LIBRARY BV 4817 .881 1835 Steele, Richard, 1629-1692. A remedy for wandering thoughts in the worship of The John M. Krebs Donation. f. A REMEDY WANDERING THOUGHTS t WORSHIP OF GOD. BY THE -, REV. RICHARD STEELE, M. A. " How canst thou say I love thee, when thy heart is not with me?" — Judges xvi. 15. "With my whole heart have wander." — Psalm cxix. 10. I sought tl^e, O let me not N Em Y 0'RJEC4^ ^^; D. APPLET ON & CO.V'SO^^^K^tW?'^^- 1836. d^ G. l'\ Hopkins & Soil, Priutcrs, 41 xNussaustreeU 'O ■"^•^hA' '--■■mi^' DEDICATION OF THIS WORK MOST HOLY TRINITY. These first fruits I humbly lay at thy blessed footstool, O God, being ambitious of no patron but thyself; for thou alone canst attest the sincerity of my aim herein, which will plead with thee for the imbecilities thereof. Thou alone art the right author of every valuable line and word in this en- suing tract. The errors only are mine, but the honour is tliine. Thou hast the strongest hand, and truest heart to protect both the writing r.nd the writer from all the unkind usage that we may meet with. Thy approbation chiefly I humbly crave, and then I am sure to have all good men on my side. Against thee, thee only, have I offended by my distractions, and done these evils in thy sight ; and there- fore am bound to seek the destruction of them in all the world for thy sake. Thou hast so infinitely obliged the unworthy writer of these lines, that he rejoices in this op- portunity to tell the world. That there is none in heaven or earth to be compared to thee. Thou only canst make my endeavours herein successful, and bring that to the heart which I could only present to the ear or eye. Unto thee, IV DEDICATION. therefore, do I dedicate both this and myself, with this earn- est prayer, That this Essay may both please thee, and profit thy Church! That thou wouldest take this rod into thy hands, and therewith whip these buyers and sellers out of thy temple! That thy great name may hereby be mag- nified, though the writer's were never known! To thy heavenly blessing do I most humbly recommend this nean work, and worthless workman, with a resolution to remain, while I have any being, Tliine own, RICHARD STEELE. To THE SERIOUS READER, ESPECIALLY THE FIRST HEARERS OF THE MATTER CON- TAINED IN THIS BOOK. Christian Reader: — You have here an antidote against the most common distemper of God's people, in his worship. My own disease caused me to study the cure ; the general complaint of good people against these Egyptian flies moved me to preach it; and the common good of God's church, not without solicitations thereto, hath now persuaded me to publish it. Be not offended that so much is written on so minute a point ; greater tracts on the fever, stone, or tooth- ache, whereby they may be certainly cured, would not be thought too long by such as are sick thereof. Indeed, this had never seen the light, but that the disease is so general, and that so few, if any, have thorouglily handled it. How- ever, this may serve, as the learned lord Verulam hath it, "to awake better spirits, and to do the bell-ringer's office, who is first up to call others to church." This being my first essay, riper judgements will, I believe, observe divers defects and superfluities therein ; but candour is a common debt, which we all owe one to another, and one poor mite may be accepted by men, when two mites can please Christ himself. It is my request to you, especially, that were the first hearers hereof, that ye be not hearers or readers only, 1* VI THE EPISTLE TO THE READER. but doers of the word. The world knows you have been constant hearers, let the world see that you are careful doers. The indubitable truths and duties that I have laid before you, will undoubtedly convert you, or else undoubtedly condemn you ; and therefore I beseech you in the bowels of Christ, that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. For now I live if ye stand fast iti the Lord. And my earnest request /or yow is, that divine power may accompany divine precepts. If you reap any benefit, let God have all the praise, and put the poor instrument into some corner of your prayers. I have chosen a dialect and phrase famihar for the advantage of the matter, rather than the applause of the writer, being contented to be ranked among those who re- gard the graces of style but as the secondary object of a good writer ; you will excuse the unevenness of the style, and other imperfections, when you understand that I had more studies than books in composing hereof, being distant from my library, and variously distracted in the writing about distractions. But my aim being a solid cure, not a starched discourse, I have chosen a divinity dress, and not preached myself, who am the chief of sinners, but Christ Jesus, my Lord, and myself. Your servant. For Jesus' sake, R. S. THE CONTENTS. CHAPTER THE TEXT EXPLAINED — THE DOCTRINE PROPOSED, AND A DISTRACTION DESCRIBED. Page Sect. I. The explication of the Text 13 Sect. 11. A Distraction described 16 CHAPTER 11. THE KINDS OF DISTRACTIONS. Sect. I. Their several fountains 20 1. TheDevil 20 2. The mind 22 3. The fancy 23 4. The outward senses 25 Sect. II. By the matter whereof they consist 26 Being good, bad, indifferent 26 Sect. in. By the adjuncts of them 29 VUI THE CONTENTS. CHAPTER III. THAT IT 13 OUR DUTY TO ATTEND UPON THE LORD WITHOUT DISTRACTIONS, PROVED. Page Sect. I. From the possibility of it, by four Arguments 34 Sect. II. From the necessity of it 38 1. To the being of a duty. 38 2. To comfortin a duty 39 3. To the prosperity of a duty 40 4. To communion with Christ in a duty 41 CHAPTER IV. REASONS WHY WE OUGHT TO ATTEND ON THE LORD WITH- OUT DISTRACTIONS. Sect. I. From the nature of God 44 His 1. Greatness 1 44 2. Holmess 46 3. Omniscience 47 Sect. II. From the nature of his M'^orship 49 Being 1. Reasonable 49 2. Spiritual 51 3. Sweet 52 Sect. III. From the nature of our condition 53 1. We cannot live without God 53 2. Our only way of communion with God is by ordi- nances 53 3. All our heart and strength is too little for this work 54 Sect. IV. From the nature of Distractions 56 1. They divide the heart. 56 THE CONTENTS. IX Page 2. They frustrate the duty 57 3. They contract more guilt 58 CHAPTER V. OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. Sect. I. Its impossibility 60 Sect. II. Its difficulty 63 Sect. III. Their commonness 67 Sect IV. God's accepting the will for the deed 80 CHAPTER VI. THE CAUSES OF DISTRACTIONS, WITH THEIR REMEDIES. Sect I. Secret atheism 74 A remedy thereof. 77 Sect. II. The corruption of our nature 78 Its remedy 81 Sect. III. Unpreparedness to holy duties 86 A case of conscience answered, viz : What measure of preparation is necessary before our ordinary duties of worship 87 Sect. IV. Lukewarmness 92 Its remedies 95 Sect. V. Worldly-mindedness 98 Its remedy 101 Sect. VI. Weakness of love to Christ and his ordi- nances 106 Its remedies 109 Sect. VII. Want of watchfulness 114 1. Before duties » 114 X THE CONTENTS. Page 2. Induties 115 S, Afterduties 117 The remedy thereof. 118 Sect. VIII. A beloved sin 121 Its remedies 124 Sect. IX. Satan 126 A remedy 129 Sect. X. Vain thoughts at other times j ...... . 131 These 1. Displease and disengage the Spirit of God 132 2. Dispose and naturalize the soul to these thoughts 133 3. Discourage us to the conquest, and encourage us to the sin 134 4. Infect the memory 136 5. Provoke God to give us up 137 The remedies hereof. 138 Sect. XL A divided heart in four respects 143 Its remedy 147 Sect. XII. An opinion that there is no great evil in them 149 Its remedy 150 CHAPTER VII. THE EVIL OF DISTRACTIONS. 1. In their nature Sect. I. They arc sins against the first tahlc 1 56 Sect. II. They are heart sins 158 Sect. III. They are sins in the special presence of God IGO Sect. IV. They are sins about the most serious busi- ness 162 THE CONTENTS. XI Page Sect. V. They are sins of hypocrisy 165 Sect. VI. They alienate the heart from holy duties. . . 167 Sect. VII. They affront the majesty of God 169 Sect. VIII. They hinder the benefits of a holy duty. . . 171 Sect. IX. They deprive the soul of comfort 174 Sect. X. They grieve away the Holy Ghost 176 CHAPTER VIII. THE CURE OF DISTRACTIONS. Sect. I. Dispel the causes 179 Sect. II. Bevi^ail your former failings herein 182 Sect. III. Engage the Spirit of God in your assistance 187 Sect. IV. Believe in the presence of God 191 Sect. V. Lay a law upon your senses 197 Whispering during the worship of God 1 99 Sect. VI. Reflection and ejaculation ' 203 Sect. VII. Strength of grace 208 How it should be gotten ^ 215 CHAPTER- IX. ENCOURAGEMENTS UNDER THE BURDEN OF DISTRACTIONS. Sect. I. They may exist with grace 218 Sect. II. Your case is not singular 222 Sect. III. Christ's intercession is without distraction . . 223 Sect.-IV. Distractions may make us humble 225 Sect. V. God can make some sense out of such prayers 227 Sect. VI. There is a grace and strength in Christ to help against them 229 Sect. VII. A perfect riddance of them is the happiness of heaven 231 XU THE CONTENTS. CHAPTER X. INFERENCES FROM THIS DOCTRINE. Page Sect. I. We have cause to mourn over our best duties 234 Sect. II. Omissions of duty are dangerous 237 Sect. III. The great necessity of watchfulness 240 Particularly in 1. Prayer 243 2. Hearing God's vrord 243 3. Reading 244 4. Singing psalms 244 5. Meditation 245 Sect. IV. Great cause to bless God for freedom from distractions 246 Sect. V. That religion is an inward, difficult, and se- rious business 248 A REMEDY WANDERING THOUGHTS. CHAPTER I. THE TEXT EXPLAINED. THE DOCTRINE PRO- POSED, AND A DISTRACTION DESCRIBED. SECTION I. THE EXPLICATION OF THE TEXT. That ye may attend upon the Lord without distraction. — 1 Cor. vii.35. The words of the text present us with a design that beUevers as often aim at, and yet miss, as any in the world ; and which is so excellent and rare an attainment, that the Holy Ghost even makes two words on purpose to express it by, no where else found in the New Testament ; " to attend on the Lord without distraction." 2 14 A REMEDY FOIl I. The matter what, " attend upon the Lord." II. The manner how, " without distrac- tion." I. The matter what, " attend upon the Lord." The Greek word for " attend " in our copies, hath a remarkable elegancy in it. I. That you* may befit and ready for God's service, that religion and religious duties may sit fitly on you, that you may be ready to serve the Lord in duty or suffering. A most sweet frame of soul to be always bent and strung for the service of God. That man is meet for the master's use, that is prepared unto every good work. 2 Tim. ii. 21. How many choice opportunities for instruction, for reproof, for cha- rity, for prayer, do we hazard ; yea, and lose, for want of a soul quick and ready to do our duty ? 2. That you may he fixed and settled in his service. The word intimates such an inseparable cleaving, such a marriage of the mind to the work of God, that we have in hand, as can by no means suffer a divorce. It should, be as hard a matter to break off the heart from God in his service, being married to him, and settled in holy duties, as it is to abstract the miser's soul from the world to which it is glued. UANDElUNi; THOUGHTS. 15 II The manner how, " without distraction." The sense hereof is ahnost perverted by the em- phasis of the former word. Yet this word is not without its great weight : and it speaks a quiel^ un- shaken, and immoveable frame of soul, which cannot be whirled about with vain trifles. The soul is never at that holy quiet, as when it is directly ascending and communing with the Lord ; and therefore Satan exceedingly envies this celestial happiness of the saints, and if he cannot distract them from duty, be sure he will distract them in it ; and this he doth very much by the world, and the business thereof. And therefore, saith the apostle, guide your condition so, in this suffering season, as that it may not misguide your hearts, in } our attendance on the Lord ; that you may not attend on yourselves, nor on others ; but on Him who is the centre of an ordinance, and your all in all. Take the sum of all in this assertion, the main doctrine from the text, — // is a Christian'' s duty to attend on the Lord without distractions. And that I may from this text ajid doctrine pro- fitably handle the case, and endeavour the cure of distractions, I shall proceed to show these things. 16 A REMEDY FOR 1. The nature of a distraction. 2. The kinds of distractions. 3. That it is our duty to attend upon the Lord without distractions. 4. The reasons why we must attend on the Lord without distrac- tions. 6. Answer the objections. 6. Describe the causes of distractions. 7. The evil of them. 8. The cure of them. 9. Propound some encou- ragements under the burden of distractions. 10. Draw some inferences from this doctrine. And, First, of the nature of a distractiono SECT. IL A DISTRACTION DESCRIBED. The first head will be to describe a distraction. A distraction is a secret wandering of the heart from God, in some duty in hand. 1. It is a wandering. As the remissness of our devotion shoots short, so distraction shoots awry. 'Tis said, Prov. xxvii. 8, " As a bird that wandereth from his nest, so is a man that wander- eth from his place." It is commonly known, the ready way to destroy the young in the shell, is dis- WANDERING THOUGHTS. 17 continuance of heut ; and to wander from our heavenly work, produces the dead offspring of un- frohtable duties. It would be almost as easy to trace and follow the bird in his vagaries, as the volatile and intricate imaginations of the heart. It is a digression; — you that are curious to ob- serve the minister in his digressions, how nmch more necessary is it to observe your own?* 2. It is secret, in the heart. And this con- tracts the guilt and nature ©f hypocrisy upon a disr traction ; for we have a short and clear description of hypocrisy, which agrees too well with distrac- tions, Matt. XV. 7, 8 : " This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their hps ; but their heart is far from me." To have a bended knee, a craving eye, are choice expressions of duty ; but without the impressions and attendance of the heart,| are double iniquity and flat hypocrisy. How empty would our con- * The same Greek word signifies the soul, and a butterfly, because our wandering imaginations make our wavering spirits like butterflies, puffed up and down with every blast of vanity. — Mr. Paget, f In the sacrifices of the law, the inwards still were oi- fered to God, tlie skin was for the priest. 2* 18 A REMEDY FOR gregations be sometimes, if no more bodies were present than there are souls? And what abun- dance of sorry service hath our God, that nobody sees. Yet how unknown soever these triflings of the mind are to others, or to ourselves, yet are they most palpable to the Lord, who sets our most " secret sins in the light of his countenance ;" Psalm xc. 8 ; and though these may seem small trifles, yet they fall under the rebuke of religion ; and are as sinful as they are secret : good in se- cret is the best goodness ; and secret sinlulness the worst sinfulness. 3. This wandering of the heart is from God, for God is the object of worship. " To pray aright is to pray before the Lord: Zech. vii. 2L " To give thanks aright is to give thanks before God:" Dan. vi. 10: not in his sight only, for so you are when your hearts are worst; but good men looked on God when they spake to him, as we look on men when we speak to them. Me- lancthon saith, he had heard Luther in his secret prayers, so pra^» that one would verily think there were somebody in the room with him to whom he spake. WANDERING THOUGHTS. 19 4. This wandering is while some duty is in hand. That was a good answer of Nehemiah to his false friends, " I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and come down to you?" Nehemiah vi. 3. He that is in a duty to God is about a very great work, and that work stands, or goes backward, every moment the heart is away ; and why should a temporal * vanity set back, and perhaps quite unravel your eternal concernment? How will that Spartan youth rise up in judgement against us, that holding the censer during Alex- ander's heathen sacrifices, would not stir his hand from its duty, though the burning coals fell there- on, and made his flesh to fry and smell in the presence of all the spectators ? * When King Ethelbert was at his devotions, news was brought of the Danish invasion at Essenden, but he neither omitted nor abbreviated his prayers ; he would hear no suit on earth, till he had made Iris requests in heaven, and after- wards he bravely vanquished them. — Dr. T. Fuller. 20 A 'REMEDY ¥01\ CHAPTER 11. THE KINDS OF DISTRACTIONS. SECTION I. THEIR SEVERAL FOUNTAINS. Our second duty will be to take a view of the kinds or sorts of distractions ; and they are di- versified : 1. From the fountain whence they flow. 2. From the matter whereof they consist. 3. From their adjuncts. For the first of them, you will find, 1 . J[Iamj of our distractions may justly he fa- thered on the Devil. He is a spiritual substance, and is most properly conversant in spiritual sins ; he is completely skilled in all thoughts whatsoever, and therefore what he imparts here is of his own. The hiorh-priest Joshua could not be at his prayers for the Israel of God, but as Christ the angel of the covenant was on one hand, Satan was standing on the other, Zcch. iii. 1, and he was got at the WANDERING THOUGHTS. 21 readier hand,* the right hand, the hand of action, that he might hinder him more dexterously in his devotion. And when Satan stands on the right hand, the prayer is in danger to become sin. Psal. cix. 6, 7. When we are most serious before the Angel, the Devil is whispering at our elbow ; and who can be dull and watchless, when God is on one hand, and Satan on the other? The Devil is afraid of a serious lively prayer at his heart ; he knows that can pull down in a minute what he hath been contriving for a thousand years ; and therefore, if he cannot withold us from holy duties, he will do his utmost to disturb us in them. Hence the vision of that holy man who in the whole market saw but one devil busy (for there Self was at hand, Satan had no need to bestir him;) but in the conj^regation there were multitudes of them : all their skill and power being little enough to ward oft' poor souls from Jesus Christ. Alas ! we pray, and hear, and live as securely, as if there were no Devil at all. * " A wise man's heart is at his right hand." Ecclot-. X. 2. i. e. His heart is ready and prepared to every good work. — Annot. in loc. 22 A REMEDY FOR And his suggestions in religious duties are usu- ally more violent and impetuous,* more dreadtul and impious, than those which are of our own breed- ing; called therefore darts, and fiery darts of that wicked one. Though he lay these suggestions ot his at thy door, yet they will be counted in the num- ber of his sins and of thy afflictions. 2. Our distractions proceed from the mind and understanding. The vanity of the mind alienates us from the life of God, and from communion with him. When a present and seasonable petition or instruction is conveyed through the ear into the un- derstanding, it wantonly plays therewith, and takes occasion to run out on some contiguous notion ; and from that to another and at length rests and dwells on some alien and unseasonable point, till the gales of the good Spirit, and the present matter be overpast. And thus by a default in the under- standing, we seek not God, Psal. liii. 2, nor find him as we might; and that excellent faculty, which would penetrate into the divine mysteries, and should guide the will and heart unto God, by the * Joab could hinder David from weeping for Absalom, not from numbering the people, to wliich Siitan stirred him up. — D. Arrows. WANDERING THOUGHTS. 23 ignis fatmis of its unmortified vanity, misleads us from the chief good, and entangles us in distrac- tions. We read " of a filthiness of the spirit," 2 Cor. vii. 1, whereof surely this is a part, and must be cleansed in them that will *' perfect holiness in the fcarofGod." 3. ' Some distractions proceed from the fancy, a most busy faculty, which is most unruly and least sanctified in a holy man. Sometimes by the help of memory, stepping back into things past, she brings into the most solemn worship a thousand passages that are past and gone, and rolling them in the head, carries soul and all quite away from God : hence it is, you often hear them say, " such a thing came into my mind at sermon or prayer," that was for- gotten weeks or months before : yea, daring to re-act former sins by contemplative wickedness in the very sight of God, which doubles the guilt by repetition, and makes your former sins exceeding sinful. In this sense that is true, " Better is the sight of the eyes, than the wandering of desire;" Eccles. vi. 9 ; there is something more of evil in these second contemplations, than in the first com- missions. Sometimes the fancy will create a world of figments or notions out of nothing, and multiply 24 A REMEDY FOR impertinent thoughts upon no ground, and to no pur- pose ; and can sally out of the present matter to every adjacent business, and make a great ado to bring nothing to pass. " There is a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture's eye hath not seen," Job xxvii. 8 ; the fancy can find out such a way ; thus God is not in all, hardly in any, of our thoughts, when we pretend to treat him with the greatest solemnity. And sometimes the fancy breeds distractions by forecasting things to come ; so many a man can most easily, on the Sabbath, contrive his business for all the week after ; and the poor woman in the corner of a prayer order the business of all the house for a day. Hence many an affair is cursed in our hands, by our unhappy contrivance thereof in the time of worship. Thus we have some saying (in their hearts no doubt), "When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn, and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat?" Amos viii. 5. And it is well if they have no com- panions in this assembly, who are making their hay, measuring their corn, counting their coin, if not providing for their lusts, while they seem earnest with the Lord negotiating for eternity. WANDERING THOUGHTS. 25 4. Our distractions in GocVs iv or ship are some- times occasioned by our outward senses. Most fre- quently by the eye ; a wandering eye mostly hath a wandering heart ; for when the eye discovers any new, pleasing, or ridiculous object, it presently brings news thereof unto the heart ; and that de- bates and studies upon it, to the grieving of God's Spirit, and cooling of our own : and when that is over, a fresh sight presents itself, and the eye is ready for that again, and leads the heart into a maze of follies. We read, '♦ My eye affecteth my heart, because of all the daughters of the city," Lam. iii. 51, that is with grief for their calamity. There is a reciprocal working it seems ; the heart at first affects the eye, and the eye can affect the heart with grief: even in like manner, when the sons or daughters of the city enter the assembly, the eye affects the heart ; stirs, diverts, kindles the heart ; and the heart corrupts, stains, and transmits its folUes by the eye ; the precious soul meanwhile suffering between them, and the holy God and his services being wofully slighted. You resolve in this duty, I will not swerve from God, nor step aside into the least distraction ; but you bolt the door and let your enemy in at the win- 3 26 A REMEDY FOR dow. The thoughts that are shut out at the street- door steal in at the back door, if you do not as well "make a covenant with your eyes, as keep your feet, when you enter into the house of God.'^ In this sense the woman and man also have need of the covering of a holy and constant watch, " be- cause of the angels," the wicked children of hell, that ride abroad in the air, to carry away our hearts from God. SECT. II. THE MATTER OF DISTRACTIONS. Secondly : Distractions are distinguished by the matter whereof they consist ; wliich is sometimes 1. Good. It is Satan's ambition and triumph, when he can aflront God with his own matters ; as to bring in shreds of sermons in the heat of prayer ; and long passages which you have read, to keep out material points, that you should be hearing : he will hold your husband's picture before you, while you should look on your husband's face, and at length delude you with shadows instead of sub- WANDERING THOUGHTS 27 Stance. A good thing in its nature, may become a bad thing in its use, when it is out of season. Jewels misplaced may grow worthless ; a diamond on the finger is an ornament, but in the bladder a torment ; and God dislikes his own things in the Devil's way, little less than the Devil's things themselves. As when one is playing in concert, as Mr. White remarks, if we stay on any note, while they who play the other parts go on, that which at first made excellent harmony, becomes now harsh, and spoils the music : so those thoughts that were sweet and musical, while they were suitable and pertinent to thy prayer, become harsh by dwelling unseason- ably upon them. 2. Sometimes our wanderings are made up of things indifferent in themselves; and these things by mis-timing them, are debauched, and made very evil and offensive unto God. As to talk with, or to see a friend, is in itself indifferent ; but to perform this in the heat of harvest may be folly. There are a hundred harmless thoughts both of things and persons, which crowding into the sacred presence of God, and interposing "be- tween the soul and its Maker, while the matters of 28 A REMEDY FOR eternity are debating and concluding, are a great offence, and deserve to be whipped, and posted and sent away. 3. The matter of them sometimes is absolutely bad, proud, wanton, malicious thoughts : blasphe- mous thoughts, as whether God is, when we are praying to him, and the like. Able to sink us at any time, but sins of a double dye in the worship of God ; because there the special and piercing eye of God is upon us : as theft therefore is penal in all places, by reason of its intrinsic evil, much more criminal is it before a judge in the court : even so are these thoughts guilty and base any where, but when they shall dare to intrude into the presence of the Judge of Heaven and Earth, as it were daring a jealous God, this is prodigious sin and greatly provokes him. So " They come unto me as the people cometh, and they sit before me as my people ; with their mouths they show much love, but their heart goeth after their covetous- ness." Ezek. xxxiii. 31. What more sweet than a religious mouth ? What more bitter than a cove- tous heart ? Especially when the heart goeth out after covetousness, pursues and follows it in the sight of God. Oh, dreadful ! God is pursuing and WANDERING THOUGHTS. 2flf following the sinner with Christ and mercy in his arms, and the sinner the while, with his very heart, is going after sin. And thus that house which God calls "the house of prayer," we make a den of lust, malice, covetousness, and sin. SECT. III. THE ADJUNCTS OF DISTRACTIONS. Thirdly: Distractions are distinguished by their adjuncts. For, 1. Some are sudden. As the church, " Or ever I was aware, my soul made me like the chariots of Amminadab," Cant. vi. 12 ; and happy is that soul that is so sweetly and suddenly carried after Jesus Christ. So sometimes our treacherous soul, before we know or are aware of it, makes us like those hasty chariots ; which misery comes about through want of watchfulness, which like a porter should keep the door, and turn all stragglers aw^ay. A thought is a sudden motion, and by it we may quickly step into heaven or hell ; now these thoughts do steal in so suddenly, that we fall to 3* 30 A REMEDY FOR muse how they came in, by what door they entered, and so are entangled in more distractions by tracing the former, and commit new errors by dis- covering the old. But now other wanderings are more premedi- tated, and whereinto the soul falls more leisurely, and wallows therein, either of choice, or without much interruption ; and these have much more guilt and mischief in them. 2. Some distractions are umvilling.* When the heart like a good archer aims directly at com- munion with the Lord, Satan or his corruptions jog him at the elbow, and make him miss the mark. This indeed is a sad disappointment, for a noble soul to embrace the dunghill, instead of the Sun of Rio-hteousness ; for a man to loose those sweet words and minutes which might be had with God ; it is a sad mischance indeed, but which is common with man, wherein if the soul cry out as the forced * Of these Mr. Capcl speaks thus : While thy prayer comes out of a spiritual habit of grace, and is set on work at first by an actual intention of the mind, a virtual intention may serve all along after, though there bu some roving thoughts; I say, may bcrvc to make them current at the ihronc of jirace, and in the court of conscience. WANDERING THOUGHTS. 31 virgin, Deut. xxii. 27, it shall not be imputed to her, especially when there was neither previous pro- vocation, nor subsequent consent. And this is the case of blasphemous thoughts, which are like lightning cast into a room, that carries horror, but springs from no cause thereof in the room-; so these thoughts come in upon thee, amaze and ter- rify, surprise thee against thy w ill : but be of good comfort, neither leave off thy duties ; for thy pray- ers will do thee more good than these can do thee harm, nor hasten from them to gratify Satan ; for if God be not able to protect thee in the discharge of thy duty, it is time to think of another master ; but complain of Satan to God, parley not with them, but divert thy thoughts, and cry to that God the more, whom he tempts thee to blaspheme. But others are ivilling distractions, which are the ordinary effect of an unspiritual and uprepared heart : to such a heart the whole duty is a distrac- tion ; when a vain and earthly soul, like a truant scholar, keeps out of his master's sight from choice, and with content, and is any where better than at his lesson ; what little rest would such a soul find in heaven? or what true delight can he take in the most holy presence of God above, that 32 A REMEDV FOR can find no rest and sweetness in his presence below ? 3. Again, some distractions are long, and do consist of a concatenation of vain thoughts, when they do lodge in the heart. The Lord still calling at the door, and saying, "How long shall vain thoughts lodge within thee?" These do much alter the complexion of the soul, and argue too deep a habit of vanity therein. It is a true saying, Though we cannot hinder the birds from flying over our heads, yet we may disturb their roosting or making nests in our hair. So, though we can- not well hinder the sudden suggestion of a vani thought, yet we may trouble its quiet resting in the soul. Yet such strange subtlety is there in us, that we can keep God absent from our hearts a long time, yea, even when we are employed in a prayer, and be tampering with the world or sin all the while, the soul never coming in till the amen of a prayer do awaken us. But other distractions are but sJiort, only a step out of the way, and in again, and the soul catcheth the faster hold of God. And, indeed, when the soul doth follow hard after God, as every one should do in his service, though it stumble, as it WANDERING THOUGHTS. 33 often happens to the most earnest in the way, yet it recovers to its advantage, being more zealous after ; the fall of the former being Uke that of the swine, who lies still in her mire ; the fall of the latter, like the sheep that falling riseth, and runs the faster. And thus you have seen the several kinds of dis- tractions, which was the second general head, 34 A REMEDY FOR CHAPTER III. TO ATTEISD ON THE LORD WITHOUT DISTRACTION IS OUR DUTY. SECTION I. THE POSSIBILITY OF IT. In the third place I shall prove, that to attend upon the Lord without distraction is our duty which will clearly follow by demonstrating, 1. The possibility of it ; 2. The necessity of it. First, It is possible thus to serve our God. The sluggard, it is true, finds a lion in his way to every duty, and nothing is possible, because nothing is welcome. — There is no duty so easy, but it is dif- ficult to the negligent ; none so hard, but it is easy through divine grace to the diligent. Perfection herein I assert not ; but that we may attain it in the substance and sincerity thereof, is proved : 1 . From the precept of God. The wise and merciful God commands nothing, but he finds or WANDERING THOUGHTS. 35 makes it possible ; his commands are not snares, but rules, yea and helps. When a master com- mands, power and assistance wait not on his com- mands ; the servant's strength must perform the master's will : but here are the commands of a father, which when they outstrip his child's strength, are still accompanied with his own assistance ; and the chair which the weak child cannot bring in, he helps to fetch himself. Now behold the divine precept, " Serve liim in truth with all your heart." 1 Sam. xii. 24. What truth is there, while we ap- pear to serve the Lord, and indeed do not think upon him at ail ! Or how is that with all the heart, while there is not half, nor any thereof many times ! While we can pray, and plot, and think, and look, and begin our devotion only at the end of the duty. Our merciful Father will not impose an impractica- ble law upon us. It may by accident become im- possible, but it is not so in itself. 2. In regard of the power of God it is possible. Ours is the duty, but his is the strength. God and his servant can do any thing. When you look on a hard task, and your heart fails you, raise your eye of faith, and you will find God the strength of your heart ; " I can do all things through Christ that 36 A REMEDY FOR strengthened me," Phil. iv. 13 : lo, here the omni- potency of a worm ! If all things, that is all my duty, then this among the rest. But you will say, This was an apostle, a person of great strength and grace : yet still the acts were from the man, but the strength was from Christ; for the same person saith, " Not that we are sufficient of our- selves to think any thing as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God." 2 Cor. iii. 6. Who, though he be at the same time terrible out of his holy places, and darts his curses on them that do his work negligently, yet " the God of Israel is he that giveth strength and power to his people, blessed be God." Psal. Ixviii. 35. He gives, that is, he is ready to give it out ; but, alas ! his stock hes almost dead by him ; and i^ew sue to him in good earnest. His power is at your service, and there- fore serve yourselves of it. 3. In regard o£the 'promises of God, this is pos- sible. To every command there is a promise.* The command finds us work, the promise finds us strength. As to this, some think that clause in our + Compare Dcut, x. J6, with chap, x^x, 6; and so 1 John, ji. 27, 28. WANDERING THOUGHTS. 37 magna charta, Ezek. xi. 19, of one heart, is in- tended this way ; wherein the Lord promiseth an united heart to his servants. A hypocrite hath more hearts than one ; a heart for his pleasures, a heart for his pride, here and there his affections are stragghng; now saith God I will give one heart. There is another promise, " I will put my fear into their hearts, that they shall not depart from me ;" Jer. xxxii. 40 ; neither in whole nor in part, unless the fault be in yourselves. Now these promises are amen in Christ, and do belong to every soul that is in Christ, who may claim and have the benefit of them. 4. Add hereunto the experience of many ser- vants of God, who by a habit of holy watchfulness, have attained to considerable strength against these wanderings. Hope of relief makes many complain of their distractions, when fear of pride hinders them from divulging their attainments ; and that which by the grace of God is possible for others, with the same grace is possible for you. 4 38 A REMEDY FOR SECT. II. THE NECESSITY OF IT. Secondly, it is necessary, and therefore no doubt our duty, to attend on God without distrac- tions. It not only may be done, but must be done. You will say, they are happy that can do it, but they may be safe enough that cannot ; thus the heart and substance of religion is counted a high attainment but not a duty. I shall show therefore that this soul-attendance on the Lord is necessary. 1. It is necessary to the essence or being of the duty. As the soul is necessary to the being of a man, the body is no man, but a corpse without it i even so a solemn duty with a wandering heart, is but a corpse of a duty. " Let us hft up our hearts with our hands to God in the heavens." Lam. iii. 41. The elevation of the hands signifies nothing, without lifting up the heart with them. If prayer be the lifting up of the heart, what arc words with- out the heart? A man may spend the same time and the samn words in a serious and in a heartless WANDERING THOUGHTS. 39 duty, and yet the latter stand for nothing tor want of intenseness and attention. " There is none that calleth on thy name because none stirreth up him- self to take hold on thee." Isaiah Ixiv. 7. If a man come to the service of God, and do not excite and stir up his soul to exercise grace, as a man will blow a dull fire, his faith, zeal, and humility ; if he do not blow them up, but suffer his heart to run at random, the holy God counts all the rest as a cypher without a figure, it stands for nothing. 2. // is necessary to comfort in the duty. The service of God is a sweet pot of ointment of a most refreshing odour; the gracious soul is refreshed therein as a bed of spices. Distractions are the dead flies, Eccles. x. 1, which dropping into this sweet ointment, cause it to send forth a noisome smell, displeasing to God and unpleasing to the soul. Where can the soul be better than with God? what sweeter company than that which angels keep, or pleasanter employment than con- versing in heaven ? But wandering thoughts arise, and like a black cloud quite hide the sweet beams of that Sun of Righteousness from the soul, and then your comfort is gone. The sweetness of music consists in its harmony; when the strings 40 A REMEDY FOR are out of tune, or untunably touched, it is but a harsh sound, there is no music : wandering thoughts are hke strings out of tune, there is no music in that duty, the Holy Ghost goes away and hkes it not ; and the soul likes it not, is weary of it ; there is no sweetness in that duty. It is a tried maxim, The more seriousness, the more sweetness; the nearer to God, the warmer and merrier is the soul, which inward comfort is some reward to the heart of a christian, when his particular suit is denied ; so that " in keeping of God's commandments there is a great reward." The choicest of the Spirit's seahng comforts are bestowed in the lively service of God. 3. It is necessary to the prosperity of a duty. *' If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." Psal. Ixvi. 8. In God's service the soul should be regarding God alone. If I regard a corruption, instead of Christ, if when some vain object presents itself, I turn my back on God to treat with vanity, the Lord will not hear me, nor regard me. We read of the holy Hannah, that " she spake in her heart, only her lips moved not, her voice was not heard;" 1 Sam. i. 13; yet this wordless prayer did the business ; lip-labour, if no WANDERING THOUGHTS. 41 more, is but lost labour. The earnestness and labouring of the heart prevails. The Lord our God hath a book of remembrance for them that think on his name, while he turns the deaf ear to them that cry, Lord, Lord, and do not inwardly adore him. In short, thus saith the Lord God, " Every man," child or not child, " that setteth up his idols in his heart, and cometh to the pro- phet," or sits demurely before the preacher, "I the Lord will answer him that cometh, according to the multitude of his idols." Ezek. xiv. 4. He that sets his heart on vanity, vanity shall be his recompense ; if he will not affect his own heart, he shall never affect mine. * He that withdraws his heart in asking, will find the Lord to withdraw his hand in giving what he asks. 4. It is necessmnj to communion luilh Jesus Christ in a duty. Which, though it be a paradox to unregenerate men, is the very business and next end of the worship of God ; which, if you lose, that duty is lost. Jesus Christ calls, *' my dove, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice ; for sweet is thy voice, and thy coun- * As long an Moses held up his hand Israel prevailed, and iio longer. 4* 42 A REMEDY FOR tenance is comely." Cant. ii. 14. Now if, when he ^vaits thus to be gracious, you wait not for his grace, nor watch for the blessed appearances of the Holy Ghost, you will lose that happiness, you will lose your labour, and at length your souls. How are you troubled, if you are abroad when some good customer comes to your shop : it troubles you when that is bestowed on another which was intended for you. sirs, the Spirit of God is a good customer, and when he comes and you are away, you are absent to your loss ; and therefore keep at home the next time. How unmannerly would it be for the subject to knock at his prince's chamber, and, knowing he is within, and waits for him, step away about some frivolous trifle when he hath done? The prince appears, opens his royal door, and calls ; but the foolish man is gone. How fairly may he shut his door against such a guest, and make him wait in attendance long before he sees his face? Ah, how seldom do we see the face of God in an ordinance, or much endeavour to do so ! " My soul followeth hard after thee," or, as in the He- brew, " is glued to thee." — Psal. Ixiii. 8. That soul, and that alone, that follows hard after God, WANDERING THOUGHTS. 43 by the earnest intenseness of zeal and love, and which cannot be content without him, that heart shall cleave to him, and have rare communion with him. Thus you may plainly see, that to attend upon the Lord without distraction is a duty, which was the third point to be handled. 44 A REMEDY FOK CHAPTER IV. REASONS WHY WE OUGHT TO ATTEND ON THE LORD WITHOUT DISTRACTION. SECTION I. FROM THE NATURE OF GOD. The fourth point is to show the reasons for the doctrine and duty of attending on the Lord without distraction. And they are drawn, 1. From the nature of God. 2. From the nature of his wor- ship. 3. From the nature of our condition. 4. From the nature of distractions. The first reason is taken from the nature of God, each of his attributes plead for this, espe- cially. 1. TJie greatness of God. The greater the per- sonage, the greater the reverence, and the more solemn your attendance should be. Hence, Elihu cries, " Teach us what wc shall say to him, for WANDERING THOUGHTS. 46 we cannot order our speech by reason of dark- ness." — Job xxxvii. 19. It is a bold adventure to speak to him, what is it then to trifle with him ? wilt thou speak to God, nay pray to God, and not so much as look that way when thou speakest to him? This is to put on him the robes and. title of a king, and use him like a slave. A prince may converse with two or three of liis servants at a time ; but it is impudent for a servant to talk to two or three princes at a time. The great Jehovah can speak with tliee, and a thousand more, and do all your errands at a time : but, alas, thou art too poor a worm to entertain the great Jehovah and other matters at once. We are his creatures. " Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker." — Isa. xlv. 11. If a servant must not be frivolous before his master, when he is receiving his commands, who dares be so before his Maker, who can as easily reward or ruin us, as I can turn over a leaf in this Bible? This he himself gives for the reason of that dread- ful curse upon the " deceiver, that having a male in his flock, offers to God a corrupt thing. For I am a great king saith the Lord of hosts, and my name is dreadful amonji the heathen." — Mai. i. 46 A REMEDY FOR 14. Which of you will be thinking of your wives, or children, or business, when you are offering a petition to a great king, or run after feathers, when he is speaking his mind to you? Thou takest God to be such a one as thyself, or else thou wouldest never do it. Remember a great God must be worshipped with ])rofound veneration, and the most serious affections. A man must wor- ship God, as if he were in heaven ; oh ! if thou wert there among those myriads of saints and angels, with what care, and humility, and earnest- ness, wouldest thou pour out thy heart to him, or hear his words to thee. 2. The holiness of God is another reason, who is so sacred, that an unholy thought is abomina- tion to him ; most especially in his holy service. Who can by an eye of faith behold the "Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up, and his train filling the temple, and the seraphim crying one to another, and saying. Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts," Isa. vi. 1,2, and suffer his heart to be ravished away with transitory toys in such a sacred presence? Are the seraphim amazed at his holiness, and we untransported ? Their thoughts are continually terminated upon him, and WANDERING THOUCHTS. 47 shoiikl ours be always flinching from him? The holy Lord of Hosts will not allow it. If you will not sanctify him, he will sanctify himself. If you that worship him will not bear witness, by your serious attendance to his holiness, he must bear witness to it by his judgements on you ; which, indeed, are not always visible, but ever certain; not a man in the congregation but the holy God is sanctified by him, or upon him. Little do wc know what invisible dreadful effects there are of this daily in our congregations. And, if our dear Redeemer did not stand as a screen between us and his wrath, the best of us would quickly feel the e fleets of his displeasure. 3. The omniscience of God is a valid reason against distractions. " All things are naked and opened to him with whom we have to do," Heb. iv. 13 ; not only naked on the outside of us, but cut up and anatomized in the inside. That sharp and piercing eye looks through and through us, and neither doth nor can look beside us. Whither can I go from thy spirit? and whither can I flee from thy presence ? Shall the husband fix his eye on his wife, and she, meanwhile, dart her glances on her [)arauioiu-? Is this reasonable, or tolera- 48' A REMEDY FOR ble? Get out of his sight, and trifle on. Steal into some corner where he sees you not, and be truants, and spare not. Be but an eye- servant to God, and we will ask no more. Be serious while he sees you ; dally not while he holds you the candle. A curious eye requires a careful servant. Object. But this is spoken with great freedom. I see no one but the minister and the people ; see- ing is believing : I know no one that seeth me. Ans7v. 1. No more dost thou see that faculty by which thou seest. Is there, therefore, no such faculty? Are there no spirits, because thou never sawest them? When did you see the wind? and yet you doubt not of it. Nay, hath not he declared to thee, what is thy thought, Amos iv. 13, in many a sermon ? 2. There is another eye by which God's pre- sence in his ordinances is seen, which thou hast not. That is an eye of faith which, if fixed in thy heart, would quickly make thee cry, " How dreadful is this place ! This is no other than the house of God, and the gate of heaven !" If an hundred credible persons affirmed they saw a great man in the congregation, you would beheve them, though not seen by you, and would conclude WANDERING THOUGHTS. 49 it your own inadvertency. Hundreds there daily are that do avouch they saw, felt, heard, embraced, the gracious presence of God, and therefore con- clude it was your bhndness, not on account of his distance, that you saw him not. SECT. II. FROM THE NATURE OF HIS WORSHIP. The second reason is taken from the nature of his worship. 1. It is reasonable worship; not only conso- nant to the rules of reason, and backed by the most rational principles, but must be managed as a rational act. Now it is a most irrational thing to converse with God without a heart ; this is a silly thing, as " Ephraim is called a silly dove, without heart." Hos. vii. 11. A dove without spirit, and a silly dove without reason or judgement. God had rather hear the roaring of a Hon, than a heart- less prayer; he delights more in the chirping of birds, than in singing of psalms without under- standing ; for these do what they can, and so are 5 60 A REMEDY FOR accepted; but brutish service from a reasonable creature is intolerable. Is it* reasonable that you should cry out for the Spirit, and think on the flesh? be hearing about another world, and ru- minating on this? your eyes directed to heaven, and your heart in the ends of the earth ? the tongue busy, and the soul idle ? the knee devout, and the thoughts loose? there is no coherence, no reason in this. When ye work, work ; and when ye pray, pray ; and do it with understanding. " What is it then! I will pray with the spirit, and will pray with the understanding also ; I will sing with the spirit, and will sing with the understanding also." 1 Cor. xiv. 15. Consider, that else thou art as a madman before God, and God hath no need of madmen ; if one should come to thee about business of life and death, and after a word or two therein should run from one impertinent thing to another, would you not think him mad ? If thy thoughts were put into * The Egj-ptians chose among all fruits the peach to offer to their gods, because the fruit is like a man's lieart, the leaf like hia tongue; the heart and tongue should go to- gether. WANDERING THOUGHTS. 51 words and mingled with thy prayers, what strange mad prayers would they be ? 2. It is spiritual icorship, and therefore you may not be distracted in it. " The true worship- pers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship him." Job iv. 23, 24. Others may seek to worship the Father, but the Father seeketh such to worship him who worship in spirit and in truth ; in spirit, and so not like the formal Jews; in truth, and so not like the ignorant gentiles. And then, verse 24, "God is a spirit, and must be worshipped." Here is must and shall, and reason for it. As a spirit can do nothing at eating, so a carcass can do nothing at praying. The most elegant tongues on earth cannot make one effort at prayer; no, the soul must be in it, and the soul must be busy too. If we had only an idol to serve, the body were enough ; but God is a spirit, and camiot be conversed with without the spirit, yea, and the whole spirit also. Fond man, that thinks with his narrow soul to deal with God and somewhat else, who alone is immense, and beyond our great- est capacity ! He must be taken up, and go out of the world in a sense, that will get into heaven. 52 A REMEDY FOR The soul on the hp, and the soul in the ear, do perform work in the service of God. 3. It is siveet work. " Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord." Psal. cxxxviii. 5. Mark, shall sing: — their spirits shall neither droop nor step aside. He that attends on the Lord hath a most sweet employment; now the mind useth not to object to delightful music, or to dislike an enchanting song. the gracious presence of God ! his sweet smiles ! and blessed love-tokens, that can tran- sport angels, sure they may engage the heart of man, and sufficiently fill it. Read the Canticles, and say then, Is not con- verse with God a heaven upon earth? and how far is heaven from distracted thoughts? Sad and severe things afflict the mind ; it would flit from such subjects, but sweet employment engages all the heart ; next to dwelling in heaven, is the soul flying to heaven in an ordinance ; our driest duties yield us least comfort ; the nearer the sun the warmer. More close to God more sweet you will find him, and never more "joyful than in the house of prayer." WANDERING THOUGHTS. 53 SECT. III. FROM THE NATURE OF OUR CONDITION. The third reason is taken from the nature of our condition, and that is this : 1. We cannot live without God. In him we live as to our natural hfe; every breath is fetched from him ; so in our spiritual life, the life of the soul is He who made it. A world without a sun is dark ; a body without a soul is dead ; but a soul without God is dark, is dead, is damned. It is true, men feed, and sing, and exist without God in the world, but he that lives truly, lives by faith ; the other life beasts live ; they eat, and drink, and Avork, but know not God ; but if you will define the life of a soul, God must be in the beginning, in the midst, and in the end of it. 3. Our only umy of communion iviih God is in an ordinance. This is the river, the streams whereof make glad the heart. Were a city be- sieged by mortal enemies round about, and no re- lief to be conveyed but by the river that waters it, how fatal to the inhabitants would the stopping of 64 A REMEDY FOR that river be ; that city must starve or yield ; the ordinary supphes that a Christian cannot be with- out, come swimming down from heaven through the ordinances of God ; distractions stop the river, hinder prayer from ascending to God, prevent in- struction from descending into the heart, intercept commerce and starve the soul. The zeal of the Jews was eminent this way, of whom Josephus relates, that when Pompey's soldiers shot at the thickest of them in the siege of Jerusalem, yet amidst those arrows did they go and perform their rites, as though there had been peace. Why, thy prayer is thy ambassador ; distractions cut off the feet, and " he that sendeth a message by the hand of a fool, cutteth off the feet, and drinketh damage." Prov. xxvi. 6. A wandering prayer is a message by the hand of a fool, and that man is like to drink damage that useth it. A man is a poor thing with- out God, and God is not ordinarily met with but in an ordinance. 3. Ml our strength and heart is too little for this business. All our understanding too little to apprehend his rare perfections ; all our affections too weak and shallow to love, embrace, and de- light in him; hence we are obliged to love and WANDERING THOUGHTS. 65 SO to serve the Lord our God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our strength. Mark xii. 33. That is with every faculty of the soul, and with the utmost strength of every faculty. Now if it be hard enough to climb the hill unto God with wings, how shall we ascend with these weights about us, or think to please with half a heart, when the whole is too little? for "he is a great King, and his name is dreadful among the heathen ;" when all the water in the pool will but turn the mill, that miller is very foolish who by twenty channels lets out the water otherways. The intense and earnest heart is little enough to converse with God, all the water in our pool will but turn the mill. What then can the negligent heart bring to pass, and how unlikely are we to obtain with the great God with the negligeijt ap- proaches of a trivial spirit, with only a part of a little heart? 66 A REMEDY FOR SECT. IV. FROM THE NATURE OF DISTRACTIONS. The fourth reason is taken from the nature of distractions. 1. They divide the heart and disable it wholly. Now a divided heart can do nothing at all ; " their heart is divided, now shall they be found faulty." Hos. X. 2. If one heart divided from another make a fault, much more faulty is one heart di- vided within itself. Hence it comes to pass that Satan offers, as the false mother did about the living child : " Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it." 1 Kings iii. 26. If he cannot block your way to the presence of God, and make good his claim to the living child, as she would have done, then, with might and main, he promotes all imaginable diversions to part the soul, and cries. Lord, let it be neither thine nor mine, but divide it ; well knowing, that as the child, so the heart while entire is a living and lively heart, but divide it and destroy it; as he that runs at once after two hares, catches neither, so the pursuit of two WANDERING THOUGHTS. . 57 objects at once spoils both. He that thhiks to treat the Creator and the creature at the same time, enjoys neither of them ; and thus the vain heart of man by overdoing, undoes itself, and reaching at two matters, spoils them both. 2. These distractions frustrate the ordinance, and cause the great name of God to be taken m vain. Instead of forcing the heavens, these do but beat the air, and cannot reach the heart of God, because they never reach your own. And this is one of the follies of a roving heart, that it consumes as much time in a senseless as in a se- rious duty, and yet doth nothing in it, brings no- thing to pass. And so the holy God stands over the heedless sinner with Job's words, "When shall vain words have an end?" Job xvi. 3. I am weary with this tinkling cymbal ; either pray in earnest, or pray not at all ; hear in earnest, or hear not at all ; as good not at all as never the better. The service of God requires a man, not a shadow; yea, all a man, and more than a man, our spirits and God's spirit also. Those that tremble at the profane man's taking God's name in vain, should make a conscience, lest they do it themselves, 58 A REMEDY FOR lest they be damned for their oaths, and you for your prayers ; because you wrong God's majesty under the pretence of serving him, and so affront him with more solemnity. 3. They contract more sin upon the soul. We read " that Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire be- fore the Lord." Levit. x. 1. And the Lord took it in high displeasure, " and with strange fire consumed them." Sins of ordinances are often extraordinary sins ; as sacrilege is a greater sin than plain theft, be- cause it is a purloining of what is consecrated; so a sin in worship hath this aggravation, and that it is in a place, and presence, and business, that is set apart for communion with God. Hence it comes to pass, that many of God's children have had grievous pangs and terror of conscience on their death-bed for ordinance sins. He that should be cleansing himself from his sins, and instead of that increases them, makes his sin exceeding sinful. Oh, what need then have we to pray, " Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity, and quicken thou me in thy way." Psal. cxix. 39. WANDERING THOUGHTS. 59 And these are some of the reasons that confirm and enforce this practical doctrine, that we should " attend upon the Lord without distractions," and so you have the fourth general head. 60 A REMEDY FOR CHAPTER V. OBJECTIONS ANSWERED, SECTION I. ITS IMPOSSIBILITY. But because there is no duty so clear that our sinful hearts will embrace, if any show of contra- diction can be produced, I shall wipe away all pos- sible objections against this duty, which is the fifth general head to be handled. Object 1. It is impossible thus to attend on God without distractions. Such is the variety of ob- jects, such the imbecility of our nature, such the weakness of our graces, such the suddenness and swiftness of a thought, that none but angels can do this. You press that which is impractica- ble ; it can never be. Jlnsw. 1. Though this objection hath been re- plied to before, yet seeing it recurs again, I answer, 1. Perfection herein is impossible in this life; not but that a prayer or other ordinance may be WANDERIiNG THOUGHTS. 61 attended with that intenseness, as to exchide every wandering thought that would step in ; but to be perfectly free in every duty from them, is rather to be wished than hoped for in this hfe. That an- gehc perfection is reserved for heaven ; this evan- geUcal perfection may be here attained, which is the prevalence of grace against them : and not only a will, but a watch and an endeavour to be utterly rid of them. 2. And in this sense, there is no divine precept impossible : though our Lord Jesus saith, " With* out me ye can do nothing," John xv. 5, yet the apostle asserts, " I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me." Phil. iv. 13. If all things, then why not this? though it were impossible in itself, yet is it possible with God's help ; we are prone to think that we can compass easy things by our own strength, and that difficult things are too hard for God. Have you ever tried to the utmost what God and you can do? could not you have heard a sermon better if a naked sword had been suspended by a single hair over your bare heads ; and have prayed more cordially if you had seen every word you uttered, written down by the hand of God ? The same circumspection that keeps a 6 62 A REMEDY FOR distraction out of one sentence, might, were you faithful therein, keep it out of two, or ten, or twenty ; and he that can be temperate for a day, might be temperate every day, if he did his best. 3. It is a mixture of cowardice and sloth which makes its impossible. It is an argument of a sloth- ful heart to say, " There is a lion in the way, there is a lion in the streets," Prov. xxvi. 13 ; yet if there were a lion in the way to heaven, thou must rather run upon him than run from God. There is a more powerful lion will meet you in the way to hell. No, no ; it is not the danger without, but the dulness and slothfulness within, that creates the impossi- bility. How many hundreds out of fearfulness and idleness, have restrained prayer before God ; till being soundly awakened they set about prayer, and found it both pleasing and delightful ? Reli- gion, in the power of it, is a work of pains. If you will not make an effort for heaven, you can never have it ; try but the next duty with your best dili- gence, and you shall find that possible to the power of grace, which appears impossible to the strength of nature. WANDERING THOUGHTS. 63 SECT. II. ITS DIFFICULTY. Object. 2. It is difficult : if it be not impossible, yet it is very hard, it is a lesson for the upper class in the school of Jesus Christ. We weaker scholars need not attempt it, because we cannot attain it ; as well may we sit still, as rise up and fall. This is too hard for us. Jlnsw. 1. This argues the excellency of it ; the more hard the more honourable, and therefore this should rather increase than lessen thy courage. If you except all hard points out of the practice of piety, you will leave but few to be practised ; it is the idle scholar who skips over the hardest words of his lesson, but the rod must fetch him back unto them : neither must you expect that God will take any notice of your easy duties, if you turn off the hard ; he could have servants enough to do his easy work, but religion must go all together, and almost Christianity will not serve any good pur- pose. 2. The way to heaven is hard, and this you were 64 A REMEDY FOR told at first: "because strait is the gate and nar- row is the way that leadeth unto hfe." Matt. vii. 14. If you Hke it not, let it alone, but take care that you exchange for the better. To get a king- dom is not easy, though it is easy to lose one. Who gets a race without running,- or victory without bleeding, or heaven without striving 1 Hence Mr. Latimer said to one that objected against the duty he was pressing, which was that landlords should send for their tenants and end differences among them ; that this were a good work indeed, but mar- vellously hard. " 0," said he, " my friend, it is a hard matter to be a Christian. Heaven was never gotten yet without violence, and there is no new way found of coming there. But if Christ Jesus had not done harder work than this for thee, thou couldest never have come there." 3. And is there no hardship in attending upon sin 1 Is it an easy thing to serve the devil ? Wise Solomon saith, " the way of transgressors is hard." Prov. xiii. 15. Our love to it blinds our eyes, or else he performs a hard service that gives atten- dance on any sin. The lascivious man swallows many difficulties, perhaps weeks and months together, to continue the pleasure of an hour. WANDERING THOUGHTS. 66 How many dark nights doth the drunkard walk, and hard words endure, and hard sacrifices make, to feed that senseless lust ? Who would digest the life of a covetous worldling ? Hard fare, hard work, hard journeys, for what may be consumed in two hours ; to say nothing of the life of the envious, the ambitious, the malicious men, whose daily bread is mingled not only with sweet, but gall and bitterness ; and yet who hears them complain of difficulty, or throw off their designs for hardness 1 And is it not far better to conquer difficulties for heaven than hell, and venture upon hardship for Christ and thine own soul, than for Satan and thy damnation ? especially when love to the service of God would make this yoke as easy, as the labour of transgressors is to them. 4. Though it be hard to keep off these distrac- tions, yet it is necessary, and it must be done. Good Mary would not by any business be dis- tracted in her attendance on Christ, and resolves therein, that she did the " one needful thing." Luke X. 42. Poor men find it hard to work six days together, but there being a necessity for it, there is no excuse ; they could find twenty put ofTs, but it must be done, work or starve. We 6* 66 A REMEDY FOR have the same dilemma:, pray or perish ; and that is not half a prayer that is filled with distractions. 5. Though it be hard, yet it is sweet ; " her ways are ways of pleasantness," Pro v. iii. 17, and this is one of them. You may ever observe the more wandering the heart, the more wearisome the duty ; a divided heart can taste but partial com- fort ; and fulness of joy follows, where the full bent of the soul goes before. Our common ex- perience tells us, what peace, what joy, what confidence, what suavity, fills the heart, when we have, though with some difl5culty, approached the Lord, enjoyed him, and attended on him without distraction. What is more hard to the brain and the body than study ? for labour, a scholar would choose the plough before it ; the brain, the back, the heart and spirits are pained and spent ; yet no employment so sweet ; the mind, and brain and heart refreshed ; and a good scholar would hardly exchange employments with a prince ; so sweet, so ravishing is this hard employment. Even so it is with prayer or any holy ordinance ; the sweet- ness of a watchful serious frame, doth fully com- pensate for the difficulty thereof. 6. Custom and practice will make it much WANDERING THOUGHTS. 67 easier. He that executes the law on vagrants, though at iirst he were pestered with them, will after a while with ease be delivered of them : so that resolved christian, who keeps up his watch and ward awhile, shall find it each day easier than the former one, to attend on God without these vagrant thoughts. Use and custom make the hardest things easy. As a wise man that converses in the midst of his observing enemies, by use is inured to all caution, and can easily avoid all dan- gerous words or behaviour ; though it be hard, he is used to it ; so practice will wonderfully facilitate this hard duty. You once thought it impossible for you to pray, but practice hath made you per- fect. The same spirit, by the same help, can and will perfect you in this. This is one of those infirmities which the spirit of God will help. SECT. III. THE COMMONNESS OF DISTRACTIONS. Object. 3. The commonness of these distiac- tions ; no man but is lull of them, all seriou:: 68 A REMEDY FOR christians complain of them. What is so common cannot be very evil ; these vanities that every one hath, I cannot expect to be without, and therefore must be content. Answ, 1. This must be answered with grief. Every man is full of them, and every good man is sick with them. If every man's body were gone after his soul, this would sometimes be an empty congregation. Every solemn look hath not a serious heart, and there are but few that make a business of prayer ; and this is a lamentable thing, that we can hold discourse with man, or crave a kindness, or drive a bargain without a wandering thought ; till our face be set towards God, and that we begin a duty of worship, and then or ever we are aware, our soul is slipt off her chariot wheels, and our sight of God is lost. 2. And yet some watchful christians, as we observed before, have got a good riddance of them ; to accuse others is a poor excuse to you. As their humility teaches them to complain of the worst, so your charity should cause you to think the best ; no doubt they that are sick of them, do by degrees get remedies against them, and grow better. WANDERING THOUGHTS. 69 3. By this plea all sins might be justified ; thus swearing might be advanced before praying, for it is more common than prayers ; revenge is more common than forgiveness, but this is no excuse for it. He that will do as the most do, must go whither the most go ; " thou shall not follow a multitude to do evil," Exod. xxiii. 2 ; no, nor to think evil. If thou wilt be Christ's disciple, thou must be serious and attentive, though the whole congregation trifle. True sanctity is not grounded on men's practice but on God's precept. Make no apologies but such as you can plead before the face of God. What a poor plea will it be to say, I was drunk for company, I wandered from God for company. Alas, if thou gO€st to hell for company, that will be no mitigation of your pain, nor an extenuation of your crime. If many displease the Lord, you have more need to please him ; if many play, you have more need to work ; and rather choose to be saved with a few, than be damned with a crowd. 4. In such an universal loitering, thy care will be more acceptable ; loyalty is doubly valued and rewarded, where rebellion is general ; and one dutiful child is cherished among many disobedient. " To this man will I look, to him that is of a poor 70 A REMEDY FOR and contrite heart, and who trembleth at my word." Isaiah Ixvi. 2. The great Jehovah there overlooks heaven and earth, and the house of his rest, to fix his blessed eye on this man or woman, that when he comes to a sermon doth not, dare not trifle, but trembles at his word, and that feels every sentence at his heart. When great men come into the congregation, then men look; but when the poor trembling hearer comes in, then God looks. The angels gaze at such guests, more than vain people do at silks and fashions. Oh it is a rare sight to see a christian in earnest, to behold a humble man converse with God ; the hosts of heaven rise up, and are attracted by it. If therefore it be so common to be distracted in duties, do thou disdain to be in the common fashion, but get quickly into the mode of heaven. SECT. IV. god's accepting the will for the deed. Object. 4. God will accept the will for the deed. I would be free from these temptations, but in this WANDERING THOUGHTS. 71 life I cannot, and therefore shall sit down content. God is merciful, though you are strict. And he hath said, " If there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not." 2 Cor. viii. 12. Ansiv. 1. This axiom and scripture were never intended as a pillow for the lazy, but as a support to the weary ; not to exempt us from our duty, but to comfort us under our weakness. What parent will accept this answer from a negligent child ? or what master will be content with this excuse from a slothful servant 1 Offer it now to your governor, and imagine not that will pass with God, which would be counted a mockery with men. 2. God never accepts the will for the deed, when the deed may be done ; yea, and so for as the deed can be done, the will without it is but a mockery unto God. But wherein an upright heart hath done its utmost in the use of all means, and would do more, this will is accepted for the deed, even as if thou hadst perfectly obeyed : and so that scripture cited is express in the case of charity ; " It is accepted according to that a man hath." So that a man must give according to that he hath, or else his willing mind stands for 72 A REMEDY FOR nothing. Now have you done your utmost against distractions? can you do no more? If death stood at the end of the duty, you could double your watch ! Plead not this till you have done your best. 3. It is far from the quality of grace, to sit down content in any defect or sin, or to vouch the mercy of God to secure the soul in any transgres- sion : who when he is dressed in his garments of mercy, "Yet will not by any means clear the guilty." Exod. xxiv. 7. No, it is the genius of true grace, though it fall still upon him, and cry out and roar under those diseases that are in- curable. After the Apostle had told us, " The good I would, I do not, but the evil that I would not, that I do," Rom. vii. 19, he lies not down, and resolves to let it run, but fights and strives, and cries, " wretched man that I am," verse 24. If thou once sit down, be content, and say, I will strive no more, thou givest the field, the Spirit withdraws with grief, and Satan approaches thee with triumph. 4. The great Jehovah is so far from being content with such a frame, that he hath plainlv " cursed all such as do the work of tlie I^ord I WANDERING THOUGHTS. 73 negligently, or deceitfully." Jer. xlviii. 10. Though you neglect not the work of the Lord, yet if you do it negligently, you are in danger of the curse. Every distraction is a neglect; in each wandering you deal deceitfully with God ; and for every one of these in a duty, God's law pro- nounceth a curse. And is the divine curse a small thing with you? Who could digest a hundred curses, though pronounced at your door by a pro- voked neighbour] O how much more intolerable is it, to be obnoxious to a hundred curses from heaven, justly deserved, and infallibly inflicted, if repentance prevent not ! It is not the work of the Lord will excuse you ; Nadab shall perish with his strange fire, as well as if he had offered nothing at all. Take heed of forgiving yourselves, when God forgives you not : a negligent duty is abom- ination to God. And thus you have the most material objections answered, which was the fifth point to be handled. 7 74 A REMEDY FOR CHAPTER YI. THE CAUSES OF DISTRACTIONS, WITH THEIR REMEDIES. SECTION I. SECRET ATHEISM. We shall now proceed unto the more practical part of this subject, namely, to find out and sum up the causes of this epidemical disease, which is the sixth point to be discussed. The first cause of distraction in God's service is, secret atheism. There is an atheism of the head, an atheism of the heart, and an atheism of the life. In the first, " The fool hath said in his heart. There is no God." Psalm xiv. 1. Mark, it is not, he hath thought in his heart, but says it by rote to himself, rather as what he would have, than WANDERING THOUGHTS. 76 what he doth believe. And of him it is truly said, that the speculative atheist is the greatest monster in the world, except the practical. And our divisions in the church, by the help of our corrupt natures, have made proselytes of a considerable number to this desperate opinion : as if the dif- ferent opinions about the ebbing and flowing of the sea, should render it doubtful whether the sea did ebb and flow at all ; or the disputes about the manner of vision should call our sight itself into question. You would think it a vain conclusion to arrive at, because philosophers argue much about the sensitive and vegetative faculties of the soul, that there is no rational soul at all ; inasmuch as these very debates do argue a rational soul, by which these points are disputed. Even so it is notorious madness to conclude, from the variety and diversity of opinions about religion and go- vernment, that there is no God ; seeing you are supported by him, while you dispute and argue about him. Atheism of the heart is that whereby the fool saith " also in his heart. There is no God ;" that is, either secretly questions, or but coldly assents to the existence of God, or heartily wishes there 76 A REMEDY FOR were none at all. And it is worth observation of both these, that they are such as are obnoxious to the divine majesty by some misdemeanour. The felon wishes there were no judge at all ; yet even these are forced in some pangs to acknowledge him ; at some fright by thunder^ under some horror of conscience, or at the point of death, they are compelled to give Jehovah his due. And they also, in any sudden fright, or great extremity, usually cry to God as earnestly as others. Atheism of the life is described, — " They pro- fess that they know God, but in works they deny him." Titus i. 14. Now these latter originate from the first, and the last is most visible in our distractions : for if thou didst as verily believe God present in an ordinance, as he that sits next thee, durst thou trifle so egregiously as thou dost? The minister looks at you, and you dare not talk ; if you saw him that looks at you from heaven, you durst not wander : and therefore the more or less strong o\ir behef is of God, the more or less lively are we in our applications to him. Oh the patience of God ! that he can endure the worm to doubt of his existence, yea, practically to deny him, and not demonstrate himself by a thunderbolt! But the WANDERING THOUGHTS. 77 countryman's ignorance of the first moving cause doth not nullify it : no more doth the atheist's in- fidelity degrade the first mover, the Majesty of Heaven. " He that cometh unto God must be- lieve that he is." Heb. xi. 6. The remedy of this evil is, humbly to read the scripture, which is the most clear, certain, and convincing way to work faith herein. Prayer and the Bible have convinced more than any other arguments ; recommend me, then, to Moses, rather than Plato, for the demonstration of a Deity. All that reason can suggest, might be written by an infidel ; and more infidels have been convinced by reading and hearing the books of the christians, than christians settled by reading the books of infidels. And therefore, although holy David, Psalm xix. 1, appeals to the heavens, and the host of them, as a strong argument to declare God, and so it is ; for what reason but the hand of a God, can be rendered, that the planets being all of one matter, should have contrary motions, seeing things of the like matter have by nature like motion ? yet, laying that topic aside, he fixes upon the law of G od, verse 7, as the most perfect and sure way to demonstrate a Deity, and convert and make wise 7* 78 A REMEDY FOR the soul. Then go to God in prayer, and beg him to touch thy heart, and open thine eyes, and thou shalt quickly see him " that is not far from every one of us." SECT. II. THE CORRUPTION OF OUR NATURE. The second cause of distractions in the service of God is, the corruption of our nature ; that is, of soul and body ; so that our inward faculties do act on our outward senses, and they infect our inward faculties in this business. " Out of the heart pro- ceed vain and evil thoughts." Matt. xv. 19. They are not forced out, as sparks from a flint, but come out thence of themselves, as sparks out of a fur- nace. View the mind, and its accident is vanity ; and how can a vain mind be serious with God, without a great deal of grace 2 The heart's name is deceitful, and makes a trade of deceiving and purloining in the most solemn duties ; and when the ear receives the word as a lovely song, she runs after covetousness the while. " Now is she WANDERING THOUGHTS. 7^ without, now in the streets, and heth in wait at every corner," hke the lewd woman. Prov. vii. 11. The eye that should be fixed on heaven, is in the ends of the earth, and gathering a straggling notion from every object. The ear, by every noise, calls off the soul from its great business, thus woefully the old man is bent against the new man. " The law of the members wars against the law of the mind, and leads us into captivity to the law of sin that is in the members.'' Rom. vii. 23. When the mind itself is set in its most hearty purposes to wait on God, and offer him a faithful sacrifice, then comes in the law of the members, and either suggests within, or admits from without, some roving notions, and these lead the poor soul like that young man, " Forced with flatteries, like the ox to the slaughter, or the fool to the correc- tion of the stocks." Prov. vii. 21,22. And thus he that began in heaven, ends on earth, if not in hell. Thus the good he would do, he cannot perform. wretched man, who must lead his life with such a heart ! As if a man were tied still to shoot in a warping bow ; he settles himself in his right postures, aims directly at the white, but his warping bow still So A REMEDY FOR carries the arrow quite beside the mark, and his skill is rendered ineffectual. So the poor upright christian in a duty, orders his business and his heart, as well as ever he can, and aims at glorifying God, and getting good to his soul ; but the cor- ruption of liis nature diverts him from his purpose. This hinders the elevation of the soul, which would fix it in God's service, like one that hath a light heart, and a heavy body ; the light heart would fly, the heavy body clips her wings, and will hardly creep. Oh ! saith the soul, now will I arise, and soar into heaven ; I must, I will speak with my God : my wants are pressing, my sins increase, eternity approaches ; who will give me the wings of an eagle ? I will never live so far from God, I will hasten away. Thus this bird of paradise takes wing, when behold the stone of her corrupt nature hangs at her leg, and weighs her down : she flut- ters a little, but cannot fly, because of the heart she cannot fly. And not only dulness, but the deceitfulness cf our corrupt nature furthers our distractions. For though the heart be deceitful from the beginning to the end of the year, yet her prime and most subtle sleights are showed in tire service of God ; WANDERING THOUGHTS. 81 where she is put hard to it to manage for herself, and therefore useth her finest notions and excuses to evade the presence of God^ and the powerful influences of the Holy Ghost. Like some cunning thief, that joins hims-elf to the unwary traveller, and gives him pleasant company awhile, till at length he draws him out of the way, and takes his purse, before he is aware he is in a wood, and his money is gone. Even so the heart of man pro- fesses to be very willing to pray, or perform other duties, and goes with us awhile, but before we have proceeded twenty sentences in our work, this ** deceitful heart turns us aside, brings us to feed upon ashes," and binds up the faculties, that we " cannot deliver our souls, nor say. Is there not a lie in my right hand?" Isaiah xliv. 20. Now is it not a hell upon earth to live with such a heart, to cross a man in the midst of his greatest business, disappoint him in his highest expectations, and make him lose his labour, if not his soul ? The remedy against this corruption of our na- ture is hard. To divert a stream is easy, but to dry up a spring is difficult ; stop it here, and it breaks out there. So to divert and discharge a wandering thought is easy in comparison, but kill 82 A REMEDY FOR one viper, and there is a hundred more ready for the birth.* We think sometimes our worldly business is the only cause of them ; but the most retired hermits prove to us that an unsanctified or half-sanctified heart can find matter enough of diversion in a naked cell. And that the corruption of the subject, as well as the bewitching nature of the object, makes us trifle in God's worship. As Jerome tells of Hilarion, whose heart roving from God, was soundly scourged for his labour by an angel. And therefore the only cure of this is to get a "true and greater degree of sanctifying grace." You that have no grace, can never pray well, till your hearts be changed ; a new heart can only sing this new song well.| You complain that you want expressions ; ah ! it is impressions you want, and nothing else ; if you had that sense of sin, which makes the soul ache and mourn, you would find words sufficient to -express it, when you are in * As the ivy, though stump, body, and branches be cut oft^ yet some sprigs will sprout, till the wall be pulled down. So it is with us. t I never knew a beggar that wanted words to express his wants. Bishop Hall. WANDERING THOUGHTS. 83 danger of falling into hell-fire ; nor smiling at one another, when God is frowning, and thundering against you. He that feels the stone torment, hath few wandering thoughts, while he is telling his grief, and seeking help. The condemned prisoner is not sleeping or trifling at the bar. Dionysius' flatterer had little regard for his music, when the naked sword hung by a hair over his bare head ; neither would a poor sinner, if he were enlightened to see his guilt and danger, so com- monly and senselessly trifle before God, when his matter is debating, and terms of life or death being proposed. Alas ! there is no hope of your cure in this, till your fundamental disease be healed ; your whole life is a long distraction from the true end and main business of life ; and therefore it is im- portant if ever you would perform a pleasing duty unto God, to get " grace whereby you may serve God acceptably ;" "* for without that you cannot do it. And to counterbalance that corruption of nature in you, you that have some sanctification must get * Lydia did then attend unto the things spoken by the Lord, but it was when he had opened her heart. Acts xvi. 14, 15. 84 A REMEDY FOR more. This sweet wood cast into that bitter water, will by degrees render it more wholesome. The more sanctilication, the more yon will be mortified to the world, and all the vanity and business thereof; and then its thoughts and cares will not rush in with that violence upon you, but stay to speak with you at your better leisure ; or if they be invading the heart, you will have more vigour of grace to expel them, and more repentance for them ; you will be more lively and spiritual, and fervent in religious duties, and so have less room for these wanderings ; for he that is fully engaged in his business, prevents the assault of the most importunate diversions ; and a lively serious christian runs on his errand like Elisha's servant, " If thou- meet any man, salute him not ; and if any salute thee, answer him not again ;'^ 2 Kings iv. 29 ; and Satan cannot fasten discourse on such a man ; yea, and generally, the more holy the heart is, the fewer of these wandering thoughts ; forasmuch as sanctity being his frame and element, heterogeneous bye-thoughts do put him out of his temper and so displease him, and cause some smart to the soul ; and the sin that really molests a man, will hardly ever prevail over him ; and WANDERING THOUGHTS. 85 finally, the more holiness you attain, the more afraid will you be to displease God. For to be amended with a little cross, to be affected with a little mercy, and to be afraid of a little sin, are certain arguments of a great deal of grace. And therefore a holy christian is more troubled at a vain thought in a duty, than a slight christian is at the total neglect of a duty. It follows, therefore, that all means be used and improved to the utmost, for the increasing of the grace of God in your hearts, there being as much duty to grow in grace as to get it ; and no greater argument of sincerity, than endeavours to grow better. Turn therefore those many thoughts you spend about the truth of your grace, into all pos- sible care to advance and increase it, so will you best clear your doubts, and in particular cure your distractions. 86 A REMEDY FOR SECT. III. UNPREPAREDNESS. The third cause of distractions in the service of God, is, unpreparedness unto it. " If thou prepare thine heart, and stretch out thine hands to him ; if iniquity be in thine hand, put it far away; then shalt thou be steadfast." Job xi. 13. First, prepare the heart, then stretch out the hands. lie that keeps not his foot, when he goes into the house or service of God, is very hkely to stumble, and to offer but the sacrifice of fools. He that is unfitted for any work, must needs be unfixed in it.* As holy Mr. Dodd used to say of afflictions, when Me are prepared for them, they are like a sword tliat only strikes upon our armour ; but when we are unprepared, they are like a sword striking on our bare skin. Even so, when the heart is well fixed and prepared for the Lord's service, an impertinent * Hence David ; Psalm Ivii. 7, 8 ; so Deborah, Judges V. 12. WANDERING THOUGHTS. 87 thought or suggestion falls on our armour, but when we come unprepared, it meets with our very hearts, and runs away with them. If a man come into a prince's presence undressed, unbrushed, or without his band, you may easily imagine how, when he is aware of the feathers or dirt that is about him, he is distracted ; so is the soul wofully carried off, when approaching to God ; the follies of sin and vanities of the world disfigure and divert it from a close converse with Him ; and therefore a serious christian doth not only pray, and watch in prayer, but watcheth unto prayer. We so eat our meat, says Tertullian of the primitive chiis- tians, as remembering we must pray before we go to bed. And here I shall answer a necessary <]uestion, viz. Q. What kind of preparation is necessary be- fore our ordinary duties of worship ? Jlnsw. 1. The light of nature teacheth us to prepare for every weighty action. Approaching to the Lord of heaven and earth is such. Who teaches the client to consider his case, when he comes to state it to his advocate 1 or the husband- man to prepare himself for his tillage, or the poor suitor to weigh his request that he makes to a 88 A REMEDY FOR prince 1 Why, the light of nature teacheth this ; and the light of scripture distinguished an upright man from a hypocrite hereby. " There are good things in thee in that thou hast prepared thine heart to seek God :" 2 Chron. xix. 3, there was Jehoshaphat. Again, " Rehoboam did evil, because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord." 2 Chron. xii. 14. He sought God, it is likely, as many will do, but he cared not how he did it ; and so though he did a good thing, yet, saith the scripture, " he did evil." Ansxv. 2. Most certainly the Lord is a great God, who can raise or ruin thee in a moment, and whom the angels approach not without a profound respect; and so likewise duties of worship are great and weighty duties, wherein you transact for a kingdom, and plead or hear the cause that is for Hfe or death. You drink a cup that will either mend or destroy you, and who is sufficient for these things ? And it is manifest, that we are naturally unprepared, and to every good work reprobate. The posture of our hearts is inverted, and now they are open downwards, and shut to- wards heaven ; all which if you place together, it must needs follow, that some preparation is neces- WANDERING THOUGHTS. 89 sary, even for the ordinary duties of God's wor- ship. Ansio. 3. The hearts of men are of a different temper, and so are their occasion ; the hearts of some are always in heaven, or else within a call ; they are, as the apostle speaks, " Ready to every good work." Titus iii. 1. When a duty of piety is offered they are ready to engage in it ; when an object of charity is proposed, they are ready to