o do at home, he gets no leisure to come much abroad again.
It is the misery of men, that they are wholly without, carried into
external things only; and this is the very character of a beast, that it
cannot reflect inwardly upon itself, but is wholly spent on things that
are presented to the outward senses. There is nothing in which men are
more assimilated to beasts than this, that we do not speak in ourselves,
or return into our own bosoms, but are wholly occupied about the things
that are without us. And thus it fares with us, as with the man that is
busy in all other men's matters, and never thinks of his own. His estate
must needs ruin; all his affairs must be out of course. Truly, while we
are immersed and drowned in external things, our souls are perishing, our
inward estate is washing away. All our own affairs, that can only and
properly be called ours, are disordered and jumbled. Therefore,
Christianity doth first of all recall the wandering and vain spirit of man
into itself, as that exhortation is, Psal. iv. 9, to "commune" with his
"own heart,"--to make a diligent search of his own affairs; and, O how doth
he find all out of course; as a garden neglected, all overgrown,--as a
house not inhabited all dropping through,--in a word, wholly ruinous,
through intolerable negligence! It was the first turn of the prodigal to
return to himself, "he came to himself," Luke xv. 17. Truly, sin is not
only an aversion from God, but it is an estrangement from ourselves, from
our souls, from our own happiness. It is a madness that takes away the use
of reason and consideration of our own selves. But grace is a conversion,
not only to God, but to ourselves. It bringeth a man home to his heart,
maketh him sober again who was beside himself. Hence that phrase, 1 Kings
viii. 47. "When they shall turn to their own hearts, and return." It is
the most laborious vanity, or the vainest labour, to compass heaven and
earth,--to be so busied abroad,--to know other things, and then to know and
consider nothing of that which of all things most nearly concerns
us,--ourselves. "What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world,
and lose his soul?" for that is himself. And what shall it profit to know
all, and not know his soul, to be everywhere but where he ought to be.
Well, a Christian is one called home from vain impertinent diversions, one
that is occupied most about his soul and spirit, how to have all the
disorders he finds in hims