Mat. XV. 7, 8.] in holy duties ? 447
we come to deal with God, as sitting upon tlie throne, and observ- ing and looking upon us, that we can yet lend our hearts to our lusts, and suffer every vain thought to divert us. There is more of modesty, though little of sincerity, in them that say to their lusts, as Abraham to his servants : Gen. xii. 5, ' Tarry here while I go yonder and worship ; ' or, as they say, the serpent layeth aside her poison when she goeth to drink. When a man goetli to God he should leave his lusts behind him, not for a while, and with an intent to entertain them again, but for ever. However this argueth some reverence to God, and sense of the weight of holy duties ; but when we bring them along with us, it is a sign we little mind the work we go about.
3. It is a spiritual disease. The soul hath its diseases as well as the body ; the unsteady roving of the mind, or the disturbance of vain and impertinent thoughts, is one of those diseases, — shall I call it a spiritual madness, or fever, or shaking palsy, or all these ? You know madmen make several relations, and rove from one thing to another, and are gone off from a sentence ere they have well begun it ; our thoughts are as slippery and inconsistent as their speeches, therefore what is this but the frenzy of the soul ? What mad creatures would we seem to be, if all our thoughts were patent, or an invisible notary were lurking in our hearts to write them down ! We run from object to object in a moment, and one thought looks like a mere stranger upon another ; we wander and run through all the world in an instant. Oh, who can count the numberless opera- tions and working of our mind in one duty ! What -impertinent excursions have we from things good to lawful ; from lawful to sin- ful, from ordinarily sinful to downright blasphemous ! Should any one of us, after he hath been some time exercised in duty, go aside and write down his thoughts, and the many interlinings of his own prayers, he would stand amazed at the madness and light discurrency of his own imaginations.
Or shall I call it the feverish distemper of their soul ? j3Egri somnia is a proverb ; in fevers men have a thousand fancies and swimming toys in their dreams, and just so it is with our souls in God's worship. We bring that curse upon us spiritually, which corporally God threatened to bring upon the Jews : ' I will scatter you to the end of the earth.' We scatter our thoughts hither and thither without any consistency ; the heart, in regard of this roving madness, is like a runagate servant, who, when he hath left his master, wandereth up and down, and knoweth not where to fix ; or like those that are full of distracting business, that cannot make a set meal, but take their diet by snatches.
4. It argueth the loss and non-acceptance of our prayers. You are in danger to lose your worship, at least so much of it as you do not attend upon ; and truly to a man that knows the value of that kind of traffic, this is a very great loss. You that are tradesmen aro troubled if you happen to be abroad when a good customer cometh to deal with you ; the ordinances of God are the market for your souls ; if you had not been abroad with Esau, you might have received the blessing, and gone away richly laden from a prayer, from the
448 HOW MAY WE CURE DISTRACTIONS [MaT. XV. 7, 8.
word, and the Lord's Supper ; but you lose your advantages for want of attention ; allowed distractions turn your prayers into sin, and make them no prayers. When the soul departeth from the body it is no longer a man, but a carcase ; so when the thoughts are gone from prayer, it is no longer a prayer, the essence of the duty is want- ing. What is prayer ? 'Avd^aat<i tov vov, as Damascene defined it, the lifting up of the heart to God. Many have prayed without words, but never any prayed without lifting up, or pouring out the heart. If a man should kneel, and use a gesture of worship, and fall asleep, no doubt that man doth not pray. This is to sleep with the heart, and the words uttered are but like a dream, have but a slight touch of reason in them, a mere drowsy inattentive devotion ; the soul is asleep though the eyes be not closed, and the senses locked up. Can we expect that God should hear us, and bless us, because of our mere outward presence ? We are ashamed of those that sleep at a duty, and this is as bad or worse ; they may sleep out of natural infirmity, as weakness, age, sickness, &c., but this doth more directly proceed from some slightness or irreverence. Well, then, with what face can we expect the fruit of that prayer to which we have not attended ? It is a great presumption to desire God to hear those requests, a great part whereof we have not heard ourselves ; if they be not worthy of our attention they are far more unworthy of God's. Cyprian,! or Piuffinus, or whoever was the author of the explication of the Lord's Prayer in Cyprian's works, hath a notable passage to this purpose : Quomodo te a Deo exaudiri poshdas, cum ie ipse non audias ? Vis Deum esse memorem tui cum rogas, cum ipse iui memor non sis f Thou art unmindful of thyself ; thou dost not hear thy- self ; and how canst thou with reason desire the blessing and comfort of the duty which thou thoughtest not worthy thine own attention and regard ?