EZEK. 36. 27.
WE desire not to lose one jot or tittle in this gracious promise, a drop of this cordiall is of great prize. The Order and Method which God useth both in promising and working, hath afforded us one Observation already; but its so fruitful as to bear a second Crop. VVe may in the second place observe a Practical Doctrine; which is,
Doct. That wheresoever God works the principles of Grace within, there they cannot but shew themselves in the outward life and conversation.
For thus God promiseth, he will first put his Spirit within them, and then cause them to walk in his Statutes. There is a necessary Connexion between these two, God hath put them together, and so neither man or Devil must put them asunder. Thus our Saviour sheweth, that the heart within is either the good Treasury, or the bad, out of which flow either good thoughts and actions, or bad, Mat. 12. 34, 35. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh, the mind thinketh, the hand worketh.
To open this Doctrine; consider1
First, That there are many in the world, who flatter and blesse themselves with the goodnesse of their heart, when yet their lives are full of noisome lusts. You would wonder men should be so bewitched; and yet how often is it? Take the prophane man, and the most ungodly wretch that is, yet he will say, He hath as good an heart as the best of men; not considering how impossible it is to devide a good heart, and a good life one from another. As men doe not gather Grapes of Thorns, nor Figs of Thistles: so neither can Thorns be gathered from Grapes, or Thistles from Figs. As we cannot expect a clean thing from an unclean; so neither an unclean thing from a clean: so that the lives and constant wicked actions of most men, doe declare it to their faces, that there is no new heart or spirit within them: and as there are such kind of Self-Deceivers: so there are another sort of Persons, called Nicodemites, such who thought they might lawfully communicate in any raise or Idolatricall Worship, or might deny the outward profession of the truth of Christ, if so be that they kept their Conscience clear to God. This grievous error did much prevail when the outward profession of Christ and his Truth was accompanyed with great and imminent dangers: they thought they might give up their bodies to any outward pollution: so that they kept their souls for God; but God will be glorified in soul and in body also, 1 Cor. 6. 20. And as we must with the heart believe, so we must with the mouth make Confession to salvation. Rom. 10. 10.
Secondly, Even in the godly, the heart many times may be desirous of that good2 which yet through the power of corruption they are not alwayes able to perform. So that although a new heart be within them, yet much corruption, and many frailties may be in their life Rom. 7. Paul exceedingly groaned under this miserie, That the good he would do, he could not do; and although out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh, yet the mouth cannot speak all the abundance of the heart: There is more strength of Grace in the heart then possibly can be expressed outwardly. As no child can expresse how much it loveth its father; so neither can any soul manifest how much it loveth God. Howsoever therefore a new heart is in the godly, yet because it is not perfectly and absolutely new, it faileth in many outward performances; some outward or inward temptations make it come short of the grace it desireth. Thus the Apostle, The Spirit and the flesh lusteth one against another, so that ye cannot doe the things ye would, Gal. 5. 17. A godly man then must judge wisely concerning himself; they are ready to think, Oh if Grace were in my heart, if the spirit of God did dwell in me, how could I be overtaken with passions, with dulnesse and sluggishnesse; they must remember, that though the spirit be willing the flesh is often weak; yea many times both spirit and flesh also may be weak: But why doe we speak of this as a strange thing? That where the Principles of Grace are men may fail in outward duties; for sometimes we see where they have been, yet foul and grosse sins have been committed, yea and for some season continued in. David had the Spirit of God within; yet in his Murder and Adultery he did not walk in the Lords Statutes; and so of divers others! So that we must not absolutely condemn those as hypocrites, and without any true principles of grace, who living after a godly manner, yet sometimes fall in the mire, and tumble in bloud: for although such a condition is very terrible, and greatly scandalous; yet the seeds and inward principles of grace are not quite extinct; and therefore when we say, A godly heart, and a godly life are necessarily conjoyned together, that is to be understood for the most part, and according to the nature of things, though accidentally, through suddain temptations, the clean contrary may appear.