2. To show that such a heart is a most valuable thing.
2. To show that such a heart is a most valuable thing.
We now proceed, to show that such a heart is a most valuable thing. It must be so; For,
2.1. Such a heart is God's delight; "O that there were such an heart in them!" This would give content to the heart of Christ. This is his rest. The very prayer of the upright is his delight; Psalm 11:7, "For the righteous Lord loves righteousness, his countenance does behold the upright." Such a heart is pleasing to God; and it cannot be otherwise, for it is shaped out according to his mind. The person who has such a heart is another David, a man according to God's own heart. It is a heart which, as believing, pleases God; a heart well pleased with him, in which God is well pleased.
2.2. It is that heart without which the largest profession, and the most express covenanting with God, is little worth. Without this heart men do but as the Lord's enemies, they lie unto him. And it is a dangerous thing to lie unto the Lord, like Ananias and Sapphira, who died with a lie in their mouth. They take God's name in vain. The voice indeed is Jacob's, but the hands are Esau's. It is but mocking God and juggling with the Holy One. It is but doing the work of the Lord deceitfully, and offering the blind and the lame for sacrifice, which will bring down a curse instead of a blessing. Let a man be at never so much pains in duties, yet still the one thing is lacking while they have not such a heart.
2.3. The want of this heart is very grievous to the spirit of Christ. The Lord does thus, in the text, lament their want of it. If anything pierce the heart of God, it is when, with a covenanting people, there is wanting such a heart. What can be more grievous in a married lot than when the husband has not the wife's heart? Ezekiel 6:9, "I am broken, says God, with their whorish heart, which has departed from me, and with their eyes, which go a-whoring after their idols." There can be no contentment in that condition, as Haman said, "Yet all this avails me nothing," Esther 5:13. And a soul's grieving the Lord's Spirit, is a forerunner of the Lord's grieving them; Psalm 16:4, "Their sorrow shall be multiplied that hastens after another God."
2.4. God accepts of the duty, and is well pleased with the bargain, where there is such a heart; "O that there were such an heart in them!" There wants no more to complete the bargain between them and me. Then, as they call me their God, so would I call them my people by a saving relation. But where such is not, the contract between Christ and the soul is written indeed, but it is not signed. Would you know, then, if Christ be yours, with all the benefits of the everlasting covenant; why, if you have such a heart, you have Christ's heart, you are married to the Lord, and shall never be put away. A voice of the word without, and an echo to it of the heart within, closes the bargain; Psalm 27:8, "When you said, Seek you my face; my heart said unto you, Your face, Lord, will I seek." See also Jeremiah 3:22.
2.5. Where there is such a heart God will be well pleated with the person, and accept the duty, though it have many defects; albeit he be not pleased with these defects, yet in mercy he will overlook them; "O that there were such an heart in them!" As if he had said, O if they were but honest in the main, I would not be severe on them for every escape. The Lord will use the indulgence of a father for such infirmities; Song 5:1, "I have drunk my wine with my milk." Milk, that is, he accepts the meanest work where there is such an heart. A groan, a tear, a breathing after the Lord, is accepted; as the father loves more the lisping child's expression of its affection to him, than all the towering compliments of a flattering tongue, 2 Chronicles 15:17; the eye of their faith, though, like a bleared eye, Song 4:9; the fire of their love, though weak, verse 10; the hand of their confidence, though a trembling hand; the anchor of their hope, though feeble, Psalm 47:11; their feet of obedience, though lame, like Mephibosheth, yet shall they be set at the king's table; though their very sincerity be not without a mixture of hypocrisy, Galatians 2:13, yet it holds weight in the balance; Christ takes their petitions, though not every way well drawn, blots out some, fills up other things in them, and gets them answered. Their will is accepted for the deed; their grief for want of will, for the will itself; all this where there it such a heart.
2.6. They will never prove steadfast in the Lord's covenant without such a heart; "O that there were such an heart in them!" They have spoke fair, but they will never keep a word they say, for they have not such a heart; Psalm 78:37, "For their heart was not right with him, neither were they steadfast in his covenant." The heart it the principle of actions; such a heart is the principle of perseverance; and there can be no steadfastness without a principle; Matthew 13:6, "And when the sun was up, they were scorched, and because they had not root they withered away." The tree which is set in the ground but does not take root in it, will be easily blown over. The house without a foundation cannot withstand the storm, Matthew 6:23. They who have covenanted with God without such a heart, will make foul work, it will appear that the devil has gone down with the sop, their former lusts will be swallowed over again, 2 Peter 2:20–22. Their last state will be worse than the first. Their vows will be no stronger than Samson's withs; their resolutions, like the walls of Jericho, will fall down at the sound of the horn of temptation.
2.7. Such an heart will fence the man against apostasy; "O that there were such an heart in them!" They would not then turn away from me; they would keep by their covenant: Luke 7:15, "But that on the good ground are they which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience, cleaving to Christ with constancy, without apostasy, is the very essence of such a heart. Gold is not gold but dross, if it do not continue in the fire. Men's hearts may get some light strokes of the Spirit, some fleeting motions of the same, and the heart still unsound as the stony ground. But the Spirit of God and of glory rest not on the heart, it is not such an heart; 1 John, 2:27. "But the anointing which you have received of him, abides in you;" the fire of true love will be preserved, though it flame not, whatever cools there may be taking place. Such an heart has learned so math of the grace of God as to deny worldly lasts, and all fortaken lovers, when they come to court the soul. Where such a heart is, there is the root of the matter in the man, Job, 19:28; and there is sap enough to keep in the life of it, Proverbs 12:3. "The root of the righteous shall not be moved. Yes, the Root of Jease has engaged that this root shall not fail," John 4:14. They are kept through the power of God. God is careful of the leaves of Christianity, Psalm 1:3. much more of real Christians themselves; therefore, says Job chapter 17:9, "The righteous shall hold on his way; and he who has clean hands shall be stronger and stronger." Be their light never so weak, it will last, yes it will grow, and shine more and more unto the perfect day. It is the abiding seed of God.
Lastly, such a heart enriches the man who has it; "O that there were such an heart in them!" They want no more to make them happy here and hereafter. Grace and glory, and all good, is the portion of those who have such an heart Such an heart has taken Christ, is married and knit to him, and then Christ is yours, all is yours; pardon, peace, and every blessing; as he who gets a hold of the main link of a chain, draws all after him; "There the Lord commands the blasting, even life which never ends."
We shall conclude this discourse with beseeching you to be in earnest that you have such a heart. This is that which you all need, that without which you must be miserable forever. — It is a most invaluable blessing, what you should highly prize; what is precious in God's esteem, and what he is urgent with you that you may possess: "O that there were such an heart in them!"
HAVING considered, in the two preceding discourses, the first and second doctrines proposed from this subject, we now go on to
Doctrine 3
That the work of covenanting with the Lord is slight work, when it is not heart-work; or, that solemn covenanting with the Lord is but solemn trifling with him, when the work of covenanting is not heart-work.
In treating this point, we shall, (1) produce some evidences, that solemn covenanting is often nothing but solemn trifling, and not heart-work; (2) show when solemn covenanting is not heart-work and has become but a trifling business; (3) show the danger of trifling, and not making heart-work of this weighty business; and then, (4) apply the whole.