out The fire of afflictions will not purge out the impurities of the heart The fire of Hell will not fetch out the dross that is in the hearts of the damned Nothing but the blood of Christ nothing but the Spirit of Christ are able to do it The blood of Christ meritoriously the Spirit efficiently and efficaciously And then Thirdly The heart re-made pure is so made Instrumentally by the Word The Word of God is pure it is as Silver purified in the fire seven times And the Word of God is a purifier instrumentally and the usual way by which the heart is re-made pure is by the Word Christ saith John 15. 3. Ye are clean How Through the Word that I have spoken And in general the Apostle in Ephes 5. 22 26. saith That Jesus Christ doth sanctifie and cleanse his Church with the washing of water by the Word With the washing of water that is with the Spirit But what 's the instrument By the Word This way is purity of heart commonly and usually wrought by the Word And Fourthly The heart is made pure applicatorily by Faith Acts 15. 9. He put no difference between us and them saith the Apostle that is between Jews and Gentiles having purified their hearts by faith God works faith in the heart and then faith purifies the heart by applying the blood of Christ and by receiving the Spirit and by working the soul to a submission to the holy Word and Will of God So that thus in these wayes the heart is re-made pure and of this re-made pure heart it is that the Text speaks That 's the spring out of which holy and acceptable works to the Lord doth flow Obj. But some may say Is there any such thing as a pure heart We find those questions somewhat rife in the Book of Job What is man that he should be clean So in Chap. 15. 14. Or how can he be clean that is born of a woman Chap. 25. 4. And Solomon saith expresly in Prov. 20. 9. Who can say I have made my heart clean I am pure from my sin It is plain then by these Scriptures that there is no such thing as a pure heart Answ I answer briefly in three things to these Scriptures and to all Scriptures of a like Import When the Scripture speaks thus It doth teach us either First that no man is born with a pure heart or it teaches us Secondly That no man by his own power hath made his heart pure or Thirdly it teaches us that no heart is made pure in this world with an absolutely perfect purity Indeed the best purity which the heart attains to in this world hath a mixture of much impurity in it so that thus indeed there is no heart pure That is there is no heart Legally pure strictly pure but there are thousands of hearts through Grace that are sincerely pure that are Evangelically pure and so esteemed in the thoughts of God and so exprest in his word If any shall say you tell us there is an Evangelical purity what mean you by it when may the heart be said to be Evangelically pure I answer thus the heart is Evangelically When the heart may be said to be Evangelically pure pure though there be sin dwelling in us or an in-dwelling sin and though sin is stirring hath strong motions in us makes war in our souls from day to day though sin doth some times prevail and give us that foil yet notwithstanding all this when First the soul in free from the Command of every sin Secondly When the soul is freed from the customary practice of every sin and Thirdly When the soul is free from the love of any sin then the soul is Evangelically pure Indeed sin will hide sin will stirr and I cannot warrant any man in the world that is a man of the purest heart in the world but that his sin may possibly give him a foil But this is certain he that hath an Evangelical purity is free from the commanding power of sin and from that constant and customary practice of sin and from the love of sin A man of a pure heart may have a special sin that is a sin to which he is more inclined than to any other Sometimes through the constitution of his body sometimes through his occasions and in the way of his calling there are many things which do indanger men to some special sin now though I say a good man may have a special sin a sin that he finds his heart most running out after in which sense David call's some iniquities his Iniquity Psal 111. 23. I have kept my self saith he from mine Iniquity that is from the Iniquity that did most beset him A good man then may have a special sin which haunts him which dogs him and besets him but yet he hath not a beloved sin Evangelical purity and the love of sin cannot consist together he that hath a pure heart cannot play with his sin cannot sport with his sin cannot take content in thinking of sin either past or what may be to come As they in the Prophet this day is thus with us and to morrow shall be more abundant No he cannot please himself thus in reference to any sin So that I conclude it the pure heart is freed if he be Evangelically freed from sin in all these notions and so he is the Person here meant in the text from whom all holy actions may proceed acceptably to the Lord and that may serve for the opening of this point for I intend to dispatch it at this time I shall make some use of it Use First To stir up all to consider whether they have this pure heart yea or no. You see the importance of it it is one of the springs out of which every action that is pleasing to God according to his appointment must flow therefore it stands us much upon lest we loose all things that we work To have a good assurance in our own bosoms that we have a pure heart in our bosoms and we had need consider it For First 't is most sure that many think they have pure hearts and have them not Solomon hath an expression saith he there are a Generation that are pure in their own own eyes and yet are not cleansed from their wickedness Chap. 30. 12. It 's an easie matter to be pure in our own eyes and yet remain altogether unclean A Generation pure in their own eyes And St. Augustin speaks of a sort of people who would needs be called Cathorists and saith he they do call themselves so they most proudly and odiously call themselves the pure ones But according to his discovery of them they were not cleansed from their wickedness and how many are thus indeed clean in their own eyes and yet are unclean And Secondly There are many that are clean not only in their own eyes but in the eyes of other men yea possibly in very good men
are fixt upon those objects That which I shall do indeed shall be to speak to the Heart and so of the purity of it in a general notion as it concerns the whole inner man And the heart as to purity may be considered two wayes First As Made Secondly As Re-made The heart of man as made was pure I mean in its primitive Constitution So Adam had a pure heart his understanding pure his will pure his affections pure God made him upright but he lost his pure heart or the purity of his heart Sin did impure his whole inner man and he being our Representative lost purity of heart not only for himself but for us All mankind lost that made purity of heart when Adam fell And therefore the very first Complaint which the Lord made of the Fallen World was concerning the pravity and impurity of their hearts in Gen. 6. 5. God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth that 's wickedness of Life and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually By this we see to purpose That the first made purity of the heart was lost Here are so many particulars setting forth the evil of mans heart as plainly shews that it is nothing but evil Here 's the evil of his Imaginations The Imagination of the Thoughts of his heart And not here and there one but every imagination of the thoughts of his heart it was evil And not evil with some mixture of good but purely evil It was evil without any goodness in it and therefore saith he Only evil Nor was it in this impure state only for a fit or now and then but saith the Text Continually evil or as the Hebrew is every day Day by day which we render Continually So that now the made pure heart was lost and no man hath a pure heart by nature nor hath any man a heart less impure by nature than another man hath Our hearts in nature are all of a make and that 's stark naught So spake the Prophet Jeremy likewise in Jer. 17. 10. The heart of man is deceitful above all things The heart of man is the greatest cheat in the world and the greatest Impostor in the world and saith he 't is desperately wicked and 't is so wicked that the wickedness of it is beyond Humane Comprehension The wickedness of it is beyond the knowledge of man who knows it Neither he that hath the heart nor any other that sees him that hath it knows how wicked the heart of man is And pray take notice That the Prophet doth not speak there of some sort of vile base debauched wicked men whose hearts were so deceitful and wicked but he speaks of men in general as they are in nature And much of that deceitfulness and wickedness remains even when they are in Grace We may therefore conclude at least in this matter alluding to that of Solomon in the Proverbs Chap. 27. 19. As in water face answereth to face so the heart of man to man There are some that do trouble the water in that Text with various Interpretations I shall not stay upon them But all that I alledge the Text for is to shew That look what there is in one mans heart naturally the same is in anothers Just as he that looks into the water the face in the water upon which he looks answers his own face looking into it So doth the heart of man to man The hearts of all good men of persons regenerate do answer one another in the main Look what the heart of one godly man is the same is the heart of another godly man in the main though there may be particular differences And so take all men in their natural condition Look what the heart of one man is the same is the heart of another and all stark naught So then there 's now no pure heart in nature Seeing the made pure heart is lost we must then consider the heart as re-made pure Here is a pure heart in the Text 'T is a heart re-made pure A heart made pure by a gracious Restitution And mark it I say it is a heart re-made It is not a heart mended that will not serve the turn The heart of man received such a crack in the fall that there is no mending of it It must be new made Therefore I say the pure heart is a heart re-made new made As we commonly say of a Bell if a Bell receive a crack there is no mending of it You cannot mend a Bell as you may mend a Brass Pan by putting a piece to it There is no way to mend a crackt Bell but by new casting it it must to the Founder Truly thus it is with mans heart there is no mending it no putting a patch to it no repairing it as you may repair a house that is delapidated No it must be new made and therefore the pure heart which is here spoken of in the Text in other Texts is called a new heart Ezek. 36. 25 26. It is not a mended heart but it is a new heart I will take away the heart of stone The former heart is an heart of stone a heart that hath no more of remorse in it no more of softness or tenderness in it than a stone I will take away the heart of stone He doth not say I will mend the heart of stone but I will take it away That is I will take away the heart so far as it is stony And I will give you an heart of flesh that is a new heart an heart of flesh The re-made heart is a heart made wholly new It is made wholly new by the power of God and I may give it you in these four things This pure heart of which I am speaking is purified or made new First Meritoriously by the blood of Christ For it is by blood that things are purified and purged as the Author to the Hebrews doth discourse at large especially in the ninth Chapter of the Epistle Ver. 22. Almost all things are by the Law purged with blood and without shedding of blood is no Remission The heart is made pure First By the blood of Christ that cleansing blood The blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin Secondly It is purified or made pure by the Spirit of Christ therefore we find these two put together 1 Pet 1. 2. Through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ As we are purified through the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ so through the sanctification of the Spirit The Spirit is pure and the Spirit is a purifier The Spirit is compared to water the Spirit is compared to fire that purifies that fetches out the dross and the filth and makes all pure And indeed the impurity which is in the heart of man is such as nothing less than the blood of Christ and therefore of the Spirit can purge it
double minded You are no wayes fit for Communion with God for drawing near to God unless your hearts are thus purified thus purged thus cleansed And then Fourthly Lastly The pure in heart are those that have that great promise the promise which concludes all good namely To see God Matth. 5. 8. Blessed are the pure in heart Why Saith he They shall see God God is a Spirit God is Invisible How shall they see him Him no man hath seen nor can see How shall the pure in heart see him Why they shall see him that is they shall enjoy him they shall have sweet communion with him they shall ascend into the Holy Hill Psal 24. 3 4. Who shall ascend into the Holy Hill He that hath clean hands and a pure heart They shall be admitted nigh to God they shall see him they shall enjoy him I may conclude with that of the Prophet Hab. 1. 13. he saith that God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity And the truth is Impure eyes cannot behold God They cannot bear the Glory the Excellency of his presence They cannot enjoy God There is a stop in the very nature of the thing as well as there is a stop by a Divine Law Thus the Imposture shall not come into the presence of God that 's the Divine Law And there is a stop in the very nature of the thing they cannot abide in the presence of God As he is of purer eyes than to behold evil so evil ones have such impure eyes that they cannot behold him they cannot see God Now then let this be considered and lay it to heart what reason you have to look after this pure heart which is the first of those three springs out of which saith the Apostle all those holy actions which are the end and the fulfilling of the Commandment of God must flow and with which only it is that you may come to have acceptance And so much now of the first of the Springs The Pure Heart The second is a Good Conscience FINIS PSAL. 92. 12. The righteous shall flourish like the Palm-tree He shall grow like a Cedar in Lebanon VVE see commonly that opposites either persons or things being laid together illustrate and set off one another To touch at no other things in this Psalm Here are two of the greatest opposites in this world laid together and they do wonderfully illustrate each other The opposites are the Wicked and the Righteous And indeed those two divide the whole world The state of the wicked is set down at the seventh Verse They may spring as the Grass they may flourish But what 's the issue of it It is that they shall be destroyed for ever They shall spring but they shall spring but like Grass which is Green for a while and quickly withers Now the Righteous at this twelfth Verse For I shall not enlarge further upon the state of the wicked but only to set off the state of the Righteous The Righteous shall flourish too But how Not like the Grass but like the Palm-tree And indeed they shall abide for ever whereas the wicked they shall be destroyed for ever Who the Righteous are I shall not stay to speak of at large They are such as are righteous in their state being in the righteousness of Jesus Christ And they are such as are righteous in their course and in their life walking answerably to such a state These Righteous ones shall flourish They shall not only Live and Continue but they shall have a flourishing life David saith Mine enemies live and are mighty 'T is true they do so for a time many times The Righteous live and they have a mightiness too For they flourish And how do they flourish Not as the Grass but as the Palm-tree I shall only open that a little and touch only upon one point from the Paralel They shall flourish as the Palm-tree The Palm-tree is an excellent tree and the praises of God are often resembled by it Nay they are said in the Revelation to have Palms in their hands And they are shadowed by the Palm-tree in the Prophecy of Ezekiel Chap. 40. 31. in the description of the New Jerusalem Now when it is said They shall flourish like a Palm-tree We must consider how the Palm-tree flourishes The Palm tree only to touch that is the Date-tree that 's the Palm-tree And so the Meeter or Singing Psalms expresses it There it is rendred thus The Just shall flourish up on high As Date-trees bud and blow Now there are five things which are observed in the Date-tree I shall name them all but speak only a little to one to carry on this point of the flourishing of the Righteous like the Palm-tree First The Date or the Palm-tree grows in the purest soil it will not grow in filthy places in dungy places but it loves a very pure soil And thus the Righteous flourish They flourish in a very pure soil for they are planted in that which is the purest soil of all They are planted in Christ They grow in Christ and they grow in the Church which is a pure soil They are planted in the house of God as it follows in the Psalm Not in the world the unclean and polluted world which lyes in wickedness and smells like a dunghill but in the Garden of God And Secondly The Palm-tree is a Tree whose branches do shoot all upwards there 's none grow out of the side as other Trees have And thus the Righteous flourish as the Palm-tree their affections are set upon things above they grow up Heaven-ward They do not shoot out their branches this way or that way to the world but all to Heaven So it is while they act according to their state Thirdly The Palm-trees are those Trees which are alwayes green Green in Winter as well as in Summer It doth not cast its leaf nor fade as the expression is in Psal 1. 3. The godly man is like a Tree planted by the Rivers of Water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season His leaf also shall not wither They hold up their profession they are green not only in the Summer of prosperity but in the very Winter of adversity and maintain their verdure and their beauty in the hardest times Fourthly The Palm-tree is a Tree that doth not only keep its greenness the beauty of its leaves but it is a Tree that is full of fruit and that good fruit pleasant fruit sweet fruit a kind of Cordial fruit which you know the Date is The Righteous have the greenness of a profession and besides that they have the fruitfulness of their Conversation and 't is pleasant fruit fruits of Righteousness fruits of Faith fruits of Love the fruits of the Spirit They are fruitful Trees such a one as the Palm Fifthly Which I shall a little insist upon They flourish like the Palm-tree It is so far noted that it is made an Emblem The Palm-tree doth grow up