3. It includes earnest fupplications and inftant prayer for heart-purifying and rectifying grace, when fin hath defiled and difordered it; fo Pfalm xix. 12. " Cleanse thou me from fecret "faults;" and Pfalm lxxxvi. 11. "Unite my heart to fear thy

name." Saints have always many fuch petitions depending before the throne of God's grace; this is the thing which is moft pleaded by them with God: When they are praying for outward mercies, haply their spirits may be more remiss, but when it comes to the heart-cafe, then they extend their fpirits to the utmost, fill their mouths with arguments, weep and make fupplication: Oh, for a better heart! Oh for a heart to love God more To hate fin more, to walk more evenly with God: Lord, deny not to me fuch a heart, whatever thou deny me give me an heart to fear thee, love and delight in thee, if I beg my bread in defolate places. It is obferved of holy Mr. Bradford, that when he was confeffing fin, he would never give over confeffing until he had felt some brokenness of heart for that fin; and when praying for any fpiritual mercy, would never give over that fuit, until he had got some relith of that mercy; that is the third thing included in keeping the heart.

4. It includes the imposing of strong engagements and bonds upon ourselves to walk more accurately with God, and avoid the occafions whereby the heart may be induced to fin: Well compofed, advised, and deliberate vows, are, in fome cafes, of excellent ufe to guard the heart against some special fin; fo Job xxxi. 1. "I made a covenant with mine eyes ;" by this means, holy ones have over-awed their fouls, and preferved themselves from defilement by fome special heart-corruptions.

5. It includes a conftant holy jealoufy over our own hearts; quick-fighted felf-jealoufy is an excellent prefervative from fin; he that will keep his heart, muft have the eyes of his foul awake and open upon all the disorderly and tumultuous stirrings of his affections; if the affections break loofe, and the paffions be Birred, the foul muft difcover and fupprefs them before they get to an height: O, my foul, doft thou well in this? My tumultuous thoughts and paffions, where is your commiffion?

State viri, quae caufa viae? quive eftis in armis. Virg. Happy is the man that thus feareth always, Prov. xxviii. 14. By this fear of the Lord it is that men depart from evil, hake of fecurity, and preferve themselves from iniquity; he that will keep his heart muft feed with fear, rejoice with fear, and pass the whole time of his fojourning here in fear, and alli little enough to keep the heart from fin.

6. And, laftly, To add no more, it includes the realifing of

God's prefence with us, and fetting the Lord always before us: This the people of God have found a fingular means to keep their hearts upright, and awe them from fin; when the eye of our faith is fixed upon the eye of God's omniscience, we dare not let out our thoughts and affections to vanity: Holy Job durft not fuffer his heart to yield to an impure, vain thought; and what was it that moyed him to fo great a circumfpection Why, he tells you, Job xxxi. 4. "Doth he not fee my ways, "and count all my steps? Walk before me (faith God to "Abraham) and be thou perfect," Gen. xvii. 1. Even as parents use to fet their children in the congregation before them, knowing that else they will be toying and playing; fo would the heart of the best man too, were it not for the eye of God.

In these, and fuch like particulars, do gracious fouls exprefs the care they have of their hearts they are as careful to prevent the breaking loose of their corruptions in times of temptation, as feamen are to bind faft the guns, that they break not loose in a storm; as careful to preferve the fweetness and comfort they have got from God in any duty, as one that comes out of an hot bath, or great fweat, is of taking cold, by going forth into the chill air. This is the work, and of all works in religion it is the most difficult, conftant, and important work.

1. It is the hardest work; heart-work is hard work indeed. To fhuffle over religious duties with a loose and heedless spirit, will coft no great pains; but to fet thyfelf before the Lord, and. tye up thy loose and vain thoughts to a conftant and ferious attendance upon him; this will coft thee fomething: To attain a facility and dexterity of language in prayer, and put thy meaning into apt and decent expreffions, is eafy; but to get thy heart broken for fin, whilft thou art confefling it; melted with free grace, whilst thou art bleffing God for it; to be really afhamed and humbled through the apprehenfions of God's infinite holiness, and to keep thy heart in this frame, not only in, but after duty, will furely coft thee some groans and travailing pains of foul: To reprefs the outward acts of fin, and compose the external part of thy life in a laudable and comely manner, is no great matter; even carnal perfons by the force of common principles can do this; but to kill the root of corruption within, to fet and keep up an holy government over thy thoughts, to have all things lie ftraight and orderly in the heart, this is not easy.

2. It is a conftant work. The keeping of the heart is such a work, as is never done till life be done; this labour and our

life, end together: It is with a Chriftian in this business, as it is with feamen that have sprung a leak at fea, if they tug not constantly at the pump, the water increases upon them, and will quickly fink them. It is in vain for them to say the work is hard, and we are weary; there is no time or condition in the life of a Chriftian, which will suffer an intermiffion of this work. It is in the keeping watch over our hearts, as it was in the keeping up of Mofes his hands, whilft Ifrael and Amalek were fighting below, Exod. xvii. 12. No fooner do Mofes his hands grow heavy and fink down, but Amalek prevails. You know it cost David and Peter many a fad day and night for intermitting the watch over their own hearts but a few minutes.

3. It is the most important bufinefs of a Chriftian's life. Without this we are but formalifts in religion; all our profeffions, gifts and duties fignify nothing: "My fon, give me "thine heart," Prov. xxiii. 36. God is pleased to call that a gift, which is indeed a debt; he will put this honour upon the creature to receive it from him in the way of a gift; but if this be not given him, he regards not whatever else you bring to him: There is fo much only of worth and value in what we do, as there is of heart in it. Concerning the heart, God seems to fay, as Jofeph of Benjamin, "If you bring not Benjamin with "you, you fhall not fee my face." Among the heathens, when the beaft was cut up for facrifice, the first thing the priest looked upon was the heart, and if that was unfound and naught, the facrifice was rejected. God rejects all duties (how glorious foever in other refpects) offered him without a heart. He that performs duty without a heart, viz. heedlefly, is no more accepted with God, than he that performs it with a double heart, viz. hypocritically, Ifa. lxvi. 3. And thus I have briefly opened the nature of the duty, what is imported in this phrase, "Keep thy heart."

2. Next, I fhall give you some rational account why Chrif tians fhould make this the great business of their lives, to keep their hearts.

The importance and neceffity of making this our great and main business, will manifeftly appear in that, 1. The honour of God; 2. The fincerity of our profeffion; 3. The beauty of our conversation; 4. The comfort of our fouls; 5. The im provement of our graces; and, 6. Our ftability in the hour of temptation; are all wrapt up in, and dependent on our fincerity and care in the management of this work.

1. The glory of God is much concerned therein; heart-evils are very provoking evils to the Lord. The fchools do well ob

ferve, that outward fins are majoris infamia, fins of great infamy; but heart-fins are majoris reatus, fins of deeper guilt. How feverely hath the great God declared his wrath from hea ven against heart-wickedness; the great crime for which the old world ftands indicted, Gen. vi. 5, 6, 7. is heart-wickedness: "God faw that every imagination, (or fiction) of their heart "was only evil, and that continually;" for which he fent the dreadfulleft judgment that was ever executed fince the world began: "And the Lord faid, I will deftroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beaft, and "the creeping things, and the fowls of heaven, for it repent"eth me that I have made man," verfe 7. We find not their murders, adulteries, blafphemies, (tho' they were defiled with thefe) particularly alledged against them; but the evils of their hearts: Yea, that which God was fo provoked by, as to give up his peculiar inheritance into the enemy's hand, was the evil of their hearts, Jer. iv. 14. "O Jerufalem, wash thine heart from " wickedness, that thou mayeft be faved; how long fhall vain "thoughts lodge within thee?" The wickedness and vanity of their thoughts God took special notice of; and because of this the Chaldean muft come upon them as a lion from his thicket; verfe 7. and tear them to pieces. For the very fin of thoughts it was that God threw down the fallen angels from heaven, and keeps them still in everlasting chains to the judgment of the great day; by which expreffion is not obscurely intimated some extraordinary judgment to which they are referved, as prison-` ers that have moft irons laid upon them, may be supposed to be the greatest malefactors: And what was their fin? Why only fpiritual wickedness? For they having no bodily organs, could act nothing externally against God. Yea, mere heartevils are fo provoking, that for them he rejects with indignation all the duties that fome men perform unto him, Ifa. lxvi. 3. "He that killeth an ox, is as if he flew a man; he that facri"ficeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog's neck; he that offereth 66 an oblation, as if he offered fwines blood; he that burneth "incenfe, as if he bleffed an idol." In what words could the abhorrence of a creature's actions be more fully expreffed by the holy God? Murder and idolatry are not more vile in his account, than their facrifices, though materially such as himself appointed: And what made them fo? The following words inform us, "their foul delighteth in their abominations."

To conclude, fuch is the vilenefs of mere heart-fins, that the fcriptures fometimes intimate the difficulty of pardon for

them. So in the cafe of Simon Magus, Acts viii. 21. his heart was not right, he had vile thoughts of God, and the things of God; the apoftle bids him repent and pray, if

perhaps the thoughts of his heart might be forgiven him." O then, never flight heart-evils for by thefe God is highly wronged and provoked; and for this reafon let every Christian make it his work to keep his heart with all diligence.

"But

2: The fincerity of our profeffion much depends upon the care and conscience we have in keeping our hearts; for it is molt certain, that a man is but an hypocrite in his profeffion, how curious foever he be in the externals of religion, that is heedlefs and careless of the frame of his heart: You have a preg nant instance of this in the cafe of Jehu, 2 Kings x. 31. *Jehu took no heed to walk in the ways of the Lord God of * Ifrael with his heart." That context gives us an account of the great fervice performed by Jehu against the house of Ahab and Baal, as alfe of a great temporal reward given him by God for that service, even that his children, to the fourth generation, fhould fit upon the throne of Ifrael. And yet, in thefe words, Jehu is cenfured for an hypocrite; though God approved, and rewarded the work, yet he abhorred and rejected the perfon that did it as hypocritical: And wherein lay his hypocrify? but in this, that he took no heed to walk in the ways of the Lord with his heart, (i. e.) he did all infincerely, and for felf-ends; and though the work he did was materially good, yet he not purging his heart from thofe unworthy felf-defigns in doing it, was an hypocrite: And Simon, of whom we fpake before, though he appeared fuch a perfon, that the apoftle could not regularly refufe him; yet his hypocrify was quickly difcovered: And what difcovered it but this, that though he profeffed and affociated himself with the faints, yet he was a ftranger to the morti fication of heart-fins?" Thy heart is not right with God," Acts viii. 21. It is true, there is a great difference among Chriftians themselves, in their diligence and dexterity about heartwork; fome are more converfant and fuccefsful in it than others are ; but he that takes no heed to his heart, that is not careful to order it aright before God, is but a hypocrite, Ezek. xxxiii. 31, 32. "And they come unto thee as the people com"eth, and fit before thee (as my people) and they hear thy "words, but they will not do them; for with their mouths "they fhew much love, but their heart goeth after their cover"oufness." Here were a company of formal hypocrites, as is evident by that expreffion (as my people) like them, but not of VOL. VII.

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