The nature and principles of love, as the end of the commandment declared in…

Fourthly, Lastly, The pure in heart are those that have that great promise, the promise which concludes all good; namely, To see God. Matth. 5. 8. Blessed are the pure in heart. Why? Saith he, They shall see God. God is a Spirit, God is Invisible, How shall they see him? Him no man hath seen, nor can see. How shall the ⟨p. 85⟩pure in heart see him? Why, they shall see him; that is, they shall enjoy him, they shall have sweet communion with him; they shall ascend into the Holy Hill, Psal. 24. 3, 4. Who shall ascend into the Holy Hill? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart. They shall be admitted nigh to God, they shall see him, they shall enjoy him.

I may conclude with that of the Prophet, Hab. 1. 13. he saith, that God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. And the truth is, Impure eyes cannot behold God: They cannot bear the Glory, the Excellency of his presence: They cannot enjoy God. There is a stop in the very nature of the thing, as well as there is a stop by a Divine Law. Thus the Imposture shall not come into the presence of God; that's the Divine Law. And there is a stop in the very nature of the ⟨p. 86⟩thing: they cannot abide in the presence of God. As he is of purer eyes, than to behold evil: so evil ones have such impure eyes, that they cannot behold him, they cannot see God.

Now then, let this be considered, and lay it to heart, what reason you have to look after this pure heart, which is the first of those three springs, out of which saith the Apostle, all those holy actions, which are the end, and the fulfilling of the Commandment of God must flow, and with which only it is that you may come to have acceptance. And so much now of the first of the Springs, The Pure Heart. The second is, a Good Conscience.