* within my heart for such calls of God." Surely there is a way of enjoying God, even in our worldly employments ; God would never have put us upon them to our loss ; " Enoch walked with God, and " begat sons and daughters,'' Gen. v. 19. He walked with God, but did not retire and separate himself from the things of this life : and the angels that are employed by Christ in the things of this world, (for the spirit of the living creatures is in the wheels) they are finite creatures, and cannot be in a twofold uhi at one time ; yet they lose nothing of the beatifical vision all the time of their administration : for Mat. xviii. 10. " Their angels (even whilst they are employed " for them) behold the face of their Father which is in heaven." We need not lose our visions by our employments, if the fault were not our own. Alas ! that ever Christians, who stand at the door of eternity, and have more work upon their hands than this poor mo- ment of interposing time is sufficient for, should yet be filling both their heads and hearts with trifles.
3. Hence I infer for the aical'ening- of all, That if the 'keeping of' the heart he the great work of a Christian, then there are hut Jew real Christians in the ivoi'ld.
Indeed if every one that hath learned the dialect of Christianity, and can talk like a saint : if every one that hath gifts and parts, and by the common assisting presence of the Spirit can preach, pray, or discourse like a Christian ; in a word, if such as associate themselves with the people of God, and delight in ordinances, may pass for Christians, the number then is great.
But, alas ! to what a small number will they shrink, if you judge them by this rule ! how few are there that make conscience of keep- ing their hearts, watching their thoughts, judging their ends, i^t.
0 there be but few closet men among professors ! It is far easier for men to be reconciled to any duties in religion than to these : The profane part of the world will not so much as touch with the outside of religious duties, much less with this; and for the hypocrite, though he be polite and curious about those externals, yet you can never persuade him to this inward work, this difficult work, to which there is no inducement by human applause ; this work, that would quickly discover what the hypocrite cares not to know ; so that by a general consent, this heart- work is left to the hands of a few secret ones, and
1 tremble to think in how few hands it is.
II. Use,Jbr Exhortation. If the keeping of the heart he so important a hiisiness ; if such choice advantages accrue to you thereby ; if so many dear and precious
4:98 "WHY SAIMTS WALK SO UNFllUITFULLY.
interests he wrapt up in it, then let me call upon tlie people of God €very where to Jail close to this work.
0 study your hearts, watch your hearts, keep your hearts ! away "with fruitless controversies, and all idle questions; away with empty names and vain shews ; away with unprofitable discourse and bold censures of others ; turn in upon yourselves ; get into your closets, and now resolve to dwell there. You have been strangers to this work too long ; you have kept others vineyards too long ; you have trifled about the borders of religion too long ; this world hath detain- ed you from your great work too long ; will you now resolve to look better to your hearts? Will you haste and come out of the crowds ©f business, and clamours of the world, and retire yourselves more than you have done ? O that this day you would resolve upon it !
Reader, methinks I should prevail with thee : All that I beg for is but this, that thou wouldst step aside a little oftener to talk with God, and thine own heart ; that thou wouldst not suffer every trifle to divert thee ; that thou wouldst keep a more true and faithful ac- count of thy thoughts and affections ; that thou wouldst but seriously demand of this thy own heart, at least every evening, O my heart, where hast thou been to-day ? Whither hast thou made a road to- day ? If all that hath been said by way of inducement be not enough, I have yet more motives to offer you. And the first is this :
1 Motive. The studying, ohserving, and diligent keeping of your own hearts, will marvellously help your understanding in the deep mysteries of religion.
An honest well-experienced heart, is a singular help to a weak head ; such a heart will serve you instead of a commentary upon a great part of the scriptures : By this means you shall far better un- derstand the things of God, than the learned rabbies and profound doctors (if graceless and unexperienced) ever did ; you shall not only have a more clear, but a more sweet perception and gust of them : A man may discourse orthodoxly and profoundly of the nature and effects of faith, the troubles and comforts of conscience, the sweet- ness of communion with God, that never felt the eflficacy and sweet impressions of these things upon his own spirit : but O how dark and dry are these notions, compared with his upon whose heart they have been acted ? When such a man reads David's Psalms, or Paufs epistles, there he finds his own objections made and answered. O, saith he, these holy men speak my very heart : Their doubts were mine, their troubles mine, and their experiences mine. I remember Chrvsostom, speaking to his people of Antioch about some choice experiences, used this expression : Sclunt initiati quid dico : Those that are initiated, know what I say : Experience is the best school- master. O then, study your hearts, keep your hearts I
2 Motive. The study and observation of yonr own hearts will ei.ntidote you against the dangerous and iijectmg errors of the tinier and places you live in.
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For what think you is the reason that so many professors in Eng- land have departed from the faith, giving heed to fables ; that so many thousands have been led away by the error of the wicked ; that Jesuits and Quakers, who have sown corrupt doctrine, have had such plentiful harvests amoftg us, but because they have met with a company of empty notional professors, that never knew what belongs to practical godUness, and the study of their own hearts.
If professors did but give diligence to study, search and watch their own hearts, they would have that idiov si^iy/xov, that stedfastness of their own, that Peter speaks of, 1 Pet. iii. 17. and this would bal- last and settle them, Heb. xiii. 9- Suppose a subtle Papist should talk to such of the dignity and merit of good works ; could he ever work the persuasion of it into that heart that is conscious to itself of so much darkness, deadness, distraction and unbelief, attending its best duties ? It is a good rule, Non est disputandum de giisiu: There is no disputing against taste. What a man hath felt and tasted, one cannot beat him off from that by argument.
3 Motive. Your care and diligence in keeping" your hearts zvill prove one of the best evidences of' your sincerity.