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him in that duty: They ftrive hard to get up their hearts to God, now trying this argument upon them, and then that, to quicken and affect them, and fometimes go away as bad as they came: Sometimes the duty is almost ended before their hearts begin to ftir or feel any warmth, quickening, or power from it: But all this while the prepared heart is at its work; this is he that ordinarily gets the firft fight of Chrift in a fermon, the first feal from Chrift in a facrament, the first kiss from Chrift in fecret prayer. I tell you, and tell you but what I have felt, that prayers and fermons would appear to you other manner of things than they do, did you but bring better ordered hearts unto them; you would not go away dejected and drooping. O this hath been a loft duty to me! if you had not lost your hearts, it had not been fo. If then the comfort of ordinances be fweet, look to your hearts, keep your hearts.

5 Motive. Acquaintance with your own hearts would be a fountain of matter to you in prayer.

A man that is diligent in heart-work, and knows the ftate of his own foul, will have a fountain-fulness of matter to supply him richly in all his addreffes to God; his tongue shall not faulter and make pause for want of matter; Pfal. xlv. I. "My heart is inditing a good "matter:" Or, as Montanus renders the original, my heart is boiling up good matter, like a living spring, that is ftill bubbling up fresh water; and then my tongue is as the pen of a ready writer: Others must pump their memories, rack their inventions, and are of ten at a lofs, when they have done all: but if thou have kept, and faithfully ftudied thine own heart, it will be with thee (as Job fpeaks in another cafe) like bottles full of new wine that want vent, which are ready to burft: As holy matter flows plentifully, so more feelingly and fweetly from fuch a heart. When a heart-experienced Christian is mourning before God over fome fpecial heart-corruption, wrestling with God for the fupply of fome fpecial inward want, he fpeaks not as other men do that have learned to pray by rote; their confeffions and petitions are fqueezed out; his drop freely, like pure honey from the comb: It is a happiness then to be with or near fuch a Chriftian. I remember Bernard, having given rules to prepare the heart for prayer, concludes them thus, Et cum talis fueris, momento mei; and (faith he) When thy heart is in this frame, then remember me.

6 Motive. By this the decayed power of religion will be recovered again among profeffors, which is the most defirable ftate in this world.

O that I might live to fee that day, when profeffors fhall not walk in a vain fhew, when they fhall please themfelves no more with a name to live, being spiritually dead! When they fhall be no more (as many of them now are) a company of frothy, vain, and unferious perfons, but the majestic beams of holinefs fhining from their heavenly and ferious conversation, shall awe the world, and command reverence from all that are about them; when they fhall warm the hearts of

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thofe that come nigh them, fo that men fhall fay, God is in thefe men

of a truth.

Well, fuch a time may again be expected, according to that promife, Ifa. lx. 21. "The people fhall be all righteous." But till we purfue closer to this great work of keeping our hearts, I am out of hopes to fee thofe bleffed days; I cannot expect better times till God gives better hearts. Doth it not grieve you to fee what a fcorn religion is made in the world? what objects of contempt and fcorn the profeffors of it are made in the world?

Profeffors, would you recover your credit? Would you again obtain an honourable teftimony in the confciences of your very enemies? Then keep your hearts, watch your hearts: it is the loofenefs, frothinefs, and earthlinefs of your hearts that have made your lives fo; and these have brought you under the contempt of the world; you firft loft your fights of God, and communion with him, then your heavenly and serious deportment among men, and by that your intereft in their confciences: O then, for the credit of religion, for the honour of your profeffion keep your hearts!

7 Motive. By diligence in keeping your hearts, we should prevent, and remove the fatal fcandals and ftumbling-blocks out of the way of the world. "Woe to the world (faith Chrift) because of offences!" Matth. xviii. 7. Doth not fhame cover your faces? Do not your hearts bleed within you, to hear of the fcandalous mifcarriages of many loofe profeffors? Could you not, like Shem and Japhet, go backward with a garment to cover the fhame of many profeffors? How is that worthy name blafphemed! Jam. ii. 7. 2 Sam. xii. 13, 14. the hearts of the righteous faddened, Pfal. xxv. 3. Ezek. xxxvi. 20. by this the world is fearfully prejudiced against Christ and religion, the bonds of death made faft upon their fouls; thofe that have a general love and liking to the ways of God, ftartled and quite driven back, and thus foul-blood is fhed: woe to the world!

Yea, how are the confciences of fallen profeffors plunged, and even overwhelmed in the deeps of trouble? God inwardly excommunicating their fouls from all comfortable fellowship with himfelf, and the joys of his falvation; infinite are the mischiefs that come by the fcandalous lives of profeffors.

And what is the true caufe and reafon of all this, but the neglecting of their hearts? Were our hearts better kept, all this would be prevented. Had David kept his heart, he had not broken his bones: a negligent and careless heart muft of neceffity produce a diforderly and scandalous life. I thank God for the freedom and faithfulness of a* reverend brother, in fhewing profeffors their manifold mifcarriages; and from my heart do wifh, that when their wounds have been thoroughly fearched by that probe, God would be pleafed to heal them by this plaifter. O profeffors! if ever you Will keep

* Gospel-Glass.

religion fweet; if ever you hope to recover the credit of it in the world, keep your hearts; either keep your hearts, or lofe your credit; keep your hearts, or lofe your comforts; keep your hearts left ye fhed foul-blood. What words can exprefs the deep concernments, the wonderful confequences of this work! Every thing puts a neceffity, a folemnity, a beauty upon it.

8 Motive. An heart well kept will fit you for any condition God cafts you into, or any fervice he hath to use you in.

He that hath learnt how to keep his heart lowly, is fit for profperity; and he that knows how to use and apply it to fcripture-promifes and fupports, is fit to pafs through any adverfity: He that can deny the pride and selfishness of his heart, is fit to be employed in any fervice for God. Such a man was Paul, he did not only spend his time in preaching to others, in keeping others vineyards, but he looked to himself, kept his own vineyard; 1 Cor. ix. 27. " Left "when I have preached to others, I myself fhould be a caft-away." And what an eminent inftrument was he for God? He could turn his hand to any work; he could dexterously manage both an adverfe and profperous condition: "I know how to abound, and how to fuf"fer want. Let the people deify him, it moves him not, unless to "indignation. Let them ftone him, he can bear it; If a man purge "himself from these (faith he, 2 Tim. ii. 21.) he shall be a veffel "unto honour, fanctified, and meet for the mafter's house, and pre"pared unto every good work."

First the heart must be purged, and then it is prepared for any fervice of God. When the heart of Ifaiah was purified, which was the thing fignified by the touching of his lips with a coal from the altar, Ifa. vi. 7. then he was fit for God's work: "Here am I, fend "me," ver. 8. A man that hath not learned to keep his heart, put him upon any fervice for God, and if it be attended with honour, it fhall fwell up and over-top his fpirit; if with fuffering, it will exanimate and fink him.

Jefus Chrift had an inftrumental fitness for his Father's work above all the fervants that ever God employed: he was zealous in public work for God; fo zealous, that fometimes he forgot to eat bread, yea, that his friends thought he had been befides himfelf: but yet he fo carried on his public work, as not to forget his own private communion with God: and therefore you read, Matth. xiii. 23. that when he had been labouring all day, yet, after that he went up to a mountain apart to pray, and was there alone. O let the keepers of the vineyards look to their own vineyard: We fhall never be fq inftrumental to the good of others, as when we are most diligent about our own fouls.

9 Motive. If the people of God would more diligently keep their hearts, how exceedingly would the communion of faints be thereby fweetened.

How goodly then would be thy tents, O Jacob! and thy tabernacles, O Ifrael! Then it is prophefied of the Jews, Zech. viii, 23.

"Men would fay, we will go with you; for we have heard that God " is among you." It is the fellowship your fouls have with the Father, and with the Son, that draws out the defires of others after fellowship with you, 1 John i. 3. I tell you, if faints would be perfuaded to take more pains, and fpend more time about their hearts, there would quickly be fuch a divine luftre upon the face of their converfations, that men would account it no finall privilege to be with or near them.

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It is the pride, paffion, and earthlinefs of our hearts that have fpoiled Chriftian fellowship. Whence is it, that when Christians meet, they are often jarring and contending? but only from their unmortified paffions: whence are their uncharitable cenfures of their brethren? but only from felf-ignorance: Why are they fo rigid and unmerciful towards thofe that are fallen? but because they confider not themselves, as the apoftle speaks, Gal. vi. 1. Why is their discourse fo frothy and unprofitable when they meet? is not this from the carthliness and vanity of their hearts?

My brethren, these be the things that have spoiled Christian fellowfhip, and made it become a dry and faplefs thing; fo that many Christians are even weary of it, and are ready to fay with the prophet, Jer. ix. 2. "O that I had a cottage in the wilderness, &c. that I "might leave my people, and go from them!" And with David, Pfalm cxx. 6. "My foul hath long dwelt with them that hate peace." This hath made them long for the grave that they might go from them that are not their own people, to them that are their own people, as the original of that text imports, 2 Cor. v. 8.

But now if profeffors would study their own hearts more, watch and keep them better, all this would be prevented; and the beauty and glory of communion again restored: they would divide no more, contend no more, cenfure rafhly no more; when their hearts are in tune, their tongues will not jar; how charitable, pitiful, and tender will they be of one another, when every one is daily humbled under the evils of his own heart. Lord, haften thofe much-desired days, and bless these counfels in order to them!

10 Motive. Lastly, By this the comforts of the Spirit, and precious influence of all ordinances would be fixed, and much longer preserved in your fouls than now they are.

Ah! what would I give, that my foul might be preserved in that frame I fometimes find it in after an ordinance? Aliquando intromittis me, Domine, in affectum multum inufitatum, introrfus ad quam nefcio dulcedinem, &c Sometimes, O Lord, (faith one of the Fathers fweetly) thou admittest me into the moft inward, unusual, and sweet delights, to I-know-not-what fweetnefs, which, were it perfected in me, I know not what it would be, or rather, what it would not be. But alas ! the heart grows careless again, and quickly returns, like water removed from the fire, to its native coldness. Could you but keep those things for ever in your hearts, what Chriftians would you be? what

lives would you live? and how is it that these things remain no longer with us? Doubtlefs it is because we fuffer our hearts to take cold again; we fhould be as careful after an ordinance or duty to prevent this, as one that comes out of a hot bath, or great fweat, is of going out into the chill air. We have our hot and cold fits by turns; and what is the reafon but our unskilfulness and careleffness in keeping the heart?

It is a thoufand pities, that the ordinances of God, as to their quickening and comforting effects, fhould be like thofe human ordinances the apoftle fpeaks of, that perifh in the ufing O then, let me fay to you, as Job xv. II. "Do the confolations of God feem fmall to you?" Look over these ten fpecial benefits; weigh them in a juft balance; are they fmall matters? Is it a fmall matter to have thy weak understanding affifted? Thy endangered foul antidoted, thy fincerity cleared, thy communion with God fweetened, thy fails filled in prayer? Is it a fmall thing to have the decayed power of Godlinets again recovered, all fatal fcandals removed, an inftrumental fitnefs to ferve Chrift obtained, the communion of faints restored to its primitive glory, and the influences of ordinances abiding in the fouls of faints? If these be no common bleffings, no fmall benefits, then, furely, it is a great duty to keep the heart with all diligence.

The III. Ufe for Direction.

The next use shall be for direction to fome fpecial means for the keeping of the heart. And here, befides what hath been hinted in the explication of the duty at the beginning of this discourse, to which I refer the reader, and ail thofe directions throughout the whole, appropriated to particular cafes and feafons; I fhall farther add feveral other general means of excellent ufe to this end. And the first is this:

1 Mean. Would you thus keep your hearts as hath been perfuaded? Then furnish your hearts richly with the word of God, which is their beft prefervation against fin.

Keep the word, and the word will keep you as the first receiving of the word regenerated your hearts, fo the keeping of the word within you will preferve your hearts; Col. iii. 16. "Let the word

" of Chrift dwell richly in you:" let it dwell, not tarry with you for a night, and let it dwell richly or plentifully; in all that is or it, in its commands, promites, threats; in all that is in you, in your understanding, memories, confciences, affections, and then it will preferve your hearts; Píalm cxix. 11. "Thy word have I hid in

mine heart, that I might not fin against thee." It is the flipperinefs of our hearts in reference to the word, that caufes fo many flips in our lives. Confcience cannot be urged or awed with forgotten truths; but keep it in the heart, and it will keep both heart and life upright; Pfalm xxxvii. 31. "The law of his God is in his heart: "none of his fteps thall flide;" or if he do, the word will recover

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