1. The greatness of the sin.
2. The causes,
3. The remedies.
First, That there is such a sin, sad experience witnesseth ; vain thoughts intrude importunately upon the soul in every duty ; in hear-
444 HOW MAY WE CURE DISTRACTIONS [MaT. XV. 7, 8.
ing the word we are not free (Ezek. xxxiii. 31), nor in singing; but chiefly they haunt us in prayer, and of all kinds of prayer, in mental prayer, when our addresses to God are managed by thoughts alone ; there we are more easily disturbed. Words bound the thoughts, and the inconvenience of an interruption is more sensible, as occasioning a pause in our speech ; and as in mental prayer, so when we join with others, to keep time and pace with the words, unless the Lord quicken them to an extraordinary liveliness, we find it very hard ; but how great a sin this is, is my first task to show. I shall do it : —
1. By three general considerations.
2. By speaking particularly to the present case. First, Generally.
1. Consider how tender God is of his worship: Lev. x. 3, he hath said that he ' will be sanctified in all that draw nigh unto him.' To sanctify is to set apart from common use. Now, God will be sanctified, that is, not treated with as an ordinary person, but with special heedfulness of soul and affection, becoming so great a ma- jesty; when you think to put him off with anything, you lessen his excellency and greatness, and do not sanctify him, or glorify him as God, and therefore God pleadeth his majesty when they would put a sorry sacrifice upon him, as if everything were good enough for him : Mai. i. 14, 'Cursed be the deceiver which hath in his flock a male, and voweth and sacrificeth to the Lord a corrupt thing : for I am a great king, saitli the Lord of hosts.' To be slight in his service, argueth mean thoughts of God : Eccles. v. 2, ' Be not rash with thy mouth, nor hasty to utter anything before God, for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth.' We forget our distance, and by a bold pro- faneness are too fellow-like and familiar with God, when we are not deeply serious and exact in what we do and say in his presence, but only babble over a few impertinent words without attention and affection. Certainly, God is very sensible of the wrong and contempt we put upon him, for he notethall: Heb. iv. 13, 'All things are naked and open to him with whom we have to do.' And he will not put it up, for he telleth us, Exod. xx. 7, that he ' will not hold him guiltless that taketli his name in vain ; ' and he will be as good as his word ; for the least disorders in worship have been sorely punished ; witness the stroke from heaven upon Aaron's sons. Lev. x. 2 ; the breach made upon Uzzah, 2 Sam. vi. G ; and the havoc made of the Bethshemites, 1 Sam. vi. 19. ; the diseases that raged at Corinth, 1 Cor. xi. 30. And though judgments be not so rife and visible now upon our unhallowed approaches to God, yet he smiteth us with deadness, where he doth not smite us with death ; for a man is punished otherwise than a boy, and judgments are now spiritual, which in the infancy of the church were temporal and bodily. Certainly, we have all cause to tremble when we come before the Lord.
2. The more sincere any one is, the more he maketh conscience of his thoughts, is more observant of them, and more troubled about them : Isa. Iv. 7, ' Let the unrighteous man forsake his thoughts ; ' then he beginneth to be serious, and to have a conscience indeed, when his thoughts trouble him. So David : Ps. cxix. 113, 'I hate vain thoughts : but thy law do I love.' We think thoughts are free,
Mat. XV. 7, 8.] in holy duties? 445
and subject to no tribunal ; if there be any error in tliem, we think it is a very venial one ; they betray us to no shame in the world, and therefore we let them go without dislike and remorse. But a child of God cannot pass over the matter so : he knoweth that thoughts are the immediate births of the soul, and do much discover the temper of it ; that there actions begin, and if vain thoughts be suffered to lodge in him, he will soon fall into further mischief, and therefore he con- sidereth what he thinketh, as well as what he speaketh and doeth ; and if at all times, especially in worship, where the workings of the inward man are of chief regard, and the acts of the outward only required, as a help to our ' serving God in the spirit,' Phil. iii. 3.
3. Carelessness in duties is the high way to atheism ; for every formal and sli^ght prayer doth harden the heart, and make way for contempt of God ; men that have made bold with God in duty, and it succeeds well with them, their awe of God is lessened, and the lively sense of his glory and majesty abated, till it be quite lost ; by degrees they outgrow all feelings and tenderness of conscience ; every time you come to God slightly, you lose ground by coming, till at length you look upon worship as a mere custom, or something done for fashion's sake.