The best gift

1. What is meant by the Heart? The Heart in Scripture is frequently taken for the whole Soul, as including all its powers and faculties; thus Mat 15.8. This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips, there was the worship of their outward man; but their heart is far from me; the worship of the Soul and inward man was wanting. So Rom. 2.28, 29. He is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit, &c. And we shall find in the Scripture, that every faculty is sometimes called by the name of the Heart; The Understanding, Eph. 4.18. Being alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their hearts. The Conscience, 1 Job. 3.20. For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, and knoweth all things. The Memory, Luk. 2.19. Mary kept all these things in her heart. But chiefly, and most properly, the Heart is taken in Scripture for the Will and Affections, which are seated in the Heart, as the Understanding, Memory, Fancy, and Imagination are seated in the Head; and thus we may understand the acceptation of the word Heart in this place; namely, for the Will and Affections, yet not excluding the other faculties. 2. What is it to give God the Heart? Persons give God their Hearts, when their Wills make choice of him as their chief Good, and they place their liking affections chiefly upon him; when their love is chiefly towards him, their desires chiefly after him, their hopes and delights chiefly in him: Persons give God their Hearts, when the• ⟨p. 3⟩open the door of these secret chambers, and let God in, and lodge him the dearest embracements of their affections; when they give him full possession of their hearts, and set him up in the highest room; when they give God the chief rule and command in their hearts, placing him upon the the throne; when they engage their hearts to the Lord in a solemn covenant to be his, and only his. 3. Why all men, especially young men, ought to give their hearts unto God. R. 1. Because God hath right to their hearts: The Devil and Sin have got the possession, but they have no right to the heart, they are usurpers, and therefore should be turned out;