A Saint Indeed

5. The improvement of our Graces depends on the keeping of our hearts; I never knew Grace thrive in a negligent and careless Soul; the habits and roots of grace are planted in the heart; and the deeper they are radicated there, the more thriving and flourishing grace is: in Eph. ⟨p. 33⟩3. 17. we read of being rooted in Grace: Grace in the heart is the root of every gracious word in the mouth, and of every holy work in the hand, Psal. 116. 10. 2 Cor. 4. 13. 'tis true, Christ is the root of a Christian; but Christ is Origo originans, the originating root and grace, Origo originata, a root originated, planted, and influenced by Christ, according as this thrives under divine influences, so the acts of grace are more or less fruitful and vigorous: Now in a heart not kept with care and diligence, these fructifying influences are stopped and cut off, multitudes of vanities break in upon it, and devour its strength; the heart is as it were the pasture, in which multitudes of thoughts are fed every day; a gracious heart diligently kept, feeds many precious thoughts of God in a day, Psal. •39. 17. How precious are thy thoughts to me O God! how great is the sum of them! if I should count them, they are more in number than the sand; and when I awake, I am still with thee. And as the gracious heart seeds and nourishes them, so they refresh and feast the heart, Psal. 63. 5, 6. My soul is filled as with marrow and fatness whilst I think upon thee, &c. But in the dis-regarded heart, swarms of vain and foolish ⟨p. 34⟩thoughts are perpetually working, and jostle out those spiritual Idea's and thoughts of God, by which the Soul should be refreshed.

5. The improvement of our Graces depends on the keeping of our hearts; I never knew Grace thrive in a negligent and careless Soul; the habits and roots of grace are planted in the heart; and the deeper they are radicated there, the more thriving and flurishing grace is: in