A20559:92
The bright star which leadeth wise men to our Lord Jesus Christ, or, A…
The bright star which leadeth wise men to our Lord Jesus Christ, or, A familiar and learned exposition on the ten commandments gathered from the mouth of a faithful pastor by a gracious young man, sometime scholar in Cambridge.The bright star which leadeth wise men to our Lord Jesus Christ, or, A familiar and learned exposition on the ten commandements gathered from the mouth of a faithfull pastor by a gracious young man, sometime scholler in Cambridge.
London: printed by John Harison for Thomas Man, 1603London: printed by Iohn Harison for Thomas Man, 1603
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
If we say and swear, and protest never so much, that we love him and fear him, and this be not in our soul, tis not before his face, but in his fight, there is nothing but hypocrisy & dissimulation. For men first must look to the outward, and hence descend to judge of the hart, but God first approveth the hart, and then the outward action▪ if we see good things ⟨p. 15⟩outwardly, we are bound in conscience to think well of that man, but God will first see uprightness, and then he will account well of the practises that we do outwardly. This then confutes them, that think if they can carry themselves that men cannot blame them, then all is well. But it is nothing, for God saith, wash thine hart from iniquity, O Jerusalem, no washing of the outward, can do any good, unless the hart be first well and throughly scoured.
If wee say and sweare, and protest neuer so much, that wee loue him and feare him, and this be not in our soule, tis not before his face, but in his fight, there is nothing but hipocrisie & dissimulation. For men first must looke to the outward, and hence descend to iudge of the hart, but God first approueth the hart, and then the outward action▪ if wee see good things ⟨p. 15⟩outwardly, wee are bound in conscience to think well of that man, but God will first see vprightnesse, and then he will account well of the practises that we doe outwardly. This then confutes them, that think if they can carry themselues that men cannot blame them, then all is well. But it is nothing, for God saith, wash thine hart from iniquitie, O Ierusalem, no washing of the outward, can doe any good, vnlesse the hart be first well and throughly scoured.
Secondly, this teacheth us to carry our selves watchfully & warily, and to fear as well secret as open sins, because all secrets are open to God, and every hidden thing is light before his face. This meditation helped Job, that he would not allow so much as a wanton look and by thought, for he knew that God beheld his ways, and told all his steps, and he could not be delivered from his highness. If God had seen them only and not taken any great heed or notice of them, it had not been so much, but as he saw them, so he did keep them in a reckoning, & regard them, so as that according to these Job should receive his reward. In this regard he made a covenant with his eyes, and did walk in fear circumspectly, and would suffer no vanity or filthiness, once to enter into his hart. But the want of this persuasion that God looks always full upon us, & his holy and pure eyes, that are like a flame of fire, are always fastened upon our ways and doings, is the cause that men have so many covetous and crafty and cruel and filthy thoughts, and are come almost to that point of Atheism, that thought is free. But they shall find that though it be free from men, yet it is not free from God, and that they shall be liable to the sentence of condemnation, and culpable of everlasting death, before Gods Judgement seat, unless they have as great a care to have holy and good thoughts, and to purge their hart in the sight of God, as to have honest and civill actions, and walk well before men. So much of the negative part of this commandment. The affirmative followeth.