SERMONS UPON PEOVERBS X. 20. 403
which pervert your hearts, and make them so bad as they are. And liow miserable a thing it is to have a drossy, unsanctified heart, even though your life should be never so blameless ? Now the Spirit of God calleth upon us to show ourselves men : Isa. xlvi. 8, ' Remember this, and show yourselves men ; bring it again to mind, 0 ye transgressors.' And if you will never sit alone, and commune with yourselves about these weighty matters, your condemnation is just motives to quicken us, how much it concerneth you to get your hearts sanctified.
[1.] Because of the two great competitors, God and Satan, how earnest they are for the heart. It is God's choice : Prov. xxiii. 26, ' My son, give me thy heart.' This is that which God craveth, and every good man should say, Lord, I give it unto thee. It pleaseth God to hide our hearts from one another's knowledge ; but he seeth them, whether they be kept in a right frame, yea or no. Men are incom- petent judges of the heart, therefore they look to the outward appear- ance ; but God's eye is upon the heart : 1 Sam. xvi. 7, ' Man looketh unto the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart ; ' Ps. xli. 6, ' Behold thou desirest truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.' If we have a wise and understanding heart, a choice and excellent spirit. On the other side, it is that which Satan striveth for most ; the greatest contest between God and Satan is, who shall have the heart of man ? as Acts V. 3, ' Why hath Satan filled thy heart to lie to the Holy Ghost ? ' So Luke xxii. 3, ' Then entered Satan into Judas.' Then he gets into the man when he gets into the heart : John xiii. 2, ' The devil having now put into the heart of Judas to betray him.' This is the castle the enemy would surprise ; he maintaineth his interest there by vain and sinful thoughts.
[2.] The importance of the heart as to our speeches and actions. It is fons actionum ad extra, the fountain of all our outward actions. We bring everything out of the heart : Mat. xii. 35, ' A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.' The tongue, eyes, hands, and feet are but instruments to execute the motions of the heart. The prophet cast salt into the spring to cure the brackishness of the water, 2 Kings xxii. 21. And it is terminus actionum ad intra, the principle of our internal actions : Eom. vi. 17, 'Ye have obeyed from the heart the form of doctrine which was delivered you.'
Means.
1. Earnest prayer to God : Ps. li. 10, ' Create in me a clean heart, 0 God, and renew a right spirit within me.' God beginneth to us, that we may imitate him : Deut. v. 29, ' 0 that there were such an heart in them that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always;' Ps. Ixxxvi. 11, 'Unite my heart to fear thy name.' The heart naturally is scattered to vain objects.
2. Treasuring up the counsels of the word : Ps. cxix. 11, ' Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee ; ' Prov. vi. 20-22, ' My son, keep thy father's commandments, and forsake not the law of thy mother ; bind them continually upon thine heart, and lie them about thy neck : when thou goest it shall lead thee, when thou
404 SERMONS UPON PROVERBS X. 20.
sleepest it shall keep thee, and when thou awakest it shall talk with thee.'
3. Serious caution, that bad principles be not rooted in us : Heb. iii. 12, ' Take heed lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.'
4. Watching against vain pleasures, which render it brutish, sottish, frothy, and stupid : Hosea iv. 11, ' Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart ; ' the generosity, bravery, and sprightliness of the heart.
5. If gotten, keep it : Prov. iv. 23, ' Keep thy heart with all dili- gence.' Our first business is to get an heart worth the keeping ; a vain heart is better thrown away than kept. When the heart is renewed and changed, keep it pure and loyal to God. First get out sin, then keep it out. We keep it by a constant watchfulness over the senses: Job xxxi. 1, 'I made a covenant with my eyes; why then should I look upon a maid ? ' Over the thoughts : Prov. xv. 26, ' The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord.' Over the affections and passions : Gal. v. 24, ' They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the afiections and lusts.'
6. Increase it to a choice, an excellent spirit : 1 Cor. ii. 12, ' Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we may know the things that are freely given to us of God;' 2 Tim. i. 7, ' For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of a sound mind.