The Soul's Preparation for Christ

therefore the rule is this; Arest thy soul in a special manner of those sins whereof thou standest guilty; that phrase in Job is to good purpose,¹ thou lookest narrowly to my paths thou settest a print upon the heels of my feet, so God followed Job to the hard heels, and did narrowly observe his ways; so deal thou with thy own soul, and set a print upon the heel of thy heart, arest thy heart in particular for thy sins, and I would have you perceive your own particular sins and follow them to your hearts, and make hue and cry after your sins, and drag your hearts before the Lord, and say, Is murder, pride, drunkenness, and uncleanness, such horrible sins, and doth God thus fearfully plague them? Lord, it was my heart that was proud and vain, it was my tongue that did speak filthily & blasphemously, my hand hath wrought wickedness, my eye was wanton, and my heart was unclean and filthy, Lord here they are, it is my affections that are ⟨p. 26⟩disorderly, and it is I that do delight too much in the world; Thus bring thy heart before the Lord; you shall observe the same in David, so long, as Nathan spake of sin in general, he conceived of it truly, and confessed the vileness of it, and the heart of this good King did rage against the man, saying, It is the Son of death: but as soon as the prophet had said, Thou art the man, though he never saw his sin kindly before, yet now his heart yielded, and he began to see himself and his sin in the natural colours of it. So the Apostle John saith; He that hateth his brother is a man-slayer, and you know no man-slayer hath eternal life abiding in him.

therefore the rule is this; Arest thy soule in a speciall maner of those sinnes whereof thou standest guilty; that phrase in Iob is to good purpose,¹ thou lookest narrowly to my pathes thou settest a print upon the heels of my feet, so God followed Iob to the hard heeles, and did narrowly observe his waies; so deale thou with thy owne soule, and set a print upon the heele of thy heart, arest thy heart in particular for thy sins, and I would have you perceive your owne particular sinnes and follow them to your hearts, and make huy and cry after your sinnes, and dragge your hearts before the Lord, and say, Is murther, pride, drunkennesse, and uncleannesse, such horrible sinnes, and doth God thus fearefully plague them? Lord, it was my heart that was proud and vaine, it was my tongue that did speake filthily & blasphemously, my hand hath wrought wickednesse, my eye was wanton, and my heart was uncleane and filthy, Lord here they are, it is my affections that are