A29686:440
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.
Eighthly, A man should keep his heart as a man keeps his ⟨p. 212⟩§8house, when he is afraid and in danger of being robbed by thieves in the night. O! how wakeful, and watchful, and active will a man now be? but what's a man's house to his heart? A mans heart is in ten thousand times more danger than his house, and accordingly his guard should be most about his heart. But,
Ninthly, A man should keep his heart, as men keep their gardens that are full of choice, rich, rare, ripe fruits and dowers. Now, what care, cost, and pains men are at to keep such gardens, you well know: And O, that you did but every day more and more experimentally know what it is to spend your greatest care and pains about your hearts, which are Christ's garden, his bed of spices, where all graces flourish! Cant. 4. ult.
Tenthly and last, A man should keep his heart, as spruce men and women do their fine clothes; O, they won't endure a speck, a spot upon them! 'Tis your wisdom, and O, that you would more and more make it your work to keep your hearts from all sinful specks and spots! Let not others be more careful to keep their outsides clean, than you are to keep your insides clean; for what are clean clothes to a clean heart? 'Tis better to go to heaven in ragged clothes with a clean heart, than to go to hell in fine clothes with an unclean heart. Doubtless that man that makes it his business to keep his heart as men keep dangerous Felons or Traitors, or as soldiers keep their Garrisons or Castles when closely besieged, or as the Priests and Levites kept the Sanctuary of God, or as a man keeps his natural life, or as a man keeps a rich treasure, or as a fond father keeps an only child, or as Lovers keep their love-tokens, or as a man keeps his house when he is in danger to be robbed, or as a man keeps his pleasant garden, or as spruce men and women keep their fine clothes; that man is doubtless a true Nathaniel, a man that has a work of God past in power upon his soul; yea that man whose sincere desires, and whose gracious purposes, and fixed resolutions, and faithful endeavours is to guard and watch his