Works, Part 4 · Religious instruction · Chapter 34
CHAP. XXXIIII. Teaching vsus why we are specially to keepe watch and ward ouer our hearts.
SO corrupt is the heart, as being the fountaine of all sinfull actions,Albeit this meditation concerning the keeping of the heart, be past in the fourth part, Tit. Of meditatiōs on Pro. 4. v. 23. yet for that here we hauehave some amplificatiō, and some difference in his manner of handling this argument, I thought it lesse offēce to giuegive thee both (good Reader) than to depriue thee of either of thim. that although wee shoulde neuer hauehave patternes of impietie, yet our owne heart would schoole vsus sufficiently to the waye of destruction. Reprooued then bee their Doctrine, who thinke that a man is not naturally inclined to euill, or that nature is not wholie inclined to sinne, but that by example and allurement man is corrupted and infected by others. The occasion of euill may bee outward, but the cause of it is inwarde, not of others but in our selues. And good reasons there bee therefore, that wee should still hauehave an eye to our hearts. First, our hearts doth carrie with it most commonly all our senses, so that nature taught men of the world, that the eye seeth not but the heart, it is not the hand that toucheth, but a certaine force proceeding from the heart, and exercised by the hand; and seeing nor sense left in the body. From hence it commeth, that great sounds and strange noyses are nothing heard of, our eares attending vponupon our hearts, and our hearts being throughly occupied about some other obiect. From hence it is that goodly shewes, able to rauish the sight with delight, are not so much as seen of vsus, our eies being wholly restrained about other things whereabout the heart is occupied: yea from hence it is, that wee stumble sometime on the plaine ground, and our feet do faile vsus in most faire places: our feete attending on our hearts, and our hearts being carried vehemently vntounto some other matter. Although then we ought to keepe with great care our eyes, our eares, & our hands, with all other parts of the body, yet it standeth vsus in hand to keepe diligent watch & ward ouer our hearts, by which all the other partes are moderated and ruled. Another reason why wee should hauehave speciall regard to our heartes, is because they make or marre all our actions. If the heart be pure, all our affections are pure, though Christ; through some defectes be mixed therewith: if our hearts be not sound but corrupt, then the things in their owne nature good, by vsus are made impure & corrupt. It is without all controuersie, that it is our corrupt nature which corrupteth vsus, either to be slacke in weldoing, or to leaue a good thing altogether vndone, to be so prone to euil-doing, or to rest too securely in it being done. And albeit, many occasiōs may be pretēded to stay vsus from good, which may seeme to carrie some shew of good, yet they are deceiuing corruptions, and full of rottennesse at the core, as experiēce prooueth. Some are kept backe from catechising of their familie, because they would not be made the by-talke of the people, they would not menFabula vulgi. should talke of them, and tear me them a precise company. Some goe aloofe and walke along from pure zeale in good works, that they might retaine their libertie in buying and selling, and so better take order for domesticall expences, which they thinke would fall to the ground, if God should be purely worshipped. And indeed eueryevery thing creepeth vnderunder colour of a good thing, and they will turne out nothing naked, but with one ragged reason or other, although their pretences be of an ill die, or their reasons not able to keepe them from any iniurie of the weather whatsoeuer. They are carried away with the deceiueablenesse of sinne, their corruption deceiueth them, they are beguiled with the diuelsCausam pro non causa. sophistrie in putting that for a cause which is no cause at al. But this hypocrisie of hart may appeare not onelyonly in not doing of good, which we should doe, but also in doing of good otherwise than we ought to doe. To leaue sinne in it owne nature is a commendable thing, but if we doe it for feare of punishment, or for shame of the world, rather than for conscience of sin, it is not at all praise worthie. The adulterer may restraine his loathsome and sinfull action, not for that he feareth to defile himselfe with sinne in the sight of God, but because he would not be knowne to hauehave sinned in the sight of the world: the theefe may surcease from actuall theft for feare of the law, and to auoide the gallowes: but neither of these hauehave repented of their sin, though after a sort they hauehave left their sin. This is manifest, in that they leaue not eueryevery sinne, as true repentance doth, without all exception or dispensation, but onelyonly those bloodie faced sinnes, which ciuill discipline censureth with shame and suffrings, as murther, treason, adulterie and theft, making no bones to commit sins as grieuous before God, though not so punishable before men, as are swearing, prophaning of the Sabbath, lying, drunkennes, & such like, which sinnes if they were worthy of imprisonment by law, either men must change their accustomed course, or all the prisons in the realme would not be able to receiue the offendāts. Such men learne the common statutes and penall lawes of the land; the lawes of the Lord, the statutes of the highest they will learne hereafter. If they had a conscience of sin, then it should be in vniuersall, not in particular, because one sinne is as grieuous to the Lord as another, and no sin must hauehave a placard before his presence. Other will leaue sinne, because they hauehave beene in seruice so long, and spent their body so much in sinne, that now (not that their action isConscience of sinne. lamed, but because their abilitie is gone) they for feare of some sickenesse will leaue it, but if they might runne through a new body they would runne through their old course againe. Others hauehave consumed all to feede and cloath sinne, and therefore now because their purse constraineth them, not because the law commaundeth them, or the curse feareth them, they count it for husbandrie to staie a while. Others being somewhat politike, thinking it good to get some profit, that may giuegive longer life to pleasure hereafter, for a while bridle in their wantonnesse, whiles they hauehave gotten some sure hold of their inheritance, and after, so soone as they hauehave brought with sorrow their fathers olde age to the graue, recompence the diuell with their hote pursuite of sin, much more than they lost in their former sparing of sin. Others when either for deadnes of nature, or want of abilitie, or feare of man they dare not, or cannot commit sinne in their owne persons, yet they drawe ouer as much pleasure as men in their case may doe, by commending and chronicling of their owne sins past, or by laughing in their sleeues at the artificiall sinning of some other present. They can laugh at sinne hartily, whereby they shew they cannot mourne for sinne hartily: they make a mocke of it, & therefore bewray they hauehave little conscience of it, andNote. therefore they die in their sinnes, howsoeuer they hauehave left their sinnes To deale carefullyTo laugh at sinne what it argueth. in Gods worship, and faithfully with man, are things both commaunded and commended; and yet to doe them without zeale of Gods glory, and with a care or our vaine glory, rather to win credit to our selues, than to gaine credit to the Gospell, is neither commended nor commaunded. And yet how many beguile their owne soules hreein, it may appeare by so many frequenters of the word, and so few fruitfull hearers of the word: if they profit not, it grieues them not; if they remember it not, they …est at it; if they cannotCarnall Protestants. speake of it, they scoffe at it, and yet they thinke they be great protestants. Many goodly and godly things we may seeme to doe before men, and be thought to be petty Angels come out of the cloudes, and yet being impoisoned at the hart with vaine glory, the Lord hath no delight in vsus, our owne hearts euen in these glorious workes doe accuse vsus, our consciences doe controll vsus, and without repentance, God that is greater than our conscience, will in the end condemne vsus▪ Contrariwise, be our action neuer so beggerly for want of abilitie, neuer so deformed for want of beautie in the eyes of man; yet if it commeth from a sincere heart, sound and sincere in the eyes of the Lord, it is acceptable, and through Christ accounted righteousnes vntounto vsus. If then for sins sake we leaue sin, and leauingNote. sinne repent of sinne, & repenting of sin leaue sinne, though the lees of it remaine inOf good affections and desires. vsus; if for righteousnesse sake we labour for righteousnesse, …hough an essentiall righteousnesse be not inherent in vsus, though we do not all good we louelove, but in louelove desire to doe it; though we leaue not all sinne we hate, but in hatred of it labour to resist it; the good we do is accepted, the good we desire to do is imputed; the euill we leaue is discharged, the euill we desire to leaue shal not be imputed. True it is indeed no mā can say, my hart is vpright, I am pure, if he measure himselfe by the rule of the law, which thing whosoeuer seeth not by his manifold corruptions, as yet he seeth nothing as he should see: yet the childrenRom. 7. of God may say, their hearts are right within them, when by faith in Christ, and a pure purpose to approue themselues vntounto God, their hearts are purified, so as they labour for the death of sinne, though the whole body of sinne be not slaine in them, and labour for true righteousnesse, though the man of righteousnesse be not fully fashioned in thē This doctrine then hath two especial vses, the one to humble vsus, the other to comfort vsus. Good cause we hauehave to be humbled by it, seeing it teacheth vsus, that the cause of sinne is stil in our selues, and cannot be charged vponupon any other, as the cause thereof. For if our corruptionLooke most of all temptations and griefes on thy Corruption naturall. were not, neither Satan by feare and tyranny, neither the world by preferment and glory, neither the fleshly delights by subtiltie, neither our enemies by their feares and tyrannie, could euer preuaile against vsus▪ Christ Iesus was thrise & vehemently assaulted, yet because the Princes of this world could find nothing in him, and all his temptations were as a little arrow shot at a brazen wall, no corruption being in his heart, no guile being found in his lips, they nothing preuailed against him. Adams heart was corrupted before Adams Temptatiōs.hand had sinned. Sathan doth offer, we doe yeeld vntounto our temptations, he is the occasion, but we are the cause of our owne woe. The fond sophistry and lying logicke of theeues is here to be withstood, who thinke they wash their hands from all sinne by crying, woe worth such a man, that euer I knew him; for had not he constrained me and allured me to sinne, I might hauehave beene farre from this. Againe, great comfort is in this doctrine, by giuing vsus this assurance from the Lord, that how weakely soeuer we walke with God, so itSimile. be sincerely, it is his good pleasure to account of vsus for good. First the diuell (if we hauehave our hearts vpright with God) that we will be aduersaries to our owne corruption, that we may be fouourers of Gods glory, he shall be but as a Chirurgion, which lanceth our impostumation to preserue life, howsoeuer he purposed to hauehave gored vsus to the hart & to hauehave depriued vsus of life. Let vsus see this in Ioseph and Dauid both men of one mould, renewed by one spirit, allured to one sinne. Ioseph a young man vnmaried, for his person beautifull, for his authoritie a gouernour of his maisters familie, for his fitnes to commit sin, prouoked by his owne mistresse; yet grace restraining his corruption, he withstands her to the face, he resisteth the occasion, he feareth, but subdueth his owne corruption, and so by Gods goodnes obtained a gracious issue out of his temptation. Dauid a man now striken in yeeres, not so dangerously assaulted with the occasion of sin in respect of the distance of the place, suffering the occasion offered to his eye, to ioyne in league with that corruption which was in his heart, was sodainely snared, slauishly yeelded, and was fouly conquered.Dauids adulterie. The woman was obiect to his eies, his eie openeth the way to his hart, his hart corrupted his hand, and so that sin grew to age, & was perfitly accomplished. In what measureNote. we are regenerate, in what measure we withstand our corruption, in that measure we areTemptatiōs. sure to preuaile against our strongest temptation. And looke how we faile in these, so we lie open to yeeld to our temptations whatsoeuer. Now to come to a more narrow triall of our selues: we must search out and espie our corrupt nature, either by our afflictions, or by our affections. Such is a man as he is in temptation. If trouble doe not ouer-turne him,How we may trie our selues by our afflictions and affections. if feare cause him not to fall, if temptation cause him not to denie the truth; then his heart is vpright, then hath he cause of comfort: but if for feare he faint, if for troubles he turne away, if in his temptation he forget his triall, and betray the truth, his heart is not vpright with God, he is in the gall of bitternes, he giues occasion of griefe to others, and matters of humbling to his owne conscience. There is a certaine disease common to all men, to suffer their eyes to wander, and not to lay the raine vponupon their thoughts, but letting them rangeWe must watch ouer eueryevery motion of the heart, and occasion of the eye. without check or controlement to all sinne, and lightnes of minde. Thoughts breed in vsus, or stirre in vsus a tickling delight & desire to sin. This Ecclesiast. 11. Salomon goeth about to stoppe, but because it cannot be brought to passe in the children of perdition, therefore in that place he doth cleere himselfe of their bloud, by bidding thē walke on in the thoughts of their hearts. Of this a father speaking thus, I did walke in the Cloyster of mine heart: He maketh the walke of his heart much like the walke in a cloister, that is in a secret place,Est quaedam cog…tare voluptas. where no body seeth or heareth him, but onelyonly he of whom Augustine speaketh. He that seeth thee, when the candle is light, and when the light is out in like manner, him feare. There isSpatiaba… in clausti… cordis m…. also a walking of the eye, which is compared to that of Dauid in the top of his turret, and to a gallery or place of prospect to see far and neere into the world. A disease incident to this age who cast their eyes into all corners of the earth, suffering them to seaze vponupon anyqui cum lucerna splende… videt te: cùm lucerna extincta e… videt …e, ipsum time. obiect whatsoeuer, whereby they find matter to worke vponupon▪ Briefly we are not to yeeld to our affections, or if we hauehave yeelded we are not to kindle them, we must not gather sticks (as Ieremie speaketh) to keepe in the fire. The reason is this, weedes will grow fast enough, and the suggestions of Sathan intertained and accepted being offered, are sufficient to condemne vsus.Immistae cog…ationes.