The heart is, as it were, a fountain, from whence all our actions proceed —
In it there is a treasure either of good or evil —
[While we are unregenerate, we are full of erroneous principles, and sinful affections. We " think that God is even such an one as ourselves;" that he will neither " do good" to them that serve him, " nor evil" to those who rebel against himb. We judge sin to be light and venial, and a worldly carnal life to be consistent with a hope of immortality and glory. While such are our principles, what can be expected, but that " our affections should be set on things below, and not on things above ?" Our hopes and fears, our joys and sorrows, are excited only by the things of time and sense : and those invisible realities, which alone deserve our esteem, are dis- regarded and despised. What a " treasure of evil" is thus formed within usc! who can number our rebellious thoughts, our unhallowed desires, our vicious indulgences? How has this treasure been accumulating from our earliest infancy to this present moment ! and we, alas ! are as averse to part with it as if it rendered us really happy, or would " profit us in the day of wrath." The regenerate person, on the contrary, has within him a " treasure of good." His principles and affections are the very reverse of what they once were. His views of God, of sin, and the world, are regulated by the Holy Scrip- tures ; and his desires and pursuits are conformable to the dictates of religion. Thanks be to God, this treasure also is daily accumulating ; and he esteems himself rich only in pro- portion as the love and fear of God increase in his heart.]
According as this treasure is, such will be the life —
[The " waters flowing from a fountain" must of necessity be " bitter or sweet" according as the fountain itself is good or bad. So where a treasure of evil is in the heart, the words and actions must be evil also. " Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth will speak ;" and by that great moving spring will all the members be actuated. Doubtless there may be a free- dom from gross immorality, and a conduct in many respects amiable and praiseworthy, while yet the heart is unrenewed : but fruit that is really good can no more proceed from an unre- generate soul, than " figs and grapes from a thorn or bramble- bush." On the other hand, where the treasure of the heart is good, the life will certainly be good also. A holy practice must of necessity flow from holy principles and heavenly affec- tions. We say not indeed but that there may be found some faults even in the holiest of men, even as blighted or unsound fruit may be found upon the choicest tree. But the good can
b Ps. ]. 21. Zeph. i. 12. c Mark vii. 21—23.