6. Slightness and irreverence, or want of a sense of God's presence. A careless spirit will surely wander ; but one deeply affected is fixed and intent. Jonah, when he prayed in the whale's belly, could he have an heart to forget his work ? Daniel, when he prayed among the lions, could he mind anything else ? When we are serious and pray in good earnest, we will call in all our thoughts, and hold them under command. This question was put to Basil, how a man should keep the mind free from distraction ? His answer was — ylyverai 6 fM€re(opi(Tfio^ ciTrb t?)? dpyia<; rov vov, kol i^ aTTia-ria^ jirj Trapelvat rov Qeov i^erd^ovra Kaphla^ koX vecppovi.^ That is, that this evil came from slightness of heart, and unbelief of God's presence ; for if a man did believe that God were before his eyes, searching the heart, and trying the reins, he would be serious : ' All things are naked and
^ Basil in Regulis Brevioribus.
452 HOW MAY WE CURE DISTRACTIONS [MaT. XV. 7, 8.
open to him with whom we have to do ; ' God looketh on, and so do the angels ; he looketh on the heart, and will not you bo serious ? Scholars that have a truant mind, yet the presence of their mas* ters forceth them to their books ; the great God who telleth man his thought, he seeth our desires ; and thoughts speak louder in his ears than our words ; therefore possess the heart with a dread of his glorious presence, and with the weight and importance of the works we are about : were we to deal with man in a case of life and death, we would weigh our words and not rove like madmen.
7. The curiosity of the senses, these occasion a diversion. It is the office of the fancy to present, as in a glass, whatsoever is received by the external senses, or offered by the memory, and so the under- standing taketh notice of it ; the wandering eye causeth a wandering heart. Solomon saith, Prov. xvii. 24, ' The fool's eyes are to the ends of the earth ; ' first, his eyes rove, and then his heart. The apostle Peter saith of unclean persons, that ' they have eyes full of adultery,' 2 Pet. ii. 14, /Aoi;^aX.tSo9, of the adulteress (as the word signifieth) ; the eye is rolled upon the object, and then the dart is by the fancy transmitted to the heart. Senses are the windows and doors of the soul ; keep the senses if you would keep the heart. Job was at a severe appointment wdth his eyes. Job xxxi. 1. It is good when we go to God to renew these covenants, to agree with the heart that we will not go to God without it ; with the eyes and ears, that we will not see and hear anything but what concerns our work. It was a strange consistency and fixedness which Josephus speaketh of ,i when Faustus, Cornelius, and Furius, and Fabius with their troops had broken into the city of Jerusalem, and some fled one way and some another, yet the priests went on with their sacrifices and the holy rites of the temple, as if they heard nothing ; though they rushed on them with their swords, yet they preferred the duty of their religion, before their own safety ; and strange is that other instance of the Spartan youth in Plutarch, that held the censer to Alexander whilst he was sacrificing, and though a coal lighted upon his flesh, he suffered it to burn there, rather than by any crying out he would disturb the rites of their heathenish superstition. Certainly these instances should shame us Christians, that do not hold the senses under a more severe restraint, but upon every light occasion suffer them to trouble and distract us in worship.
8. Carking and distrustful cares. When we are torn in pieces with the cares of the world, we cannot have a composed heart, but om- minds will waver, and our dangers will recur to our thoughts, and hinder the exercise of our faith. God took special care of the Jews, when they went up to worship, that they might have nothing to trouble them; and therefore he saith, Exod. xxxiv. 24, 'None of the nations shall desire the land when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord thy God thrice in the year ; and Augustine^ gives the reason of it, lest they should be distracted with thoughts about their own preservation — Vult Deus intelligi utsecurus quisque ascenderet, nee de terra sua sollicitus esset, Deo 2^romitienfe custodiam : and one of
'^ Joseptus de Bello Judfeorum. 2 Augustinus, Qusest. 161, in Exod.
Mat. XV. 7, 8.] in holt duties? 453
the arguments by wliicli Paul commendeth single life is freedom from the incumbrances of the world : ' That we may serve the Lord without distraction,' 1 Cor. vii. 35.
Thirdly, Remedies. I might speak many things by way of mere counsel about guarding the senses, the use and abuse of a form, &c. ; but all these are but like external applications in physic, or topical medicines, as the binding of things to the wrists of the hands, &c., which work no perfect cure of a disease, unless the distemper be purged away ; therefore I shall speak to those things that are most effectual.