Joseph of Benjamin, If you bring not Benjamin with you, you shall not see my face. Among the heathens, when the beast was cut up for sacrifice, the first thing the priest looked upon was the heart, and, if that were unsound and naught, the sacrifice was rejected. God rejects all duties (how glorious soever in other respects) offered him without, a heart. He that performs duty without a heart, viz. heedlessly, is no more accepted with God, than he that performs it with a double heart, viz. hypocritically, Isa. lxvi. 3. And thus I have briefly opened the nature of the duty, what is imported in this phrase, Keep thy beart.

Secondly, Next, I shall give you some rational account why christians should make this the great business of their lives, to keep their hearts.

The importance and necessity of making this our great and main business, will manifestly appear in that, 1, The honour of God; 2, The sincerity of our profession; 3, The beauty of our conversation; 4, The comfort of our souls; 5, The improvement of our graces; And 6, Our stability in the hour of temptation, are all wrapt up in, and dependent on, our sincerity and care in the management in this work.

1, The glory of God is much concern ed therein. Heart-evils are very provok hting evils to the Lord. The schools do st well observe, that outward sins are sins of -t, greater infamy; but heart sins are sins of t, deeper guilt. How severely hath the great God declared his wrath from heaven against heart wickedness! The great

crime for which the old world stands indicted, Gen. vi. 5. 6. 7. is heart wicked. ness; God, saw that every imagination (or fiction) of their heart was only evil, and that continually for which he sent the dreadfullest judgment that was ever executed since the world began; And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created, from the face of the earth, both man and beast, and the creeping things, and the fowls of heaven: For it repenteth me that I have made man, v. 7. We find not their murders, adulteries, blasphemies (though they were defiled with these) particularly alledged against them; but the evils of their hearts: yea, that which God was so provoked by, as to give up his peculiar inheritance into the enemies hand, was the evil of their hearts, Jer. iv. 14. O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayst be saved; how long shall vain thoughts lodge within thee? The wickedness and

vanity of their thoughts God took special notice of; and, because of this, the Chaldean imust come upon them as a li. on from his thickets, v. 7. and tear them to pieces. For the very sin of thoughts it was that God threw down the fallen angels from heaven, and keeps them in everlasting chains to the judgment to which they are reserved; as prisoners that have most irons laid upon them, may be supposed to be the greatest malefactors: And what was their sin? Why, only spiritual wickedness; for they having no bodily organs, could act nothing externally against God. Yea, mere heart evils are so provoking, that for them he rejects with indignation all the duties that some men perform unto him, Isa. lxvi. 3. He that killeth an ox, is as if he slew a man ; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog's neck; he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine's blood; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol. In what words could the abhorrence of a creature's actions be more fully expressed by the holy God? Murder and idolatry are not more vile in his account than their sacrifices, though materially such as himself appointed and what made them so, the following words inform us, Their soul delighteth in their abominations

To conclude, such is the vileness of mere heart sins, that the scriptures somemnes intimate the difficulty of pardon or them. So in the case of Simon Magus, Acts viii. 21 his heart was not right; he had vile thoughts of God, and the things of God: the apostle bids him repent and pray, if perhaps the thoughts of his heart might be forgiven him. O then never slight heart evils; for by these God is highly wronged and provoked and, for this reason, let every christian make it his work to keep his heart with all diligence.

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2. The sincerity of our profession much depends upon the care and conscience we have in keeping our hearts; for it is most certain, that a man is but an hypocrite in his profession, how curious soever he be in the externals of religion, that is heedless and careless of the frame of his heart: you have a pregnant i stance of this in the case of Jehu, 2 Kings x. 31. But Jehu took no heed to walk in the ways of the Lord God of Israel with his heart. That context gives us an account. of the great service performed by Jehu against the house of Ahab and Baal, as also of a great temposal reward given him by God for that service, even that his children to the

fourth generation should sit upon the throne of Israel: and yet in these words Jehu is censured for an hypocrite; though God approved and rewarded the work, yet he abhorred and rejected the person that did it, as hypocritical. And wherein lay his hypocrisy, but in this, that he took no heed to walk in the ways of the Lord with his heart? that is, he did all unsincerely and for self ends and though the work he did were materially good, yet he, not purging his heart from those unworthy self designs in doing it, was an hypocrite. And Simon, of whom we spake before, though he appeared such a person that the Apostle could not regularly refuse him, yet his hypocrisy was quickly discovered: and what discovered it but this, that, though he professed and associated himself with the saints, yet he was a stranger to the mortifica. tion of heart sins-Thy heart is not right with God, Acts viii. 21.-It is true, there is a great difference among christians themselves, in their diligence and dexterity about heart work; some are more conversant and successful in it than others are: but he that takes no heed to his heart, he that is not careful to order it aright before God, is but a hypocrite, Ezek. xxxiii. 31 32. And