Whence is it that most men can work and care perpetually, and no distractions divert them? discourse their business most orderly, without one alien thought? drive on a bargain an hour together, and think on nothing but what's pertinent to their present business? Why, they love what they are about, they like it well, and so tongue and heart go together, are wholly taken up therewith. The jovial knot like their company, and nothing shall distract them; the servant comes about necessary business; the master fumes that they will not let him alone; the child comes, and then the wife, but he frets, he rages. And why all this? why, he loves his company, 'tis his delight, his heaven: Even so, the Soul that hath a strong love to a precious Christ, and his Ordinance-presence, doth most heavily bear a distracting thought. The devil cannot pluck him from Christ, but the soul smarts, and when there is this smart at parting, that soul will part but seldom. You have sometimes seen a sucking child, that loves the mother and the breast most dearly; how loth is it to leave it, while it is hungry? how eagerly and angrily it seeks, and cries, and catches ⟨p. 98⟩hold again? Here's love1. Christ Jesus is the spring of all happiness, and his Ordinances are his breasts, and he that loves the Lord Jesus with all his soul, and all his strength; there he lies, and sucks at the breasts of consolation. This business knocks at door, that trifle tempts him; yet there he sticks and frowns away all his temptations. His love is ardent, Psal. 1.2. His delight is in the Law of the Lord, and then it follows, in that Law doth he meditate day and night. When prayer is your delight, and not your task, then you will dwell therein with complacence, Psal. 43.4. Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy. Children are subject to look off their books, because they delight not in them, but when they are playing, they do hoc agere. But now when thy love is cool, and weak, thou lovest Christ, and that's all; alas, there's little heart to him, the soul comes heavily to him, and having little delight, and heavenly complacence in him, is most easily drawn off with any distraction: for where the treasure is, there will the heart be also; where God and Christ are a man's treasure, his heart is with them. He wakes, and travels, and cares, but his ⟨p. 99⟩heart is with them;
Whence is it that most men can work and care perpetually, and no distractions divert them? discourse their business most orderly, without one alien thought? drive on a bargain an hour together, and think on nothing but what's pertinent to their present business? Why, they love what they are about, they like it well, and so tongue and heart go together, are wholely taken up therewith. The jovial knot like their company, and nothing shall distract them; the servant comes about necessary business; the master fumes that they will not let him alone; the child comes, and then the wife, but he frets, he rages. And why all this? why, he loves his company, 'tis his delight, his heaven: Even so, the Soul that hath a strong love to a precious Christ, and his Ordinance-presence, doth most heavily bear a distracting thought. The devil cannot pluck him from Christ, but the soul smarts, and when there is this smart at parting, that soul will part but seldom. You have sometimes seen a sucking child, that loves the mother and the breast most dearly; how loth is it to leave it, while it is hungry? how eagerly and angrily it seeks, and cries, and catches ⟨p. 98⟩hold again? Here's love1. Christ Iesus is the spring of all happiness, and his Ordinances are his breasts, and he that loves the Lord Jesus with all his soul, and all his strength; there he lies, and sucks at the breasts of consolation. This business knocks at door, that trifle tempts him; yet there he sticks and frowns away all his temptations. His love is ardent, Psal. 1.2. His delight is in the Law of the Lord, and then it follows, in that Law doth he meditate day and night. When prayer is your delight, and not your task, then you will dwell therein with complacence, Psal. 43.4. Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy. Children are subject to look off their books, because they delight not in them, but when they are playing, they do hoc agere. But now when thy love is cool, and weak, thou lovest Christ, and that's all; alass, there's little heart to him, the soul comes heavily to him, and having little delight, and heavenly complacence in him, is most easily drawn off with any distraction: for where the treasure is, there will the heart be also; where God and Christ are a man's treasure, his heart is with them. He wakes, and travels, and cares, but his ⟨p. 99⟩heart is with them;
- 1Omnes igitur •od• distract•ones & men is fluctuations in unum collige, in sol• Deo totum desiderium tuum fige, & ibi sit cor tuum ubi est thesaurus tu•s d•siderabilis ••ultumque amabilis. Bern. de inter. Domo, c. 5.Omnes igitur •od• distract•ones & men is fluctuationes in unum collige, in sol• Deo totum desiderium tuum fige, & ibi sit cor tuum ubi est thesaurus tu•s d•siderabilis ••ultumque amabilis. Bern. de inter. Domo, c. 5.
