Antidote Against Distractions, Chapter 4
Cap. 4. Reasons of the Doctrine.CHAP. IV. Reasons why we ought to Attend on the Lord without Distraction.
SECT. I.
§. 1. From the Nature of God.THe fourth Point is to shew the Reasons for the Doctrine and Duty of Attending on the Lord without Distraction. And they are drawn 1. From the Nature of God. 2. From the Nature of his Worship. 3. From the Nature of our condition. 4. From the Nature of Distractions.
The first reason is taken from the Nature of God, each of his Attributes plead for this, especially,
1. The greatness of God. The greater the Personage, the greater the Reverence, and the more solemn your attendance is. *Qui apud Caesarem dicere audent, magnitudinem ejus ignorant; qui non audent, humanitem.Hence Elihu cryes, Job 37.19. Teach us what we shall say to him, for we cannot order our speech by reason of darkness **foreign, &c. Atqui illa bona est oratio, quae manifestam Dei notionem in animis nostris ingenerat. Deus verò in nobis inhabitare dicitur, cum eum intu… insedentem memoriâ complectimur. Basil. conc. 9. de Oratione.. It is a bold adventure to speak to him, what is it then to trifle with him? wilt thou speak to God, nay pray to God, and not so much as look that way when thou speakest to him? This is to put on him the robes and title of a King and use him like a slave. A Prince may converse with two or three of his servants at a time, but its Impudence for a servant to talk to two or three Princes at a time. The great Iehovah can speak with thee, and a thousand more, and do all your errands at a time, but alas! thou art too poor a worm, to entertain the great Iehovah, and other matters at once. We are his Creatures, Isa. 45.11. Thus saith the Lord the holy one of Israel and his Maker. If a servant must not be frivolous before his Master, when he is receiving his commands, who dares be so before his Maker, who can as easily reward or ruine us as I can turn over a leaf in this Bible? This Himself gives for the reason of that dreadful curse, Mal. 1.14. upon the Deceiver, that having a Male in his flock, offers to God a corrupt thing. For I am a great King saith the Lord of Hosts, and my name is dreadfull among the Heathen. Which of you will be thinking of your wives, or children, or ground, when you are offering a Petition to a great King, or run after Feathers, when he is saying his mind to you? Thou takest God to be such a one as thy self, or else thou wouldest never do it. Remember a great God must be worshipped with profound veneration, and the most serious affections. A man must worship God, as if he were in Heaven; Oh if thou wert there among those myriads of Saints and Angels, with what care, and humility, and instance, wouldest thou pour out thy heart to him, or hear his words to thee *Qua…tâ humilita…e accedere deb…t è paludi suâ repens rananculus vilis? quam supplex — quam soli…itus & …o…us animo in…entus. …. de erat. mot. …and..
2. The Holiness of God is another Reason, who is so sacred, that an unholy Thought is abomination to him; most especially in his holy Service. Who can by an eye of Faith behold the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up, and his train filling the Temple, And the Seraphinis crying one to another, and saying, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts, Isa. 6.1, 2. *Nec ab … á solumm…do, se… omni omni… no confasione a …mi libera debet esse oration… in…entio, de …ali spirit… em…ssa qualis est spiritus ad quem mittitur. Tertul. de Orat. p. 153.and suffer his heart to be ravisht away with transitory toyes in such a Sacred presence? Are the Seraphims amazed at his holiness, and we untransported? Their thoughts are continually terminated upon him, And should ours be allwayes flinching from him? The Holy Lord of Hosts will not brook it. If you will not sanctifie him, he will sanctifie himself. If you that worship him, will not bear witness by your serious attendance to his Holiness, He must bear witness to it by his Judgements on You: which indeed are not allwayes visible, but ever certain; not a man in the Congregation, but the Holy God is Sanctified by him, or upon him. Little do we know, what invisible dreadfull effects there are of this, daily in our Congregations. And if our dear Redeemer did not stand as a skreen between us and his wrath, the best of us would quickly feel the effects of his Displeasure.
3. The Omniscience of God is a valid reason against Distractions. Heb. 4.13. All things are naked and opened to him, with whom we have to deal, not only naked on the outside of us, but cut up and anatomised in the inside. That sharp and piercing *Deus est …otus oculus, videt omnia, Generaliter sine exceptione, evidenter sin… dubitatione, immutabiliter sine oblivione.eye looks through and through us, and neither doth or can look beside us. Whither can I goe from thy spirit? and whither can I flee from thy presence? shall the Husband fix his eye on his Wife, and she (that while) dart her glances on her Paramour? Is this reasonable or tolerable? Get out of his sight, and trifle on. Steal into some corner where he sees you not, and be truants and spare not. Be but an Eye-servant to God, and wee'l ask no more. Be serious while He sees you; dally not while he holds you the candle. A curious Eye requires a carefull servant**Quid potest ab homine aliquid esse secre…um, nihil Deo clausum. Interest animis nostris & cogitationibu… med…is intervenit, Seneca… For which saying Zuinglius calls him …irum Sanctissimum.
Object. But this is spoken gratis, I see no body but the Minister and People, seeing is believing, I know no body that seeth me.
Answ. 1. No more doest thou see that faculty by which thou seest. Is there therefore no such faculty? Is there no spirits, because thou never sawest them? when did you see the wind, and yet you doubt not of it. Nay hath not he declared to thee, what is thy thought, Amos 4.13. in many a Sermon?
2. There is another eye by which Gods Ordinary-Presence is seen, which thou hast not. That is an eye of Faith, which if fixed in thy heart would quickly make thee cry, How dreadfull is this place? This is no other, than the house of God, and the Gate of Heaven. If an hundred credible persons affirm, they saw a Great man in the Congregation, you would believe them, though not seen by you, and would conclude it your own inadvertency. Hundreds there daily are, that do avouch, they saw, felt, heard, imbraced the gracious presence of God, and therefore conclude it your Blindness, not his Distance that you saw him not.
SECT. II.
§. 2. From the Nature of his Worship.THE second Reason is taken from the Nature of his Worship,
1. It is Reasonable Worship; not only consonant to the Rules of Reason, and backed by the most Rational Principles, but must be managed as a *Oratio est o…is ratio Hierom. ad Cypr. p. 98.Rational Act. Now it is a most irrational thing to converse with God without an Heart; This is a silly thing, as Hos. 7.11. Ephraim is called a silly Dove, without Heart. A Dove, without spirit; and a silly Dove, without reason or judgement. God had rather hear the roaring of a Lyon, than an heartless prayer: He delights more in the chirping of birds, than in singing of Psalms without understanding; for these do what they can, and so are accepted, but bruitish service from a reasonable Creature is intolerable. Is it **The Egyptians chose among all fruits the Peach to offer to their gods, because the Fruit is like a mans Heart; the leaf like his tongue. Heart and tongue should go together, Er.reason you should cry out for the spirit, and think on the flesh? be hearkning about another world, and ruminating on this? your eyes directed to Heaven, and your Heart in the ends of the Earth? the tongue busie, and the soul idle? the knee devout, and the thoughts loose? there is no coherence, no reason in this. When ye work, work, and when ye pray, pray, and do it with understanding, 1 Cor. 14.15. What it is then! I will pray with the spirit, and will pray with the understanding also; I will sing with the spirit, and will sing with the understanding also.::Habes ubi que cubiculum tuum. Cubiculum tuum mens tua est. Ambros. de Sacram. lib. 6.
Consider, *Mr. White of Thoughts. p. 93.that else thou art as a mad man before God, and God hath no need of mad men: if one should come to thee about business of life and death, and after a word or two therein, should run from one impertinent thing to another, would you not think him mad? If thy thoughts were put into words and mingled with thy prayers, what strange mad prayers would they be?
2. It is spiritual-worship, and therefore you may not be distracted in it. Joh. 4.23, 24. The true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship him. **Ubi putas Sacrisicia justitiae Sacrisicari nisi in templo mentis & cū tilibus cordis? Deus enim in ipsis rationalis animae secretis (qui homo interior vocatur) & quaerendus & deprecandus est. Aug. lib. de magistro.Others may seek to worship the Father, but the Father seeketh such to worship him, to wit, that worship in Spirit and in Truth, In Spirit, and so not like the formal Jews, In Truth, and so not like the ignorant Gentiles. And then vers. 24. God is a Spirit, and must be worshipped. Here's Must and Shall, and Reason for it. As a spirit can do nothing at eating, so a carkass can do nothing at praying. The elegantest tongues on earth cannot take one stroak at prayer; no, the soul must be in it, and the soul must be busie too *foreign, &c. neque erum ipsa orationis verba per se sola que prosunt quidpiam: at ita demum juvant, si ex animo ac studioso mentis affectu emittantur. Basil. conc. 9. de oratione.. If we had only an Idol to serve, the body were enough, but God is a spirit and cannot be conversed with without the spirit, yea and the whole spirit also. Fond man, that thinks with his narrow soul to deal with God and somewhat else, who alone is immense and beyond our greatest capacity. He must be taken up, and goe out of the world in a sense that will get into Heaven. The soul on the lip, and the soul in the ear, do rid work in the service of God.
3. It is sweet work. Psal. 138.5. Yea, they shall sing in the wayes of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord: mark [shall sing] their spirits shall neither droop nor step aside. He that attends on the Lord hath a most sweet imployment: now the mind useth not to straggle at most rare musick, or under an enchanting song. Alexanders great soul, yet is said exilire è convivio under the charms of Musick. O the gracious presence of God! his sweet smiles! and blessed love-tokens, that can transport Angels, sure they may ingage the heart of man, and sufficiently fill it.
Read the Canticles and say then, Is not converse with God an Heaven upon Earth? and how far is Heaven from distracted thoughts? sad and severe things afflict the mind, It would flit from such subjects; but sweet imployment ingages all the heart: next dwelling in Heaven, is the soul flying to Heaven in an Ordinance; Our dryest Duties yield us least comfort: The nearer the Sun, the warmer. More close to God more sweet you'l find him, and never more joyfull than in the House of Prayer.
SECT. III.
THe third reason is taken from the Nature of our Condition, §. 3. From the Nature of our condition.and that is this,
1. We cannot live without God. In him we live as to our natural life, every … is fetcht from Him; so in our spiritual life, the life of the soul is He that made it. A world without a Sun, is dark; a body without a soul, is dead; but a soul withont God, is dark, is dead, is damned: Its true, men feed, and sing, and make a shift without God in the World, but he that lives truly lives by faith; the other life Beasts live, they eat, and drink, and work, but know not God; but if you will define the life of a soul, God must be in the beginning, in the midst, and in the end of it.
2. Our only way of communion with God is in an Ordinance *Non magis competit animalibus perfecti respiratio, quàm Oratio Christianis, qui vivunt per fidem, spirant per preces. Dr. Arrowsmith.. This is the River, the streams whereof make glad the heart. Were a City besieged by mortal enemies round about, and no relief to be conveyed, but by the River that waters it; how fatal to the City would the stopping of that River be? that City must starve, or yield: The ordinary supplies that a Christian cannot be without, come swimming down from Heaven through the Ordinances of God; Distractions stop the River, hinder Prayer from ascending to God, hinder instruction from descending into the heart, intercept commerce and starve the soul. The zeal of the Iews was eminent this way, of whom Iosephus relates, that when Pompeys Souldiers shot at the thickest of them in the siege of Ierusalem, yet amidst those arrows, did they go and perform their rites, as though there had been peace: why, thy Prayer is the Embassador, Distractions cut off the feet, and Prov. 26.6. He that sendeth a message by the hand of a fool, cutteth off the feet, and drinketh damage. A wandring Prayer is a message by the hand of a fool, and that man is like to drink damage that useth it: A man is a poor thing without God, and God is not ordinarily met with but in an Ordinance.
3. All our strength and Heart is too little for this business. All our understanding too little to apprehend his rare perfections; All our affections too weak and shallow, to love, imbrace and delight in him; hence, Mark. 12.33. we are obliged to love, and so to serve the Lord our God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our strength, *Vnusquis que ergo cum in oratione, vel Psalmos — decantat, diligenter consideret cui affectui serviant, & ad illum affectum Toto Nisu cor suum excitet, ad quem id, quod loquitur, magis pertinere videt. Hugo de S. Vict. de modo orandi. c. 5.that is, with every faculty of the soul, and with the utmost strength of every faculty. Now if it be hard enough to climb the hill unto God with wings; how shall we ascend with these weights about us, or think to please with half an heart, when the whole is too little? for he is a great King and his name is dreadfull among the Heathen; when all the water in the pool will but turn the Mill, that Miller is a fool, that by twenty Channels lets out the Water other wayes: The intense and earnest heart is little enough to converse with God, all the water in our Pool will but turn the Mill. What then can the remiss heart bring to pass, and how unlikely are we to obtain with the great God, with the negligent approaches of a trivial spirit, with a little part of a little heart *Fieri autem non potest ut aliquando cum Deo loquatur, qui cum …oto mundo etiam tacens fabulatur. Bern. Med. c. 6.?
SECT. IV.
§. 4. From the Nature of Distractions.THe fourth Reason is taken from the Nature of Distractions.
1. They divide the Heart, *Hoc est vigilare oculis & Corde domire cum debeat Christianus & cùm dormit oculis corde vigilare sicut Sponsa Cant. 5. Cyprian de Oratione.and disable it wholly; now a divided heart can do nothing at all, Hos. 10.2. Their heart is divided, now shall they be found faulty; If one heart divided from another make a fault, much more faulty is one heart divided within it self. Hence it comes to pass, that Satan offers, as the false Mother did about the living Child, 1 King. 3.26. Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it, If he cannot block your way to the presence of God, and make good his claim to the living Child; as She would have done, then with might and main, he furthers all imaginable diversions to part the Soul; and cryes, Lord let it be neither thine nor mine, but divide it; well knowing that (as the Child, so) the heart while intire, is a living and lively heart, but divide it and destroy it; As he that runs at once after two Hares, catches neither, so two businesses at once, spoils both. He that thinks to treat the Creator and the creature at the same time, enjoyes neither of them: And thus the vain heart of man by over-doing, undoes it self, and reaching at two matters, spoils them both.
2. These Distractions frustrate the Ordinance; and cause the great name of God to be taken in vain. Instead of forcing the Hearers, these do but beat the air, and cannot reach the Heart of God, *Vis esse Deum memorem tui cùm rogas, quando tu ipse memor tui non sis? Quomodo te audiri à Deo postulas cùm te ipse non audias. Cyprian. de Orat. Dom.because they never reach your own. And this is one of the follies of a roving heart, that it consumes as much time in a sensless as in a serious Duty, and yet doth nothing in it, brings nothing to pass. And so the Holy God stands over the heedless sinner with Iobs words, Job. 16.3. When shall Vain words have an End? I am weary with this tinkling Cymbal, either pray in earnest, or pray not at all; hear in earnest, or hear not at all: As good not at all, as never the better. The service of God requires a man, not a shadow, yea all a man, and more than a man, our spirits, and Gods spirit also. Those that tremble at the prophane mans taking Gods name in vain, should make a Conscience, lest they do it themselves; lest They be damned for their Oaths, and You for your prayers; because you wrong Gods Majesty under the pretence of serving him, and so affront him with more solemnity.
3. They contract more sin upon the Soul. We read, Levit. 10.1. That Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron took either of them his Censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord. And the Lord took it in high disdain, and with strange fire consumed them *Sua offerunt Deo, seipsos Diabolo. Bern.Sins of Ordinances are often extraordinary sins; as Sacriledge is a greater sin, than plain theft, because it is a purloyning of what is consecrated; so a sin in worship hath this aggravation, that its in a place and presence and business, that is set apart for communion with God. Hence it comes to pass, that many of Gods …hildren have had grievous pangs and …errour of Conscience on their death-bed, for ordinance sins. He that should be scoring out his sins, and instead of that, scores on more, makes his sin exceeding sinfull. O what need then have we to pray, Psal. 119.39. Turn away mine eyes from beholding Vanity, and quicken thou me in thy way.
And these are some of the Reasons, that confirm and inforce this Practical Doctrine, That we should attend upon the Lord without Distractions; and so you have the fourth general Head.