A guide to godliness or a Treatise of a Christian life showing the dutiesA guide to godlynesse or a Treatise of a Christian life shewing the duties

§. Sect. 6 Of the causes of the hearts purity.

And these are the things wherein this purity of heart doth consist. The principal efficient which worketh it in us, is the whole Trinity, the Father, Son and holy Spirit. God the Father beginneth this sanctification and holiness in our hearts, by taking away their hardness, and making them soft and tender, and by giving unto us his Spirit, to purify them from the filth of corruption, and to quicken them in the life of grace; according to that promise; I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit ¹within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their bodies, and will give them an heart of flesh. And again; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my ²Law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts. And therefore if we would have this grace, we must with the Apostle have our recourse to God, praying for our selves, as he did for the Thessalonians: The very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God, your whole spirit, and soul, and ³body, be preserved blameless unto the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. God the Son purifieth our hearts by shedding his precious blood, that it might be a Laver of regeneration, wherein our polluted hearts might be cleansed. For so deeply are they engrayned in the scarlet dye of sin, that nothing else will take away their spots and stains, and bring them unto snowy whiteness. It is only his Cross, that crucifieth these carnal corruptions, and the virtue of his death, that killeth and mortifieth sin in us. And this is that Fountain which the Lord promiseth should be opened ⁴