3. Besides, God meets them with some crosses in this world, that they shall gain nothing by it. There is none of God's children that ever gained by yielding to any comaption, or di'owsiness, though God saved their souls. It is always true, a secure state is a sure forerimner of some gi'eat cross, or of some great sin. God cannot endure such a temper of soul ; Ufeless and unfeeling performances and sacrifices, to him that hath given us such encouragements. It must needs be distasteful to God, when we go drowsily and heavily about his work. ' Cursed is he that doth the work of the Lord neghgently,' Jer. xlviii. 10. K it were to sheath his sword in the bowels of his enemy, to which man is exceedingly prone, yet if it be not done with diligence and an eye to God, a man is cursed in it.
4. And it is an odious temper to God. For doth not he deserve cheerful service at our hands ? hath he been a ' wilderness' to us ? doth he not deserve the maiTow of our souls ? doth not his gi'eatness requii-e it at our hands, that om- senses be all waking ? and doth not his mercy deserve, that our love should take all care, to serve him that is so gi'acious and good to us ? Is it not the finiit of our redemption to serve him without fear, in hohness and righteousness all the days of our lives ? Luke i. 14.
5. It is a state not only odious to God, but irksome to our own spirits. The conscience is never fully at peace in a drowsy state or in drowsy perfonnances.
Like'n-ise it is not graceful to others. It breeds not love in them to good things, but dislike. Carnal men, let them see a Christian not carry him- self waking, as he should, though they be a thousand times worse them- selves, yet notwithstanding they think it should not be so. Such a course doth not suit with so much knowledge and so much gi-ace.
Let a man consider, wherefore God hath given the powers of the soul and the graces of the Spirit. Are they not given for exercise, and to be employed about their proper objects ? A man is not a man, a Christian is
46 BOWELS OPENED. [SeBMON IV.
not a Christian, when he is not waking. He so far degenerates from him- self, as he yields unto any unbeseeming carriage. Wherefore hath God given us understanding, but to conceive the best things ? Wherefore have we judgment, but to judge aright between the things of heaven and earth ? Wherefore have we love planted in us, but to set it on lovely objects? Wherefore faith, but to trust Grod over aU ? Wherefore hatred, but to fly ill? Wherefore have we afiections, but for spiritual things ? When therefore our afi'ections are dull, and lose their edge to these things, being quick only to earthly things, what a temper is this ! How doth a man answer his creation, the state of a new creatm'e ! Where- fore are all graces planted in the soul, as faith and love, and hope and patience, but to be in exercise, and waking ? To have these, and to let them sleep and lie unexercised, so far a Christian forgets himself, and is not himself. A Christian as a Christian, that is, in his right temper, should be in the act and exercise of what is good in him, upon all occasions ; as we say of God, he is a pure act, because he is always in working. The Spirit of God is a pm-e act, in whom is no sufi'ering but all action, about that that is fit for so glorious a nature. So it is with the spirit of a man, that hath the Spirit of God. He is in act, in exercise, in operation, as the Spirit is more or less in him. So he is more or less in operation, more or less fruitful. WTiat a world of good might Christians do, if they were in a right temper ! What a deal of ill might they escape and avoid that they lie in, if they would rouse up their souls to be as Christians should be, and as their soul and conscience tells them they ought and might be, did they ricfhtly improve the means they have !
THE FOURTH SERMON.
I sleep, but my heart u-akes, &c. — Cant. V. 2.
The words, as it hath been shewed, contain a confession, * I sleep,' and a con-ection, ' my heart waketh.' The confession hath been handled, now something of the correction or exception.
' My heart waketh.' The word heart, you know, includes the whole soul, for the understanding is the heart, ' an understanding heart,' Job xxxviii. 86. To 'lay things up in our hearts,' Luke ii. 51, there it is memory; and to cleave in heart is to cleave in will, Acts xi. 23. To ' rejoice ui heart,' Isa. XXX. 29, that is in the affection. So that all the powers of the soul, the inward man, as Paid calleth it, 2 Cor. iv. 16, is the heart.
* I sleep, but my heart waketh.' Indeed the church might have said. My heart sleepeth, but my heart waketh. For it is the same faculty, the same power of the soul,, both in the state of corruption, and of grace, in which the soul is ; as in the twilight we cannot say, this is hght and that is darkness, because there is such a mixture. In all the powers of the soul there is something good and something ill, something flesh and something spirit. The heart was asleep, and likewise was awake. ' I sleep, but my heart waketh.'