1. It is the hardest work ; heart-work is hard work indeed. To shuffle over religious duties with a loose and 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 dexteri- ty of language in prayer, and put thy meaning into apt and decent expressions, is easy ; but to get thy heart broken for sin whilst thou art confessing it ; melted with free grace whilst thou art blessing God for it ; to be really ashamed and humbled through the apprehen- sions 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 tra- vailing pain of soul : To repress the outward acts of sin, and com- pose the external part of thy life in a laudable and comely manner, is no great matter ; even carnal persons by the force of common prin- ciples 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 such a work
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as is never done till life be done : this labour and our life end toge- ther: It is with a Christian in this business, as it is with seamen that have sprung a leak at sea, if they tug not constantly at the pump, the water increases upon them, and will quickly sink them. It is in vain for them to say the work is hard, and we are weary ; there is no time or condition in the life of a Christian, which will suffer an inter- mission of this work. It is in the keeping watch over our hearts, as it was in the keeping up of Moses' hand, whilst Israel and Amalek were fighting below, Exod. xvii. 12. No sooner do Moses' hands grow heavy and sink down, but Amalek prevails. You know it cost David and Peter many a sad day and night for intermitting the watch over their own hearts but a few minutes.
3. It is the most important business of a Christian's Hfe. Without this we are but formalists in religion ; all our professions, gifts, and duties signify nothing : " My son, give me thine heart," Prov. xxiii. 86. God is pleased to call that a gift, which is indeed a debt ; he will put this honour 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 so much only of worth and value 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 heathens, when the beast was cut up for sacrifice, the first thing the priest looked upon was the heart, and if that was unsound and naught, the sacrifice was rejected. God rejects all duties (how glorious soever in other respects) offered him without a heart. He that performs duty with- out a heart, viz. heedlessly, is no more accepted with God than he that performs it with a double heart, viz. hypocritically, Isa. Ixvi. 3. And thus I have briefly opened the nature of the duty, what is im- ported in this phrase, " Keep thy heart.''
2. Next I shall give you some rational account why Christians should make this the great business of their lives to keep their hearts.
The importance and necessity of making this our great and main business, will manifestly appear in that, 1. The honour of God ; 2. The sincerity of our profession ; 3. The beauty of our conver- sation ; 4. The comfort of our souls ; 5. The improvement of our graces ; and, 6. Our stability in the hour of temptation ; all are wrapt up in, and dependent on our sincerity and care in the man- agement of this work.
1. The glory of God is much concerned therein; heart-evils are very provoking evils to the Lord. The schools do well observe, that outward sins are mqjoris iiifamce, sins of great infamy; but heart-sins are mqjoris reatus, sins of deeper guilt. How severely hath the great God declared his wrath from heaven against heart-wickedness ; the great crime for which the old world stands indicted, Gen. vi. 5, 6, 7. is heart-wickedness, " God saw that every imagination (or fic- " tion) of their heart was only evil, and that continually ;" for which
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he sent the dreadfullest judgment that was ever executed since the world began : " And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have *' created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, and the •' creeping things and the fowls of heaven, for it repenteth me that " I have made man,'' ver. 7. We find not their murders, adulteries, blasphemies, (though they were defiled with these) particularly al- leged against them ; but the evils of their hearts : Yea, that which God was so provoked by, as to give up his peculiar inheritance into the enemy's hand, was the evil of their hearts, Jer. iv. 14. " O Je- *' rusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be " saved ; how long shall vain thoughts lodge within thee ?" The wickedness and vanity of their thoughts God took special notice of; and because of this the Chaldean must come upon them as a lion from his thicket^ ver. 7. andtear them to pieces. For the very sin of thoughts it was that God threw down the fallen angels from heaven, and keeps them still in everlasting chains to the judgment of the great day ; by which expression is not obscurely intimated some extraordi- nary judgment to which they are reserved, as prisoners that have most irons laid upon them, may be supposed to be the greatest male- factors : and what was their sin ? Why, only spiritual wickedness ! For they, having no bodily organs, could act nothing externally against God. Yea, mere heart-evils are so provoking, that for them he rejects with indignation all the duties that some men perform unto him, Isa. Ixvi. 3. " He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man ; he '' that sacrificeth a lamb, is as if he cut off a dog's neck; he that ofFer- *' eth an oblation, as if he offered swine's blood ; he that burneth " incense, as if he blessed an idol." In what words could the abhor- rence of a creature'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 them so.^^ The following words inform us, " their soul " delighteth in their abominations."