Section I. — First, A sincei-e heart is a new heart; hypocrisy is called the * old leaven,' 1 Cor. v. 7: ' Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump.' Dough once soured with leaven will never lose the. taste of it; neither will corrupt nature cease to be hypocritical, till it cease to be corrupt nature ; either the heart must be made new, or it will have its old quality ; there may be some art used to conceal it, and take away its imsavouriness from others for a while, as flowers and perfumes cast about a rotten carcase may do its scent ; yet both tlie rotten carcase and the corrupt heart remain the same. They say of the peacock, that, roast him as much as you will, yet his flesh, when cold, will be raw again ; truly thus let a carnal heart do what it please, force upon itself never such an high strain of seeming piety, so that it appears fire hot with zeal, yet stay a little, and it will come to its old complexion, and discover itself to be but what it was, naught and false ; one heart, and a new heart, both are covenant mercies, yea, so promised, that the new is promised in order to the making of the heart one, Ezekiel xi. 9 : 'I will give tliem one heart, and I will put a new spirit in you, and I will take away the stony heart,' &c. God promiseth he will give them one spirit, that is, a sincere spirit to God and man : contrary to a divided heart, ' a heart and a heart,' the mark of hypocrisv. But how will he give it? he tells them, ' I will give you a new spirit;' and how will he do that? ' I will take away the heart of stone, and give you a heart of flesh;' \ipon which words o"ne very well thus glosseth, I will give you ' one heart,' which that I may so do, I will cast it ' anew ;' and that I may do this also, I will ' melt and soften it;' as one that having many pieces of old silver or plate lying by him, which he intends to put into one bowl, he first resolves to cast it anew, and to that end throws it into the fire to melt, and so at last shuts up all in one piece. Indeed by nature man's heart is a very divided, broken thing, scattered and parcelled out, a piece to this creature, and a piece to that lust. One while this vanity hires him, (as Leah did Jacob of Rachel,) anon when he hath done some drudgery for that, he lets out himself to another, thus divided is man and his affections ; now, the elect, whom God hath decreed to be vessels of honour, consecrated for his holy use and service, he throws into the fire of his word, that being there softened and melted, he may, by his transforming Spirit, cast them anew, as it were, into a holy oneness; so that he who before was divided from God, and lost among the creatiu'es, and his lusts, that shared him among them, now his heart is gathered into God from them all ; it looks with a single eye on God, and acts for him in all that he doth; if therefore thou Avouldst know whether thy heart be sincere, inquire whether it be thus made new. Hath God thrown thee into his furnace ? Did ever his word, like fire, take hold upon thee, so as to soften thy hard heart, and melt thy drossy spirit, that thou now seest that despei-ate hypocrisy, pride, unbelief, and the like, which before lay hid, like dross in the metal, before the fire finds it out? And not only seest it, but seest it sever and separate from thy soul, that thou who before didst bless thyself as in a good condition, now bewailest thy folly for it, heartily confessing what an unsavoury creature thou wert to God in all thou didst; the things which appeared so gaudy and fair in thy eye, thy civil righteousness, keeping thy church, slubbering over a few duties in thy family, that for them thou thoughtest heaven was as it were in mortgage to thee; dost thou lament to think how thou didst mock God with these hypocriti- cal pageants abroad, while thy lusts were entertained within doors in thy bosom, there sucking the heart-blood of thy dearest affections? In a word, canst thou say that thou art not only melted into sorrow for these, but that thou findest thy heart, which was so divided and distracted betwixt lusts and creatures, now united to fear the name of God? Hast thou but one design, that above all thou pursuest, and tliat to approve thyself to God, though with the displeasing of all beside? One love, how thou mayest love Christ, and be beloved of him ? If the streams of thy affections be thus, by the mighty power of God renewing thee, gathered into this one channel, and with a sweet violence run this way, then blessed art thou of the Lord ; thou art the sincere soul, in his account.
256 HAVING YOUR LOINS