A Body of Practical Divinity

3. Christ was conceived in the Womb of a Virgin, so if he be born in thee, thy heart is a Virgin-heart, in respect of Sincerity and Sanctity. Art thou purified from the love of sin? If Christ be born in the heart, it is a Sanctum Sanctorum, an Holy of Holies. If thy heart be polluted with the predominant love of sin, never think Christ is born there Christ will never lye any more in a Stable. If he be born in thy heart, it is consecrated by the Holy Ghost.

4. If Christ be born in thy heart, then it is with thee as in a birth. 1. There is Life. Faith is principium vivens, it is the vital Artery of the Soul, Gal. 2.20. The life that I live in the flesh, is by the faith of the Son of God. 2. There is Appetite, 1 Pet. 2.7. As new born babes, desire [Greek or Hebrew], the sincere milk of the word. The Word is like Breast-milk, pure, sweet, nourishing; the Soul in which Christ is formed, desires this Breast-milk. St. Bernard, in one of his Soliloquies, comforts himself with this, That sure he had the New-birth in him, because he found in his heart such strong Anhelations and Thirstings after God. 3. Motion. After Christ is born in the heart, there is a violent Motion; there is striving to enter in at the strait gate, and offering violence to the Kingdom of Heaven, Matth. 12.11. By this we may know Christ is formed in us. This is the only comfort, that as Christ was born into the World, so he is born in our hearts; as he was united to our flesh, so he is united to our Persons.

4. If Christ be born in thy heart, then it is with thee as in a birth. 1. There is Life. Faith is principium vivens, it is the vital Artery of the Soul, Gal. 2.20. The life that I live in the flesh, is by the faith of the Son of God. 2. There is Appetite,