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Post by Admin on Jun 10, 2023 21:48:49 GMT -5
www.monergism.com/thethreshold/sdg/flavel/KeepingtheHeartJohnFlavel.pdf
Proverbs 4:23, The Text Explained
Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.
THE heart of man is his worst part before it be regenerate, and the best afterwards: it is the seat of principles, and the fountain of actions. The eye of God is, and the eye of the Christian ought to be, principally fixed upon it.
The greatest difficulty in conversion is to win the heart to God; and the greatest difficulty after conversion is to keep the heart with God. Here lies the very pinch and stress of religion; here is that which makes the way to life a narrow way, and the gate to heaven a strait gate. Direction and help in this great work are the scope and sum of
this text: wherein we have,
1. An exhortation, "Keep thy heart with all diligence."
2. The reason, or motive enforcing it, "For out of it are the issues of life."
In the exhortation I shall consider,
1. The matter of the duty.
2. The manner of performing it.
1. The mattter of the duty, keep thy heart. Heart is not here taken properly for that noble part of the body which philosophers call the primum vivens, et ultimum moriens; the first that lives, and the last that dies; but by heart, in a metaphor, the scripture sometimes understands some particular noble faculty of thy soul: in Rom. 1:21 it
is put for the understanding part, their foolish heart, i.e. "their foolish understanding was darkened." And Psalm 119:11 it is put for the memory, "Thy word have I hid in my heart;" and 1 John 3:20 it is put for the conscience, which hath in it both the light of the understanding and the recognitions of the memory: if our heart condemn us, i.e. if your consciences, whose proper office it is to condemn. But here we are to take it more generally for the whole soul, or inner man; for look what the heart is to the body, that the soul is to the man; and what health is to the heart, that holiness is to the soul: Quod sanitas in corpore, id sanctitas in corde. The state of the whole body depends upon the soundness and vigour of the heart, and the everlasting state of the whole man upon the good or ill
condition of the soul. And by keeping the heart, understand the diligent and constant use and improvement of all holy means and duties, to preserve the soul from sin, and maintain its sweet and free communion with God.
*Livater, on the place, will have the word taken from a besieged garrison, begirt by many enemies without, and in danger of being betrayed by treacherous citizens within, in which danger the soldiers, upon pain of death, are commanded to watch; and whereas the expression (keep thine heart) seems to put it upon us as our work, yet it doth not imply a sufficiency or ability in us to do it; we are as able to stop the sun in its course, or make the rivers run backward, as by our own skill and power to rule and order our hearts: we may as well be our own saviours, as our own keepers; and yet Solomon speaks properly enough, when he saith keep thy heart; because the duty is our's though the power be God's. A natural man hath no power, a gracious man hath some, though not sufficient; and thatpower he hath, depends upon the exciting and assisting strength of Christ; Gratia gratiam postulat, grace within us is beholden to grace without u s, John 15:5. "Without me ye can do nothing." So much of the matter of the duty.
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Post by Admin on Jun 10, 2023 21:51:30 GMT -5
2. The manner of performing it is, with all diligence; the Hebrew isvery emphatical,, keeping with all keeping, .
keep, keep; set double guards, your hearts will be gone else. And this vehemency of expression, with which the duty is urged, plainly implies how difficult it is to keep your hearts, and how dangerous to let them go.
3. The reason, or motive quickening to this duty, is very forcible and weighty: "For out of it are the issues of life." That is, it is the source and fountain of all vital actions and operations; it is the spring and original both of good and evil, as the spring in a watch that sets all the wheels in motion.
The heart is the treasury, the hand and tongue but the shops; what is in these comes from thence; the hand and tongue always begin where the heart ends. The heart contrives, and the members execute; Luke 6:45. "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart
bringeth forth evil things; for out of the abundance of his heart his mouth speaketh." So then, if the heart err in its work, these must needs miscarry in theirs; for heart-errors are like the errors of the first concoction, which cannot be rectified afterwards: Or like the misplacing, and inverting of the stamps and letters in the press,
which must needs cause so many errata in all the copies that are printed off. O then, how important a duty is that which is contained in the following proposition?
Doct. That the keeping and right managing of the heart in every condition, is the great business of a Christian's life. What the philosopher saith of waters, is as properly applicable to hearts; it is hard to keep them within bounds: God hath set bounds and limits to them, yet how frequently do they transgress, not only the bounds of grace and religion, but even of reason and common honesty? Hic labor, this is that which affords the Christian matter of labour, fear and trembling to his dying-day. It is not the cleansing of the hand that makes the Christian, for many a hypocrite can shew as fair a hand as he; but the purifying, watching, and right ordering of the heart; this is the thing that provokes so many sad complaints, and costs so many deep groans and brinish tears. It was the pride of
Hezekiah's heart that made him lie in the dust mourning before the Lord, 2 Chron. 32:26. It was the fear of hypocrisy invading the heart, that made David cry, "Let my heart be found in thy statutes that I be not ashamed," Psalm 119:80. It was the sad experience he had of the divisions and distractions of his own heart, in the service of God, that
made him pour out that prayer, Psalm 86:11. "Unite my heart to fear thy name."
The method in which I shall improve the point, shall be this,
First, I shall enquire what the keeping of the heart supposes and imports.
Secondly, Assign divers reasons, why Christians must make this the great work and business of their lives.
Thirdly, Point at those special seasons which especially call for this diligence in keeping the heart.
Fourthly, and lastly, Apply the whole in several uses.
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Post by Admin on Jun 10, 2023 22:03:03 GMT -5
Man, by creation, was of one constant, uniform frame and tenour of spirit, held one straight and even course; not one thought or faculty revelled or disordered; his mind had a perfect illumination to understand and know the will of God, his will a perfect compliance therewith; his sensitive appetite, and other inferior powers, stood in a most obedient subordination.
Man, by degeneration, is become a most disordered and rebellious creature, contesting with, and opposing his Maker, as the first cause, by self-dependence; as the chiefest good, by self-love; as the highest Lord, by self-will, and as the last end, by self-seeking; and so is quite disordered, and all his acts irregular: His illuminated understanding is clouded with ignorance, his complying will full of rebellion and stubbornness; his subordinate powers, casting off the dominion and government of the superior faculties.
But by regeneration this disordered soul is set aright again: sanctification being the rectifying and due framing, or as the scripture phrases it, the renovation of the soul after the image of God, Eph. 4:24 in which self-dependence is removed by faith; selflove by the love of God; self-will by subjection and obedience to the will of God; and self-seeking by self-denial. The darkened understanding is again illuminated, Eph. 1:18 the refractory will sweetly subdued, Psalm 110:3 the rebellious appetite, or concupiscence gradually conquered, Rom. 5:7 per tot. And thus the soul which sin had universally depraved is again by grace restored and rectified.
This being pre-supposed, it will not be difficult to apprehend what it is to keep the heart, which is nothing else but the constant care and diligence of such a renewed man, to preserve his soul in that holy frame to which grace hath reduced it, and daily strives to hold it. Well then, to keep the heart is carefully to preserve it from sin, which disorders it; and maintain that spiritual and gracious frame, which fits it for a life of communion with God. And this includes these six acts in it:
1. Frequent observation of the frame of the heart, turning in and examining how the case stands with it, this is one part of the work. Carnal and formal persons take no heed to this, they cannot be brought to confer with their own hearts; there are some men and women that have lived forty or fifty years in the world, and have scarce had one hour's discourse with their own hearts all that while: It is a hard thing to bring a man and himself together upon such an account; but saints know those soliloquies and self-conferences to be of excellent use and advantage. The heathen could say, , the soul is made wise by sitting still in quietness: though bankrupts wish not to look into their books of accompt, yet upright hearts will know whether they go backward or forward, Psal. 77:6. "I commune with mine own heart." The heart can never be kept until its case be examined and understood.
2. It includes deep humiliation for heart-evils and disorders; thus Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, 2 Chron. 32:26. Thus the people were ordered to spread forth their hands to God in prayer, in a sense of the plague of their own hearts, 1 Kings 8:38. Upon this account many an upright heart hath been laid low before
God: O what an heart have I? They have in their confessions pointed at the heart, the pained place; Lord, here is the wound, here is the plague-sore. It is with the heart well kept, as it is with the eye, which is a fit emblem of it, if a small dust get into the eye, it will never leave twinkling and watering till it have wept it out: So the upright heart cannot be at rest till it have wept out its troubles, and poured out its complaints before the Lord.
3. It includes earnest supplications and instant prayer for heart purifying and rectifying grace, when sin hath defiled and disordered it; so Psalm 19:12. "Cleanse thou me from secret faults;" and Psalm 86:11. "Unite my heart to fear thy name." Saints have always many such petitions depending before the throne of God's grace; this is the
thing which is most pleaded by them with God: When they are praying for outward mercies, haply their spirits may be more remiss, but when it comes to the heart-case, then they extend their spirits to the utmost, fill their mouths with arguments, weep and make supplication: Oh, for a better heart! Oh for a heart to love God more.
To hate sin more, to walk more evenly with God: Lord, deny not to me such a heart, whatever thou deny me; give me an heart to fear thee, love and delight in thee, if I beg my bread in desolate places. It is observed of holy Mr. Bradford, that when he was confessing sin, he would never give over confessing until he had felt some brokenness
of heart for that sin; and when praying for any spiritual mercy, would never give over that suit, until he had got some relish of that mercy. That is the third thing included in keeping the heart.
4. It includes the imposing of strong engagements and bonds upon ourselves to walk more accurately with God, and avoid the occasions whereby the heart may be induced to sin: Well-composed, advised, and deliberate vows, are, in some cases, of excellent use to guard the heart against some special sin; so Job 31:1. "I made a covenant with
mine eyes;" by this means, holy ones have over-awed their souls, and preserved themselves from defilement by some special heart corruptions.
5. It includes a constant holy jealousy over our own hearts; quick sighted self-jealousy is an excellent preservative from sin; he that will keep his heart must have the eyes of his soul awake and open upon all the disorderly and tumultuous stirrings of his affections; if the affections break loose, and the passions be stirred,
the soul must discover and suppress them before they get to an height: O my soul, dost thou well in this? My tumultuous thoughts and passions, where is your commission?
Happy is the man that thus feareth always, Prov. 28:14. By this fear of the Lord it is that men depart from evil, shake off security, and preserve themselves from iniquity; he that will keep his heart, must feed with fear, rejoice with fear, and pass the whole time of his sojourning here in fear, and all little enough to keep the heart from
sin.
6. And, lastly, To add no more, it includes the realizing of God's presence with us, and setting the Lord always before us: This the people of God have found a singular mean to keep their hearts upright, and awe them from sin; when the eye of our faith is fixed upon the eye of God's omniscience, we dare not let out our thoughts and affections to vanity: Holy Job durst not suffer his heart to yield to an impure, vain thought; and what was it that moved him to so great a circumspection? Why, he tells you, Job 31:4. "Doth he not see my ways, and count all my steps? Walk before me (saith God to Abraham) and be thou perfect," Gen. 17:1. Even as parents use to set their children in the congregation before them, knowing that else they will be toying and playing; so would the heart of the best man
too, were it not for the eye of God.
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