Secondly, Particularly: — 1. It is an affront to God, and a kind of mockery. We wrong his omnisciency, as if he saw not the heart, and could not tell man his thought. It is God's essential glory in worship to be acknowledged an all-seeing spirit, and accordingly to be * worshipped in spirit and in truth,' John iv. 24. Thoughts are as audible with him as words ; therefore when you prattle words, and do not make conscience of thoughts, you do not worship him as a spirit. We wrong his majesty when we speak to him in prayer, and do not give heed to what we say. Surely we are not to prattle, like jays, or parrots, words without affection and feeling, or to ' chat- ter like cranes,' or be like Ephraim, whom the prophet calls ' a silly dove without an heart.' A mean man taketh it ill when you have business to talk with him about, and your minds are elsewhere ; you would all judge it to be an affront to the majesty of God if a man should send his clothes stuffed with straw, or a puppet dressed up in- stead of himself, into the assemblies of God's people, and think this should supply his personal presence; yet our clothes stuffed with straw, or an image dressed up instead of us, such as Michal put into David's bed, 1 Sam. xis. 12, 13, would be less offensive to God than our bodies without our souls ; the absence of the spirit is the absence of the more noble part. We pretend to speak to God, and do not hear ourselves, nor can give any account of what we pray for ; or rather let me give you Chrysostom's comparison : a man would have been thought to have profaned the mysteries of the Levitical worship, if instead of sweet incense he should have put into the censer sulphur or brimstone, or mingled the one with the other.^ Surely our prayers should be ' set forth as incense,' Ps. cxli. 2. And do not we afiront God to his face, that mingle so many vain, sinful, proud, filthy, blasphemous thoughts? What is this but to mingle sulphur with our incense ? Again, when God speaketh
^ Chrys. Horn. 74 in Mat.
446 HOW MAY WE CUEE DISTRACTIONS [MaT. XY. 7, 8.
to ns, and knocks at the heart, and there is none within to hear him, is it not an affront to his majesty ? Put it in a temporal case. If a great person should talk to us, and we should neglect him, and entertain ourselves with his servants, he would take it as a despite and contempt done to him. The great God of heaven and earth doth often call you together to speak to you ; now if you think so slightly of his speeches as not to attend, but set your minds adrift to he carried hither and thither with every wave, where is that reverence you owe to him ?
It is a wrong to his goodness, and the comforts of his holy pre- sence ; for in effect you say that you do not find that sweetness in God which you expect, and therefore are weary of his company before your business be over with him. It is said of the Israelites, when they were going for Canaan, that ' in their hearts they turned back again into Egypt,' Acts vii. 39. They had more mind to be in Egypt than under Moses' government ; and their thoughts ever ran upon the flesh-pots and belly-cheer they enjoyed there. We are offended with their impatience and murmurings, and the affronts they put upon their guides ; and do not we even the same and worse in our careless manner of worshipping ? When God hath brought us into his pre- sence, we do in effect say, Give us the world again ; this is better entertainment for our thoughts than God and holy things. If Chris- tians would but interpret their actions, they would be ashamed of them ; is anything more worthy to be thought of than God ? The Israelites' hearts were upon Egypt in the wilderness, and our hearts are upon the world, nay, every toy, even when we are at the throne of grace, and conversing with him who is the centre of our rest, and the fountain of our blessedness.
2. It grieveth the Spirit of God : he is grieved with our vain thoughts as well as our scandalous actions ; other sins may shame us more, but these are a grief to the Spirit, because they are conceived in the heart, which is his presence-chamber, and place of special residence ; and he is most grieved with these vain thoughts which haunt us in the time of our special addresses to God, because his peculiar operations are hindered, and the heart is set open to God's adversary in God's presence, and the world and Satan are suffered to interpose in the very time of the reign of grace, then when it shall be in solio, in its royalty, commanding all our faculties to serve it ; this is to steal away the soul from under Christ's own arm, as a captain of a garrison is troubled, when the enemies come to prey under the very walls, in the face of all his forces and strength ; so certainly it is a grief to the Spirit when our lusts have power to disturb us in holy duties, and the heart is taken up with unclean glances, and worldly thoughts, then when we present ourselves before the Lord. God looks upon his people's sins as aggravated because committed in his own house: Jer. xxiii. 11, 'In my house I have found their wicked- ness ; ' what is this but to dare God to his very face ? Solomon saith, ' A king sitting upon his throne scattereth away evil with his eyes,' Prov. xx. 8. They are bold men that dare break the laws when a magistrate is upon the throne, and actually exercising judg- ment against offenders ; so it argueth much impudence that when