Prov. 4. 23.
Keep thy heart with all diligence, for
out of it are the issues of Life.

THe Heart of man is his worst
part before it be regenerate,
and the best afterwards; It is
the seat of Principles, and fountain
of Actions. The eye of God is, and
the eye of the Christian ought to be,
principally fixed upon it.
The greatest difficulty in Conversion
is to win the heart to God, and the greatest
difficulty after Conversion is to keep
the heart with God. Here lies the very
pinch and stress of Religion; here's that
that makes the way to life a narrow
way, and the Gate of Heaven a straight
Gate. Direction and help in this great
work, is the scope and summe of this
Text; wherein we have.
1. An Exhortation, Keep thy heart
with all diligence.
2. The Reason or Motive inforcing it,
For out of it are the issues of Life.
In the Exhortation I shall Consider,

B

1. The Matter of the Duty.
2. The manner of performing it.
1. The Matter of the Duty; Keep thy
Heart. Heart is not here taken properly
for that noble part of the Body which
Philosophers call the primum vivens, &
ultimum moriens; the first that lives, and
the last that dies; but by Heart in a Metaphor,
the Scripture sometimes understands
some particular noble facultie of
the Soul, in Rom. 1. 21. it is put for the
understanding part, their foolish Heart
(i.e.) their foolish Understanding was
darkened. And Psal. 119. 11. It is put
for the Memory, Thy Word have I hid in
my Heart. And John 1. 3. 20 It is put for
the Conscience, which hath in it both the
light of Understanding, and the recognitions
of the Memory: If our heart
Condemn us, (i.e.) if our Conscience;
whose proper Office it is to condemn.
But here we are to take it more generally
for the whole Soul or inner Man; for
look what the Heart is to the Body, that
the Soul is to the Man: and what Health
is to the Heart; that Holiness is to the
Soul: Quod sanitas in corpore, id sanctitas
in corde. The state of the whole Body depends
upon the soundness and vigour of
the Heart, and the everlasting state of the

whole man upon the good or ill condition
of the Soul.
And by keeping the Heart understand,
the diligent and constant use and improvement
of all holy Means and Duties to
preserve the Soul from sin, and maintain
its sweet and free communion with God.
Lavater in loc. will have
the word taken from a besieged
Garrison, begirt by
many Enemies without,
and in danger of being betrayed
by treacherous Citizens
within, in which
danger the Souldiers upon
pain of death are commanded
to watch: and
whereas the expression,
(keep thy heart) seems to
put it upon us as our work;
yet it doth not imply a
sufficiency or ability in us
to do it; we are as able to
stop the Sun in its course,
or make the Rivers run
backward, as by our own skill and power
to rule and order our hearts: we may as
well be our own Saviours, as our own
Keepers, and yet Solomon speaks properly
enough, when he saith, keep thy

B 2

3

Heart, because the duty is ours, though
the power be Gods. A Natural man hath
no power, a gracious man hath some;
though not sufficient, and that power he
hath depends upon the exciting and assisting
strength of Christ; Gratia gratiam
postulat, Grace within us is beholding to
Grace without us, John 15. 5. Without me
ye can do nothing. So much of the matter
of the Duty.
2. The Manner of performing it, is
With all diligence; the Hebrew is very Emphatical
NoValue
cum omni custodia,
keep with all keeping; q. d. keep, keep;
set double Guards, your hearts will be
gone else: And this vehemency of expression
with which the duty is urged,
plainly implies how difficult it is to keep
our Hearts, and how dangerous to let
them go.
3. The Reason or Motive quickning
to this Duty is very forcible and weighty,
For out of it are the issues of life. That
is, it is the Source and Fountain of all
vital actions and operations; Hinc Fons
boni & peccandi origo
, saith Jerom; it is the
Spring and Original both of good and
evil, as the spring in a Watch that sets all
the Wheels in motion. The Heart is
the Treasury, the Hand and Tongue but

the Shops, what is in these came from
thence; the hand and tongue alwaies begins
where the heart ends. The heart contrives,
and the members execute, Luke
6. 46. A good man out of the good treasury
of his heart bringeth forth good things, and
an evil man out of the evil treasury of his
heart bringeth forth evil things; for out of
the abundance of his heart his mouth speaketh.
So then, if the heart erre in its work,
these must needs miscarry in theirs; for
heart-errors are like the errors of the
first concoction which cannot be rectified
afterwards: Or like the mis-placing
and inverting of the stamps and letters
in the Press, which must needs cause so
many errata's in all the Copies that are
printed off. O then! how important a
Duty is that which is contained in the
following Proposition?
Doct. That the keeping, and right managing
of the heart in every condition, is the
great business of a Christians life.
What the Philosopher saith of waters
is as properly applicable to hearts, suis
terminis difficile continentur; 'tis hard to
keep them within any bounds: God hath
set bounds and limits to them, yet how
frequently do they transgress. not only
the bounds of Grace and Religion, but

B 3

even of Reason and common Honesty;
Hic labor hoc opus est, this is that which
affords the Christian matter of labour,
fear and trembling to his dying day. 'Tis
not the cleansing of the hand that makes
a Christian, for many a Hypocrite can
shew as fair a hand as he, but the purifying,
watching, and right ordering of
the heart; this is the thing that provokes
so many sad complaints, and costs so many
deep groans and brinish tears. 'Twas
the pride of Hezekiah's heart that made
him lye in the dust mourning before the
Lord, 2 Chron. 32. 26. 'Twas the fear
of Hypocrisie invading the heart, that
made David cry, Let my heart be sound in
thy Statutes that I be not ashamed, Psal. 119.
80. 'Twas the sad experience he had of
the Divisions and Distractions of his
own heart in the Service of God, that
made him pour out that Prayer, Psal. 86.
11. Unite my heart to fear thy Name.
The Method in which I shall improve
the Point, shall be this.
1. First I shall inquire what the keeping
of the heart supposes and imports.
2. Secondly, Assign divers Reasons,
why Christians must make this the great
work and business of their lives.
3. Thirdly, Point at those special seasons

which especially call for this diligence
in keeping the heart.
4. Fourthly and lastly, apply the
whole in several uses.
1. What the keeping of the Heart supposes
and imports.
To keep the heart necessarily supposes
a previous work of Sanctification; which
hath set the heart right by giving it a
new Spiritual bent and inclination, for as
long as the heart is not set right by Grace,
as to its habitual frame, no Duties or
Means can keep it right with God. Self
is the Poise of the unsanctified heart,
which Byasses and moves it in all its designs
and actions; and as long as it is so,
it is impossible that any external means
should keep it with God.
Man by Creation was of one constant
uniform frame and tenour of Spirit, held
one straight and even course; not one
thought or faculty ravell'd or disorder'd,
his minde had a perfect illumination to
understand and know the will of God,
his will a perfect compliance therewith,
his sensitive appetite and other inferiour
powers, stood in a most obedient subordination.
Man by degeneration is become a
most disordered and rebellious Creature,

B 4

contesting with, and opposing his Maker,
as the first cause, by self dependance; as
the chiefest good, by self-love; as the highest
Lord, by self will; and as the last end,
by self-seeking; and so is quite disordered,
and all his acts irregular: His illuminated
understanding is clouded with
ignorance, his complying will, full of
rebellion and stubbornnesse; his subordinate
powers, casting off the dominion and
government of the superiour faculties.
But by Regeneration, this disordered
Soul is set right again, Sanctification being
the rectifying, and due framing, or as
the Scripture phrases it, the renovation
of the Soul after the Image of God, Eph.
4. 24. in which, self dependance is removed
by Faith; self-love, by the love of God;
self will, by subjection and obedience to
the Will of God; and self-seeking, by selfdenyal.
The darkned understanding is
again illuminated, Eph. 1. 18. the refractory
will sweetly subdued, Psal. 110. 3.
the rebellious appetite, or concupiscence,
gradually conquered, Rom. 6. 7. per tot.
And thus the Soul which sin had universally
depraved, is again by grace restored
and rectified.
This being presupposed, it will not be
difficult to apprehend, what it is to keep

8

the heart, which is nothing else but the
constant care and diligence of such a renewed
man, to preserve his soul in that holy frame
to which Grace hath reduced it, and daily
strives to hold it.
For though grace hath in great measure
rectified the Soul, and given it an
habitual heavenly temper; yet Sin
often actually discomposes it again; so
that even a gracious heart is like a musical
Instrument, which though it be never
so exactly tuned, a small matter
brings it out of tune again; yea hang it
aside but a little and it will need setting
again, before you can play another Lesson
on it: even so stands the case with
gracious hearts; if they are in frame in
one duty, yet how dull, dead and disordered,
when they come to another: and
therefore every duty needs a particular
preparation of the heart, Job 11. 13. If
thou prepare thine heart, and stretch out thy
hands towards him: Well then, to keep
the heart, is carefully to preserve it from
sin which disorders it; and maintain that
spiritual and gracious frame which fits it
for a life of communion with God: and
this includes these six acts in it.
1. First, frequent observation of the
frame of the heart, turning in and examining

how the case stands with it; this
is one part of the work. Carnal and formal
persons take no heed to this, they
cannot be brought to confer with their
own hearts; there are some men and women
that have lived forty or fifty years
in the world, and have scarce had one
hours discourse with their own hearts all
that while: 'tis an hard thing to bring a
man and himself together upon such an
account; but Saints know those Soliloquies
and self-conferences to be of excellent
use and advantage. The Heathen
could say, anima sedendo & quiescendo fit
sapiens, the Soul is made wise by sitting
still in quietness; though Bankrupts care
not to look into their Books of accompt,
yet upright hearts will know whether
they go backward or forward, Psal. 77.
6. I commune with mine own heart; The
heart can never be kept, until its case be
examined and understood.
2. It includes deep humiliations for
heart evils and disorders; thus Hezekiah
humbled himself for the pride of his
heart, 2 Chron. 32. 26. Thus the people
were ordered to spread forth their
hands to God in Prayer in a sense of the
Plague of their own hearts, 1 Kings 8. 38.
Upon this account many an upright

heart hath been laid low before God: O
What an heart have I? they have in their
confessions pointed at the heart; the pained
place, Lord here is the wound, here
is the Plague-sore; it is with the heart
well kept, as it is with the eye, which is a
fit emblem of it, if a small dust get into
the eye, it will never leave twinkling
and watering, till it have wept it out: So
the upright heart cannot be at rest till it
have wept out its troubles, and poured
out its complaints before the Lord.
3. It includes earnest Supplications
and instant Prayer for heart-purifying
and rectifying Grace, when sin hath defiled
and disordered it; so Psal. 19. 12.
Cleanse thou me from secret faults, and
Psal. 86. 11. Unite my heart to fear thy
Name. Saints have always many such
Petitions depending before the Throne
of Grace; this is the thing which is most
pleaded by them with God: when they
are praying for outward mercies, happily
their spirits may be more remiss, but
when it comes to the heart-case, then
they intend their spirits to the utmost,
fill their mouths with Arguments, weep
and make supplication; Oh, for a better
heart! Oh, for a heart to love God
more! To hate Sin more, to walk more

evenly with God; Lord deny not to me
such a heart, what ever thou deny me;
Give me an heart to fear thee, love and
delight in thee, if I beg my bread in desolate
places. 'Tis observed of holy Mr.
Bradford, that when he was confessing
sin, he would never give over confessing
until he had felt some brokeness of heart
for that sin, and when praying for any
Spiritual mercy, would never give over
that suite, till he had got some relish of
that mercy; that's the third thing included
in keeping the heart.
4. It includes the imposing of strong
ingagements and bonds upon our selves
to walk more accurately with God, and
avoid the occasions whereby the heart
may be induced to sin: Well composed,
advised, and deliberate Vows are in some
cases of excellent use to guard the heart
against some special sin, So Job 31. 1.
I made a covenant with mine eyes; by this
means, holy ones have over-awed their
souls, and preserved themselves from defilement
by some special heart-corruptions.
5. It includes a constant holy jealousie
over our own hearts, quick-sighted
self-jealousie is an excellent preservative
from sin; he that will keep his heart,

must have the eyes of his soul awake and
open upon all the disorderly, and tumultuous
stirrings of his affections, if the affections
break loose, and the passions be
stirred, the Soul must discover and suppress
them before they get to an height:
O my Soul, dost thou well in this? My
tumultuous thoughts and passions where
is your Commission? State viri, quae causa
viae? quive estis in armis. Virg.
Happy is the man that thus feareth alwaies,
Prov. 28. 14. By this fear of the
Lord it is that men depart from evil,
shake off security, and preserve themselves
from iniquity; he that will keep
his heart must feed with fear, rejoyce
with fear, and pass the whole time of
his sojourning here in fear, and all little
enough to keep the heart from Sin.
6. And lastly, To add no more, it includes
the realizing of Gods Presence
with us, and setting the Lord alwaies
before us: this the people of God have
found a singular means to keep their
hearts upright, and awe them from sin:
when the eye of our Faith is fixed upon
the eye of Gods Omniscience, we dare
not let out our thoughts and affections to
vanity: Holy Job durst not suffer his
heart to yeild to an impure, vain thought,

and what was it that moved him to so
great a Circumspection? Why he tells
you, Job. 31. 4. Doth he not see my waies
and count all my steps?
Walk before me
(saith God to Abraham) and be thou perfect,
Gen. 17. 1. Even as Parents use to
set their Children in the Congregation
before them, knowing that else they will
be toying and playing; so would the
heart of the best man too, were it not for
the eye of God.
In these and such like particulars, do
gracious souls express the care they have
of their hearts; they are as careful to prevent
the breaking loose of their corruptions
in times of temptation, as Sea-men
are to binde fast the Guns that they break
not loose in a storm; as careful to preserve
the sweetness and comfort they
have got from God in any duty, as one
that comes out of an hot Bath, or great
sweat is of taking cold, by going forth into
the chill aire; this is the work, and of
all works in Religion it is the most difficult,
constant, and important work.
1. 'Tis the hardest work; Heart-work
is hard work indeed: To shuffle over Religious-
Duties with a loose and heedless
Spirit, will cost no great pains; but to set
thyself before the Lord, and tye up thy

loose and vain thoughts to a constant and
serious attendance upon him; this will
cost thee something: to attain a facility
and dexterity of language in Prayer,
and put thy meaning into apt and decent
expressions is easie, but to get thy heart
broken for sin whilst thou art confessing
it; melted with free grace, whilst thou
art blessing God for it; to be really ashamed
and humbled through the apprehensions
of Gods infinite holiness, and
to keep thy heart in this frame, not onely
in, but after Duty; will surely cost thee
some groans, and travelling pains of soul:
to represse the outward acts of sin, and
compose the external part of thy life in
a laudable and comely manner is no
great matter, even carnal persons by the
force of common principles can do this;
but to kill the root of corruption within,
to set and keep up an holy Government
over thy thoughts, to have all things lye
straight and orderly in the heart, this is
not easie.
2. 'Tis a Constant 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 Christian
in this business as it is with Sea-men,
that have sprung a Leake at Sea, if they

15

tug not constantly at the Pump, the water
encreases upon them and will quickly
sink them: 'tis 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 Christian, which will suffer an intermission
of this work: It is in the keeping
watch over our hearts, as it was in the
keeping up of Moses his hands, whilst
Israel and Amalek were fighting below,
Exod. 17. 12. No sooner do Moses his
hands grow heavy and sink down, but
Amalek prevails: You know it cost David
and Peter many a sad day and night
for intermitting the watch over their
own hearts but a few minutes.
3. 'Tis the most important business
of a Christians life; without this we are
but Formalists in Religion: all our Professions,
Gifts and Duties, signifie nothing:
My son give me thine Heart, Pro.
23. 26. 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 what
ever else you bring to him: there is so
much only of worth and value in what
we do, as there is of Heart in it: Concerning
the Heart, God seems to say as

Joseph of Benjamin, If you bring not Benjamin
with you, you shall not see my face. Among
the Heathens when the Beast was
cut up for sacrifice, the first thing the
Priest lookt upon was the Heart, and if
that were unsound and naught, the Sacrifice
was rejected. God rejects all duties
(how glorious soever in other respects)
offered him without a heart:
He that performs duty without a heart,
viz. heedlesly, is no more accepted with
God then he that performs it with a
double heart, viz. hypocritically, Isa.
66. 3. And thus I have briefly opened
the nature of the Duty, what is imported
in this phrase, Keep thy heart.
2. Next, I shall give you some rational
account, why Christians should
make this the great business of their
lives, to keep their hearts?
The importance and necessity of making
this our great and main business,
will manifestly appear in that, 1. The
honour of God. 2. The sincerity of our
profession. 3. The beauty of our conversation.
4. The comfort of our Souls.
5. The improvement of our graces:
and 6. Our stability in the hour of
temptation; are all wrapt up in, and
dependent on our sincerity and care

C

in the management in this work.
1. The Glory of God is much concerned
therein; heart-evils are very
provoking evils to the Lord. The Schools
do well observe, that outward sins are
majoris infamiae, sins of greater infamy,
but heart-sins are majoris reatus, sins of
deeper guilt. How severely hath the
Great God declared his wrath from
Heaven against heart-wickedness? The
great Crime for which the old World
stands indicted, Gen. 6. 5, 6, 7. is heart-wickedness;
God saw that every imagination
(or fiction) of their heart was onely
evil, and that continually: for which he
sent the dreadfullest Judgment that was
ever executed since the World began:
And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom
I have created from the face of the earth,
both man and beast, and the creeping things,
and the fowls of heaven, for it repenteth me
that I have made man, v. 7. We find not
their murders, adulteries; blasphemies,
(though they were defiled with these)
particularly alledged against them; but
the evils of their hearts: yea, that which
God was so provoked by, as to give up
his peculiar Inheritance into the enemies
hand, was the evil of their hearts,
Jer. 4. 14. O Jerusalem, wash thine heart

18

from wickedness that thou maist be saved,
how long shall vain thoughts lodge within
thee? The wickedness and vanity of
their thoughts God took special notice
of; and because of this the Caldean must
come upon them as a Lion from his thickets,
v. 7. and tear them to pieces. For the
very sin of thoughts it was that God
threw down the faln Angels from Heaven,
and keeps them still in everlasting
chains to the judgment of the great day;
by which expression is not obscurely
intimated some extraordinary judgment
to which they are reserved, as prisoners
that have most irons laid upon them, may
be supposed to be the greatest Malefactors:
and what was their sin? Why,
onely spiritual wickedness, for they having
no bodily Organs could act nothing
externally against God. Yea,
meer heart-evils are so provoking, that
for them he rejects with indignation all
the duties that some men perform unto
him, Isa. 66. 3. He that killeth an Oxe, is
as if he slew a man, he that sacrificeth a
lamb, as if he cut off a dogs neck, he that
offereth an oblation, as if he offered swines
blood, he that burneth incense, as if he blessed
an Idol. In what words could the
abhorrence of a Creatures actions be

C 2

more fully expressed by the holy God;
Murder and Idolatry are not more vile
in his account than their Sacrifices,
though materially such as himself appointed:
and what made them so? the
following words inform us, Their soul
delighteth in their abominations.
To conclude, such is the vileness of
meer heart-sins, that the Scriptures sometimes
intimate the difficulty of pardon
for them. So in the case of Simon Magus,
Acts 8. 21. his heart was not right,
he had vile thoughts of God, and the
things of God, the Apostle bids him repent
and pray, if perhaps the thoughts of his
heart might be forgiven him. O then never
slight heart-evils! for by these God
is highly wronged and provoked, and
for this reason, let every Christian make
it his work to keep his heart with all diligence.
2. The sincerity of our profession
much depends upon the care and conscience
we have in keeping our hearts;
for it's most certain, that a man is but an
hypocrite in his profession how curious
soever he be in the externals of Religion,
that is heedless and careless of the frame
of his heart: you have a pregnant instance
of this in the case of Jehu, 2 King.

10. 31. But Jehu took no heed to walk in the
ways of the Lord God of Israel with his
heart. That Context gives us an account
of the great service perform'd by Jehu
against the house of Ahab and Baal, as
also of a great temporal reward given
him by God for that service, even that
his Children to the fourth Generation
should sit upon the Throne of Israel.
And yet in these words Jehu is censured
for an hypocrite; though God approved
and rewarded the work, yet he abhorred
and rejected the person that did it as hypocritical:
and wherein lay his hypocrisie?
but in this, that he took no heed to
walk in the ways of the Lord with his
heart, (i.e.) he did all insincerely and
for self-ends; and though the work he
did were materially good, yet he not
purging his heart from those unworthy
self-designs in doing it, was an hypocrite:
And Simon of whom we spake
before, though he appeared such a person
that the Apostle could not regularly refuse
him, yet his hypocrisie was quickly
discovered: and what discovered it? but
this, that though he professed and associated
himself with the Saints, yet he
was a stranger to the mortification of
heart sins; Thy heart is not right with

C 3

21

God, Acts 8. 21. 'Tis true, there is a
great difference among Christians themselves,
in their diligence and dexterity about
heart-work; some are more conversant
and succesful in it then others
are, but he that takes no heed to his
heart, he that is not careful to order it aright
before God, is but a hypocrite,
Ezek. 33. 31, 32. And they come unto thee
as the people cometh, and sit before thee [as
my people] and they hear thy words, but they
will not do them; for with their mouth they
shew much love, but their heart goes after
their covetousness. Here were a company
of formal hypocrits, as is evident by that
expression [as my people] like them, but
not of them: and what made them so?
their out-side was fair, here were reverent
postures, high professions, much
seeming joy and delight in Ordinances,
thou art to them as a lovely Song; yea,
but for all that, they kept not their hearts
with God in those duties, their hearts
were commanded by their lusts, they
went after their covetousness; had they
kept their hearts with God all had been
well, but not regarding which way their
heart went in duty; there lay the coare
of their hypocrisie.
Object. If any upright Soul should

hence infer, then I am an hypocrite too,
for many times my heart departs from
God in duty, do what I can; yet I cannot
hold it close with God.
Sol. To this I answer, the very Objection
carries in it, its own Solution:
Thou sayest, do what I can, yet I cannot
keep my heart with God. Soul, if thou
dost what thou canst, thou hast the blessing
of an upright, though God sees
good to exercise thee under the affliction
of a discomposed heart. There remains
still some wildness in the thoughts and
fancies of the best to humble them; but
if you find a care before to prevent
them, and opposition against them when
they come, grief and sorrow afterwards;
you will find enough to clear you from
raigning hypocrisie. (1) This fore-care
is seen partly in laying up the word in
thine heart to prevent them, Psal. 119. 11.
Thy word have I hid in mine heart that I
might not sin against thee: partly in our
indeavours to ingage our hearts to God,
Jer. 30. 21. and partly in begging preventing
grace from God in our on-sets
upon duty, Psal. 119. 36. 37. 'tis a good
sign where this care goes before a duty,
And (2) 'tis a sweet sign of uprightness
to oppose them in their first rise,

C 4

Psal. 119. 113. I hate vain thoughts. Gal.
5. 17. The spirit lusteth against the flesh.
And (3) Thy after-grief discovers thy
upright heart; if with Hezekiah thou art
humbled for the evils of thy heart, thou
hast no reason from these disorders to
question the integrity of it; but to suffer
sin to lodge quietly in the heart, to let
thy heart habitually and uncontrolledly
wander from God, is a sad and dangerous
symptom indeed.

I. Vse of Information.

YOU have heard, that the keeping
of the heart is the great work of a
Christian in which the very Soul and
life of Religion consists, and without
which all other duties are of no value
with God: hence then I shall infer to the
consternation of hypocrites, and formal
Professors.
1. That the pains and labours which many
persons have taken in religion, is but lost labour,
and pains to no purpose, such as will
never turn to account.
Many great services have been performed,
many glorious works are wrought
by men, which yet are utterly rejected
by God, and shall never stand upon record
in order to an eternal acceptation,
because they took no heed to keep their
hearts with God in those duties: this is
that fatal rock upon which thousands of
vain professors have split themselves eternally,
they are curious about the externals of
religion, but regardless of their hearts.
O how many hours have some Professors
spent in hearing, praying, reading,
conferring? and yet as to the main end

N 4

of religion, as good they had sate still
and done nothing: for all this signifies
nothing, the great work, I mean heart
work; being all the while neglected:
tell me thou vain professor, when didst
thou shed a teare for the deadness, hardness,
unbelief, or earthliness of thy heart?
thinkst thou, such an easie religion can
save thee? if so, we may invert Christs
words, and say, wide is the gate, and
broad is the way, that leadeth to life; and
many there be that goe in thereat: hear
me thou self deluding hypocrit, thou that
hast put of God with hartless duties, thou
that hast acted in religion as if thou hadst
been blessing an Idol, that could not
search, and discover thy heart: thou that
hast offered to God but the skin of the
sacrifice, not the marrow, fat and inwards
of it; how wilt thou abide the
coming of the Lord? how wilt thou hold
up thy head before him when he shall
say, O thou dissembling false hearted
man? how couldst thou profess religion?
with what face couldst thou so often tell
me, thou lovedst me, when thou knewest
all the while in thine own conscience,
that thine heart was not with me? O
tremble to think, what a fearful judgment
it is to be given over to a heedless

184

and careless heart: and then to have
religious duties in stead of a rattle to quiet
and still the Conscience!
2. Hence I also infer for the humiliation
even of upright hearts, that unless
the people of God spend more time and pains
about their hearts then generally and ordinarily
they do, they are never like to do God
much service, or be owners of much comfort
in this World.
I may say of that Christian that is
remiss and careless in keeping his heart,
as Jacob said of Reuben, Thou shalt not excel:
It grieves me to see how many Christians
there are that go up and down
dejected and complaining, that live at a
poor low rate;both of service and comfort,
and how can they expect it should
be otherwise as long as they live at such
a careless rate? O how little of their
time is spent in the closet, in searching,
humbling, and quickning their hearts?
You say, your hearts are dead; and
doe you wonder they are so as long as
you keep them not with the fountain
of life? if your bodies had been diated as
your Souls have been, they would have
been dead too: never expect better
hearts till you take more pains with
them; qui fugit molam, fugit farinam:

he that will not have the sweat, must not
expect the sweet of Religion.
O Christians! I fear your zeal and
strength hath run in the wrong channel:
I fear most of us may take up the Churches
complaint, Cant. 1. 6. They have
made me the keeper of the Vineyards, but
mine own Vineyard have I not kept. Two
things have eaten up the time and
strength of the Professors of this Generation,
and sadly diverted them from heart
work. (1) Fruitless controversies started
by Sathan, I doubt not to this very purpose,
to take us off from practical godliness,
to make us puzzle our heads, when
we should be searching our hearts. O how
little have we minded that of the Apostle,
Heb. 13. 9. Tis a good thing that the
heart be established with Grace, and not with
meats: (i.e.) with disputes and controversies
about meats, which have not profited
them that have been occupied therein.
O how much better is it to see men
live exactly, then to hear them dispute subtilly!
these unfruitful questions, how
have they rendred the Churches? wasted
time and spirits, and called Christians off
from their main business, from looking
to their own vineyard? what think you
Sirs? had it not been better if the questions

ventilated among the people of
God of late days, had been such as these?
how shall a man discern the special, from
the common operations of the Spirit?
how may a Soul discern its first declineings
from God? how may a backsliding
Christian recover his first love? how
may the heart be preserved from unseasonable
thoughts in duty? how may a
bosome sin be discovered and mortified,
&c. Would not this have tended
more to the credit of religion, and comfort
of your Souls? O tis time to repent,
and be ashamed of this folly! when
I read what Suarez a Papist said, who
wrote many Tomes of disputations, that
he prised the time he set apart for the
searching and examining of his heart,
in reference to God, above all the time
that ever he spent in other studies: I am
ashamed to find the professors of this age
yet insensible of their folly: shall the
Conscience of a Suarez feel a relenting
pang for strength and time so ill imployed?
and shall not yours? this is it your
Ministers long since warned you of:
your spiritual nurses were afraid of the
rickets, when they saw your heads only to
grow, and your hearts to wither. O
when will God beat our swords into

187

plowshares! I mean our disputes and
contentions, into practical godliness.
(2) Another cause of neglecting our
heart hath been earthly incumbrances:
the heads and hearts of many have been
filled with such a crowd and noise of
worldly business, that they have sadly
and sensibly declined and withered in
their zeal, love and delight in God, in
their heavenly, serious, and profitable
way of conversing with man.
O how hath this wilderness intangled
us! our discourses and conferences, nay
our very prayers and duties have a tang
of it: we have had so much work without
doors, that we have been able to doe
but little within. It was the sad complaint
of an holy one, O
saith he! tis sad to think,
how many precious opportunities
I have lost, how many sweet
motions, and admonitions of the Spirit
I have posted over unfruitfully, and
made the Lord to speak in vain, in the
secret illapses of his Spirit, the Lord hath
called upon me, but my worldly thoughts
did still lodge within me, and there was
no place in my heart for such calls of
God. surely there is a way of injoying
God, even in our worldly imployments;

188

God would never have put us upon
them to our loss. Enoch walked with
God, and begat sons and daughters, Gen.
5. 19. He walked with God, but did
not retire and seperate himself from the
things of this life: and the Angels that
are imployed by Christ in the things of
this world (for the Spirit of the living
creatures is in the wheels) they are finite
creatures, and cannot be in a twofold
ubi at one time, yet they lose nothing
of the beatifical vision, all the time of
their administration, for Matth. 18. 10.
their angels (even whilest they are imployed
for them) Behold the face of their
father which is in heaven. We need not
lose our visions by our imployments, if
the fault were not our own: alas! that
ever Christians who stand at the doore
of eternity, and have more work upon
their hands then this poor moment of
interposing time is sufficient for, should
yet be filling both our heads and hearts
with trifles.
3. Hence also I infer for the awakening
of all, that if the keeping of the heart be the
great work of a Christian, then there are but
few real Christians in the world.
Indeed, if every one that hath learned
the dialect of Christianity, and can talke

like a Saint, if every one that hath gifts
and parts, and by the common assisting
presence of the Spirit can preach, pray,
or discourse like a Christian: in a word,
if such as associate themselves with the
people of God, and delight in ordinances,
might pass for Christians, the number
then is great.
But alas! to what a small number will
they shrink, if you judge them by this
rule! how few are there, that make
Conscience of keeping their hearts,
watching their thoughts, judging their
ends, &c. O there be but few closet men
among professors! tis far easier for men
to be reconciled to any duties in religion
then to these: the prophane part of the
world will not so much as touch with
the outside of religious duties, much less
to this: and for the hypocrit though he
be polite and curious about those externals,
yet you can never perswade him
to this inward work, this difficult work:
this work to which there is no inducement
by humane applause, this work
that would quickly discover what the
hypocrit cares not to know, so that by
a general consent, this heart work is left
to the hands of a few secret ones and I
tremble to think in how few hands it is.

190

II. Vse of Exhortation.

IF the keeping of the heart be so important
a business, if such choice advantages
accrew to you thereby; if so many dear and
precious interests be wrapt up in it, then let
me call upon the people of God every where to
fall close to this work.
O study your hearts, watch your hearts,
keep your hearts: away with fruitless controversies
and idle questions, away with
empty names and vain shews, away with
unprofitable discourse & bold censures of
others, turn in upon your selves, get into
your closets, and now resolve to dwell
there: you have been strangers to this
work too long, you have kept others vineyards
too long, you have trifled about
the borders of religion too long, this
world hath deteined you from your
great work too long; will you now resolve
to look better to your hearts? will
you haste and come out of the crowds
of business, and clamours of the world?
and retire your selves more then you
have done? O that this day you would
resolve upon it!
Reader, methinks I should prevail with

thee; all that I beg for is but this, that
thou wouldst step aside a little oftner to
talk with God, and thine own heart,
that thou wouldst not suffer every trifle
to divert thee, that thou wouldest keep
a more true and faithful account of thy
thoughts and affections: that thou
wouldst but seriously demand of thine
own heart, at least every evening, O my
heart where hast thou been to day? whether
hast thou made a road to day? if all
that hath been said by way of inducement
be not enough, I have yet more
motives to offer you: and the first is
this:
1. Motive The studying, observing, and
diligent keeping of your own hearts will marvellously
help your understanding in the deep
mysteries of Religion.
An honest well experienced heart is a
singular help to a weak head, such a heart
will serve you in stead of a Commentary
upon a great part of the Scriptures: by
this means you shall far better understand
the things of God than the learned
Rabbies and profound Doctors (if graceless
and unexperienced) ever did, you
shall not only have a more clear, but a
more sweet perception and gust of them:
a man may discourse orthodoxly and

192

profoundly of the nature and effects of
faith, the troubles and comforts of Conscience,
the sweetness of Communion
with God, that never felt the efficacy and
sweet impressions of these things upon
his own spirit: but O how dark and dry
are these notions, compared with his, upon
whose heart they have been acted?
when such a man reads Davids Psalms,
or Pauls Epistles, there he finds his own
objections made and answered: O saith
he, these holy men speak my very heart!
their doubts were mine, their troubles
mine, and their experiences mine. I remember
Chrysostome speaking to his people
of Antioch about some choice experiences,
useth this expression. Sciunt initiati
quid dico: those that are initiated know
what I say, experience is the best School-master.
O then! study your hearts,
keep your hearts.
2. Mot. The study and observation of
your own hearts will antidote you against the
dangerous and infecting errours of the times
and places you live in.
For what think you is the reason that
so many professors in England have departed
from the faith, giving heed to
fables: that so many thousands have

O

been led away by the errour of the wicked,
that Jesuits and Quakers who have
sown corrupt doctrine, have had such
plentiful harvests among us, but because
they have met with a company of empty
notional professors that never knew what
belongs to practical godliness, and the
study of their own hearts.
If professors did but give diligence to
study, search, and watch their own
hearts, they would have that NoValue
that stedfastness of their own that
Peter speaks of 2 Pet. 3. 17. and this
would ballast and settle them, Heb. 13.
9. Suppose a subtil Papist would talke
to such of the dignity, and merit of good
works, could he ever work the perswasion
of it into that heart that is conscious
to it self of so much darkness, deadness,
distraction, and unbelief attending its
best duties? tis a good rule, non est disputandum
de gustu: there is no disputing
against taste: what a man hath felt and
tasted, one cannot beat him off from
that by argument.
3. Mot. Your care and diligence in
keeping your hearts, will prove one of the best
evidences of your sincerity.
I know no external act of religion that

differences the sound from the unsound
professor: tis wonderful to consider,
how far hypocrits go in all external duties,
how plausibly they can order the
outward man, hiding all their indecencies
from the observation of the world.
But then, they take no heed to their
hearts, they are not in secret, what they
appear to be in publick: and before this
tryal no hypocrit can stand; tis confest,
they may in a fit, under a pang upon a
death-bed, cry out of the wickedness of
their hearts; but alas! there is no heed
to be taken to these extorted complaints:
in our law no credit is to be given to the
testimony of one upon the rack, because
it may be supposed, that the extremity
of the torture may make him say any
thing to be eased, but if self jealousie,
care, and watchfulness be the daily
workings and frames of thy heart, it
strongly argues the sincerity of it: for
what but the sence of a divine eye, what
but the real hatred of sin as sin, could put
thee upon those secret duties, which lye
out of the observation of all creatures.
If then it be a desirable thing in thine
eyes to have a fair testimony of thine
integrity, and to know of a truth that

O 2

thou fearest God: then study thine
heart, watch thy heart, keep thy heart.
4. Mot. How fruitful sweet and comfortable
would all Ordinances and Duties be to
us if our hearts were better kept?
O what precious communion might
you have with God, every time you approach
him; if your hearts were but in
frame! you might then say with David,
Psal. 104. 34. My meditation of him shall
be sweet. That which loses all our comforts
in ordinances and more secret duties,
is the indisposedness of the heart: a
Christian whose heart is in a good frame
gets the start of all others that come with
him in that duty: they tugging hard
to get up their hearts to God, now trying
this argument upon them and then
that, to quicken and affect them, and
sometimes goe away as bad as they
came. Sometimes the duty is almost
ended before their hearts begin to stirr
to feel any warmth, quickning, or power
from it: but all this while the prepared
heart is at its work; this is he that
ordinarily gets the first sight of Christ
in a Sermon: the first seal from Christ in
a Sacrament: the first kiss from Christ
in secret prayer. I tell you, and I tell

you but what I have felt, that Prayers
and Sermons would appear to you other
manner of things then they doe, did you
but bring better ordered hearts unto
them, you would not goe away dejected
and drooping, O this hath been a lost
day, a lost duty to me, if you had not
lost your hearts it might not be so: if then
the comfort of ordinances be sweet, look
to your hearts, keep your hearts.
5. Mot. Acquaintance with your own
hearts would be a Fountain of matter to you in
Prayer.
A man that is diligent in heart work,
and knows the state of his own Soul;
will have a fountain fulness of matter
to supply him richly in all his addresses
to God: his tongue shall not faulter, and
make pauses for want of matter, Psal.
45. 1. my heart is enditing a good matter:
or as Montanus renders the original, my
heart is boyling up good matter, like a
living spring that is still bubling up fresh
water; and then my tongue is as the
pen of a ready writer: others must pump
their memories, rack their inventions,
and are often at a loss when they have
done all: but if thou have kept and faithfully
studied thine own heart, twill be

O 3

with thee (as Job speaks in another case)
like bottles full of new wine that want
vent, which are ready to burst: as holy
matter flows plentifully, so more feelingly
and sweetly from such a heart:
when a heart experienced Christian is
mourning before God over some special
heart corruption, wrastling with God
for the supply of some special inward
want, he speaks not as other men doe,
that have learned to pray by rote, their
confessions and petitions are squeezed
out, his drop freely like pure honey from
the combe, tis a happiness then to be
with or neer such a Christian. I remember
Bernard having given rules to prepare
the heart for prayer concludes them thus,
Et cum talis fueris memento mei: and
(saith he) when thy heart is in this frame
then remember me.
6. Mot. By this the decayed power of
religion will be recovered again among professors,
which is the most desirable sight in
this world.
O that I might live to see that day!
when professors shall not walk in a vain
shew, when they shall please themselves
no more with a name to live, being spiritually
dead: when they shall be no

more (as many of them now are) a company
of frothy, vain, and unserious
persons, but the majestick beams of holiness
shining from their heavenly, and
serious conversations shall awe the world,
and command reverence from all that
are about them: when they shall warm
the hearts of those that come nigh them,
so that men shall say, God is in these
men of a truth.
Well, such a time may again be exspected
according to that promise, Isai.
60. 21. The people shall be all righteous
But till we fall closer this great work
of keeping our hearts, I am out of hopes
to see those blessed daies: I cannot exspect
better times, till God give better
hearts: doth it not grieve you to see
what a scorn religion is made in the
world, what objects of contempt and
scorn the professors of it are made in the
world.
Professors, would you recover your
credit? would you again obtain an honourable
testimony in the Consciences
of your very enemies? then, keep your
hearts, watch your hearts: tis the loosness
frothiness, and earthliness of your
hearts that hath made your lives so; and

O 4

this hath brought you under contempt of
the world, you first lost your sights of
God, and communion with him, then
your heavenly and serious deportment
among men; and by that, your interest
in their Consciences, O then! for the
credit of religion, for the honour of your
profession, keep your hearts.
7. Mot. By diligence in keeping our
hearts, we should prevent, and remove the
fatal scandals and stumbling blocks out of the
way of the world.
Wo to the world (saith Christ) because
of offences, Matth. 18. 7. doth not shame
cover your faces? doe not your hearts
bleed within you to heare of the scandalous
miscarriages of many loose professors?
could you not, like Shem and Japhet
goe backward with a garment to
cover the shame of many professors?
how is that worthy name blasphemed?
2 James 7. 2. Sam. 12. 13. 14. the hearts
of the righteous sadned, Psal. 25. 3. Ezek.
36. 20. by this the world is fearfully
prejudiced against Christ and religion,
the bonds of death made fast upon their
Soul: those that had a general love and
likeing to the ways of God, startled and
quite driven back, and thus Soul

bloud is shed: wo to the World.
Yea, how are the Consciences of fallen
professors plunged and even overwhelmed
in the deeps of trouble? God
inwardly excommunicating their Souls
from all comfortable fellowship with
himself, and the joys of his salvation:
infinite are the mischiefs that come by the
scandalous lives of professors.
And what is the true cause and reason
of all this; but the neglecting of their
hearts? were our hearts better kept, all
this would be prevented: had David
kept his heart, he had not broken his
bones: a neglected careless heart, must
of necessity produce a disorderly scandalous
life. I thanke God for the
freedome and faithfulness of a
reverend brother in shewing
professors their manifold miscarriages,
and from my heart doe wish that
when their wounds have been throughly
searched by that probe, God would be
pleased to heal them by this Plaister.
O professors! if ever you will keep religion
sweet, if ever you hope to recover
the credit of it in the world, keep
your hearts: either keep your hearts, or
lose your credit: keep your hearts or

201

lose your comforts: keep your hearts,
lest ye shed Soul bloud: what words
can express the deep concernments, the
wonderful consequences of this work!
every thing puts a necessity, a solemnity,
a beauty upon it.
8. Mot. An heart well kept will fit you
for any condition God casts you into, or any
service he hath to use you in.
He that hath learnt how to keep his
heart lowly, is fit for prosperity: and he
that knows how to use and apply to it
Scripture promises, and supports, is fit
to pass through any adversity: he that
can deny the pride and selfishness of his
heart is fit to be imployed in any service
for God: such a man was Paul, he did
not only spend his time in preaching to
others, in keeping others vineyards, but
he lookt to himself, kept his own vineyard,
1 Cor 9. 27. Least when I have preached
to others, I my self should be a cast away:
and what an eminent instrument was he
for God, he could turn his hand to any
work, he could dexterously manage
both in adverse and prosperous condition:
I know how to abound, and how
to suffer want; let the people deifie him,
it moves him not, unless to indignation:

Let them stone him, he can bear it: if
a man purge himself from these (saith he
2 Tim. 2. 21.) He shall be a Vessel unto
honour, sanctified and meet for the masters
use, and prepared unto every good work.
First the heart must be purged; and
then tis prepared for any service of God:
when the heart of Isaiah was purified,
which was the thing signified by the
touching of his lips with a coal from the
Altar, Isai. 6. 7. then he was fit for Gods
work: here am I, send me, v. 8. a man
that hath not learned to keep his heart,
put him upon any service for God, and
if it be attended with honour, it shall
swell up and overtop his spirit: if with
suffering it will exanimate and sink
him.
Jesus Christ had an instrumental fitness
for his fathers work above all the
servants that ever God imployed, he
was zealous in publick work for God, so
zealous, that sometimes forgat to eat
bread, yea, that his friends thought he
had been besides himself: but yet he so
carried on his publick work, as not to
forget his own private communion with
God; and therefore you read in Matth.
14. 23. that when he had been labouring

all day yet after that, he went up to a
mountain apart to pray, and was there
alone. O let the keepers of the vineyards
look to their own vineyard! we
shall never be so instrumental to the
good of others, as when we are most
diligent about our own Souls.
9. Mot. If the people of God would more
diligently keep their hearts, how exceedingly
would the communion of Saints be thereby
sweetned.
How goodly then would be thy tents
O Jacob, and thy tabernacles O Israel!
then as tis prophesied of the Jews, Zech.
8. 23. Men would say, we will go with you,
for we have heard that God is among you.
Tis the fellowship your Souls have with
the Father and with the Son, that draws
out the desires of others after fellowship
with you. 1 Joh. 1. 3. I tell you if Saints
would be perswaded to take more pains,
and spend more time about their hearts;
there would quickly be such a divine
lustre upon the face of their coversations
that men would account it no
small priviledge, to be with or near
them.
Tis the pride, passion, and earthliness
of our hearts that hath spoiled Christian

fellowship: whence is it? that when
Christians meet, they are often jarring
and contending, but only for their unmortified
passions: whence are their uncharitable
censures of their brethren, but
only from self ignorance? why are they
so rigid, and unmerciful towards those
that are fallen? but because they consider
not themselves, as the Apostle speaks
Gal. 6. 1. why is their discourse so frothy
and unprofitable when they meet?
is not this from the earthliness and vanity
of their hearts?
My brethren, these be the things that
have spoiled Christian fellowship, and
made it become a dry and sapless thing;
so that many Christians are even weary
of it, and are ready to say with the prophet
Jer. 9. 2. O that I had a Cottage in
the wilderness, &c. That I might leave my
people and go from them! and with David
Psal. 120. 6. My soul hath long dwelt with
them that hate peace: This hath made them
long for the grave, that they might goe
from them that are not their own people,
to them that are their own people,
as the original of that text imports,
2 Cor. 5. 8.
But now, if professors would study

their own hearts more, watch and keep
them better, all this would be prevented;
and the beauty and glory of communion
again restored: they would divide no
more, contend no more, censure rashly
no more; when their hearts are in tune
their tongues will not jarre, how charitable,
pitiful and tender will they be one
of onother, when every one is daily
humbled under the evil of his own heart;
Lord hasten those much desired daies,
and bless these counsels in order to
them.
10. Mot. Lastly, By this the comforts
of the Spirit, and precious influences of all
Ordinances would be fixed, and much longer
preserved in your Souls than now they are.
Ah! what would I give, that my Soul
might be preserved in that frame I sometimes
find it after an Ordinance! aliquando
intromittis me domine in affectum
multum inusitatum, introrsus ad nescio quam
dulcedinem, &c. Sometimes O Lord,
(saith one of the fathers sweetly) thou
admittest me into the most inward, unusual
and sweet delights, to I know not
what sweetness, which were it perfected
in me, I know not what it would be;
or rather, what it would not be. But

alas! the heart grows careless again,
and quickly returns, like water removed
from the fire to its native coldness:
could you but keep those things for ever
in your hearts, what Christians would
you be! what lives would you live! and
how is it that these things remain no
longer with us? doubtless it is because
we suffer our hearts to take cold again:
we should be as careful after an ordinance
or duty to prevent this, as one that
comes out of an hot bath, or great sweat
is; of going out into the chill air: we
have our hot and cold fits by turns, and
what is the reason but our unskilfulness
and carelesness in keeping the heart.
Tis a thousand pities, that the ordinances
of God, as to their quickning
and comforting effects, should be like
those humane ordinances the Apostle
speaks of, that perish in the using. O
then, let me say to you, as Job. 15. 11.
Doe the consolations of God seem small to
you? Look over these ten special benefits,
weigh them in a just ballance; are they
small matters? is it a small matter to
have thy weak understanding assisted?
thine endangered Soul antidoted, thy
sincerity cleered, thy communion with

God sweetned, thy sails filled in prayer,
is it a small thing to have the decayed
power of godliness again recovered, all
fatal scandals removed, an instrumental
fitness to serve Christ obtained,
the Communion of Saints restored to its
primitive glory, and the influences of
ordinances abiding in the Souls of Saints,
if these be no common blessings, no
small benefits, then surely tis a great
duty to keep the heart with all diligence.