(8.) There is the consequent of this great principle of their sin, or rather, another concomitant principle of their miscarriages,— they knew not the ways of God: “ And they have not known my ways.” This may be exegetical of the former, and declare wherein their error consisted, namely, in this, that they knew not, they judged not aright of the ways of God. But, as I said, I shall rather look upon it as another principle of their miscarriages. As they erred in their hearts because they liked the ways of sin, so they dis- liked the ways of God because they knew them not, and from both rushed into all manner of miscarriages and provocations. We are hence instructed first, that,—
Obs. XX VII. In all the sins of men God principally regards the principle; that is, the heart, or what is in it.
“They do err,” saith he, “in their hearts.” The heart he principally requires in our obedience; and this he principally regards in men’s disobedience. “My son,” saith he, “give me thine heart;” and, “O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me!”
VER. 7-11.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 89
When the heart is upright, as to its general frame, design, and prin- ciple, God will bear with many failings, many miscarriages. And when it is false, and gone off from God, thousands of duties are of _ no esteem with him. We know little, yea, directly nothing, of the hearts of men; and a man would therefore think that we should little concern ourselves in them, or not at all, but merely rest satis- fied in outward acts and effects, wherein our concernment lies. But yet even amongst us it is quite otherwise. If once a man begins justly to suspect that the hearts of them with whom he hath to do be not upright with him, but false and guileful, let them pretend what they will, and act what they please, all is utterly disregarded and despised. So saith he, Hom. Il. 4 312,—
"Excbpos yeep peor xsivos, omas ALdéo xbanci,
“Os x0 Extpov uty xevdes, tvd Ppecly, HAA 8 BAT er—
“T hate him like the gates of hell, who, pretending fairly to me, reserves other things in his mind.”
And if it be thus with men, who judge of the hearts of others only by effects, and that with a judgment liable to be inflamed by ground- less suspicions and corrupt imaginations, how much more must it be so with God, before whose eyes all the hearts of men lie open and naked, whose glory and property it is to be xapd:oyysorgs,—the judge, searcher, knower of all hearts? Again,—
Obs. XXVIII. The error of the heart in the preferring the ways of sin before obedience, with its promises and rewards, is the root of all great provoking sins and rebellions against God.
Many sins are the effects of men’s impetuous lusts and corruptions; many they are hurried into by the power and efficacy of their temp- tations; most are produced by both these in conjunction ;—but as for great provocations, such as carry in them apostasy, or rebellion against God, they proceed from a deceiving and a deceived heart. There are many noisome and hurtful errors in the world, but this is the great soul-ruining error, when the heart is practically corrupted _ to prefer sin and its wages before obedience and its reward. It seems, indeed, a hard and difficult thing to do this notionally, es- pecially for such as admit of any sense of eternity. But yet the contrary hereunto, namely, to prefer obedience, with its promises and rewards, consisting in things future and invisible, unto sin and its present ways, is expressed as an act or fruit of faith, and which nothing else will enable us unto. This was the evidence of the faith of Moses, that he “chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward,” Heb. xi. 25, 26. And so the apostle expresseth the working of faith in this matter: 2 Cor. iv. 18, “ While we look not at the things which are
90 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [cHAP. III.
seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” It is the work of faith so to look into, so to see and discern invisible and eternal things, as on their account to prefer obedience unto God, with afflictions, temptations, and persecutions, unto sin, with all its present pleasures and wages, But, practically, this is fre- quently found amongst men. And how this is brought about or effected; how the mind is prejudiced and obstructed, as to its mak- ing a right judgment concerning its rules; how it is diverted from a due consideration of the things and reasons that should influence it, and lead it thereunto; how it is entangled and seduced unto a present approbation of appearing satisfactions; and how the will is thereby deceived into a consent unto sin, I have declared in a par- ticular discourse to that purpose.’ In brief, when the directive part of the mind is diverted from attending unto the reason of things proposed unto it; when it is corrupted by false pretences imposed on it by the outrage of corrupt lusts and affections, which have pos- sessed the imagination with their objects and their present deceiv- ableness; when the judging, accusing faculty of it is baffled, slighted, and at least partially silenced, as wearied with doing its work in vain, and accustomed to repulses; when in its reflective acts, where- by it should receive impressions from its own self-accusations and reproofs, it is made obtuse, hard, and senseless, not regarding what is spoken in it or to it; and when by these means carnal affections bear sway in the soul, impetuously inclining it to seek after their satisfaction, then is the heart under the power of the error we speak of,—that error which is the principle of all great provocations and apostasies from God.