Chapter IX
The uses of the doctrine. We by this see how malignant an evil sin is, which infects the whole man, and how great a work regeneration is, which cures and restores a soul so totally depraved, That it deeply concerns us to search into our hearts, that we may know the evil which is in us.
We have seen that the whole nature of man is depraved by sin, and that the direful contagion hath not only fallen on the lower animal faculties, but hath ascended to the higher, the mind, and understanding. Now the uses, and practical improvement we may make, are these.
Use 1. Is all and every part in man corrupted ? This gives us a sad dis covery how great an evil sin is. You account that a very malignant disease which reacheth but to one member, if it spoils it, or makes it useless ; if it lames but a joint, or takes away an eye. How much greater, and more dan gerous is this spiritual disease, which extends itself to all that is in man, and vitiates his whole nature ! It is therefore compared to such bodily diseases, which spread over all the parts, to a leprosy (for by that it was typified in the ceremonial law) that goes over all the body. You account that a poi sonous creature, and loathe it, which hath poison but in one part, as ser pents have it only in their stings, and vipers in their teeth, so as when they are taken out, the rest is not poisonous. But this poison of sin hath soaked
CHAP. IX.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT
all, and pierced through every part of us. It is in our souls, as the soul is in the body, as it were tota in toto, et tola in qualibet parte, the whole of sin is in the whole soul, and in every part too. If we look but to one part, the tongue, James says of it, there is a world of evil in that little member : James iii. 5, 6, Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth ! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue amongst our members, that it defiletli the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature ; and it is set on fire of hell. How many worlds hast thou then in thy whole man, which, though in itself is but a little world, yet contains in it many worlds of sin ! If thy tongue hath in it so much evil, what hath thy will, thy understanding, thy desires ? These are more active than that little part of thine, though it be so moveable. They never lie still, but are always working. They have more distempers in them than are in all the parts of thy body, which, ac cording to physicians reckoning, amount to so vast a number. If there are (as they say) three hundred several diseases incident to the eye, there are more in the eye of thy soul. Look inward, then, and sagaciously search out all those noisome distempers, which are in all thy faculties, and loathe thyself at the sight of them.
Use 2. If the whole soul be infected with such a desperate disease, what a great and difficult work is it to regenerate, to restore men again to spiritual life and vigour, when every part of them is seized by such a mortal dis
! How great a cure doth the Spirit of God effect in restoring a soul by sanctifying it ! To heal but the lungs or the liver, if corrupted, is counted a great cure, though performed but upon one part of thee ; but all temper thy inward parts are very rottenness : Ps. v. 9, For there is no faithfulness in their mouth, their inward part is very wickedness ; their throat is an open sepulchre, they natter with their tongue. How great a cure is it then to heal thee ! Such as is only in the skill and power of God to do. And the universal medicine he makes use of is the gospel, by which all the diseases of the soul are healed : the blind, the lame, the deaf, and all other are re stored by receiving the gospel : Mat. xi. 5, The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.
Use 3. Be you all exhorted to search into your own hearts, and make it your most inquisitive study to know the variety of corruptions which are in them.
This is an use as proper to this doctrine as any other, and this I premise to all that is to follow in the discovery of the corruption of our nature, that in all the rest of the particulars, you may have this use in your eye. And, indeed, that you may know what is in man, and so have an exact knowledge of yourselves, is the principal design for which I fixed on this subject ; and therefore, in all that I shall say in the prosecuting it, I desire you to keep this use in your sight, and to search still in your hearts, as any particular corruption is discovered, to find whether it be in you, or not. I thought best to premise ere I go any farther, and the rather do I set you on work thus beforehand, with some general directions how to inquire into your hearts, that having first tried what work you can make of it yourselves, you may be better able to understand the discoveries of particular defilements, which hereafter I shall make, you having first taken a view of such particulars in your own hearts, which will make them good, and evidence the truth of them to you. And here it may be truly said, that of all discourses, and dis coveries, they are the most difficult, which are concerning the inward work ings of grace and sin. As no study is more hard than anatomy, which
168 AN UNREGENERATE MAN S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK III. discourseth of the parts of man s body, unless a man hath seen first some body cut up, and then none is more easy, certain, and evident ; so also it is in an anatomy lecture of the soul, and heart; and therefore the figures I shall draw and cut of the understanding, will, and affections in the following dis course, will be difficult to understand, unless you withal, as I shall go along, look inward to see in your own hearts those several parts of corruption, which the pictures, though never so well drawn, will otherwise but darkly represent. To do thus, will perhaps be a work very difficult to some, who never yet were acquainted with themselves, who have had their e} res turned outwards all their lives, and never turned them inward to look into their hearts. I remember Julius Scaliger hath a saying, that there be two things in philosophy, which do conceal, and hide themselves from man s understanding, Ens primum, et Materia prima. The first being, or God, and the first matter of all things, or that chaos, and confused heap, Gen i. 1, out of which all things were made. The one is incomprehensible, propter summam suam jjerfectionem, by reason of his infinite perfection ; the other is unperceptible, propter summam suam imperfectionem, because of its greatest imperfection. This is true in divinity also, and as to our present purpose, that God and a man s heart are things most unsearchable : God, because of the infinite purity that is in him : Eom. xi. 33, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and know ledge of God ! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past find ing out ! How little a portion is heard of him ? says Job : Job xxvi. 14, * Lo, these are parts of his ways, but how little a portion is heard of him ? but the thunder of his power who can understand ? And the heart is un searchable, because it is a vast deep chaos of all confusion, and disorder, and hath bundles, Prov. xxii. 15, yea, worlds of folly in it ; Jer. xvii. 9, The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it ? None but God that made it, who is greater than our hearts, and yet he hath appointed means, whereby we may be helped to know, and search them, which I shall now enumerate.
1. God hath put a light of conscience within you, which, though it is in every man by nature, yet it is a candle set up, and lighted at the sun, which * enlightens every man that comes into the world : John i. 9, compared with Prov. xx. 27, * The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly. The chambers of the belly some read it. So that, as in a man s body, when cut up, you find several rooms prepared for the various animal offices, vital, natural, &c., as in anatomy we see, and these distinguished by several partitions, as the midriff, the diaphragm, &c., thus is it also in the soul of man, where there are spirit, soul, understand ing, will, affections, &c., as so many different chambers. Now that light of conscience God hath placed in these dark rooms, to manifest all that is in them ; and though he hath framed your bodies so, as there is not a case ment made to see through it what entrails and inward parts a man hath, yet he hath made one for the soul : 1 Cor. ii. 11, For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man, which is in him ?
2. Because this light of natural conscience is very dim, and by it you can discern but very little of what is in your hearts, therefore God also hath given you his word, which is a quicker discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart : Heb. iv. 12, For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. It divides between soul and spirit, and cuts the heart open, so as to make a nice and accurate dissection, and shews everything that is in it, and all that is done there. It is the most sharp
ClIAP. IX.] IN EESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 169 anatomising knife which can be used, as it is compared in Heb. iv. 12.
It hath the key of knowledge, as Christ calls it, rrv xfa Tda, rr,g yvwfcus, and the lock for which it is made is man s heart, of which the several faculties are the wards. And as it opened Lydia s heart, it opens all ours, and discovers what is within ; as the apostle speaks of prophesying, that it hath such an effect : 1 Cor xiv. 24, 25, But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all : And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest ; and so falling down on his face, he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth.
8. Because natural conscience, enlightened by the word, is not enough, therefore God farther renews in his children the spirit of their minds, Eph. iv. 23, as to put off, so to discern the corruptions of the old man, which are in him through lusts. The spiritual corruptions whereof, which are essen tially contrary to the spiritual workings of grace, are not, nor can be dis cerned, by any other eye than one so renewed. It is the spiritual man which discerneth all things, 1 Cor. ii. 15. Conscience, indeed, discerns the gross defilements of the soul ; but itself being denied, Titus i. 16, and muddied like muddy water, you cannot see your face distinctly in it, so as to descry the less perceivable blemishes.
4. Because this renewed spirit also is but imperfect, and therefore dimsighted, and indeed the light of conscience, and of the word, and of the sanctified soul too, all put together, of themselves can do little or nothing without the light of God s Spirit, therefore God hath appointed his own
Spirit to be in us, to search our hearts : Jer. xvii. 10, I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. And for this reason David, when he had done all that he could, calls upon God to try and search him. And when the light of this spirit enters in but at a cranny of the soul, it mani fests those defilements in it which were before unseen ; as the sunbeams shining into a dark room, shew those little dusts or motes in the air which were undiscerned ; nay, the chairs and stools in it could hardly be seen before.
Now, having all these helps, set upon the search of your hearts and spirits. Though they be desperately wicked, and every part corrupted, even the spirit itself, which should discern and pass judgment on things, yet you have superior aids whereby you may be sufficiently assisted. Keep your hearts and consciences pure from gross defilements, else it will be impossible to find out spiritual corruptions of the spirit and judgment, into which yet we are first and chiefly to inquire. If a looking-glass be dirty, little can be seen in it, but if it be rubbed clean, and kept clear, we may discern the least spots. Make further use of the light of the word to discover what is in you. The apostle Paul, though he could not but discern grosser lusts, sensual lusts in him by the light of nature, yet by that help alone he could not perceive those which were spiritual, till the spiritual light of the law came and manifested them, and he saw not how all concupiscence was in him till then : Rom. vii. 7-9, What shall we say then ? Is the law sin ? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law : for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occa sion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once : but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. Grow in grace, and increase in the light of it, and be sure to keep that quicksighted. If you do not grow in grace, you will not be able to see perfectly and clearly,
170 AN UNREGENEEATEMAN S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK III.
2 Peter i. 5-9. But a man increasing in grace, and walking in the Spirit, will be able to see the least mote of sin that flies up and down in his heart, which another man, though regenerate, yet if he arrive not to such a growth and spiritual walking, will not see. Pray for the Spirit of God also to help you. Because Laodicea was deceived in the knowledge of her heart and state, she is counselled to take eye salve, and to anoint her eyes with it : Kev. iii. 17, 18, Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing ; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich ; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear ; and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see. When Job was sensible that he knew not all of himself which he ought, he goes to God to instruct him : Job xxxiv. 32, That which I see not, teach thou me ; if I have done iniquity, I will do no more. And last of all, be diligent and constant in this exercise of searching your hearts ; the more you exercise your eyes, the quicker they will be in seeing. Use light, and have light. Exer cising of the spiritual senses produceth an habit of discerning good and evil : Heb, v. 14, * But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
But further to instruct you in this duty and art, I will shew what it is to search the heart, and teach the skill of cutting it open, and rightly anato mising it, and what in every faculty is especially to be searched for. The true searching of the heart I thus define : It is a reflex act of the mind and conscience renewed, whereby a man, assisted by the light of the word and Spirit, doth discern, and judge of the spiritual good and evil that is in his heart, and in every faculty of it, both severally and jointly together.
1. It is a reflex act of the mind, wherein the mind looks inward and comes home to itself. For in the direct acts of the mind, a man is carried out to things without himself ; but this calls in his thoughts to view his own soul. And this is one of the chiefest excellencies of the reasonable creature, wherein it doth so much transcend beasts, that it is able to turn its eyes inward, and judge of its own thoughts and desires, what they are, and to what they tend. This, I say, is proper only to man and angels: 1 Cor. ii. 11, Who knows the things of a man ? the spirit of a man doth this, but not that which is in beasts. This, of all acts, is also the noblest, and in the exercise of it consists man s honour and wisdom. As in mathematics, a circular figure is better and stronger than any other, because it returns into itself, so that every part bears up another, so reflex thoughts, returning in upon our selves, are wiser, stronger, and safer. In this too the image of God much consists, I mean that image which is in the natural faculties of the soul, that as God doth know himself, we also are able to know ourselves.
2. I add, of the mind renewed and assisted. For though every man hath this reflecting power in him since the fall, yet it is dimmed and weakened more than other direct acts, which are yet dim enough ; and therefore we know all other things better than ourselves, and of all else we know least what is done in our own bosoms. The heathens, therefore, could say that y\w$i ceavrbv, was of all other the hardest lesson. Man, by sin, becoming like the beast which perisheth, has lost this ability, whereby he was chiefly distin guished from the brutes, more than any other. When man had God s image of holiness, he understood God and himself best of any other, but now, alas, ! You shall see a poor soul, mean in it is the least part of his knowledge abilities of wit, or accomplishments of learning, who is ignorant in all things
else, who knows not how the world goes, nor upon what wheels states turn ; who yet, being renewed and assisted by the Spirit of God, knows more clearly and experimentally his own heart, than all learned men in the world do theirs, and knows more of grace and sin in it. And though the other may better discourse philosophically of the acts of the soul, and the dependenca of them one on another, yet this poor man sees more into the corruptions of it than they all.
3. I add, whereby a man knows the spiritual good or evil in the hearty for that is the object to be searched into. It is not only what his thoughts and purposes are for the matter of them ; for ask any man, and he can tell you what he thinks at any time ; but there is a further thing to be looked into : the good, or evil, the frame, the temper, the inclination of all either to sin or to godliness. We are to feel the pulse of the heart, and to discern by its beating whether it be sound or diseased, and with what particular dis temper it is most affected. And herein lies the great and difficult work.
Any man s pulse tells him that his heart beats, and he may feel whether the motion be orderly or irregular, but it is a physician s skill to guess at the disease, and know the temper of the blood by it ; and it is a Christian s skill to know and judge the like of his soul and spirit. Now the word, when it searcheth the heart, reads not a philosophy lecture upon it, but shews the evils which are in it. It is not the nature of the heart simply, and the dependence of one faculty on another, but the wickedness and deceitfulness which God there points out to be known, Jer. xvii. 9, 10.
4. I add, in every faculty, for then thou seest thy sins in their causes, when thou seest from whence every sin hath its rise in thee, from whence its first motion is, wherein its strength lies, and how sin carries things within thee. How it runs through thy understanding in devising, projecting, and approving of it, through thy will in consenting to it, through thy affections which are inflamed with it, till at last it works in the members to execution. Then thou knowest how sinful thy heart is, when thou seest how all the several wheels in it turn still to evil, and how one wheel moves another, so that thou sinnest with a joint concurrence of them all to the wicked action. And in all this it especially concerns thee to search out the pollution of thy spirit, of thy understanding, judgment, and will ; how far they are guilty in the commission of the sin, which will serve to aggravate or lessen the sin so much the more as they are found to have a greater or lesser hand in it. For as the sins of princes are greater than those of other men, because they are their rulers, so are the sins of these superior faculties of a higher guilt, because it is their duty, and they are placed, to guide the rest. And it concerns thee the more to be strictly inquisitive into these sins, because of all other they most conceal themselves, and as their operations are more strong, so with less noise, as poison works more strongly in the head than the stomach, though it be perceived more there than in the head. Inquire thou into the sins of these ringleaders in thee ; and as in case of treason, the state, the government inquires most after the plotters and contrivers of it, so look thou not so much to the members of the body, and the lusts which war in them, as unto that corrupted judgment and will in thee that devised the means to satisfy those lusts, which fed them with thoughts and fancies, which were privy to the first contrivance of the treason, and gave way, and consented to it. The lusts which war in the members are but weapons, instruments, Eom. vi. 19. You must therefore look to the higher powers of sin in the soul, to the throne of unrighteousness there, whose agents those lusts are.
If a man would rightly understand a state or a commonwealth, it is not
172 AN TJNREGENERATE MAN S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK III. enough to know and view what proclamations come out, what decrees, and orders are made, what factions are in it, what transactions of affairs, what armies raised, &c., for this all in a kingdom know; but he who would be an exact statesman must also know what passeth at council board, what the consults and deliberations are, what was the design of such acts and procla mations, and to what end they were made, what ends such or such a potent faction hath, with what colours they hide their secret intentions, and into what principles of state all may be resolved. This is so to understand a state, as few do, and for want of this knowledge how amiss do vulgar capa cities judge of public actions. Thus also if you would understand the state of your souls, you must diligently and especially mark what passeth at council board in the understanding, the sight of which is enough to amaze us, if we saw but by what devilish principles and atheistical consultations all is guided and swayed, and into which our actions may be resolved, what most base, and filthy ends rule us, and what petty, slight, foolish motives we have, what ungodly reasonings and deliberations pass through us, and how con trary to the rules of conscience, which notes all, as God s sworn secretary, and how all is overruled by our corrupt reasonings, let conscience say what it will in opposition ; I say, if we saw all this, it would amaze any of us ; and this is that which I mainly intend to shew in the following discourse, when I shall come to particulars. This is indeed to search a man s heart, and to know it, for the wickedness of it lies especially in deceitfulness, and that deceitfulness consists in the juggling tricks of the mind, which are least dis cerned by us.
5. I add, in each of these faculties apart. For when the apostle speaks of the word s powerful searching the heart, how doth he express it ? As : Heb. iv. 12, For the word of God dividing between the soul and spirit is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. The meaning of which phrase I understand thus, that the soul and spirit is divided, when we consider them apart, and severally, when we remark what evil is in the spirit opart, and in the soul apart; that is, in the judgment and affections. They join in the action, and the influences which they have are intricately involved and twisted in every act which comes from us ; but this is the way to untwist them, viz. to dissever, and to view apart what a man s thoughts, reasonings, motives, and devisings are in such a business, which thoughts, reasonings, &c., the apostle there calls the marrow of the action. Then after this view, what the desires, or fears, or inflammations of passions are by which thou
acted in the doing it, which are but the bones of it, and are indeed but guided and acted by those ends, reasonings, and conclusions, which the heart made. And, accordingly (as you see), the apostle instanceth only in the intents and thoughts, which are acts of the understanding and will. And so at the day of judgment, what is it God will bring to light ? Not passions so much, and actions (though these also shall be manifested), as the counsels of the heart : 1 Cor. iv. 5, Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts ; and then shall every man have praise of God. Passions are but the veins and arteries, in which our intentions and ends, as the blood and spirits, do move, when the mind, which is as the heart itself, hath by reasoning and agitating things in itself, hatched, and forged those designs and ends, as the real heart doth spirits by motion. Take an affection which you have stirred, and examine it, and you will find a reason of it, a meaning of it, and that there is some end acts
CHAP. X.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 173 it, and stirs in it. And it is the end also which makes an action good or bad ; and as God is said to look to the meaning of the spirit in us, Bom. viii. 27 ; that is, to every sigh, groan, and desire, so also to the meaning of flesh in us, what our carnal ends and motives are ; therefore we should look most especially to them.
Now, as you are to divide thus between soul and spirit, thoughts, intents, and passions, and to view them apart, so you must also view them jointly and together in every action, and consider not only what affections you have, which may deceive, but consider withal what thoughts, considerations, motives ever stirred them up, and moved in them ; then you know the heart aright. Do not simply look to your thoughts, but see what motives prevail with the heart, and stir the will, and affections, and what motives or suggestions put in by conscience, or the word, lie as dead drugs, and work not. This is to search the heart. So if thou mournest for sin, search the spring of thy sorrow, and look what consideration moved it in thee, and do so likewise in other thy actions.
I do speak this before you all, that all deceit lies in this, either men view their hearts undivided in the gross, and do not divide between soul and spirit, or else they view them only apart, and not in that dependence, or at least concurrence the one hath with the other. They look upon good affections as on Ezekiel s wheels, and because they turn outwardly to good, they rest in them, not seeing, nor so much as inquiring, what spirit moves within those wheels, what motives, intents, considerations, act and inform them. The truth is, the heart is a maze or labyrinth, and if you would find the way into all its windings, you must be guided by a clue or thread drawn through them all. And when you view any action, you must go through understand ing, will, and affections, and not only see that they concur to it, but the manner of their concurrence ; search the chambers of the heart, not only one room to see what is done there, and what thoughts and fancies are in the outward room (which is a room that all come into, both good and bad), but from thence go into the privy chamber, and hear what principles, say ings, dictates, reasonings you are guided by, what resolutions you fix on, what aims you have. Then go down to the affections, and view how they, as agents, act their parts, and see all this time how conscience is imprisoned as in a dungeon, Rom. i. 18, being withheld in unrighteousness, while they act all in the dark : 1 Cor. iv. 5, * Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who will both bring to light the hidden things of dark ness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts ; and then shall every man have praise of God. He calls the counsels of the heart the hidden works of darkness, and whilst conscience is thus imprisoned, it may call, and cry till it be hoarse, but it shall not be heard.