The excellency of a gracious spirit Delivered in a treatise upon the 14. of…The excellency of a gracious spirit Deliuered in a treatise upon the 14. of…

This division of heart the Lord cannot endure, and therefore it follows in that place of Hosea, They shall be found faulty; or as the words are read by some, Now shall they be made desolate: for in the Hebrew, the word signifies both to be guilty, and to be desolate. It is too much boldness and presumptuousness in men, to venture to take liberty to themselves, to choose wherein they will yield to God in some things; but in others presume to satisfy themselves; this is not to cast down our souls before the Lord, as poor, condemned, vile creatures, to lie at his mercy in an humble, faithful resignation of our selves up to him, in all we are, or have, which is that honour that God expects from us, and is infinitely due unto him. While our hearts are thus divided between God and other things; God doth ⟨p. 338⟩not account himself obeyed, or honoured at all in any thing; all that we seem to do, in truth, is nothing at all. Hence in Jerem. 32. 23. the Prophet chargeth the people with this, that they neither walked in Gods Law, and that they had done nothing of all that God had commanded them to do; and Ver. 30. he saith, they had only done evil: and in 2 Kings 17. the people are said to fear the Lord, and serve their own gods, Verse 33. and yet in Verse 34. the Text says, that they feared not the Lord: showing unto us, that where the heart is divided between God and other things, there God hath not the heart at all, God is not feared, he is not honoured at all. If we join the counsels of the flesh with the spirit, we frustrate all.

This division of heart the Lord cannot endure, and therefore it followes in that place of Hosea, They shall be found faulty; or as the words are read by some, Now shall they bee made desolate: for in the Hebrew, the word signifies both to bee guilty, and to bee desolate. It is too much boldnesse and presumptuousnesse in men, to venture to take liberty to themselves, to chuse wherein they will yeeld to God in some things; but in others presume to satisfie themselves; this is not to cast downe our soules before the Lord, as poore, condemned, vile creatures, to lie at his mercy in an humble, faithfull resignation of our selves up to him, in all wee are, or have, which is that honour that God expects from us, and is infinitely due unto him. While our hearts are thus divided betweene God and other things; God doth