(4.) The conscience likewise is awake. The heart is taken ofttimes for the conscience in Scripture. A good conscience, called a merry heart, is ' a continual feast,' Prov. xv. 15. Now, the conscience of God's children is never so sleepy but it awaketh in some comfortable measure. Though perhaps it may be deaded* in a particular act, yet notwithstanding there is so much life in it, as upon speech or conference, &c., there will be an opening of it, and a yielding at the length to the strength of spiritual reason. His conscience is not seared. David was but a little roused by Nathan, yet you see how he presently confessed ingeniously f that he had sinned, 2 Sam. xii. 13. So, when he had numbered the people, his conscience presently smote him, 2 Sam. xxiv. 10 ; and when he resolved to kill Nabal and all his family, which was a wicked and carnal passion, in which there was nothing but flesh ; yet when he was stopped by the advice and discreet counsel of Abi- gail, we see how presently he jdelded, 1 Sam. xxv. 32, seq. There is a kind of perpetual tenderness of conscience in God's people. All the dif- ference is of more or less.
(5.) And answerable to these inward powers is the outward obedience of God's children. In their sleepy estate they go on in a com'se of obedience. Though deadly and coldly, and not with that glory that may give others good example or yield themselves comfort, yet there is a course of good duties. His ordinary way is good, howsoever he may step aside. His fits may be sleepy when his estate is waking. We must distinguish between a state and a fit. A man may have an aguish fit in a sound body. The state of a Christian is a waking state in the inward man. The bye- courses he falleth into are but fits, out of which he recovers himself.
Use 1. Whence, for use, let us magnify the goodness of God, that will remain by his Spirit, and let it stay to preserve hfe in such hearts as ours are, so prone to security and sleepiness. Let it put us in mind of other like merciful and gracious doings of our God for us, that he gave his Spirit to us when we had nothing good in us, when it met with nothing but enmity, rebelhon, and indisposedness. Nay, consider how he debased himseK and became man, in being united to our frail flesh, after an admirable J near- ness, and all out of mercy to save us.
Use 2. If so be that Satan shall tempt us in such occasions, let us enter into our own souls, and search the truth of grace, om- judgment, om* wills, OUT' constant course of obedience, and the inward principle whence it comes, that we may be able to stand in the time of temptation. What upheld the church but this reflect act, by the help of the Spirit, that she was able to judge of the good as well as of the ill ? Thus David, ' The desires of our souls are towards thee,' Ps. xxxviii. 9 ; and though all this have befallen us, * That is, 'deadened.' — G. t That is, 'ingenuously.' — G. J That is, 'wonderful.'— G.
Cant. V. 2.] * i sleep, but my heart wakkth.' 49
yet have we not forgotten thy name, Ps. sliv. 20. This will enable us to appeal to God, as Peter, ' Lord, thou knowest I love thee,' John xxi. 15. It is an evidence of a good estate.
Obs. 1. ' My heart waketh.' God's children never totally fall from grace. Though they sleep, yet their heart is awake. The prophet Isaiah, speaking of the church and children of God, Isa. vi. 13, saith, ' It shall be as a tree, as an oak whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves.' Though you see neither fruit nor leaves, yet there is life in the root, * the seed remains in them.' There is alway a seed remaining. It is an immortal seed that we ai'e begotten by. Peter, when he denied his Master, was like an oak that was weather-beaten ; yet there was life still in the root, 1 Pet. i. 3, Mat. xxxi. 32, seq. For, questionless, Peter loved Christ from his heart. Sometimes a Christian may be in such a poor case, as the spiritual life runneth all to the heart, and the outward man is left destitute; as in wars, when the enemy hath conquered the field, the people run into the city, and if they be beaten out of the city, they run into the castle. The grace of God sometimes fails in the outward action, in the field, when yet it retireth to the heart, in which fort it is impregnable. ' My heart waketh.'
When the outward man sleeps, and there are weak, dull performances, and perhaps actions amiss, too, yet notwithstanding ' the heart waketh.' As we see in a swoon or great scars, the blood, spirits, and life, though they leave the face and hands, &c., yet they are in the heart. It is said in the Sci'ipture of Eutychus, ' His life is in him still,' though he seemed to be dead, Acts xx. 9. As Christ said of Lazarus, John xi. 4, so a man may say of a Christian in his worst state, ffis life is in him still ; he is not dead, but sleeps ; ' his heart waketh.'