XII. How to manage and watch over the heart through the whole work
And thus I have done with the fifth part of this directory, and showed you on what grounds to advance your meditations, and how to get them to quicken your affections, by comparing the unseen delights of heaven with those smaller which you have seen and felt in the flesh.
CHAP. XII
How to manage and watch over the Heart through the whole Work SECT. 1. Sixthly: The sixth and last part of this directory is, to guide you in the managing of your hearts through this work, and to show you wherein you have need to be exceeding watchful. I have showed before what must be done with your hearts in your preparations to the work, and in your setting upon it; I shall now show it you in respect of the time of performance. Our chief work will here be, to discover to you the danger, and that will direct you to the fittest remedy. Let me therefore here acquaint you beforehand, that whenever you set upon this heavenly employment, you shall find your own hearts your greatest hinderer, and they will prove false to you in one or all of these four degrees. First, They will hold off, that you will hardly get them to the work. Secondly, Or else they will betray yon by their idleness in the work, pretending to do it, when they do it not. Or, Thirdly, They will interrupt the work by their frequent excursions, and turning aside to every object. Or, Fourthly,
They will spoil the work by cutting it short, and be gone before you have done any good on it. Therefore I here forewarn you, as you value the invaluable comfort of this work, that you faithfully resist these four dangerous evils, or else all that I have said hitherto is in vain.
1. Thou shalt find thy heart as backward to this, I think, as to any work in the world. O what excuses it will make; what evasions it will find out; and what delays and demurs, when it is never so much convinced! Either it will question whether it be a duty or not; or if it
be so to others, yet whether it be so to thee. It will take up any thing like reason to plead against it; it will tell thee that this is a work for ministers that have nothing else to study on; or for cloisterers or persons that have more leisure than thou hast. If thou be a minister, it will tell thee, This is the duty of the people; it is enough for thee to meditate for the instructing of them, and let them meditate on what they have heard; as if it were thy duty only to cook their meat, and serve it up, and perhaps a little to taste the sweetness, by licking thy fingers while thou art dressing it for others; but it is they only that must eat it, digest it, and live upon it. Indeed, the smell may a little refresh thee, but it must be digesting it that must maintain thy strength and life. If all this will not serve, thy heart will tell thee of other business; thou hast this company stays for thee, or that business must be done. It may be, it will set thee upon some other duty, and so make one duty shut out another; for it had rather go to any duty than to this. Perhaps it will tell thee that other duties are greater, and therefore this must give place to them, because thou hast not time for both. Public business is of more concernment; to study, to preach for the saving of souls, must be preferred before these private contemplation: as if thou hadst no time to see to the saving of thine own soul, for looking after others; or thy charity to others were so great, that it draws thee to neglect thy comfort and salvation; or, as if there were any better way to fit us to be useful to others, than to make this experience of our doctrine ourselves!
Certainly heaven, where is the Father of lights, is the best fire to light our candle at, and the best book for a preacher to study; and, if they would be persuaded to study that more, the church would be provided of more heavenly lights; and when their studies are divine, and their spirits divine, their preaching will then be also divine, and they may be fitly called divines indeed: or if thy heart have nothing to say against the work, then it will trifle away the time in delays, and promise this day and the next, but still keep off from the doing of the business: or lastly, If thou wilt not be so baffled with excuses or delays, thy heart will give thee a flat denial, and oppose its own unwillingness to thy reason; thou shalt find it come to the work as a bear to the stake, and draw back with all the strength it hath. I speak
all this of the heart so far as it is carnal, (which in too great a measure is in the best) for I know so far as the heart is spiritual, it will judge this work the sweetest in the world.
Well, then, what is to be done in the forementioned case? Wilt thou do it, if I tell thee? Why, what wouldst thou do with a servant that were thus backward to his work: or to thy beast that should draw back when thou wouldst have him go forward? Wouldst thou not first persuade, and then chide, and then spur him, and force him on; and take no denial, nor let him alone till thou hadst got him closely to fall to his work? Wouldst thou not say, 'Why, what should I do with a servant that will not work; or with an ox or horse that will not travel or labour? Shall I keep them to look on?' Wilt thou then faithfully deal thus with thy heart? If thou be not a lazy, self-deluding hypocrite, say, 'I will, by the help of God, I will.' Set upon thy heart roundly, persuade it to the work, take no denial; chide it for its backwardness; use violence with it; bring it to the service, willing or not willing. Art thou the master of thy flesh, or art thou a servant to it? Hast thou no command of thy own thoughts? Cannot thy will choose the subject of thy meditations, especially when thy judgment thus directeth thy will? I am sure God once gave thee mastery over thy flesh, and some power to govern thy own thoughts; hast thou lost thy authority? art thou become a slave to thy depraved nature? Take up the authority again which God hath given thee; command thy heart; if it rebel, use violence with it; if thou be too weak, call in the Spirit of Christ to thine assistance. He is never backward to so good a work, nor will deny his help to so just a cause. God will be ready to help thee, if thou be not unwilling to help thyself. Say to him, 'Why,
Lord, thou gavest my reason the command of my thoughts and affections; the authority I have received over them is from thee, and now, behold they refuse to obey thine authority. Thou commandest me to set them to the work of heavenly meditation, but they rebel and stubbornly refuse the duty. Wilt thou not assist me to execute that authority which thou hast given me? Oh, send me down thy
Spirit and power, that I may enforce thy commands, and effectually compel them to obey thy will.'
And thus doing, thou shalt see thy heart will submit; its resistance will be brought under, and its backwardness will be turned to a yielding compliance.
Sect. II. 2. When thou hast got thy heart to the work, beware lest it delude thee by a loitering formality; lest it say, 'I go,' and go not; lest it trifle out the time, while it should be effectually employed meditating. Certainly, the heart is as likely to betray thee in this, as in any one particular about the duty; when thou hast perhaps but an hour's time for thy meditation, the time will be spent before thy heart will be serious. This doing of duty as if we did it not, doth undo as many as the flat omission of it. To rub out the hour in a bare, lazy thinking of heaven, is but to lose that hour, and delude thyself. Well, what is to be done in this case? Why, do here also as you do by a loitering servant; keep thine eye always upon thy heart; look not so much to the time it spendeth in the duty, as to the quantity and quality of the work that is done. You can tell by his work whether your servant hath been painful; ask, 'What affections have yet been acted; how much am I yet got nearer heaven?' Verily, many a man's heart must be followed as close in this duty of meditation, as a horse in a mill, or an ox at the plough, that will go no longer than you are calling or scourging. If you cease driving but a moment, the heart will stand still; and perhaps the best hearts have much of this temper.
I would not have thee of the judgment of those, who think that while they are so backward, it is better let it alone: and that if mere love will not bring them to the duty, but there must be all this violence used to compel it, that then the service is worse than the omission.
These men understand not, First, That this argument would certainly cashier all spiritual obedience, because the hearts of the best being but partly sanctified, will still be resisting so far as they are carnal:
Secondly, Nor do they understand well the corruptness of their own natures: Thirdly, Nor, that their sinful undisposedness will not baffle or suspend the commands of God: Fourthly, Nor one sin excuse another: Fifthly, Especially they little know the way of God to excite their affections; and that the love which should compel them, must
itself be first compelled, in the same sense as it is said to compel.
Love, I know, is a most precious grace, and should have the chief interest in all our duties: but there are means appointed by God to procure this love; and shall I not use those means, till I can use them from love? That were to neglect the means, till I have the end. Must I not seek to procure love, till I have it already? There are means also for the increasing of love where it is begun; and means for the exciting of it where it lieth dull; and must I not use these means, till it is increased and excited? Why this reasoning considering-duty that we are in hand with, is the most singular means, both to stir up thy love, and to increase it; and therefore stay not from the duty till thou feel thy love constrain thee, that were to stay from the fire till thou feel thyself warm; but fall upon the work till thou art constrained to love, and then love will constrain thee to further duty.
My jealousy, lest thou shouldst miscarry by these sottish opinions, hath made me more tedious in the opening of their error. Let nothing therefore hinder thee while thou art upon the work, from plying thy heart with constant watchfulness and constraint, seeing thou hast such experience of its dulness and backwardness: let the spur be never out of its side; and whenever it slacks its pace, be sure to give it a remembrance.
Sect. III. 3. As thy heart will be loitering, so will it be diverting. It will be turning aside like a careless servant, to talk with every one that passeth by. When there should be nothing in thy mind but the work in hand, it will be thinking of thy calling, or thinking of thy afflictions, or of every bird, or tree, or place, thou seest, or of any impertinency, rather than of heaven. Thy heart in this also will be like the husbandman's ox or horse: if he drive not, he will not go; and if he guide not, he will not keep the furrow; and it is as good stand still as to go out of the way. Experience will tell thee thou wilt have much ado with thy heart in this point, to keep it one hour to the work, without many extravagances and idle cogitations. The cure here is the same with that before, to use watchfulness and violence with your own imaginations, and as soon as they step out to chide
them in. Say to thine heart, 'What! did I come hither to think of my business in the world; to think of places, and persons, of news, or vanity, yea, or of any thing but heaven, be it never so good?' What! canst thou not watch one hour? Wouldst thou leave this world, and dwell in heaven with Christ for ever? And canst thou not leave it one hour out of thy thoughts, nor dwell with Christ in one hour's close meditation? Ask thy heart, as Absalom did Hushai, 'Is this thy love to thy friend? Dost thou love Christ, and the place of thy eternal, blessed abode, no more than so?' When Pharaoh's butler dreamed that he pressed the ripe grapes into Pharaoh's cup, and delivered the cup into the king's hand, it was a happy dream, and signified his speedy access to the king's presence: but the dream of the baker, that the birds did eat out of the basket on his head, the baked meats prepared for Pharaoh, had an ill omen, and signified his hanging, and their eating of his flesh. (Gen. 40:10, 11, &c.) So when the ripened grapes of heavenly meditation are pressed by thee into the cup of affection, and this put into the hands of Christ by delightful praises, if thou take me for skilful, this is the interpretation, that thou shalt shortly be taken from this prison where thou liest, and be set before Christ in the court of heaven, and there serve up to him that cup of praise, but much fuller and much sweeter, for ever and ever. But if the ravenous fowls of wandering thoughts do devour the meditations intended for heaven, I will not say flatly, it signifies thy death; but this I will say, that so far as these intrude, they will be the death of that service; and if thou ordinarily admit them, that they devour the life and the joy of thy thoughts; and if thou continue in such a way of duty to the end, it signifies the death of thy soul, as well as of thy service. Drive away these birds of prey, then, from thy sacrifice, and strictly keep thy heart to the work thou art upon.
Sect. IV. 4. Lastly, Be sure also to look to thy heart in this, that it cut not off the work before the time, and run not away through weariness, before it have leave. Thou shalt find it will be exceeding prone to this, like the ox that would unyoke, or the horse that would be unburdened, and perhaps cast off his burden, and run away. Thou mayest easily perceive this in other duties; if in secret thou set thyself
to pray, is not thy heart urging thee still to cut it short; dost thou not frequently find a motion to have done; art thou not ready to be up as soon almost as thou art down on thy knees? Why, so it will be also in thy contemplations of heaven: as fast as thou gettest up thy heart, it will be down again; it will be weary of the work; it will be minding thee of other business to be done, and stop thy heavenly walk, before thou art well warm. Well, what is to be done in this case also? Why, the same authority and resolution which brought it to the work, and observed it in the work, must also hold it to it, till the work be done.
Charge it in the name of God to stay: do not so great a work by the halves: say to it, Why, foolish heart! if thou beg a while, and go away before thou hast thy alms, dost thou not lose thy labour? if thou stop before thou art at the end of thy journey, is not every step of thy travel lost? Thou camest hither to fetch a walk to heaven, in hope to have a sight of the glory which thou must inherit; and wilt thou stop when thou art almost at the top of the hill; and turn away before thou hast taken thy survey? Thou camest hither in hope to speak with God, and wilt thou go before thou hast seen him? Thou camest to bathe thyself in the streams of consolation, and to that end didst unclothe thyself of thy earthly thoughts: and wilt thou put a foot in, and so be gone? Thou camest to spy out the land of promise; O go not back with the bunch of grapes, which thou mayest show to thy brethren, when thou comest home, for their confirmation and encouragement, till thou canst tell them by experience, that it is a land flowing with wine and oil, with milk and honey. Let them see that thou hast tasted of the wine, by the gladness of thy heart; and that thou hast been anointed with the oil, by the cheerfulness of thy countenance: (Psal. 104:15:) let them see that thou hast tasted of the milk of the land, by thy feeding, and by thy mild and gentle disposition: and of the honey, by the sweetness of thy words and conversation. The views of heaven would heal thee of thy sinfulness, and of thy sadness; but thou must hold on the plaster, that it may have time to work: this heavenly fire would melt thy frozen heart, and refine it from the dross, and take away the earthly part, and leave the rest more spiritual and pure; but then thou must not be presently gone, before it have time either to burn or warm. Stick,