as their fountain, it must needs follow, that such as the heart is, the life will be. Hence 1 Pet. ii. 11, 12; “ Abstain from fleshly lusts;" "having your conversation honest," or beautiful, as the Greek word imports. So Isa. lv. 7; "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts." His way denotes the course of his life, his thoughts the frame of his heart; and therefore since the way and course of his life flows from his thoughts or the frame of his heart, both or neither will be forsaken. The heart is the womb of all actions; these actions are virtually and seminally contained in our thoughts; these thoughts being once made up into affections, are quickly made up into suitable actions and practices. If the heart be wicked, then, as Christ says, "out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries." Mark the order; first, wanton or revengeful thoughts, then unclean or murderous practices. And if the heart be holy and spiritual, then, as David speaks, from sweet experience, "My heart is inditing a good matter; I speak of things which I have made; my tongue is as the pen of a ready writer," Psal. xlv. 1. Here is a life richly beautified with good works, some ready made; "I will speak of the things which I have made;" others upon the wheel making, "My heart is inditing;" but both proceeding from the heavenly frame of his heart.

Put but the heart in frame, and the life will quickly discover that it is so. I think it is not very difficult to discern, by the duties and conversation of Christians, what frames their spirits are under. Take a Christian in a good frame, and how serious, heavenly, and profitable, will his conversation and duties be! What a lovely companion is he during the continuance of it! It would do any one's heart good to be with him at such a time. "The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment; the law of his God is in his heart," Psal. xxxvii. 30, 31. When his heart is up with God and full of God, how dexterously and ingeniously will he wind in spiritual discourse, improving every occasion and advantage to some heavenly purpose! Few words run then at the waste spout.

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And what else can be the reason why the discourses and duties of many Christians are become so frothy and

unprofitable, their communion both with God and one another become as a dry stalk, but, because their hearts are neglected? Surely this must be the reason of it, and verily it is an evil greatly to be bewailed. For want of this looking to the heart, Christian-fellowship is become a sapless thing. The attracting beauty that was wont to shine from the conversation of the saints on the faces and consciences of the world, (which, if it did not allure and bring them in love with the ways of God, yet at the least left a testimony in their consciences of the excellency of those men and their ways) this is in a great measure lost, to the unspeakable detriment of religion.

A time was, when Christians did carry it at such a rate, that the world stood at a gaze at them, as the original word in 1 Pet. iv. 4, imports. Their life and language were of a different strain from others; their tongues discovered them to be Galileans, wherever they came; but now, since vain speculations and fruitless controversies have so much prevailed, and heart-work, practical godliness, been so much neglected among professors, the case is sadly altered; their discourse is become like other men's. If they come among you now, they may "hear every man speak in his own language.' And truly I have little hope to see this evil redressed, and the credit of religion again repaired, till Christians fall to their old work, till they ply heart-work closer. When the salt of heavenly-mindedness is cast into the spring, the streams will run clearer and sweeter.

4. The comfort of our souls much depends on the keeping of our hearts; for he who is negligent in attending to his own heart, is ordinarily a great stranger to assurance, and the sweet comforts flowing from it.

If the Antinomian doctrine were indeed true, which teaches you to reject all marks and signs for the trial of your condition, telling you it is only the Spirit that immediately assures you by witnessing your adoption directly without them, then you might be careless of your hearts, yea, strangers to them, and yet no strangers to comfort. But since both scripture and experience confute this dotage, I hope you will never look for comfort in that unscriptural way. I deny not but it is the

work and office of the Spirit to assure you, and yet I do confidently affirm, that if ever you attain assurance, in the ordinary way wherein God dispenses it, you must take pains with your own hearts. You may expect your comforts upon easier terms, but I am mistaken if ever you enjoy them on any other. "Give all diligence;" "Prove yourselves;" this is the scriptural way. I remember that Mr. Roberts tells us, in his Treatise on the Covenants, that he knew a Christian, who in the infancy of his christianity, so vehemently panted after the infallible assurance of God's love, that for a long time together he earnestly desired some voice from heaven, yea, sometimes walking in the solitary fields, he earnestly desired some miraculous voice from the trees and stones there; this, after many desires and longings, was denied him; but in time a better was afforded in the ordinary way of searching the word and his own heart. An instance of the like nature the learned Gerson gives us, of one who was driven by temptation on the very borders of desperation; at last being sweetly settled, and assured, one asked him how he attained it? He answered, "Not by any extraordinary revelation, but by subjecting my understanding to the scriptures, and comparing my own heart with them."

The Spirit indeed assures by witnessing our adoption; and he witnesses two ways-first, objectively; that is, by working those graces in our souls which are the conditions of the promise; and so the Spirit and his graces in us are all one. The Spirit of God dwelling in us, is a mark of our adoption. Now the Spirit cannot be discerned in his essence, but in his operations; and to discern these, is to discern the Spirit; and how these should be discerned without serious searching and diligent watching of the heart, I cannot imagine.-The other way of the Spirit's witnessing is effectively; that is, by irradiating the soul with a gracediscovering light, shining on his own work; and this in the order of nature follows the former work; he first infuses the grace, and then he opens the eye of the soul to see it. Now since the heart is the subject of this infused grace, even this way of the Spirit's witnessing also includes the necessity of keeping carefully our

own hearts; for a neglected heart is so confused and dark, that the little grace which is in it, is not ordinarily discernible. The most accurate and laborious Christians, who take most pains and spend most time about their hearts, do notwithstanding find it very difficult to discover the pure and genuine workings of the Spirit there. How then shall the Christian, who is comparatively negligent and remiss about heart-work, be ever able to discover it? Sincerity, which is the thing sought for, lies in the heart like a small piece of gold in the bottom of a river; he who will find it, must stay till the water is clear, and settled, and then he shall see it sparkling at the bottom. And that the heart may be clear, and settled, how much pains and watching, care and diligence, will it cost!

God does not usually indulge lazy and negligent souls with the comforts of assurance. He will not so much as seem to patronize sloth and carelessness. He will give assurance, but it shall be in his own way. His command has united our care and comfort together. They are mistaken, who think the beautiful child of assurance may be born without pangs. O how many solitary hours have the people of God spent in heart-examination! How many times have they looked into the word, and then into their hearts! Sometimes they have thought that they have discovered sincerity, and have even been ready to draw forth the triumphant conclusion of assurance; then comes a doubt which they cannot resolve, and dashes all to pieces again. Many hopes and fears, doubtings and reasonings, they have had in their breasts, before they arrived at a comfortable settlement.

To conclude; suppose it possible for a careless Christian to attain assurance, yet it is impossible he should long retain it; for even in the case of those whose hearts are filled with the joys of assurance, if extraordinary care be not used, it is a thousand to one if ever they long enjoy it a little pride, vanity, or carelessness, will dash to pieces all that for which they have been laboring a long time, in many a weary duty. Since then the joy of our life, the comfort of our souls, rises and falls with our diligence in this work, keep your hearts with all diligence. 5. The improvement of our graces depends on the keepNo. XVIII.

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ing of our hearts. I never knew grace thrive in a negligent and careless soul. The habits and roots of grace are planted in the heart; and the deeper they are radicated there, the more thriving and florishing grace is. In Eph. iii. 17, we read of "being rooted in grace;" grace in the heart is the root of every gracious word in the mouth, and of every holy work in the hand, Psal. cxvi.. 10; 2 Cor. iv. 13. It is true, Christ is the root of a Christian; but Christ is the originating root; and grace a root originated, planted, and influenced by Christ. According as this thrives under divine influences, so the acts of grace are more or less fruitful or vigorous. Now in a heart not kept with care and diligence, these fructifying influences are stopt and cut off; multitudes of vanities break in upon it, and devour its strength. The heart is, as it were, the pasture, in which multitudes of thoughts are fed every day; a gracious heart diligently kept, feeds many precious thoughts of God in a day; "How precious are thy thoughts to me, O God! how great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with thee,' Psal. cxxxix. 17. And as the gracious heart feeds and nourishes them, so they refresh and feast the heart; "My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips, when I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches," Psalm lxiii, 5. But in the disregarded heart, swarms of vain and foolish thoughts are perpetually working, and these drive out those spiritual ideas and thoughts of God, by which the soul should be refresh

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Besides, the careless heart makes nothing out of any duty or ordinance it performs or attends on; and yet these are the conduits of heaven, from whence grace is watered and made fruitful. A man may go with a heedless spirit from ordinance to ordinance, abide all his days under the choicest teaching, and yet never be improved by them; for heart-neglect is a leak in the bottom; no heavenly influences, how rich soever, abide in that soul, Mat. xiii. 3, 4. When the seed falls on the heart which lies open and common, like the highway, free for all