals no otherwise with you than he has done with
some of the holiest men that ever lived. Your con-
dition is not siuffular; though you have hitherto been
a stranger to want, other saints have been familiarly
acquainted with it. Hear what Paul says, not of him-
self only, but in the nime of other saints reduced to
like exigencies: "Even to the present hour, we both
ON KEEPING THE HEART. 67
hunger and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and
have no certain dwelling-place." To see such a man
as Paul going up and down the world naked, and hun-
gry, and houseless ; one that was so far above ^hee
in grace and holiness; one that did more service for
God in a day than perhaps thou hast done in all thy
days may well put an end to your repining. Have
you forgotten how much even a David has suffered ?
How great were his difficulties ! " Give, I pray thee,"
says he to Nabal, " whatsoever cometh to thy hand, to
thy servants, and to thy son David." But why speak
I of these ? Behold a greater than any of them, even
the Son of God, who is the heir of all things^ and by
whom the worlds were made, sometimes would have
been glad of any thing, having nothing to eat. " .Vnd
on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany,
lie was hungry ; and seeing a fig-tree afar off, having
leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing
thereon."
Hereby then God has set no mark of hatred upon
you, neither can you infer want of love from want of
bread. When thy repining heart puts the question,
*Was there ever sorrow like unto mine?' ask these
worthies, and they will tell thee that though they did
not complain as thou dost, yet their condition was as
necessitous as thine is.
2. If God leave you not in this condition without a
promise, you have no reason to repine or despond un-
der it. That is a sad condition indeed to which no pro-
mise belongs. Calvin in his comment on Isaiah, 9:1,
explains in what sense the darkness of the captivity
was not so great as that of the lesser incursions made
by Tiglath Pileser. In the captivity, the city was
destroyed and the temple burnt with fire : there was
58 ON KEEPING THE HEART*
110 comparison in the affliction, yet the darkness was
not so great, because, says he, "there was a certain
promise made in this case, but none in the other." It
is better to be as low as hell with a promise, than to bo
in paradise without one. Even the darkness of hell
itself would be no darkness comparatively at all, were
there but a promise to enlighten it. Now, God has
left many sweet promises for the faith of his poor peo-
ple to live upon in this condition ; such as these : " O
fear the Lord, ye his saints, for there is no want to
them that fear him ; the lions do lack and suffer hun-
ger, but they that fear the Lord shall not want any
good thing." "The eye of the Lord is upon the
righteous to keep them alive in famine." " No good
thing will he withhold from them that walk upright-
ly." " He that spared not his own Son, but delivered
him up foi us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things ?" " When the poor and the
needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue
faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God
of Israel will not forsake them." Here you see their
extreme wants, water being put for their necessaries
of life ; and their certain relief, " I the Lord will hear
them ;" in which it is supposed that they cry unto him
in their distress, and he hears their cry. Having
tlierefore these promises, why should not your dis-
trustful heart conclude like David's, "The Lord is my
shepherd, I shall not want?"
'But these promises imply conditions: if they were
absolute, they would afford more satisfaction.' What
are those tacit conditions of which you speak but
these, that he will either supply or sanctify your
wants ; that you shall have so much as God sees fit for
you ? And does this trouble you ? Would you have
ON KEEPING THE HEARl 59
the mercy, whether sanctified or not ? whether God
sees it fit fur you or not ? The appetites of saints af-
ter earthly things should not be so ravenous as to
seize greedily upon any enjoyment without regarding
circumstances.
* But when wants press, and I see not whence sup*
plies should come, my faith in the promise shakes, and
I, like murmuring Israel, cry, " He gave bread, can he
give water also?" O unbelieving heart! when did
his promises fail ? who ever trusted them and was
ashamed ? May not God upbraid thee with thine unrea-
sonable infidelity, as in Jer. 2 : 31, " Have I been a
wilderness unto you ?" or as Christ said to his disci-
ples, "Since I was with you, lacked ye any thing?"
Yea, may you not upbraid yourself; may you not
say with good old Polycarp, " These many years I
have served Christ, and found him a good Master ?"
Indeed he may deny what your wantonness, but not
what your want calls for. He will not regard the cry
of your lusts, nor yet despise the cry of your faith :
though he will not indulge your wanton appetites, yet
he will not violate his own faithful promises. These
promises are your best security for eternal life ; and
it is strange they should not satisfy you for daili/
bread. Remember the words of the Lord, and solace
your heart with them amidst all your wants. It is said
oi Epicurus, that in dreadful paroxysms of the cholic
he often refreshed himself by calling to mind his in-
ventions in philosophy ; and of Possodonius the phi-
losopher, that in an acute disorder he solaced himself
with discourses on moral virtue ; and when distress-
ed, he would say, '' O pain, thou dost nothing ; though
thou art a little troublesome, I will never confess thee
to be evil." If upon such grounds as these they could
60 ON KEEPING THE HEARt.
support themselves under such racking pains, and
even deluded their diseases by them ; how much ra-
ther should the promises of God, and the sweet expe-
riences which have gone along step by step with them,
make you forget all your wants, and comfort you in
every difficulty ?
3. If it be bad now, it mjght have been worse.
Has God denied thee the comforts of this life? He
might have denied thee Christ, peace, and pardon also ;
and then thy case had been woful indeed.
You know God has done so to millions. How many
such wretched objects may your eyes behold every
day, that have no comfort in hand, nor yet in hope;
that are miserable here, and will be so to eternity ;
that have a bitter cup, and nothing to sweeten it — no,
not so much as any hope that it will be better. But
it is not so with you: though you be poor in this
world, yet you are " rich in faith, and an heir of the
kingdom which God has promised." Learn to set
spiritual riches over against temporal poverty. Ba-
lance all your present troubles with your spiritual
privileges. Indeed if God has denied your soul the
robe of righteousness to clothe it, the hidden manna to
feed it, the heavenly mansion to receive it, you might
well be pensive ; but the consideration that he has not
may administer comfort under any outward distress.
When Luther began to be pressed by want, he said,
'" Let us be contented with our hard fare ; for do not
we feast aipon Christ, the bread of life ?" '* Blessed be
God (said Paul) who hath abounded to us in all spiri-
tual blessings."
4. Though this affliction be great- God has far
greater, with which he chastises the dearly beloved of
his j^oi^l in ^his world. Should he remov^e this and
OS KEEPING THE HEART. 61
jnflict those, you would account your present state a
very comfortable one, and bless God to be as you now
are. Should God remove your pr-^sent troubles, sup-
ply all your outward wants, give you the desire of
your heart in creature-comforts ; but hide his face
from you, shoot his arrows into your soul, and cause
the venom of them to drink up your spirit : should
he leave you but a few days to the buffetings of Sa-
tan : should he hold your eyes but a few nights waking
with horrors of conscience, tossing to and fro till the
dawning of the day :-— should he lead you through the
chambers of death, show you the visions of darkness,
and make his terrors set themselves in array against
you : then tell me if you would not think it a great
mercy to be back again in your former necessitous
condition, with peace of conscience ; and account
bread and water, with God's favor, a happy state?
then take heed of repining. Say not that God
deals hardly with you, lest you provoke him to con-
vince you by your own sense that he has worse rods
than these for unsubmissive and froward children.
5. If it be bad now, it will be better shortly. Keep
thy heart by this consideration, ' the meal in the bar-
rel is almost spent ; well^ be it so, why should that
trouble me, if I am almost beyond the need and use of
these things?' The traveler has spent almost all his
money ; ' well,' says he, ' though my money be almost
spent, my journey is almost finished too : I am near
home, and shall soon be fully supplied.' If there be
no candles in the house, it is a comfort to think that it
is almost day, and then there will be no need of them.
1 am afraid. Christian, you misreckon when you think
your provision is almost spent, and you have a great
way to travel, many years to- live and nothing to live
6
W ON KEEPING THE HEART.
upon ; it may be not half so many as you suppose,
In this be confident, if your provision be spent, either
fresh supplies are coming, though yoa see not whence,
or you are nearer your journey's end than you reck-
on yourself to be. Desponding soul, does it be-
come a man traveling upon the road to that heavenly
city, and almost arrived there, within a few days'
journey of his Father's house, where all his wants
shall be supplied, to be so anxious about a little meat,
or drink, or clothes, which he fears he shall want by
the way ? It was nobly said by the forty martyrs
when turned out naked in a frosty night to be starved
to death, " The winter indeed is sharp and cold, but
heaven is warm and comfortable ; here we shiver for
cold, but Abraham's bosom will make amends for all."
* But,' says the desponding soul, ' I may die for
want.' Who ever did so ? When were the righteous
forsaken ? If indeed it be so, your journey is ended,
and you fully supplied.
' But I am not sure of that ; were I sure of heaven,
it would be another matter.' Are you not sure of
that ? then you have other matters to trouble yourself
about than these ; methinks these should be the least
of all your cares. I do not find that souls perplexed
about the want of Christ, pardon of sin, «&c. are usually
very solicitous about these things. He that seriously
puts such questions as these, * What shall I do to
be saved ? how shall I know my sin is pardoned V '
does not trouble himself with, "What shall I eat, what
sliall I drink, or wherewithal shall I be clothed ?"
6. Does it become the children of such a Father to
distrust his all-sufficiency, or repine at any of his dis-
pensations ? Do you well to question his care and
love upon every new exigency ? Say, have you not ,
i
ON KEEPING THE HEART. 63
formerly been ashamed of this ? Has not your Fa-
ther's seasonable provision for you in former difficul-
ties put you to the blush, and made you resolve never
more to question his love and care ? And yet will
you again renew your unworthy suspicions of him ?
Disingenuous child ! reason thus with yourself: " If I
perish for want of what is good and needful for mo,
it must be either because my Father knows not my
wants, or has not wherewith to supply them, or re-
gards not what becomes of me. Which of these shall
I charge upon him ? Not the first : for my Father
kiixrws what I have need of. Not the second : for the
earth is the LonTs and the fullness thereof; his name
is God All-sufficient. Not the last: for as a Father
pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear
him ; the Lord is exceeding' pitiful and of tender mei'-
cy ; he hears the young ravens when they cry\ — and
will he not hear me ? Consider ^ says Christ, the fowls
of the air; not the fowls at the door, that are fed every
day by hand, but the fowls of the air that have none to
provide for them. Does he feed and clothe his ene-
mies, and will he forget his children ? he heard even
the cry of Ishmael in distress. O my unbelieving
heart, dost thou yet doubt?"
7. Your poverty is not your sin, but your affliction.
Jf you have not by sinful means brought it upon your-
self, and if it be but an affliction, it may the more easily
be borne. It is hard indeed to bear an affliction com-
ing upon us as the fruit and punishment of sin.
When men are under trouble upon that account;
they say, ^0 if it were but a single affliction, coming
from the hand of God by way of trial, I could bear it;
but I have brought it upon myself by sin, it comes as
the punishment of sin; the marks of God's displeasure
^4 ON KEEPING THE HEART.
are upon it : it is the guilt within that troubles and galls
jnore than the want without.' But it is not so here ;
therefore you have no reason to be cast down under it.
'But though there be no sting of guilt, yet this con-
dition wants not other stings ; as, for instance, the dis-
credit of religion. I cannot comply with my engage-
ments in the world, and thereby religion is likely to
suffer.' It is well you have a heart to discharge every
duty; yet if God disable you by providence, it is no
discredit to your profession that you do not that which
you cannot do, so long as it is your desire and endea-
vor to do what you can and ought to do ; and in this
case God's will is, that lenity and forbearance be exer-
cised toward you.
^But it grieves me to behold the necessities of others,
whom I was wont to relieve and refresh, but now can-
not.' If you cannot, it ceases to be your duty, and
God accepts the drawing out of your soul to the hun-
gry in compassion and desire to help them, though you
cannot draw forth a full purse to relieve and supply
them.
' But I find such a condition full of temptations, a
great hinderance in the way to heaven.' Every cc^.di-
tion in the world has its hinderances and attending
temptations ; and were you in a prosperous condition,
you might there meet with more temptations and
fewer advantages than you now have ; for though I
confess poverty as well as prosperity has its tempta-
tions, yet I am confident prosperity has not those Ld-
vantages that poverty has. Here you have an oppor
tunity to discover the sincerity of your love to God,
when you can live upon him, find enough in him, and
constantly follow him, even when all external induce-
ments and motives fail.
ON KEEPING THE HEART. 69
Thus I have shown you how to keep your heart
from the temptations and dangers attending a low con-
dition in the world. When want oppresses and the
heart begins to sink, then improve, and bless God for
these helps to keep it.
VI. The sixtk season requiring this diligence in
keeping the heart, is the season of duty. Our hearts
must he closely watched and kept when we draw
nigh to God in public, private, or secret duties; for
the vanity of the heart seldom discovers itself more
than at such times. How often does the poor soul
cry out, ' O Lord, how gladly would I serve thee, but
vain thoughts will not let me : I come to open my
heart to thee, to delight my soul in communion wiih
thee, but my corrupiions oppose me: Lord, call <»ff
these vain thoughts, and suffer them not to prostitute
the soul that is espcuised to thee.'
The question then is this : How may the heart be
kept from distractions by vain thoughts in time of du-
ty ? There is a two-fold distracti»)n, or wandering of
the heart in duty : First, voluntary and habitual,
"' They set not their hearts aright, ani their spirit
w<is not steadfast with God." This is the case of for-
mdists, and it proceeds from the want of a holy in-
clination of the heart to God ; their hearts are under
the power of their lusts, and therefore it Is no won-
der that they go after their lusts, even when they are
about holy thing'*. Secondly, involuntary and lament-
ed distractions : •' I find then a law, that when I would
do ffood, evil is present with me ; wretclied man
that [ am," &e. This pr()C(^eds not from the want of
a holy inclination or aim, but from the weakness of
grace and the waut of vigilance in opposing in-dwell-
ing sin. But it is not my business to show you how
6*
66 ON KEEPLNG THE JiEART.
these distractions come into the heart, but rather how
to get them out, and prevent their future admission.
1. Sequester yourself from all earthly employments,
and set apart some time for solemn preparation to
meet God in duty. You cannot come directly from
the world into God's presence without finding a savor
of the world in your duties. It is with the heart (a
few minutes since plunged in the world, now in the
presence of God) as it is with the sea after a storm,
which still continues working, muddy and disquiet,
though the wind be laid and the storm be over. Your
heart must have some time to settle. Few musicians
can take an instrument and play upon it without some
time and labor to tune it ; few Christians can say with
David, "My heart is fixed, O God, it is fixed." When
you go to God in any duty, take your heart aside and
say, ' O my soul, I am now engaged in the greatest
work that a cieature was ever employed about ; I am
going into the awful presence of God upon business
of everlasting moment. my soul, leave trifling now ;
be composed, be watchful, be serious ; this is no com-
mon work, it is soul-work ; it is work for eternity ; It
is work which will bring forth fruit to life or death in
the world to come.' Pause awhile and consider your
sins, your wants, your troubles ; keep your thoughts
awhile on these before you address yourself to duty.
David first mused, and then spake with his tongue.
2. Having composed your heart by previous medita-
tion, immediately set a guard upon your senses. How
often are Christians in danger of losing the eyes of
their mind by those of their body! Against this Da-
vid prayed, "Turn away mine eyes from beholding
vanity, and quicken thou me in thy way." This may
serve to expound the Arabian proverb: "Shut the
I
ON KEEPING THE HEART. 67
windows that the house may be light." It were well
if you could say in the commencement, as a holy man
once said when he came from the performance of du-
ty : "Be shut, O my eyes, be shut; for it is impossible
that you should ever discern such beauty and glory
in any creature as I have now seen in God." You
must avoid all occasions of distraction from without,
and imbibe that intenseness of spirit in the work of
God which locks up the eye and ear against vanity.
3. Beg of God a mortified fancy. A working fancy,
(saith one,) how much soever it be extolled among
men, is a great snare to the soul, except it work in fel-
lowship with right reason and a sanctified heart. The
fancy is a power of the soul, placed between the sens-
es and the understanding; it is that which first stirs
itself in the soul, and by its motions the other powers
of the soul are brought into exercise ; it is that in
which thoughts are first formed, and as that is, so are
they. If imaginations be not first cast down, it is im-
possible that every thought of the heart should be
brought into obedience to Christ. The fancy is natu-
rally the wildest and most untameable power of the
soul. Some Christians have much to do with it : and
the more spiritual the heart is, the more does a wild
and vain fancy disturb and perplex it. It is a sad
thing that one's imagination should call off the soul
from attending on God, when it is engaged in commu-
nion with him. Pray earnestly and perseveringly that
your fancy may be chastened and sanctified, and when
this is accomplished your thoughts will be regular and
fixed.
4. If you would keep your heart from vain excur-
sions when engaged in duties, realize to yourself, by
faith, the holy and awful presence of God. If the
68 ON KEEPING THE HKART.
presence of a grave man would compose you to se-
riousness, how much more should the presence of a
holy God? Do you think that you would dare to be
gay and light if you realized the presence and inspec-
tion of the Divine Being? Remember where you are
when engaged in religious duty, and art as if you be-
lieved in the omniscience of God. " All things are
naked and open to the eyes of Him with whom we
liave to do." Realize his infinite holiness, his purity,
his spirituality.
Strive to obtain such apprehensions of the c^reatness
of God as shall suitably affect your heart: and re-
member his jealousy over his worship. "This is that
the Loni spake, savin?, I will be sanctified in th^m
that come niffh nie, and before all the people T will be
glorified." ^'A man that is pravintj (says Bernard)
should behave himself as if he were enterinor into the
court of heaven, where he sees the T.ord upon his
thrf)n^ surrounded with t/*n thousand of his ansfpls
an 1 saints ministerinsr unto him." — When you come
from an exercise in which your heart has been wan-
derinu and listless, what can yon sa^ ? Snppr>se all the
vanities and impertinences wbirhhave passerl thronsrh
your mind during a devotional exercise were written
down and interlined with your petitions, conM you
have the faee to present them to God ? Should your
tonsrue utter ail the thoughts of your heart when at-
t'mdimj the worship of God. would not men abhor von ?
Yet your thouahts are perfectly known to God. O think
upon this scripture: "God is ffreatly to be feared in
tlie assemblies of his saints, and to be liad in reverenee
of all them that are round about him." Why dil the
Lord descend in thunderincrs and liorhtninsrs and dark
cL^'ids upon Sinai? why did the mountains smoke un-
ON KEEPING THE UEAKT 09
rter dim, the people quake and tremble round about
him, Moses Jiimself not excepted? but to teach the
people this great truth: "Let us have grace, whereby
we may serve Him acceptably, with reverence and
godly fear; for our God is a consuming fire." Such
apprehensions of the character and presence of God
will quickly reduce a heart inclined to vanity to a
more serious frame.
6. Maintain a prayerful frame of heart in the inter-
vals of duty. What reason can be assigned why our
hearts are so dull, so careless, so wandering, when we
hear or pray, but that there have been long intermis-
sions in our communion with God? If that divine
tmction, that spiritual fervor, and those holy impres-
sions, which we obtain from God while engaged in the
performance of one duty, were preserved to enliven
and engage us in the performance of another, they
would be of incalculable service to keep our hearts se-
rious and devout. For this purpose, frequent ejacula-
tions between stated and solemn duties are of most
excellent use : they not only preserve the mind in a
composed and pious frame, but they connect one sta-
ted duty, as it were, with another, and keep the atten-
tion of the soul alive to all its interests and obligations.
6. If you would have the distraction of your thoughts
prevented, endeavor to raise your affections to' God,
and to engage them warmly in your duty. When the
soul is intent upon any work, it gathers in its strength
and bends all its thoughts to that work; and when it
is deeply affected, it will pursue its object with intense-
ness, the affections will gain an ascendancy over the
thoughts and guide them. But deadness causes dis-
traction, and distraction increases deadness. Could
YOU but regard your duties as the medium in which
70 OU KEEPING THE HEART.
you might walk in communion with God in which
your soul might be filled with those ravishing and
matchless delights which his presence affords, you
might have no inclination to neglect them. But if you
would prevent the recurrence of distracting thoughts,
if you would find your happiness in the performance
of duty, you must not only be careful thai you engage
in what is your duty, but labor with patient and perse-
vering exertion to interest your feelings in it. Why
is your heart so inconstant, especially in secret duties;
why are you ready to be gone, almost as soon as you
are come into the presence of God, but because your
affections are not engaged ?
7. When you are disturbed by vain thoughts, hum-
ble yourself before God, and call in assistance from
Heaven. When the messenger of Satan buffeted St.
Paid by wicked suggestions, (as is supposed) he mourn-
ed before God on account of it. Ne\er slight wander-
ing thoughts in duly as small matters; follow every
such thought with a deep regret. Turn to God with
such words as these : ' Lord, I came hither to commune
With thee, and here a busy adversary and a vain heart,
conspiring together, have opposed me. O my God !
what a heart have I! shall I never wail upon thee
without distraction? when shall I enjoy an hour ol
free communion with thee? Grant me thy assistance at
this time ; discover thy glory to me, and my heart will
quickly be recovered. I came hither to enjoy thee,
and shall I go away without thee? Behold my dis-
tress, and help me!'— Could you but sufficiently be-
wail your distractions, and repair to God for deliver-
ance from them, you would gain relief.
8. Look upon the success and the comfort of your
4uUes, as depending very much upon the keeping of
ON KEEPING THE HEART. 71
your heart close with God in them. These two things,
the success of duly and the inward comfort arising
from the performance of it, are unspeakably dear to
the Christian ; but both of these will be lost if the
heart be in a listless state. " Surely God heareth not
vanity, nor dolh th<3 Almighty regard it." The promise
is made to a heart engaged: " Then shall ye seek for
me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all
your hearts." When you find your heart under the
power of deadness and distraction, say to yourself, ' O
what do I lose by a careless heart now ! My prayinir
seasons are the most valuable portions of my life:
could I but raise my heart to God, I might now ob-
tain such mercies as would be matter of praise to ail
eternity.'
9. Regard your carefulness or carelessness in this
matter as a great evidence of your sincerity, or hypo-
crisy. Nothing will alarm an upright heart more than
this. ' What! shall I give way to a customary wan-
dering of the heart from God? Shall the spot of the
hypocrite appear upon rny soul ? Hypocrites, indeed,
can drudge on in the round of duty, never regarding
the frame of their hearts; but shall I do so? Never —
never let me be satisfied with empty duties. Never
let lUe take my leave of a duty until my eyes have
seen the King, the Lord of Hosts.'
10. It will be of special use to keep your heart with
God in duty, to consider what influence all your duties
will have upon your eternity. Your religious seasons
are your seed times, and in another world you must
reap the fruits of what you sow in your duties here
If you sow to the flesh, you will reap corruption ; it
you sow to the Spirit, you will reap life everlasting.
Answer seriously these questions : Are you wiiling to
a OJf KEEPING THE HEART.
reap the fruit of vanity in the world to come ? Dare
you say, when your thoughts are roving to the ends
of the earth in duty, when you scarce mind what you
say or hear, 'Now, Lord, I am sowing to the Spirit j
now I am providing and laying up for eternity; now
I am seeking for glory, honor and immortality ; now
I am striving to enter in at the strait gate; now I am
taking the kingdom of heaven by ho.y violence!^
Such reflections are well calculated to dissipate vain
thoughts.
VII. The seventh season, which requires more than
common diligence to keep the heart, is when i^e re-
ceive injitries and abuses frorrh men. Such is the de-
pravity and corruption of man, that one is become as
a wolf or a tiger to another. And as men are natu-
rally cruel and oppressive one to another, so the wick
ed conspire to abuse and wrong the people of God.
" The wicked devoureth the man that is more right-
eous than he." Now when we are thus abused and
wronged, it is hard to keep the heart from revengeful
motions; to make \t meekly and quietly commit
the cause to Him that judgeth righteously ; to prevent
the exercise of any sinful affection. The spirit that
is in us lusteth to revenge ; but it must not be so. We
have choice helps in the Gospel to keep our hearts
from sinful motions against our enemies, and to
sweeten our embittered spirits. Do you ask how a
Christian may keep his heart from revengeful motions
under the greatest injuries and abuses from men? I
reply : When you find your heart begin to be inflamed
by revengeful feelings, immediMely reflect on the fol-
lowing things :
1. Urge u^n your heart the severe prohibitions of
revenge contarned in the law of God. However gra-
ON KEEPING THE HEART. W
lifylng to your corrupt propensities revenge may be,
remember that it is forbidden. Hear the word of God:
^' Say not, I will recompense evil." Say not, I will do
so to him as he hath done to me. " Recompense to
no man evil for evil. Avenge not yourselves, but
give piace unto wrath ; for it is WTitten, Vengeance is
mine, I will repay, saith the Lord." On the contrary,
" If thine enemy hunger, feed him ; if he thirst, give
him drink." It was an argument urged by the
Christians to prove their religion to be supernatural
and pure, that it forbids revenge, which is so agreeable
to nature ; and it is to be wished that such an argument
might not be laid aside. Awe your heart, then, with
the authority of God in the Scriptures; and when
carnal reason says, * My enemy deserves to be hated,'
let conscience reply, *But doth God deserve to be dis-
obeyed V 'Thus and thus hath he done, and so hath
he wronged me ;' ' But what hath God done that 1
should Ayrong him? If my enemy dares boldly to
break the peace, shall I be so wicked as to break the
precept ? if he fears not to wrong me, shall not I fear
to wrong God 1^ Thus let the fear of God restrain and
calm your feelings.
2. Set before your eyes the most eminent patterns
of meekness and forgiveness, that you may feel the
f rce of their example. This is the way to cut off the
common pleas of flesh and blood for revenge : as thus,
* No man would bear such an affront ;' yes, others have
borne as bad, and worse ones. * But I shall be reckon-
ed a coward, a fool, if I pass by this:' no matter, so
long as you follow the examples of the wisest and ho-
liest ol men. Never did any one suffer more or great-
er abuses from men than Jesus did, nor did any one
ever endure insult and reproach and every kind of
...7
"74 ON KEEPING THE HIJARt.
abuse in a more peaceful and forgiving manner ; when
he was reviled he reviled not again ; When he suffered,
he threatened not ; when his murderers crucified him^
he prayed Father ^ forgive them; and herein he hath set
us an example, that we should follow his steps. Thus
his apostles imitated him : " Being reviled," say they,
" we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it ; being de-
famed, we entreat." I have often heard it reported of
the holy Mr. Dod, that when a man, enraged at his
close, convincing doctrine, assaulted him, smote him
on the face, and dashed out two of his teeth ; that
meek servant of Christ spit out the teeth and blood
into his hand, and said, " See here, you have knocked
out two of my teeth, and that without any just pro-
vocation; but on condition that I might do 3^our soul
good, I would give you leave to knock out all the
rest." Here was exemplified the excellency of the
Christian spirit. Strive then for this spirit, which con-
stitutes the true excellence of Christians. Do what
others cannot do, keep this spirit in exercise, and you
will preserve peace in your own soul and gain the vic-
tory over your enemies.
2. Consider the character of the person who has
wronged you. He is either a good or a wicked man. If he
is a good man, there is light and tenderness in his con-
science, which sooner or later will bring him to a sense
of the evil of what he has done. If he is a good man,
Christ has forgiven him greater injuries than he has
done to you ; and why should not you forgive him ?
Wili Christ not upbraid him for any of his wrongs,
but frankly forgive them ail ; and will you take him by
the throat for some petty abuse which he has offered
you?
B. But if a wicked man has injured or insulted you,
ON KEEPING THE HEART. 75
truly you have more reason to exercise pity than re-
vencre toward him. He is in a deluded and miserable
stale ; a slave to sin and an enemy to righteousness. li
lie should ever repent, he will be ready to make you
reparation ; if he continues impenitent, there is a day
coming when he will be punished to the extent of his
deserts. You need not study revenge, God will exe-
cute vengeance upon him.
4. Remember that by revenge you can only gratify
a sinful passion, which by forgiveness you might con-
quer. Suppose that by revenge you might destroy one
enemy ; yet, by exercising the Christian's temper you
might conquer three — your own lust, Satan's tempta-
tion, and your enemy's heart. If by revenge you should
overcome your enemy, the victory would be unhappy
and inglorious, for in gaining it you would be over-
come by your own corruption ; but by exercising a
meek and forgiving temper, you will always come off
with honor and succes. It must be a very disingenuous
nature indeed upon which meekness and forgiveness
will not operate ; that must be a flinty heart which
this fire will not melt. Thus David gained such a vic-
tory over Saul his persecutor, that " Saul lifted up his
voice and wept, and he said to David, Thou art more
righteous than I."
5. Seriously propose this question to your own
heart: * Have I got any good by means of the wrongs
and injuries which I have received ?' If they have done
you no good, turn your revenge upon yourself. You
have reason to be filled with shame and sorrow that
you should have a heart which can deduce no good
from such troubles ; that your temper should be so
unlike that of Christ. The patience and meekness of
other Christians have turned all the injuries offered to
76 ON KEEPING THE HEART.
them to a good account; their souls have been ani-
mated to praise God when they have been loaded with
reproaches from the world. *' I thank my God." said
Jerome, " that I am worthy to be hated of the world."
But if you have derived any benefit from the re-
proaches and wrongs which you have received, if they
have put you upon examining your own heart, if they
have made you more careful how you conduct, if they
have convinced you of the value of a sanctified tem-
per ; will you not forgive them ? will you not forgive
one who has been instrumental of so much good t*^
you ? What though he meant it for evil ? if throug«i
the Divine blessing your happiness has been promoted
by what he has done, why should you even have a
hard thought of him ?
6. Consider by whom all your troubles are ordered.
This will be of great use to keep your heart from re-
venge ; this will quickly calm and sweeten your tem-
per. When Shimei railed at David and cursed him,
the spirit of that good man was not at all poisoned by
revenge; for when Abishai offered him, if he pleased, the
head of Shimei, the king said, " Let him curse, be-
cause the Lord hath said unto him. Curse David : who
shall then say, Wherefore hast thou done so?" It may
be that God uses him as his rod to chastise me, because
by my sin I gave the enemies of God occasion to
blaspheme ; and shall I be angry with the instrument 1
how irrational were that ! Thus Job was quieted ; he
did not rail and meditate revenge upon the Chaldeans
and Sabeans, but regarded God as the orderer of his
troubles, and said, " The Lord hath taken away, bless-
ed be his name."
7. Consider how you are daily and hourly wrong-
ing Godj and you will not be so easily inflamed with
]
ON KEEPING THE HEART. T7
revenge against those who have wronged you. You
are constantly affronting God, yet he does not take
vengeance on you, but bears with you and forgives ;
and will you rise up and avenge yourself upon others ?
Reflect on this cutting rebuke : " O thou wicked and
slothful servant ! I forgave thee all that debt because
thou desiredst me ; shouldst thou not also have com-
passion on thy fellow-servant, even as I had pity on
thee ?" None should be so filled with forbearance and
mercy to such as wrong them, as those v/ho have ex-
perienced the riches of mercy themselves. The mer-
cy of God to us should melt our hearts into mercy
toward others. It is impossible that we should be
cruel to others, except we forget how kind and com-
passionate God hath been to us. And if kindness can-
not prevail in us, methinks fear should: — "If ye for-
give not men their trespasses, neither will your Father
forgive your trespasses."
8. Let the consideration that the day of the Lord
draweth nigh, restrain you from anticipating it by acts
of revenge. Why are you so hasty ? is not the Lord
at hand to avenge all his abused servants ? " Be pa-
tient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord.
Behold the husbandman waiteth, &c. Be ye also pa-
tient, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.
Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be
condemned. Behold, the Judge standeth at the door."
Vengeance belongeth unto God, and will you wrong
yourself so much as to assume his work ?
VIII. The next season in which special exertion is
necessary to keep the heart, is when we meet -with
great trials. In such cases the heart is apt to be sud-
denly transported with pride, impatience, or other sin-
ful passions. Many good people are guilty of hasty
78 ON KEEPING THE HEART.
and very sinful conduct in such instances; and all
have need to use diligently the following means to
Keep their hearts submissive and patient under great
trials.
1. Get humble and abasing thoughts of yourself.
Tae humble is ever the patient man. Pride is the
source of irregular and sinful passions. A lofty, will
be an unyielding and peevish spirit. When we over-
rate ourselves, we think that we are treated unworthi-
ly, that our trials are too severe : thus we cavil and
repine. Christian, you should have such thoughts of
yourself as would put a stop to these murmurings.
You should have lower and more humiliating views of
yourself than any other one can have of you. Get hu-
mility, and you will have peace whatever be your trial.
2. Cultivate a habit of communion with God. This
will prepare you for whatever may take place. This
"Will so sweeten your temper and calm your mind as to
secure you against surprisals. This will produce that
inward peace w^hich will make you superior to your
trials. Habitual communion with God will afford you
enjoyment, which you can never be willing to inter-
rupt by sinful feeling. When a Christian is calm and
submissive under his afflictions, probably he derives
support and comfort in this way ; but he who is dis-
composed, impatient, or fretful, shows that all is not
right within — he cannot be supposed to practise com-
munion with God.
3. Let your mind be deeply impressed with an ap-
prehension of the evil nature and effects of an unsub-
missive and restless temper. It grieves the Spirit of
God, and induces his departure. His gracious pre-
.sence and influience are enjoyed only where peace
and quiet submission prevail. The indulgence of such
ON KEEPING THE HEART. 79
a temper gives the adversary an advantage. Satan is
an angry and discontented spirit. He finds no rest
but in restless hearts. He bestirs himself when the
spirits are in commotion ; sometimes he fills the heart
with ungrateful and rebellious thoughts ; sometimes
he inflames the tongue with indecent language. Again,
such a temper brings great guilt upon the conscience,
unfits the soul for any duty, and dishonors the Chris-
tian name. O keep your heart, and let the power and
excellence of your religion be chiefly manifested when
you are brought into the greatest straits.
4. Consider how desirable it is for a Christian to
overcome his evil propensities. How much more pre-
sent happiness it affbrds; how much better it is in
every respect to mortify and subdue unholy feelings,
than to give way to them. When upon your death-
bed you come calmly to review your life, how com-
fortable will it be to reflect on the conquest which you
have made over the depraved feelings of your heart.
It was a memorable saying of Valantinian the em-
peror, when he was about to die : " Amongst all my
conquests, there is but one that now comforts me."
Being asked what that was, he answered, "I have
overcome my worst enemy, my own sinful heart I"
5. Shame yourself, by contemplating the character
of those who have been most eminent for meekness
and submission. Above all, compare your temper with
the Spirit of Christ. " Learn of me," saith he, " for I
am meek and lowly." It is said of Calvin and Ursin,
though both of choleric natures, that they had so im-
bibed and cultivated the meekness of Christ as not to
litter an unbecoming word under the greatest provoca-
tions. And even many of the heathens have manifest-
ed great moderation and forbearance under their se-
80
ON KEEPING THE HEART.
verest afflictions. Is it not a shame and a reproach that
you should be outdone by them ?
6. Avoid every thing which is calculated to irritate
your feelings. It is true spiritual valor to keep as far
as we can out of shi's way. If you can but avoid tht
excitements to impetuous and rebellious feelings, oi
check them in their first beginnings, you will have but
little to fear. The first workings of common sins are
comparatively weak, they gain their strength by de-
grees; but in times of trial the motions of sin are
strongest at first, the unsubdued temper breaks out
suddenly and violently. But if you resolutely with-
stand it at first, it will yield and give you the victory.
IX. The ninth season wherein the greatest diligence
and skill are necessary to keep the heart, is the hour
of temptation^ when Satan besets the Christian's heart,
and takes the unwary by surprise. To keep the heart
at such times, is not less a mercy than a duty. Few
Christians are so skillful in detecting the fallacies, and
repelling the arguments by which the adversary in-
cites them to sin, as to come off safe and whole in
those encounters. Many eminent saints have smarted
severely for their want of watchfulness and diligence
at such times. How then may a Christian keep his
heart from yielding to temptation ? There are several
principal ways in which the adversary insinuates
temptation, and urges compliance.
1. Satan suggests that here is pleasure to be enjoyed ;
the temptation is presented with a smiling aspect and
an enticing voice : * What, are you so dull and phleg-
matic as not to feel the powerful charms of pleasure ?
Who can withhold himself from such delights?'
Reader, you may be rescued from the danger of such
temptations by repelling the proposal of pleasure. It
ON KEEPING THE HEART. 81
is urged that the commission of sin will afford you
pleasure. Suppose this were true, will the accusing
and condemning rebukes of conscience and the flames
of hell be pleasant too? Is there pleasure in the
scourges of conscience ? If so, why did Peter weep so
bitterly ? why did David cry out of broken bones ?
\ou hear what is said of the pleasure of sin, and have
you not read what David said of the effects of it ?
'* Thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand
presseth me sore ; there is no soundness in ray
flesh because of thine anger, neither is there any rest
in my bones because of my sin," &c. If you yield to
temptation, you must feel such inward distress on ac-
jount of it, or the miseries of hell.' But why should
ihe pretended pleasure of sin allure you, when you
know that unspeakably more real pleasure will arise
from the mortification than can arise from the com-
mission of sin. Will you prefer the gratification of
some unhallowed passion, with the deadly poison
which it will leave behind, to that sacred pleasure
which arises from fearing and obeying God, comply-
ing with the dictates of conscience, and maintaining
inward peace ? Can sin afford any such delight as he
feels who, by resisting temptation, has manifested the
sincerity of his heart, and obtained evidence that he
fears God, loves hohness, and hates sin?
2. The secrecy with which you may commit sin is
made use of to induce compliance with temptation.
The tempter insinuates that this indulgence will
never disgrace you among men, for no one will know
it. But recollect yourself. Does not God behold you ?
Is not the divine presence every where ? What if you
might hide your sin from the eyes of the world, you
cannot hide it from God. No darkness nor shadow
?2 ON KEEPING THE HEART.
of death can screen you from his inspection. Beside,
have you no reverence for yourself 7 Can you do that
by yourself which you dare not have others observe ?
Is not your conscience as a thousand witnesses ?
Even a heathen could "say, " When thou art tempted
to commit sin, fear thyself without any other witness."
3. The prospect of worldly advantage often enforces
temptation. It is suggested, ^ Why should you be so
nice and scrupulous ? Give yourself a little liberty,
and you may better your condition : now is your
time.' This is a dangerous temptation, and must
be promptly resisted. Yielding to such a temptation
will do your soul more injury than any temporal ac-
quisition can possibly do you good. And what would
it profit you, if you should gain the whole world and
lose )^our own soul ? ¥/hat can be compared with the
value of your spiritual interests ? or what can at all
compensate for the smallest injury of them ?
4. Perhaps the smallness of the sin is urged as a
reason why you may commit it ; thus : ' ft is but a
little one, a small matter, a trifle ; who would stand
upon such niceties?" But is the Majesty of heaven
little too 7 If you commit this sin you will offend a
great God. Is there any little hell to torment little
sinners in ? No ; the least sinners in hell are full of
misery. There is great wrath treasured up for those
whom the world regard as little sinners. But the less
the sin, the less the inducement to commit it. Will
you provoke God for a trifle 7 will you destroy your
peace, wound your conscience, and grieve the Spirit,
all for nothing 7 What madness is this !
5. An argument to enforce temptation is sometimes
drawn from the mercy of God and the hope of par-
don. — God is merciful, he will pass by this as an in-
ON KEEPING THE HEART. 83
firmity, lie will not be severe to mark it. But slay :
where do you find a promise of mercy to presumptu
ous sinners I Involuntary reprisals and lamented in-
firmities maybe pardoned, "but the soul that doth
aught presumptuously, the same reproacheth the
Lord, and that soul shall be cut off from among his
people." If God is a being of so much mercy, how
can you affront him ? How can you make so glorious
an attribute as the divine mercy an occasion of sin ?
Will you wrong him because he is good ? Rather let
his goodness lead you to repentance, and keep you
from transgression.
6. Sometimes Satan encourages to the commission
of sin, from the examples of holy men. Thus and thus
they sinned, and were restored ; therefore you may
commit this sin, and yet be a saint and be saved.
Such suggestions must be instantly repelled. If good
men have committed sins similar to that with which
you are beset, did any good man ever sin upon such
ground and from such encouragement as is here pre-
sented ? Did God cause their examples to be recorded
for your imitation, or for your warning ? Are they not
set up as beacons that you may avoid the rocks upon
which they split ? Are you willing to feei what they
felt for sin ? Dare you follow them in sin, and plunge
yourself into such distress and danger as they incur-
red ? Reader, in these ways learn to keep vour
heart in the hour of temptation.
X. The time of doubting and of spiritital darkness
constitutes another season when it is very difllcult to
keep the heart. When the light and comfort of the
divine presence is withdrawn : when the believer,
from the prevalence of indwelling sin in one form or
other, is ready to renoiuice his hopes, to infer despe-
84 ON KEEPING THE ilLARt.
rate conclusions with respect to himself, to regard
his former comforts as vain delusions, and his profes-
sion? as hypocrisy j at such a time much diligence is
necessary to keep the heart from despondency. The
Christian's distress arises from his apprehension of his
spiritual state, and in general he argues against his
possessing true religion, either from his having re-
lapsed into the same sins from which he had former-
ly been recovered with shame and sorrow ; or from
the sensible declining of his affections from God ; or
from the strength of his affections toward creature en-
joyments ; or from his enlargement in public, while
he is often confined and barren in private duties ; or
from some horrible suggestions of Satan, with which
his soul is greatly perplexed ; or, lastly, from God's
silence and seeming denial of his long depending
prayers. Now in order to the establishment and sup-
port of the heart under these circumstances, it is ne-
cessary that you be acquainted with some general
truths which have a tendency to calm ti]e trembling
and doubting soul ; and that you be rightly instructed
with regard to the above-mentioned causes of disquiet.
Let me direct your attention to the following general
truths.
1. Every appearance of hypocrisy does not prove
the person who manifests it to be a hypocrite. You
should carefully disunguish between the appearance
and the predominance of hypocrisy. There are re-
mains of deceitfulness in the best hearts ; this was ex-
emplified in David and Peter; but the prevailing
frame of their hearts being upright, they were not de-
nominated hypocrites for their conduct.
2. We ought to regard what can be said in our favor,
as well as what may be said against us. It is the su)
I
ON KEEPING THE HEART. 85
of Upright persons sometimes, to exercise an unreason*
able severity against themselves. Tliey do not im-
partially consider the slate of their souls. To make
their state appear better than it really is, indeed is the
damning sin of self-flattering hypocrites ; and to make
their state appear worse than it really is, is the sin and
folly of some good persons. But why should you be
such an enimy to your own peace ? Why read over the
evidences of God's love to your soul, as a man does a
book which he intends to confute? Why do you
study evasions, and turn off those comforts which are
due to you?
3. Every thing which may be an occasion of grief
to the people of God, is not a sufficient ground for their
questioning the reality of their religion. Many things
may trouble, which ought not to stumble you. If up-
on every occasion you should call in question all that
had ever been wrought upon you, your life would be
made up of doubtings and fears, and you could never
attain that settled inward peace, and live that life of
praise and thankfulness v/hich the Gospel requires.
4. The soul is not at all times in a suitable state to
pass a right judgment upon itself. It is peculiarly un-
qualified for this in the hour of desertion or tempta-
tion. Such seasons must be improved rather for
watching and resisting, than for judging and deter-
mining.
5. Whatever be the ground of one's distress, it
should drive him to, not from God. Suppose you
have sinned thus and so, or that you have been thus
long and sadly deserted, yet you have no right to in-
fer that you ought to be discouraged, as if there was
no help for you in God.
Wheji you have well digested these truths, if your
8
86 ON KEEPING THE HEART.
douDts and distress remain, consider what is now to be
offered*
1. Are you ready to conclude that you have no part
in the favor of God, because you are visited with some
extraordinary affliction ? If so, do you then rightly
conclude that great trials are tokens of God's hatred?
Does the Scripture teach this ? And dare you infer
the same with respect to all who have been as much
or more afflicted than yourself? If the argument is
good in your case, it is good in application to theirs,
and more conclusive with respect to them, in propor-
tion as their trials were greater than yours. Wo then
to David, Job, Paul, and all who have been afflicted
as they were! But had you passed along in quietness
and prosperity; had God withheld those chastise-
ments with which he ordinarily visits his people,
would you not have had far more reason for doubts
and distress than you now have ?
2. Do you rashly infer that the Lord has no love to
you, because he has withdrawn the light of his coun-
tenance ? Do you imagine your state to be hopeless,
because it is dark and uncomfortable? Be not hasty
in forming this conclusion. If any of the dispensa-
tions of God to his people will bear a favorable as
well as a harsh construction, why should they not be
construed in the best sense? And may not God have
a design of love rather than of hatred in the dispensa-
tion under which you mourn ? May he not depart for
a season, without departing for ever? You are not
the first that have mistaken the design of God in with-
drawing himself. " Zion said, the Lord hath forsaken
me, my Lord hath forgotten me." But was it so?
What saith the answer of God ? " Can a woman for-
get her sucking child ?" «&c.
ON KEEPING THE HEART. 87
But do you sink down under the apprehension that
the evidences of a total and final desertion are disco-
verable in your experience 7 Have you then lost your
conscientious tenderness with regard to sin 1 and are
you inclined to forsake God ? If so, you have reason
indeed to be alarmed. But if your conscience is ten-
derly alive ; if you are resolved to cleave to the Lord ;
if the language of 3'our heart is, I cannot forsake God,
I cannot live without his presence ; though he slay
me, yet will I trust in him: then you have reason to
hope that he will visit you again. It is by these ex-
ercises that he still maintains his interest in you.
Once more. Are sense and feelings suitable to
judge of the dispensations of God by ? Can their tes-
timony be safely relied on? Is it safe to argue thus ;
'If God had any love for my soul, I should feel it
now as well as in former times ; but I cannot feel it,
therefore it is gone V May you not as well conclude,
when the sun is invisible to you, that he has ceased to
exist ? Read Isaiah 1 : 10.
Now if there is nothing in the divine dealings with
you which is a reasonable ground of your despon-
dency and distress, let us inquire what there is in
your own conduct for which you should be so cast
down.
1. Have you committed sins from which you were
formerly recovered with shame and sorrow ? And do
you thence conclude that you sin allowedly and ha-
bitually, and that your oppositions to sin were hypo-
critical ? But do not too hastily give up all for lost.
Is not your repentance and care renewed as often as
you commit sin? Is it not the sin itself which trou-
bles you, and is it not true, that the oftener you sin
the more you are distressed ? It is not so in customa-
88 ON KEEPING THE IlEAttI*.
ry sinning ; of which Bernard excellently discourses
thus: "When a man accustomed to restrain, sins
grievously, it seems insupportable to him, yea he seems
to descend alive into hell. In process of time it seems
not insupportable, but heavy, and between insupport-
able and heavy there is no small descent. Next, such
sinning becomes light, his conscience smites but faint-
ly, and he regards not her rebukes. Then he is not
only insensible to his guilt, but that which was bitter
and displeasing has become in some degree sweet and
pleasant. Now it is made a custom, and not only
pleases, but pleases habitually. At length custom be-
comes nature; he cannot be dissuaded from it, but
defends and pleads for it." This is allowed and cus-
tomary sinning, this is the way of the wicked. But is
not your way the contrary of this?
2. Do you apprehend a decline of your affections
from God and from spiritual subjects ? This may be
your case, and yet there may be hope. But possibly
you are mistaken with regard to this. There are
many things to be learnt in Christian experience ; it
lias relation to a great variety of subjects. You may
now be learning what it is very necessary for you
to know as a Christian. Now, what if you are not sen-
sible of so lively affections, of such ravishing views as
you had at first ; may not your piety be growing
more solid and consistent, and better adapted to prac-
tical purposes ? Does it follow from your not always
being in the same frame of mind, or from the fact that
the same objects do not at all times excite the same
feelings, that you have no true religion? Perhaps
you deceive yourself by looking forward to what you
would be, rather than contemplating what you are,
compared with what you once were.
ox KEEPING THE HEART. 89
3* If the strength of your love to creature enjoy-
ments is the ground of desperate conclusions respect-
ing yourself, perhaps you argue thus: "I fear that I
love the creature more than God, if so, I have not true
love to God. I sometimes feel stronger affections to-
ward earthly comforts than I do toward heavenly ob-
jects, therefore my soul is not upright within me."
If, indeed, you love the creature for itself, if you make
it your end, and religion but a means, then you con-
clude rightly j for this is incompatible with supreme
love to God. But may not a man love God more ar-
dently and unchangeably than he does any thing, or
all things else, and yet, when God is not the direct ob-
ject of his thoughts, may he not be sensible of more
violent affection for the creature than he has at that time
for God ? As rooted malice indicates a stronger hatred
than sudden though more violent passion ; so we must
judge of our love, not by a violent motion of it now
and then, hiil by the depth of its root and the con-
stancy of its exercise. Perhaps your difficulty results
from bringing your lovd to some foreign and improper
test. Many persons have feared that when brought to
some eminent trial they should renounce Christ and
cleave to the creature ; but when the trial came, Christ
was every thing, and the world as nothing in their es-
teem. Such were the fears of some martyrs whose
victory was complete. But you may expect divine as-
sistance only at the time of, and in proportion to your
necessity. If you would try your love, see whether
you are willing to forsake Christ now.
4. Is the want of that enlargement in private which
you find in public exercises an occasion of doubts and
fears? Consider then whether there are not some cir-
cumstances attending public duties which are pecu-
90 ON KEEPING THE HEART.
liarly calculated to excite your feelings and elevate
your mindj and which cannot affect you in private*
If so, your exercises in secret, if performed faithfully
and in a suitable manner, may be profitable, though
ihey have not all the characteristics of those in public*
If you imagine that you have spiritual enlargement
and enjoyment in public exercises while you neglect
private duties, doubtless you deceive yourself. Indeed
if you live in the neglect of secret duties^ ot are care-
less about them, you have great reason to fear. But if
you regularly and faithfully perform them, it does not
follow that they are vain and worthless, or that they
are not of great value, because they are not attended
with so much enlargement as you sometimes find in
public. And what if the Spirit is pleased more highly
to favor you with his gracious influence in one place
and at one time than another, should this be a reason
for murmuring and unbelief, or for thankfulness ?
5. The vile or blasphemous suggestijns of Satan
sometimes occasion great perplexity and distress. —
They seem to lay open an abyss of corruption in the
heart, and to say there can be no grace here. But there
may be grace in the heart where such thoughts are
injected, though not in the heart which consents to
and cherishes them. Do you then abhor and oppose
them ? do you utterly refuse to prostitute yourself to
iheir influence, and strive to keep holy and reverend
thoughts of God, and of all religious objects? If so,
such suggestions are involuntary, and no evidence
against your piety.
6. Is the seeming denial of your prayers an occasion
of despondency? Are you disposed to say, "If God
had any regard for my soul he would have heard my
petitions before now; but I have no answer from him,
ON KEEPING THE HEART. 91
and therefore no interest in him ?" But stay : though
God's abhorring and finally rejecting prayer is an evi-
dence that he rejects the person who prays, yet, dare
you conclude that he has rejected you, because an an-
swer to your prayers is delayed, or because you do
not discover it if granted? " May not God bear long
with his own elect, that cry unto him day and night?"
Others have stumbled upon the same ground with
you : " I said in my haste, I am cut off from before
thine eyes : nevertheless thou heardst the voice of my
supplication." Now are there not some things in your
experience which indicate that your prayers are not
rejected, though answer to them is deferred? Are you
not disposed to continue praying though you do not
discover an answer? Are you not disposed still to as-
cribe righteousness to God, while you consider the
cause of his silence as being in yourself? Thus did
David: " O my God, I cry in the day time, and thou
hearest not; and in the night, and am not silent: but
thou art holy," &c. Does not the deJay of an answer
to your prayers excite you to examine your own heart
and try your ways, that you may find and remove the
difficulty ? If so, you may have reason for humiliation,
but not for despair.
Thus I have shown you how to keep your heart in
dark and doubting seasons. God forbid that any false
heart should encourage itself from these things. It is
lamentable, that when we give saints and sinners their
proper portions, each is so prone to take up the other's
part.
XI. Another season, wherein the heart must be kept
with all diligence, is when sufferings for religion are
laid upon us. Blessed is the man who in such a sea-
son is not offended in Christ. Now, whatever may be
92 ON KEEPING THE HEART.
the kind or degree of your sufferings, if they are suf-
ferings for Christ's sake and the Gospel's, spare no dili-
gence to keep your heart. If you are tempted to shrink
or waver under them, let what follows help you to re-
pel and to surmount the instigation.
1. What reproach would you cast upon the Re-
deemer and his religion by deserting him at such a
time as this ! You would proclaim to the world, that
how much soever you have boasted of the promises,
when you are put to the proof you dare hazard no-
thing upon your faith in them; and this will give the
enemies of Christ an occasion tc blaspheme. And will
you thus furnish the triumphs of the uncircumcised ?
Ah, if you did but value the name of Christ as much
as many wicked men value their names, you could
never endure that his should be exposed to contempt.
Will proud dust and ashes hazard death or hell rather
than have their names disgraced, and will you endure
nothing to maintain the honor of Christ?
2. Dare you violate your conscience out of com-
plaisance to flesh and blood ? Who will comfort you
when your conscience accuses and condemns you?
What happiness can there be in life, liberty or friends,
when inward peace is taken away? 'Consider well
what you do.
3. Is not the public interest of Christ and his cause
infinitely more important than any interest of your
own, and should you not prefer his glory and the wel-
fare of his kingdom before every thing else? Should
any temporary suffering, or any sacrifice which you
can be called to make, be suffered to come into com-
petition with the honor of his name?
4. Did the Redeemer neglect your interest and think
lightly Ox" you. when for your sake he endured suffer
ON KEEPING THE HEART. Uo
ings between which and yours there can be no com
parison? Did he hesitate and shrink back? No: " He
endured the cross, despising the shame." And did he
with unbroken patience and constancy endure so much
for you ; and will you flinch from momentary suffer-
ing in his cause?
5. Can you so easily cast off the society and the pri-
vileges of the saints and go over to the enemy's side ?
Are you willing to withhold your support from those
who are determined to persevere, and throw your in-
fluence in the scale against them ? Rather let your
body and soul be rent asunder. " If any man draw
back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him."
6. How can you stand before Christ in the day of
judgment, if you desert him now ? " He that is ashamed
of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful
generation, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed
when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the
holy angels." Yet a little while, and the Son of man
will come in the clouds of heaven, with power and
great glory, to judge the world. He will sit upon the
throne of judgment, while all the nations are brought
before him. Imagine yourself now to be witnessing
the transactions of that day. Behold the wicked ; be-
hold the apostates; and hear the consuming sentence
which is pronounced upon them, and see them sinking
in the gulf of infinite and everlasting wo! And will
you desert Christ no\v, will you forsake his cause to
save a little suffering, or to protract an unprofitable life
on earth, and thus expose yourself to the doom of the
apostate? Remember, that if you can silence the re-
monstrances of conscience now, you cannot hinder the
sentence of the Judge then. By these means keep
your hea7% that it depart not from the Iwivg God,
04 ON KEEPING THE HEART.
XIL The last season which I shall mention, in which
the heart must be kept with all diligence, is xchen we
are warned by sickness that our dissolution is at hand.
When the child of God draws nigh to eternity, the ad-
versary malces his last effort; and as he cannot win
the soul from God, as he cannot dissolve the bond
which unites the soul to Christ, his great design is to
awaken fears of death, to fill the mind with aversion
and horror at the thoughts of dissolution from the
body. Hence, what shrinking from a separation, what
fear to grasp death's cold hand, and unwillingness to
depart, may sometimes be observed in the people of
God. But we ought to die, as well as live, like saints.
I shall offer several considerations calculated to help
the people of God in time of sickness, to keep their
hearts loose from all earthly objects, and cheerfully
willing to die.
1. Death is harmless to the people of God ; its shafts
leave no sting in them. Why then are you afraid that
your sickness may be unto death ? If you were to die
in your sins ; if death were to reign over you as a ty-
rant, to feed upon you as a lion doth upon his prey ;
if death to you were to be the precursor of hell, then
you might reasonably startle and shrink back from it
with horror and dismay. But if your sins are blotted
out; if Christ has vanquished death in your behalf, so
that you have nothing to encounter but bodily pain,
and possibly not even that ; if death will be to you the
harbinger of heaven, why should you be afraid ? why
not bid it welcome? It cannot hurt you; it is easy
and harmless ; it is like putting off your clothes, oi
taking rest.
2. It may keep your heart from shrinking back, to
consider that death is necessary to fit you for the full
ON kel:pl\g the heart. 95
enjoyment of God. Whether you are wilUng to die
or not, there certainly is no other way to complete the
happiness of your soul. Death must do you the kind
oiRce to remove this veil of flesh, this animal life which
separates you from God, before you can see and enjoy
him fully. '^Whilst we are at home in the body, we
are absent from the Lord." And who would not be will-
ing to die for the perfect enjoyment of God ? Methinks
one should look and sigh, like a prisoner, through
the grates of this mortality : " O that I had wings like
a dove, then would I fly away and be at rest." Indeed
most men need patience to die; but a saint, who un-
derstands what death will introduce him to, rather
needs patience to live. On his death-bed he should
often look out and listen to his Lord's coming; and
when he perceives his dissolution to be near, he should
say, "The voice of my beloved; behold he cometh,
leaping over the mountains, skipping over the hills."
8. Consider that the happiness of heaven commences
immediatel}^ after death. That happiness will not be
deferred till the resurrection ; but as soon as death has
passed upon you, your soul will be swallowed up in
life. When you have once loosed from this shore,
you shall be quickly wafted to the shore of a glorious
eternity. And can you not say, I desire to he dissolved,
and to be with Christ ? Did the soul and body die to-
gether, or did they sleep till the resurrection, as some
have fancied, it would have been folly for Paul to de-
sire a dissolution for the enjoyment of Christ; because
he would have enjoyed more in the body than he could
liave enjoyed out of it.
The Scripture speaks of but two ways in which the
soul can properly live : viz. by faith and vision. These
two comprehend its present and future existence.
66 ON KEEPING THE HEARt.
Now, if when faith fails, sight should not immediately
succeed, what would become of the soul ? But the
truth on this subject is clearly revealed in Scripture*
See Luke, 23: 3; John. 14: 3, &c. What a blessed
change then will death make in your condition ! Rolise
up, dying saint, and rejoice ; let death do his work,
that the angels may conduct your soul to the world of
light.
4. It may increase your willingness to die, to reflect
that by death God often removes his people out of the
way of great troubles and temptations. When some
extraordinary calamity is coming upon the world,
God sometimes removes his saints out of the way of
the evil. Thus Methuselah died the year before the
flood; Augustine a little before the sacking of Hippo ;
Pareus just before the taking of Heidelburg. Luther
observes that all the apostles died before the destruc-
tion of Jerusalem ; and Luther himself died before the
wars broke out in Germany. Now it may be that by
death you will escape some grievous trial, which you
could not and need not endure. But if no extraordi-
nary trouble would* come upon you in case your life
were prolonged, yet God, designs by death to reliei'e
you from innumerable evils and burdens which are
inseparable from the present state. Thus you will be
delivered from indwelling sin, which is the greatest
trouble ; from all temptations from whatever source ;
from bodily tempers and embarrassments ; and from
all the afflictions and sorrows of this life. The days
of your mourning will be ended, and God will wipe
away all tears from your eyes. Why then should you
not hasten to depart?
5. If you still linger, like Lot in Sodom, what are
your pleas and pretences for a longer life? Why are
ON KEEPING THE HEART. 9/
you unwilling to die ? Are you concerned for the wel-
fare of your relations ? If so, are you anxious for their
temporal support? Then let the word of God satisfy
you : " Leave thy fatherless children to me, I will
keep them alive, and let thy widows trust in me."
Luther says, in his last will, " Lord, thou hast given
me a wife and children, I have nothing to leave them,
but I commit them unto thee. O Father of the father-
less and Judge of widows, nourish, keep and teach
them."
But are you concerned for the spiritual welfare ol
your relations'? Remember that you cannot convert
them, if you should live; and God can make your pray-
ers and counsels effectual when you are dead.
Perhaps you desire to serve God longer in this
world. But if he has nothing further for you to do
here, why not say with David, " Here am I, let him
do what seemeth him good." He is calling you to high-
er service in heaven, and can accomplish by other
hands what you desire to do further here.— Do you
feel too imperfect to go to heaven? Consider that
you must be imperfect until you die; your sanctifica-
tion cannot be complete until you get to heaven.
' But,' you say, 'I want assurance ; if I had that I
could die easily.' Consider, then, that a hearty will-
ingness to leave all the world to be freed from sin, and
to be with God, is the direct way to that desired assu-
rance ; no carnal person was ever willing to die upon
this ground.
Thus I have shown how the people of God, in the
most difficult seasons, may keep their hearts with ill
diligence.
I now proceed to improve and apply the subj^t :
1. You have seen that the keeping of the hea» 1 ii^
9
98 V ON KEEPING THE HEART.
the great work of a Christian, in which the very soul
and life of religion consists, and without which all
othei duties are of no value in the sight of God. Hence,
to the consternation of hypocrites and formal profes-
sors, I infer,
1. That thepains and labors which many persons
have undergone in religion are of no value, and will
turn to no good account. Many eplendid services have
been performed by men, v/hich God will utterly reject:
they will not stand on record in order to an eternal
acceptance, because the performers took no heed to
keep their hearts with God. This is that fatal rock on
which thousands of vahi professors dash and ruin them-
selves eternally; they are exact about the externals of
religion, but regardless of their hearts. O how many
hours have some professors spent in hearing, praying,
reading and conferring I and yet, as to the main end of
religion, they might as v/ell have sat still and done no-
thing, the great work, I mean heart-work, being all the
while neglected. Tell me, vain professor, when did
you shed a tear for the deadness, hardness, unbelief or
earthliness of your heart? And do you think your ea-
sy religion can save you ? if so, you must invert
Christ's words, and say. Wide is the gate and broad
is the icay that leadeth to life, and many there he tliat
go in thereat ! Hear me, ye self-deluding hypocrite ;
you who have put off God with heartless duties; you
who have acted in religion as if you had been blessing
an idol; you who could not search your heart, and
regulate it, and exercise it in your performances ; how
will you abide the coming of the Lord ? how will you
hold up your head before liim, when he shall say,
'O you dissembling, false-hearted man! how could
..you. profess religiovi ? with what face could you so
ON KEEPING THE HEART. 99
often tell me that you loved me, when you knew in
your conseience that your heart was not with me V
tremble to think what a fearful judgment it is to be
given over to a heedless and careless heart, and then
to have religious duties instead of a rattle to quiet and
still the conscience !
2. I infer for their humiliation, that unless the people
of God spend more time and pains about their hearts
than they ordinarily do, they are never like to do God
much service, or to possess much comfort in this world.
1 may say of that Christian who is remiss and care-
less in keeping his heart, as Jacob said of Reuben,
Thou shale not excel It grieves me to see how many
Christians there are who live at a poor, low rate, both
of service and comfort, and who go up and down de-
jected and complaining. But how can they expect
it should be otherwise, while they live so carelessly ?
O how little of their time is spent in the closet, in
searching, humbling, and quickening their hearts !
Christian, you say your heart is dead, and do you
wonder that it is, so long as you keep it not with the
fountain of life ? If your body had been dieted as your
soul has, that would have been dead too. And you
may never expect that your heart will be in a better
state until you take more pains with it.
Christians ! I fear your zeal and strength have
run in the wrong channel ; I fear that most of us may
take up the Church's complaint : " They have made
me the keeper of the vineyards, but mine own vine-
yard have I not kept." > Two things have eaten up the
time and strength of the professors of this genera-
tion, and sadly diverted them from heart-work.
First : — Fruitless controversies, started by Satan, I
doubt not for the very purpose of taking us off from
100 ON KEEPING THE HEART
practical godliness, to make us puzzle our heads when
we should be inspecting our hearts. How little have
we regarded the observation : "It is a good thing that
the heart be established with grace, and not with
meats," (that is, with disputes and controversies about
meats,) " which have not profited them that have been
occupied therein." Hov/ much better it is to see men
live exactly, than to hear them dispute with subtlet)'- !
These unfruitful questions, how have they rent the
churches, wasted time and spirits, and taken Chris-
tians off from their mahi business ! What think you,
would it not have been better if the questions agitated
among the people of God of late had been such as
these : — " How shall a man distinguish the special from
the common operations of the Spirit? How may a
soul discern its first backslidings from God ? How
may a backsliding Christian recover his first love?
How may the heart be preserved from unseasonable
thoughts in duty ? How may a bosom sin be disco-
vered and mortified ?" &c. Would not this course
have tended more to thehonor of religion and the com-
fort of souls ? I am ashamed that the professors of this
generation are yet insensible of their folly. O that
God would turn their disputes and contentions into
practical godliness !
Second : — Worldly cares and incumbrances have
greatly increased the neglect of our hearts. The heads
and hearts of multitudes have been filled with such a
crowd and noise of worldly business that they have
lamentably declined in their zeal, their love, their de-
light in God, and their heavenly, serious, and profitable
way of conversing with men. How miserably have
we entangled ourselves in this wilderness of trifles !
Our discourses, our conferences, nay, our very prayers
ON KEEPING THE HEART. 101
are tinged with it. We l^ve had so much to do with-
out, that we have been able to do but little within.
And how many precious opportunities have we thus
lost ? How many admonitions of the Spirit have pass-
ed over unfruitfully ? How often has the Lord called
to us, when our worldly thoughts have prevented us
from hearing ? But there certainly is a way to enjoy
God even in our worldly employments. If we lose
our views of him when engaged in our temporal af-
fairs, the fault is our own. Alas! that Christians
should stand at the door of eternity, having more work
upon their hands than their time is sufficient for, and
yet be filling their heads and hearts with trifles !
3. I infer, lastly, for the awakening of all, that if the
keeping of the heart be the great work of a Christian,
then there are but few real Christians in the world. If
every one who has learned the dialect of Christianity,
and who can talk like a saint ; if every one who has
gifts and parts, and who can make shift to preach,
pray, or discourse like a Christian: in a word, if all
such as associate with the people of God and partake
of ordinances may pass for Christians, then indeed the
number is great. But alas ! how few can be found, if
you judge them by this rule, — how few are there v/ho
conscientiously keep their hearts, watch their thoughts
and 'ook scrupulously to their motives ! Indeed there
are few closet-men among professors. It is easier for
men to be reconciled to any other duties in religion
than to these. The profane part of the world will not
so much as meddle with the outside of any religious
duties, and least of all with these ; and as to the hy-
pocrite, though he mi y be very particular in externals,
you can never persuale him to undertake this inward,
this difficult work ; th's work, to which there is no in-
9*
102 ON KEEPING THE HEART.
ducement from human applause ; this work, which
would quickly discover what the hypocrite cares not
to know: so that by general consent this heart-work
is left to the hands of a few retired ones, and I tremble
to think in how few hands it is.
II. If the keeping of the heart be so important a
business ; if such great advantages' result from it ; if
so many valuable interests be wrapt up in it, then let
me call upon the people of God every where to en-
gage heartily in this work. O study your hearts,
watch your hearts, keep your hearts ! Away with fruit-
less controversies and all idle questions ; away with
empty names and vain shows ; away with unprofita-
ble discourse and bold censures of ethers, and turn
in upon yourselves. that this day, this hour, you
would resolve upon doing so !
Reader, methinks I shall prevail with you. All that
I beg for is this, that you would step aside oftenei to
talk with God and your own heart; that you would
not suffer every trifle to divert you; that you would
keep a more true and faithful account of your thoughts
and affections; that you would seriously demand of
your own heart at least every evening, * O my heart,
where hast thou been to-day, and what has engaged
thy thoughts V
If all that has been said by way of inducement be
not enough, I have yet some motives to offer you.
1. The studying, observing, and diligently keeping
your own heart, will surprisingly help you to under-
stand the deep mysteries of religion. An honest, well-
experienced heart is an excellent help to the head.
Such a heart will serve for a commentary on a great
part of the Scriptures. By means of such a heart you
will have a l^etter understanding of divine things than
ON KEEPING THE HEART. 103
the most learned (graceless) man ever had, or can
have ; you will not only have a clearer, but a more
interesting and profitable apprehension of them. A
man may discourse orthodoxly and profoundly of the
nature and effects of* faith, the troubles and comforts
of conscience, and the sweetness of communion with
God, who never felt the efficacy and sweet impression
of these things upon his own soul. But how dark and
dry are his notions compared with those of an expe-
rienced Christian I
2. The study and observation of your own heart will
powerfully secure you against the dangerous and in-
fecting errors of the times in which you live. For what
think you is the reason why so many professors have
departed from the faith, giving heed to fables ? why
have so many been led away by the error of the wick-
ed? why have those who have sown corrupt doctrines
had such plentiful harvests among us, but because they
have met with a race of professors who never knew
what belongs to practical godliness and the study and
keeping of their hearts ?
3. Your care and diligence in keeping your heart
will prove one of the best evidences of your sincerity.
I know no external act of religion which truly distin-
guishes the sound from the unsound professor. It is
marvellous how far hypocrites go in all external du-
ties ; how plausibly they can order the outward man,
hiding all their indecencies from the observation of the
world. But they take no heed to their hearts ; they
are not in secret what they appear to be in public ;
and before this test no hypocrite can stand. They
may, indeed, in a fit of terror, or on a death-bed, cry
out of the wickedness of their hearts; but such extort-
ed complaints are worthy of no regard. No credit, in
104 ON KEEPING THE HEART.
law, is to be given to the testimony of one upon the
rack, because it may be supposed that the extremity of
his torture will make him say any thing to get relief.
But if self-jealousy, care and watchfulness be the
daily workings and frames of your heart, you have
some evidence of your sincerity.
4. How comfortable and how profitable would all
ordinances and duties be to you, if your heart was
faithfully kept. What lively communion might you
have with God every time you approach him, if your
heart was in a right frame ! You might then say with
David, " My meditation of Him shall be sweet." It is
the indisposition of the heart which renders ordinances,
and secret duties so comfortless to some. They strive
to raise their hearts to God, now pressmg this argu-
ment upon them, then that, to quicken and affect them ;
yet they often get nearly through the exercise before
iheir hearts begin to be interested in it ; and some-
times they go away no better than they came. But
the Christian whose heart is prepared by being con-
stantly kept, enters immediately and heartily into his
duties; he outstrips his sluggish neighbor, gets the
first sight of Christ in a sermon, the first seal from
Christ in a sacrament, the first communication of grace
and love in secret prayer. Now if there be any thing
valuable and comfortable in ordinances and private du-
ties, look to your heart and keep it, I beseech you.
5. An acquaintance with your own heart will fur-
nish you a fountain of matter in prayer. The man
who is diligent in heart-work, will be richly supplied
with matter in his addresses to God. He will not be
confused for want of thoughts ; his tongue will not
falter for want of expressions.
6. The most desirable thing in the world, viz. the
ON KEEPING THE HEART. 105
revival of religion among a people, may be effected
by means of what I am urging upon you.
O that I might see the time when professors shall not
walk in a vain show ; when they shall please them-
selves no more v/ith a name to live, while they are spi-
ritually dead ; when they shall be no more a company
of frothy, vain persons ; but when holiness shall shine
in their conversation, and awe the world, and com-
mand reverence from all that are around them ; when
they shall warm the heart of those who come near
them, and cause it to be said, God is in these men of
a truth. And may sujh a time be expected? Until
heart-work becomes che business of professors, I have
no hope of seeing a time so blessed ! Does it not
grieve you to sec how religion is contemned and tram-
pled under foo^, and the professors of it ridiculed and
scorned in th^^ world ? Professors, would you recover
your credit ? would you obtain an honorable testimo-
ny in the consciences of your very enemies ? Then
keep your hearts.
7. By diligence in keeping our hearts we should
prevent the occasions of fatal scandals and stumbling-
blocks to the world. Wo to the world because of
offences !
Keep your heart faithfully, and you will be prepar-
ed for any situation or service to which you may be
called. This, and this only can properly fit you for
usefulness in any station ; but with this you can en-
dure prosperity or adversity ; you can deny yourself,
and turn your hand to any work. Thus Paul turned
every circumstance to good account, and made him-
self so eminently useful. When he preached to others,
he provided against being cast away himself: he kept
his heart ; and every thing in which he excelled seems
106 ON KEEPING THE HEART
to have had a close connection with his diligence in
keeping his heart.
9. If the people of God would diligently keep their
hearts, their communion with each other would be
unspeakably more inviting and profitable. Then " how
goodly would be thy tents, O Jacob, and thy taberna-
cles, O Israel!" It is the fellowship which the people
of God have with the Father and with the Son that
kindles the desires of others to have communion with
them. I tell you, that if saints would be persuaded to
spend more time and take more pains about their
hearts, there would soon be such a divine excellence
in their conversation that others would account it no
small privilege to be with or near them. It is the pride,
passion and earthliness of our hearts, that has spoiled
Christian fellowship. Why is it that when Christians
meet they are often jarring and contending, but be-
cause their passions are unmortified ? Whence come
their uncharitable censures of their brethren, but from
their ignorance of themselves ? Why are they so rigid
and unfeeling toward those who have fallen, but
because they do not feel their own weakness and lia-
bility to temptation? Why is their discourse so light
and unprofitable when they meet, but because their
hearts are earthly and vain ? But now, if Christians
would study their hearts mote and keep them better,
the beauty and glory of communion w^ould be restored.
They would divide no more, contend no more, cen-
sure rashly no more. They will feel right one toward
another, when each is daily humbled under a sense of
the evil of his own heart.
10. Lastly : — Keep your heart, and then the com-
forts of the Spirit and the influence of all ordinances
will be more fixed and lasting than they now are.
ON KEEPING THE HEART. 107
" And do the consolations of God seem small to you ?"
Ah, you have reason to be ashamed that the ordinances
of Godj as to their quickening and comforting effects,
should make so light and transient an impression on
your heart.
Now, reader, consider well these special benefits of
keeping the heart which I have mentioned. Examine
their importance. Are they small matters ? Is it a
small matter to have your understanding assisted?
your endangered soul rendered safe? your sincerity
proved ? your communion with God sweetened ? your
heart filled with matter for prayer? Is it a small thing
to have the power of godliness ? all fatal scandals re-
moved? an instrumental fitness to serve Christ ob-
tained ? the communion of saints restored to its primi-
tive glory ? and the influence of ordinances abiding in
the souls of saints ? If these are no common blessings,
no ordinary benefits, then surely it is a great and in-
dispensable duty to keep the heart with all (diligence.
And now are you inclined to undertake the business
of keeping your heart ? are you resolved upon it ? I
charge you, then, to engage in it earnestly. Away with
every cowardly feeling, and make up your mind to en-
counter difficulties. Draw your armor from the word
of God. Let the v;ord of CVirist dwell in j^ou richly, in
its commands, its promises, its threatenings ; let it be
fixed in your understanding, your memory, your con-
science, your affections. You must learn to wield the
sword of the Spirit (which is the word of God) familiar-
ly, if you would defend your heart and conquer your
enemies. You must call yourself frequently to an ac-
count ; examine yourself as in the presence of the all-
seeing God ; bring your conscience, as it were, to the
bar of judgment. Beware how you plunge yourself
108 ON KEEPING THE HEART.
into a multiplicity of worldly business 5 how you prac*
tise upon the maxims of the world ; and how you ven-
ture at all to indulge your depraved propensities.
You must exercise the utmost vigilance to discover
and check the first symptoms of departure from God,
the least decline of spirituality, or the least indisposi-
tion to meditation by yourself, and holy conversation
and fellowship with others. These things you must
undertake, in the strength of Christ, with invincible re-
solution in the outset. And if you thus engage in
this great work, be assured you shall not spend your
strength for naught; comforts which you never felt
or thought of will flow in upon you from every side.
The diligent prosecution of this work will constantly
afford you the most powerful excitements to vigilance
and ardor in the life of faith, while it increases your
strength and wears out your enemies. And when you
have kept your heart with all diligence a little while $
when you have fought the battles of this spiritual war-
fare, gained the ascendancy over the corruptions with-
in, and vanquished the enemies without, then God will
open the gate of heaven to you, and give you the por-
tion which is promised to them that overcome. Awake
then, this moment ; get the world under your feet j
pant not for the things which a man may have, and
eternally lose his soul; but bless God that you may
have his service here, and the glory hereafter which
he appoints to his chosen.
" Now the God of peace, that brought again from the
dead our Lord Jesus, that great ShepheM of the sheep,
through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you
perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you
that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesusi
Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. AmenJ^
/
ni?lS MMiniTiMG UNIVERSITY
3 1197 21203 3457
^i l/ll/llllll»llI&riMS,l/'''VERS,TY
3 1197 21203 3457
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