exercised and most busied and taken up about the inward man, about
But an unsound heart, a rotten heart, serves God and seeks good merely for some external good it hath from him, or expects to receive by him. That is a true saying, Pauci quærunt Deum propter se, sed propter aliud, Few men seek God for himself, but for some other thing. Like those in Hosea 7:14, 'When they howled,' saith God, 'upon their beds, it was for corn, and wine, and oil, and they rebelled against me.' It was not for any internal or eternal worth in me, it was not for that holiness, wisdom, faithfulness, purity, and glory that is in me; but they seek me for loaves, for corn, and wine, and oil, and they rebelled against me.
3. A third thing I shall premise is this, Upright hearts are most exercised and most busied and taken up about the inward man, about the inside, observing that, reforming that, examining that, watching that. An upright heart knows that his soul is Christ's throne, his chamber of presence; and therefore, above all, the upright heart is most diligent to observe that none sit upon that throne but Christ, and that none come into that chamber of presence but Christ, that no sceptre be advanced there but the sceptre of Christ; he is most careful of the inside. In Ps. 86:11, 'Incline my heart to fear thy name;' Ps. 119:36, 'Let my heart be sound in thy statutes;' and so in ver. 80 and ver. 112 of the same psalm.
Now an unsound heart, a rotten heart, is most taken up about the outside,— informing that, and reforming that, and watching of that; but as for the inside, there is no eye cast to see how all stands there. The devil may bear rule; any may come into the soul and domineer and oppose the sceptre of Christ. So an unsound soul is taken up merely about the outside. That same exhortation of Solomon is strong upon an upright heart: Prov. 4:23, 'Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.' The original hath it more elegantly, 'Before all, or above all keeping, keep thy heart; for out of it is the goings forth of lives.' This duty that Solomon presseth, is a duty that an upright heart above all endeavours to practise. Above all and before all, he guards his soul; he looks to his inward parts, how he thrives