A Christian Library, Chapter 12
CHAP. XII.
Now if thou wouldest become godly in good earnest; if thou wouldst have this change wrought in thee, and have thy affections so altered, as to find more sweetnesse in spiritual things, than ever thou hast done in thy worldly enjoyments, be sure to begin at the spring head, I mean thy heart. This is Gods own counsel to the men of Ierusalem, Ier. 4. O Ierusalem, wash thine heart from wickednesse, that thou maist be saved. How long shall thy wicked thoughts remain with thee? vers. 14. It is idle and to no purpose, to purge the channell, when the fountain is corrupt. Had Elisha cast the salt into the brooks and ditches, the remedy must have striven against the stream, to reach up to the springs: Now it was but one labour in curing the fountain. Our heart is a well of bitter venomous water, our actions are the streams: in vain shall we cleanse our hands, while our hearts are evil. Whence the Apostle orderly bids us, first be renewed in the spirit of our minds, and then let him that stole, steal no more, Ephes. 4.23, 24, 28. But alas, how many are there that set the cart before the horse, and begin to change their lives, before their hearts? but if we shall be advised so to do, it is not advisedly. It is most ridiculous, to apply remedyes to the … skilfull Physician, that when the head-ach is caused by the distemperature of the stomach, would apply outward remedies to the head, before he had purged the stomach, where lies the matter that feeds the disease. To what purpose is it, to crop the top of the weeds, or lop off the boughes of the tree, when the root and stalk remain in the earth? Cut off the sprig of a tree, it grows still, a bough, an arm, still it grows; lop off the top, yea saw it in the midst, yet it will grow again; stock it up by the root, then (and not till then) it will grow no more.
Great Cities once expunged, the Dorpes and Villages will soon come in of themselves. Wherefore, as the King of Syria said unto his Captains, Fight neither against great nor small, but against the King of Israel, 1 Kings 22.31. So especially we must set our selves, against our mother and Master sinne: the King being caught, the rest will never stand out. The heart is originally evil, that is the treasure and storehouse of wickednesse.
As in generation, so in regeneration: Cor primum vivit: life begins at the heart. Yea, the heart is the first in our Creation, which is formed; the first by reason of our fall by sinne, which is deformed; and the first in our regeneration that is reformed. And whensoever God does savingly shine upon the understanding, he giveth a soft and pliable heart. For without a work upon the heart by the Spirit of God, it will follow its own inclination to that which it affecteth, whatsoever the judgment shal say to the contrary. That must first be reformed, which was first deformed.
Out of the abundance of the heart (saith our Saviour) the mouth speaketh, Mat. 12.34. Yea out of the abundance of the heart, the head deviseth, the eye seeth, the ear heareth, the hand worketh, the foot walketh. A man may apply his ears, and his eyes, (as many blockheads do) to his Book, and yet never prove Scholar: but from that day, which a man begins to apply his heart unto wisdome, he learneth more in a moment after, than he did in a year before; nay, than ever he did in all his life. As you see the wicked, because they apply their hearts to wickednesse, how fast they proceed? how easily, and how quickly they become perfect Swearers, perfect Drunkards, cunning Deceivers, &c.?
The heart is like the fire, which kindleth the sacrifice, 1 Kings 18.38. And indeed, if the tongue, or the hand, or the ear, think to serve God without the heart, it is the irksomest occupation in the world. But as the Sunne riseth first, and then the beasts arise from their dens, the fowles from their nests, and men from their beds: so when the heart sets forward to serve God, all the members will follow after it; the tongue will praise him, the foot will follow him, the ear will attend him, the eye will watch him, the hand will serve him, nothing will stay after the heart, but every one goes like Handmaids after their Mistresse. Such as the heart is, such are the actions of the body which bringeth forth good things: and an evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth evil things, Matth. 12.25. Therefore as Christ saith, Make clean within, and all will be clean, Matth, 35.25, 26. So see your hearts be sincere and single, and then all your actions will be holy to the Lord. If we would be rid of noysome fowles, the only way is to destroy their nests in every place. A vain and lost labour it is, to stop the current of a stream, if you go not to the fountain. Whence it is that God saith, Give me thine heart, Prov. 23.26. As though he would teach us the pleasantest, and easiest way to serve him, without any grudging, or toyl, or wearisomenesse. As let but the heart be changed, and we shall attend the Ordinances, and perform all duties with delight, cheerfulnesse and alacrity. Whereas to a carnal heart, holy duties, as fasting, praying, hearing, is so tedious and irksome, that it thinks one Sabboth, or Fast-day, more tedious and burdensome, than ten holy daies, as their consciences will bear me witnesse. Whereas the gracious soul, is more delighted therewith, than his body with a well relished meal. Touch but the first linke of a chain, and all the rest will follow: so set but the heart a going, and it is like the poyse of a clock, which turns all the wheels one way: such an oyl is upon the heart, that it makes all nimble and current about it: but without the heart, all is mute and dumb. As the tongue will not praise, because the heart doth not love; the ear doth not hear, because the heart does not mind; the hand does not give, because the heart does not pitty; the foot will not go, because the heart hath no affection. All stay upon the heart, like the Captain that should give the onset. Nor is any service we can do accepted, without the heart and affections flowing thence. Therefore Davids prayer is, Create in me a new heart, and renew a right spirit within me, Psal. 51.10. The Scribes and Pharisees, did fast, and watch, and pray, and hear, and read, and give, and do all that we can do: and yet Christ rewarded all their works with a wo, because they wanted a good heart, and true affections flowing thence. They honoured God with their lips, but their hearts were far away from him. Whence he also calls them hypocrites, Mark. 7.6. The Disciple that betrayed Christ, heard as much as the Disciples that loved him.