Use 1. First, to reprove those that do not give God the heart in their service ; secondly, not the whole heart.
1. Not the heart, but content themselves with outward profession : Jer. xii, 2, ' Thou art near in their mouth, but far from their reins.' God is often in their speech, but they have no hearty affection. Never was there an age higher in notions and colder in practice of Christianity. The heart is all ; it is the terminus actionum ad intra, et fans actionum ad extra. It is the bound of tliose actions that look inward; the senses report to the phantasy, that to the mind, and the
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mind counsels the heart : ' If wisdom enter the heart/ Prov. ii. 10, It is the well-s])ring of those actions that look outward to the life : Prov. iv. 23, ' Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life ;' Mat. xv. 19, and Prov. iv. 4, ' Let thy heart retain my words ; keep my commandments and live ;' then other things will follow.
2. It reproves those that do not give God the whole heart, for he re- quireth that, and surely all is too little for so great and so good a master. God will have the heart, so that no part of it be left to others, or for ourselves to dispose of as we will : the true mother would not have the child divided, 1 Kings iii. 26. God will hate all or nothing, he will not part stakes with Satan ; but Satan, if he cannot have all, will be •content with a part. But who are they that do not give God the whole heart?
[1.] Those that are for God in their consciences but not in their affections. Conscience many times taketh God's part. Their affections .are for the world, but their consciences are for Qod, as convinced men that do some outward work commanded in the law, ])ut they have no love to the work. This will not serve the turn, for whatever is done by constraint, or the mere compulsion of a natural conscience, can. never hold long. Nature will return to its bias again, however men force themselves for a while to comply with something which God hath commanded. They do not take up his ways by choice, but upon com- pulsion and the urgings of conscience, which they no way liked.
[2.] Those that have their affections divided between God and the world, halting between two, they have some affection to spiritual things, the favour of God and holiness as the only means to make them happy, but the world and their lusts have the greater share. They are troubled u little, would have the favour of God, but upon their own conditions. The prevailing part of the soul bendeth them to carnal interests ; as the person that was told that he must take up the cross and follow Christ, he is offended. Mat xi. 21 ; the young man turned away dis- contented when he heard the terms, Mat. xix. 21, 22. They like God's offers, but not his conditions to come up fully to his mind. They are loath to enter into gospel bonds. These do not entirely give up themselves to God ; they have but an affection in part to the comforts of the gospel, but not to the duties of the gospel.
[3.] Those that will do many things, but stick at one part of their duty to God. Men may suffer much for God, sacrifice some of their weaker lusts, but whilst any one sin remaineth unmortilied there is possession kept for Satan ; as Saul destroyed the Amalekites, but kept the fattest of the cattle, and spared Agag. Herod will not part with his Herodias: Ps. xviii. 23, L)avid saith, 'I was also upright before Jiim, and I kept niyself from mine iniquity.' Either some lust of the flesh, or of the eyes, or pride remaineth. There are some tender parts of the soul which are as the right hand and the right eye, men are loath to have them touched. They do not unfeignedly comply with ■God's whole will.
Use 2. To press you to give up the whole heart to God in a course of obedience.
Let us believe in God with all the heart : Acts viii. 32, ' If thou
360 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. XXXIX.
believest witli all tliy heart, thou mayest,' &c. ; andProv. iii. 5, ' Trust in the Lord with all thy heart.' This is the main thing of Christianity, when there is not only a naked assent, but when we embrace Christ with the heart, and there is a full and free consent to take him to all the uses for which God hath appointed him. So for love : Deut. vi. 5, ' Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy might.' When we delight in God, and find full complacency in him as our all-sufficient portion, without reserving any part of our hearts for other things. So for obedience : 1 Chron. xxviii. 9, ' And thou, Solomon, my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind ; for the Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts.' But now, how shall we know that we give God all the heart in an evangelical sense ?