504 Chap. 17. AnExpofition upon' the Bookof J O B. Verf,rré are called the poffiffionsof the heart : The heart is the foyl and feat of thoughts there they are planted, and there they dwell. Aáive y, For as thoughts are pof efled by the heart, fo thoughts ItofTefs the heart ; thoughts are full of Afivity ; they trouble and they comfort the heart ; look what our thoughts are,;Cuch is the (late of our hearts; ifour thoughts are quiet our hearts are quiet, ifour thoughts be unquiet our hearts are unquiet, if our thoughts be joyful our hurts re- joyce,in. the Gofpel,Luk. 2+38. Whyareye troubled, why do thoughts rife inyour hearts ? that is,why do troublefóme and difconfolate thoughts rife in your hearts ? 'Tis as natural for thoughts to rife in the heart, as it is for water to rife in a fpring, therefore Chrifï did not chide them becaufe thoughts, but becaufe fach thoughts did rife in their hearts :we cannot hinderour hearts from thinking,no more then we can hinder the fire from burning,or water fromwetting;but'tis our duty tohinder our hearts from undue, or difcouraging thoughts, and to check them for thinking fo. Thoughts rule the heart and put it into feveral frames and forms according to their own likenefs; and therefore it is both our wifdome and our holinefs to put and keep our thoughts in the bet} like- nefs. The heart (in a figura tire fenfe) is nothing elfe but the frame of our thoughts ; and our thoughts in a proper fenfe are nothing elfe, but thepoffeßons of the heart. 7abuke cordis Further, TheChaldee Paraphrafe faith, The Tablet ofmy Ghald. heart arebroken ; So it is an allufion to writing : The Law was written at firflin TablesofStone, and now a heart of flefh (not a flefhly heart)is the Tables of the Law,our hearts are Tables both for our own writing and for Gods, yob had written many purpofes upon thofeTables, thereforehe might well fay as in this cafe, My purpofes, or all that was written upon the Tables of my heart are broken. In my heart I had written and let down many particulars which I purpo- seriptura cor fed to have done, but now thofe lines are crofked, or quite -die maw litura blotted out. God writes many of his own thoughts in our eft, Pined. hearts, and our thoughts are broken, The Tables ofour hearts are broken. Hence
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