Ballfalito purge them, and male them white. What the Word doth not purge out , nor mercies , that aiflii ions mutt. Thefe Tines mull be cut till they bleed. Summer purgeth out the out- ward humours that lie in the skinby fweating, but winter con- cotteth the inward by driving in the heat, and fo purgeth away the humours that lye in the inward parts, and fo what by the one, what by the other, the body is kept in health. Thus mercies pre- vaile against force fins, and aflhietions againli others. Mofes neg- leaed to circumcife his child, (as we doe our hearts, it is fuch a bloody work) till God met him, and would have killed him ; and in like manner God foFnetimes puts us in the feare or danger of lofingour lives, calls us into fickryffes, and the like, making as if he meant to kill us, and all tobring us off to this work of pur- ging, to circumcifeour hearts. As thefe occafionall, fo alfo inflrumentall inputtedhelps, as his Word : So Eph. 5.26. Chrift is laid to cleanfe hia Church with the wafhìng ofWater 6y theWord : by the Wordfffioken, either in prea- ching, or in conference. So in the very next words to my text, Nowye are cleane through the words Ihave[ f)oIZen untoyou:] they had then received the Sacraments, and had heard a good Ser- mon. The Word at once difcovers the fin, and fets the hearts againft it ; .Iwas ignorant, till IWent into the Santluary Tñere goes a light with it to fee in after another manner, although a man did know it afore, and then the Word fets out the vilenelfe ofa fugue ; and to heare a finne declaimed againil, and reproved, fets an exafperation upon the mind againft it, and fo a mangoes home, and fets upon it to kill it and dellroy it. Or elfe by the Wordmeditated upon, as by keeping force truth or other frefh and fwcet in the mind, which the mind cheweth on ; God fattens the mind upon forne new promife, or new dilcovered finne ofa mans eflate, and thefe cleanfe him, 2 Cor. 7. I. or upon forne Attribute of his, and that quickens the inward man, and over- comes the outward : force confideration or other every day God dothmake familiar to a mans fpirit, to talk with him, (as the phrafe is `Pro. 6.) and to keep him company, and ufually fumenew one ; God leading us through varieties of fweet truths to chew upon, one this day, and another to morrow, and thefe have anexceeding purging vertue in them, they keep the purging ilfue
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