Obs. 2. This is a sound doctrine and comfortable, agreeable to Scripture and the experience of God's pieople. We must not lose it, therefore, but make use of it against the time of temptation. There are some pulses that dis- cover Ufe inthe sickest man, so are there some breathings and spiritual motions of heart that wiU comfort in such times. These two never fail on God's part, his love, which is unchangeable, and his grace, a fi'uit of his love ; and two on our part, the impression of that love, and the gracious work of the new creature. ' Christ never dies,' saith the apostle, Heb. \di. 25. As he never dies in himself, after "his resurrection, so he never dies in his chil- dren. There is always spiritual hfe.
Use for comfort. ' The heart waketh.' This is a secret of God's sanctuary, only belonging to God's people. Others have nothing to do with it. They shall ever love God, and God will ever love them. The apostle, 1 Cor. xiii. 8, saith, ' Love never fails.' Gifts, you know, shall be abolished, be- cause the manner of knowing we now use shall cease. ' We see through a glass,' &c., ' but love abideth,' 1 Cor. xiii. 12. Doth om* love to God abide for ever, and doth not his love to us, whence it cometh ? Ours is but a reflection of God's love. Let us comfort ourselves, therefore, in this for the time to come, that in all the uncertainty of things in this life we have to-day and lose to-morrow, as we see in Job, there is somewhat a saint may build on that is constant and unmoveable. ' I am the Lord, I change not; therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed,' Mul. iii. 6. God should deny himself, as it were, which he cannot do, and his own constant nature, if he should vary this way.
Obs. 3. A Christian is what his heart and inward man is. It is a true speech of divines, God and nature begin there. Art begins with the face and outward lineaments, as hypocrisy, outward painting and expressions ;
VOL. II. D
50 BOWELS OPENED. [SeRMON IV.
but grace at the centre, and from thence goes to the circumference. And therefore the church values herself here by the disposition and temper of her heart. Thus I am for my outward carriage, &c. ' I sleep, but my heart, that waketh.'
Therefore, let us enter into our consciences and souls, for the trial of our estates, how it is with our judgments. Do we allow of the ways of God and of the law of the inward man ? How is it with our aflections and bent to good things ? how with our hati-ed, our zeal ? Is it not more for outward things than for inward? We know what Jehu said to Jonadab, when he would have him into his chariot, ' Is thine heart as mine ? Then come to me,' 2 Kings x. 15. So saith Christ, Is thine heart as mine ? then give me thy hand. But first God must have our hearts, and then our hands. A man otherwise is but a ghost in religion, which goes up and down, with- out a spirit of its own ; but a picture that hath an outside, and is nothing within. Therefore, especially, let us look to our hearts. ' Oh, that there were such an heart in this people,' saith God to Moses, ' to fear me always, for their good,' Deut. v. 29. This is it that God's children desire, that their hearts may be aright set. ' Wash thy heart, 0 Jerusalem,' saith the prophet, ' from thy wickedness/ &c., Jer. iv. 14. Indeed, all the outward man depends upon this. Therefore, Satan, if he can get this fort, he is safe, and so Satan's vicar, Prov. iv. 23. It was a watchword that was in Gregory XIII. his time, in Queen Elizabeth's days, ' My son, give me thy heart. Dissemble, go to church, and do what you will ; but, da mihi cor, be in heart a papist, and go where you will ' (e). God is not content with the heart alone. The devil knows if he have the heart he hath all ; but God, as he made all, both soul and body, he wUl have all. But yet in times of temptation the chief trial is in the heart.
And from hence we may have a main difference between one Christian and another. A sound Christian doth what he doth from the heart ; he begins the work there. What good he doth he loves in his heart first, judgeth it to be good, and then he doeth it.
An hypocrite doth what he doth outwardly, and allows not inwardly of that good he doth. He would do ill, and not good, if it were in his choice. The good that he doth is for by-ends, for correspondence, or dependence upon others, or conformity with the times, to cover his designs under for- mality of religion, that he may not be known outwardly, as he is inwardly, an atheist and an hypocrite. So he hath false aims ; his heart is not directed to a right mark. But it is otherwise with God's child. Whatso- ever good he doth, it is in his heart first ; whatsoever ill he abstains from, he doth it fr'om his heart, judging it to be naught ; therefore he hates it, and will not do it. Here is a main difference of the chm'ch from all others. It wakes in the heart, though the outward man sleeps. But other men's hearts sleep when they wake, as you know some men will walk and do many things in thefr sleep. An hypocrite is such a kind of man. He walks and goes up and down, but his heart is asleep. He knows not what he doth, nor doth he the thing out of judgment or love, but as one asleep, as it were. He hath no inward affection unto the things he doth. A Christian is the contrary ; his heart is awake when he is asleep.