2. o8 A Box of precious Ointment : Or, 2. the heart, to keep the heart in a gracious frame, is one of 'the belt and hardah Works in the world, Prov. 4. 23. Keep thy iheart,witb all diligence, fir out of it are the ftes of Off. The Text is about matter of life and death. The words are man- datory, for all counCels in Scripture carry in them the farce of a command. In the.words you have two things obfervable, 1. A duty enjoyned, Keep thy heart with all diligence. 2. The reafon or motive inforcing it, For out of it are the ifues of life. In the duty there are two things conliderable, 1. Here is the fubjea matter, the thing that is to be done, and that is, Keep thy heart. This duty is charged upon all, in peremptory and undifpenfable terms. z. Here is the manner how it muff be done, and that is, with all diligence. Keep. The Hebrew word nya Natfar to keep, bath various fignifications, but the main is to keep in fafe cullody ; we should keep our hearts as under lock and key, that they may be alwayes at hand when the Lord 'hall call for them, & c. 7 by heart. By the heart we are not to underhand that par- ticulat vital member of the body, that in common fpeech we call the heart. Heart is not here taken properly for that no- : ble part of the body, which Philofophei-s call the,priatton vi- vens l &c. sitimurn moriens, the firft that lives, and 'the laft that dies. But by heart in a metaphor, the Scripture fame- times underhands force particular noble faculty of the foul ; fometimes the heart is put for the underilanding, Ron. I. 2 I. Their foolilb heart was darkned, that is, their underftanding was darkned ; fometimes 'tis put for the will and affections, Mat. 22. 37. Thou /bait love the Lord thy god, with all th ) heart, and withal! thy foil, and with all thy mind ; that is with thy will, and with all thy afeaions. The will is the chide"' power of the foul, as the heart is the principal part of the body ; and it commands all the afireaions as the Centurion did his fervants; fometimes 'tis put for the confcience; i Joh. 3. 2a. If our he,rt condemn us, God U greater .ban our he-rt, and knoweth all things ; that is, if our confcience condemn us juft- ly, then our cafe muft be afl'uredly fad, becaufe God knows much more by us than we know by our felves, and can charge us
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