John Flavel
(4.) The comfort of our souls much depends on the keeping of our hearts; for he that is negligent in attending to his own heart, is (ordinarily) a great stranger to assurance and the sweet comforts flowing from it.
Indeed, if the Antinomian doctrine were true, which teaches you to reject all marks and signs for trying your condition – telling you it is only the Spirit that immediately assures you, by witnessing your adoption directly without marks – then you might be careless about your hearts; indeed, you might be strangers to them, and yet no strangers to comfort. But since both Scripture and experience confute this foolishness, I hope you will never look for comfort in that unscriptural way. I do not deny that it is the work and office of the Spirit to assure you, and yet I confidently affirm that, if ever you
1An edited extract from Flavel’s little work, A Saint Indeed, which can be found in The Works of John Flavel, vol 5, and is based on the verse, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Prov 4:23). March’s article spoke of it being the great business of a Christian’s life to keep their heart. This is the final article in the series.
attain assurance in the ordinary way wherein God dispenses it, you must take pains with your hearts. You may expect your comforts upon easier terms, but I am mistaken if you ever enjoy them on any other way than: “Giving all diligence”; “Prove your own selves”; this is the scripture way.
I remember that [Francis] Roberts,2 in his treatise on the covenant, tells us he knew a Christian who, in the infancy of his Christianity, so vehemently panted after the infallible assurance of God’s love that for a long time together he earnestly desired some voice from heaven. Sometimes when walking alone in the fields, he earnestly desired some miraculous voice from the trees and stones there. After many desires and longings, this was denied him; but in time a better was afforded in the ordinary way of searching the word, and his own heart. A learned writer gives a similar instance of someone who was driven by temptation to the very borders of despair; at last, after being sweetly assured, someone asked him how he attained it? He answered, “Not by any extraordinary revelation, but by subjecting my understanding to the Scriptures and comparing my own heart with them”. The Spirit indeed assures by being a witness to our adoption. He is a witness in two ways.
(1.) Objectively, that is, by working those graces in our souls which are the conditions of the promise, and so the Spirit and His graces in us are all one: the Spirit of God dwelling in us is a mark of our adoption. Now the Spirit cannot be discerned in His essence, but in His operations; and to discern these is to discern the Spirit. And how these should be discerned without serious searching of the heart, and diligent watching, I cannot imagine.
(2.) The other way of the Spirit’s witnessing is effectively – that is, by irradiating the soul with a grace-discovering light, shining upon His own work. In order of nature, this follows the former work; He first infuses the grace and then opens the eye of the soul to see it. Now since the heart is the subject of that infused grace, even this way of the Spirit’s witnessing also includes the necessity of keeping our own hearts carefully. For:
(1.) A neglected heart is so confused and dark that the little grace which is in it is not ordinarily discernible. The most accurate and laborious Christians, that take most pains and spend most time about their hearts, do yet find it very difficult to discover the pure, genuine workings of the Spirit there. How then shall the Christian who is (comparatively) negligent about heart work ever be able to find it out? Sincerity, which is the thing sought for, lies in the heart like a small piece of gold in the bottom of a river. He that will find it must stay till the water is settled and clear, and then he shall see the gold sparkling at the bottom. And that the heart may be settled
2English writer on covenant theology (1609-75).
and clear how much pains and watching, care and diligence, will it cost?
(2.) God does not usually indulge lazy and negligent souls with the comforts of assurance; He will not so much as seem to patronise sloth and carelessness. He will give assurance, but it shall be in His own way. His command has united our care and comfort together; they are mistaken that think the beautiful child of assurance may be born without pangs. How many solitary hours have the people of God spent in heart-examination? How many times have they looked into the Word and then into their hearts? Sometimes they thought they discovered sincerity, and were even ready to draw forth the triumphant conclusion of assurance. Then came a doubt they could not resolve and dashed all down again; they have had many hopes and fears, doubtings and reasonings, in their own breasts, before they became comfortably settled.
To conclude, suppose it is possible for a careless Christian to attain assurance, yet it is impossible he should long retain it. For, if extraordinary care is not used, it is a thousand to one that those whose hearts are filled with the joys of assurance, if ever they enjoy it for long, a little pride, vanity, or carelessness will dash to pieces all for which they have been labouring a long time, in many a weary duty. Then, since the joy of our life, the comfort of our souls, rises and falls with our diligence in this work, keep your hearts with all diligence.
(5.) The increase of our graces depends upon keeping our hearts. I never knew grace thrive in a negligent and careless soul. The habits and roots of grace are planted in the heart; and the deeper they become there, the more thriving and flourishing grace is. We read of “being rooted in . . . love” (Eph 3:17); grace in the heart is the root of every gracious word in the mouth and of every holy work in the hand (Ps 116:10, 2 Cor 4:13). It is true that Christ is the root of a Christian, but Christ is the originating root. And grace is a root originated, planted and influenced by Christ. According as this thrives under divine influences, so the acts of grace are more or less fruitful or vigorous. Now, in a heart not kept with care and diligence, these fructifying influences are cut off, multitudes of vanities break in upon it and devour its strength.
The heart is, as it were, the pasture in which multitudes of thoughts are fed every day; a gracious heart diligently kept, feeds on many precious thoughts of God in a day. “How precious are Thy thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand; when I awake, I am still with Thee” (Ps 139:17,18). And as the gracious heart feeds on them, so they refresh and feast the heart. “My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness . . . while I remember Thee” (Ps 63:5,6). But in the neglected heart, swarms of vain and foolish
thoughts perpetually jostle out those spiritual ideas and thoughts of God, by which the soul should be refreshed.
Besides, the careless heart makes nothing out of any duty or ordinance it performs or attends on, and yet these are the conduits of heaven, from whence grace is watered and made fruitful. A man may go with a heedless spirit from ordinance to ordinance, abide all his days under the choicest teaching, and yet never be improved by them; for heart-neglect is a leak in the bottom. No heavenly influences, however rich, abide in that soul (Mt 13:3,4). The heart that lies open, like the highway, free for all passers-by, when the seed fell on it, the fowls came and devoured it. Alas, it is not enough to hear, unless we take heed how we hear; a man may pray, and never be the better of it, unless he watches unto prayer. In a word, all ordinances, means and duties, are blessed unto the increase of grace, according to the care and strictness we use in keeping our hearts in them. By this time, reader, I hope you are fully satisfied how necessary a work the keeping of the heart is and how great are its consequences, it being a duty that wraps up so many interests of the soul.
(6.) The stability of our souls in the hour of temptation will be much according to the care and conscience we have of keeping our hearts. The careless heart is an easy prey to Satan in the hour of temptation. His main batteries are raised against the heart; if he wins that, he wins all, for it commands the whole man. Alas, how easy a conquest is a neglected heart! It is no more difficult to surprise it than for an enemy to enter that city whose gates are open and unguarded; it is the watchful heart that discovers and suppresses the temptation before it comes to its strength. Divines observe this to be the method in which temptations are ripened and brought to their full strength.