Riches of mercy to men in misery, or, Certain excellent treatises concerning the dignity…

And that he doth when he revealeth to us the vanity ¹of earthly things on one side, And the excellency of heavenly things on the other side. By this means the heart is weaned from those, and is knit and married to these ⟨p. 132⟩in a conjugal love, so that it loveth him, and nothing besides; and this I say Christ doth, by revealing the truth, making earthly things to appear vain as they are, and God to appear beautiful and excellent as he is: For when he appeareth as he is, we cannot but love him: and that is the reason it is said, Sanctify them with thy truth; that is, when any man hath the truth revealed unto him, he seeth things as they are, then his spirit cleaveth unto God, loveth God, marrieth it self unto God, keepeth it self proper unto him, weaneth itself, and estrangeth it self from all other things. That which is called sanctifying in that place, you shall find in two places of Scripture expressed in such terms, as express this double act of Christ which I named unto you, as in the 2 Tit. verse penult. He hath purified to himself a peculiar people; that is, he hath emptied ²them of whatsoever may draw them from God, and hath sanctified them by his spirit. And so again in the 30. Deut. 6. And the Lord God will circumcise the heart, that thou mayest love the Lord thy God with all thy ³heart, &c. That is, I will draw you to me, your hearts shall cleave to me. Now then when these two acts are done, the heart circumcised, and love put into it, that it cleaveth to God without separation. This is the sanctifying of the heart, this Christ works wheresoever he cometh. And (my Brethren) this is not an easy thing to do, and indeed no man can do it but Christ: for this holiness of spirit is not only an abstaining from the things common and unclean, from pollution of flesh and spirit; it is not an abstaining from them out of judgement ⁴only, but then a mans spirit it is holy, when he hath an inward propense inclination to that which is good, and an averseness to that which is evil. When the spirit hath a new quality put into it, Abhor that which is evil, and cleave to that which is good, this is holiness, not to abstain from the evil only, but to abhor it, not only to do the good, but his spirit cleaveth to the good, loveth the good.