they come unto thee as the people come eth, and sit before thee (as my people,) and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goes af ter their covetousness. Here was a company of formal hypocrites, as is evident by that expression [as my people ;] like them, but not of them: and what made them so? their outside was fair; here were reverent postures, high professions, much seeming joy and delight in ordinances; thou art to them as a lovely song: yea, but, for all that, they keep not their hearts with God in those duties, their hearts were commanded by their lusts, they went after their covetousness: had they kept their hearts with God, all had been well; but, not regarding which way their hearts went in duty, there lay the core of their hypocrisy.

Object. If any upright soul should. hence infer, then I am an hypocrite too, for many times my heart departs from God in daty; do what I can, yet Ι cannot hold it close with God :

Sol. To this I answer, the very objection carries in it its own solution. Thou sayst, do what I can, yet I cannot keep my heart with God. Soul, if theu dost what thou canst, thou hast the bles

sing of an upright, though God sees good to exercise thee under the affliction of a discomposed, heart. There remains still some wildness in the thoughts and fancies of the best, to humble them; but, if you find a care before to prevent them, and opposition against them when they come, grief and sorrow afterwards, you will find enough to clear you from reigning hypocrisy.

(1.) This fore care is seen partly in laying up the word in thine heart to prevent them, Psal. cxix. 11. Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that 1 might not sin against thee; partly in our endeavours to engage our hearts to God, Jer. xxx. 21. and partly in begging preventing grace from God in our onsets upon duty, Psal. cxix. 36 37. It is a good sign where this care goes before a duty.

And, (2.) It is a sweet sign of uprightness to oppose them in their first rise, Psal. cxix. 113. I hate vain thoughts. Gal. v. 17. The spirit lusteth against the flesh.

And, (3.) Thy after grief discovers thy upright heart; if, with Hezekiah, thou art humbled for the evils of thy heart, thou hast no reason from those disorders to question the integrity of it a

but to suffer sin to lodge quietly in the heart, to let thy heart habitually and uncontrouledly wander from God, is a sad and dangerous symptom indeed.

3. The beauty of our conversation arises from the heavenly frames and holy order of our spirits: there is a spiritual lustre and beauty in the conversation of saints; the righteous is more excellent than his neighbour, they shine as the lights of the world: but whatever lustre and beauty is in their lives, comes from the excellency of their spirits, as the candle within puts a lustre upon the lanthorn in which it shines. It is impossible that a disordered and neglected heart should ever produce a well ordered conversation and since (as the text observes) the issues or streams of life flow out of the heart 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 notes the course of his life, is thoughts the frame of his heart; and therefore, since the way and course of his life, B

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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 out into suitable actions and practices. If the heart be wicked, then, as Christ saith, Mat. xv. 19. Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, &c. 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, in Psal. xlv. 1. My heart is (enditing) a good matter, I speak of the things which (I have made) my tongue is as the pen of a ready writer. 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 enditing 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 converses of christians, what frames their spirits are under: take

a christian in a good frame, and how serious, heavenly, and profitable will his converses 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, Psal. Xxxvii. 30 31. The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment, the law of his God

is in his heart.

When the 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.

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 christian fellowship, it became a sapless thing: so the attracting beauty that was wont to shine from the conversations of the saints upon 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 least left

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