A29686:431
A cabinet of choice jewels, or, A box of precious ointment being a plain…A cabinet of choice jevvels, or, A box of precious ointment being a plain…
A cabinet of choice jewels, or, A box of precious ointment being a plain discovery of, or, what men are worth for eternity, and how 'tis like to go with them in another world ... / by Thomas Brooks ...A cabinet of choice jevvels, or, A box of precious ointment being a plain discovery of, or, what men are worth for eternity, and how 'tis like to go with them in another world ... / by Thomas Brooks ...
London : Printed and are to be sold by John Hancock ..., 1669
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.
Thy heart. By the heart the we are not to understand that particular vital member of the body, that in common speech we call the heart. Heart is not here taken properly for that noble part of the body, which Philosophers call the primum vivens, &c. ultimum moriens, the first that lives, and the last that dies. But by heart in a metaphor, the Scripture sometimes understands some particular noble faculty of the soul; sometimes the heart is put for the understanding, Rom. 1.21. Their foolish heart was darkened, that is, their understanding was darkened; sometimes 'tis put for the will and affections, Mat. 22.37.1 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind; that is, with thy will, and with all thy affections. The will is the chiefest power of the soul, as the heart is the principal part of the body;2 and it commands all the affections as the Centurion did his servants;3 sometimes 'tis put for the conscience, 1 Joh. 3.20. If our heart condemn us, God is greater •han our heart, and knoweth all things; that is, if our conscience condemn us justly, then our case must be assuredly sad, because God knows much more by us than we know by our selves, and can charge ⟨p. 209⟩us with many sins that conscience is not privy to;4 sometimes 'tis put for the memory, Psal. 119.11. Thy word have I hid in my heart; that is, in my memory. So Luke 2.19. But here 'tis taken comprehensively for the whole soul, with all its powers, noble faculties and endowments, together with their several operations; all which are to be watched over.