November 18

My son, give me thine heart.—Proverbs 23:26.

THOUGH I can not think that nature was so sacramental, as to point out the holy and mysterious Trinity by the triangle of the heart, yet it is certain that the heart of man is God's special portion, and every angle ought to point out towards him directly; that is, the soul of man ought to be presented to God, and given him as an oblation to the interest of his service.

1. For, to worship God with our souls confesses one of his glorious attributes; it declares him to be the searcher of hearts, and that he reads the secret purposes, and beholds the smallest arrests of fancy, and bends in all the flexures and intrigues of crafty people; and searches out every plot and trifling conspiracy against him, and against ourselves, and against our brethren.

2. This service distinguishes our duty towards God from all our conversation with man, and separates the Divine commandments from the imperfect decrees of princes and republics: for these are satisfied by the outward work, and can not take any other cognizance of the heart, and the will of man, but as himself is pleased to signify. He that wishes the treasury empty, and that all the revenues of the crown were in his counting-house, can not be punished by the laws, unless himself become his own traitor and accuser; and therefore what man can not discern, he must not judge, and must not require. But God sees it, and judges it, and requires it, and therefore reserves this as his own portion and the chiefest right of his crown.

3. He that secures the heart, secures all the rest; because this is the principle of all the moral actions of the whole man, and the hand obeys this, and the feet walk by its prescriptions; we eat and drink by measures which the soul desires and limits; and though the natural actions of men are not subject to choice and rule, yet the animal actions are under discipline; and although it can not be helped but we shall desire, yet our desires can receive measures, and the laws of circumstances, and be reduced to order, and nature be changed into grace, and the actions animal, as eating, drinking, laughing, weeping, and so on, shall become actions of religion; and those that are simply natural, as being hungry and thirsty, shall be adopted in the retinue of religion, and become religious by being ordered, or chastised, or suffered, or directed; and therefore God requires the heart, because he requires all; and all can not be secured without the principle be inclosed. But he that seals up a fountain, may drink up all the waters alone, and may best appoint the channel where it shall run, and what grounds it shall refresh.

4. That I may sum up many reasons in one; God, by requiring the heart, secures the perpetuity and perseverance of our duty, and its sincerity, and its integrity, and its perfection: for so also God takes account of little things; it being all one in the heart of man, whether maliciously it omits a duty in a small instance or in a great; for although the expression hath variety and degrees in it, in relation to those purposes of usefulness and charity whither God designs it, yet the obedience and disobedience are all one, and shall be equally accounted for; and therefore the Jew Tryphon disputed against Justin, that the precepts of the gospel were impossible to be kept, because it also requiring the heart of man, did stop every outflow of disorders: for making the root holy and healthful, as the balsam of India, or the drops of manna in the evening of the Sabbath; it also causes that nothing spring thence but gums fit for incense, and oblations for the altar of proposition, and a cloud of perfume grateful to God; and being united to the great sacrifice of the world, to reconcile God and man together. Upon these reasons you see it is highly fit that God should require it, and that we should pay the sacrifice of our hearts; and not at all think that God is satisfied with the work of the hands, when the affections of the heart are absent.