A guide to godlynesse or a Treatise of a Christian life shewing the duties wherein it consisteth, the helpes inabling & the reasons parswading vnto it ye impediments hindering ye practise of it, and the best meanes to remoue them whereunto are added diuers prayers and a treatise of carnall securitie by Iohn Douname Batcheler in Diuinitie and minister of Gods Word.

§. Sect. 1 Of the inward signes of a pure heart.

ANd these are the causes of a pure heart. The signes whereby we may know whether our hearts bee thus purified or no, are either inward or outward. The inward signes are first the loue of holinesse and purity; for as when our hearts are defi∣led with naturall corruption, we loath sanctitie, and loue and delight in impure lusts, and the pleasures of sinne; so when our hearts are purified by faith, they are chiefly pleased with those things which please God; and louing purity and piety, they delight in the exercises of holi∣nesse and righteousnesse. And therefore when we loue purity and holi∣nesse, it is an euident signe that our hearts are pure and holy, seeing the cause of loue is likenesse; and where there is no similitude, there can be no loue. The second signe is hatred of sinne, which vpon the same ground we naturally loue; especially of those sinnes vnto which our corrupted nature is most inclined, because they most molest and trouble vs, and pol∣luting the heart with their defilements, hinder most our progresse in san∣ctification and holinesse. And thus Paul, when his heart was purified, ab∣horred all corruption, and delighted in Gods Law, hating that sin most, which he did most commit, because, like a Rebell, it warred against the law

of his minde, and made him captiue to the law of sinne. The third signe is, our carefull auoyding all meanes and occasions of spirituall pollution: for as he that hath filthy hands, careth not to handle filthy things; but when they are washed cleane, will not willingly touch that which will defile them: so an impure heart shunneth not the occasions and meanes of impurity, be∣cause they cannot make it worse then it is in it owne nature, in the quality, though they may increase the pollution, in respect of the degree, yea, ra∣ther being like filthy hogges, naturally inclined vnto filthinesse, they seeke the occasions of more vncleannesse, and purposely wallow them∣selues in the sinke and puddle of sinne, as often as they haue opportunity of satisfying their carnall lusts. More especially, he that hath a pure heart, delighteth in the company of those who are pure and holy, by whose Chri∣stian conuersation, his purity and sanctification may be more and more increased, and cannot indure the society of the wicked, no not when, like filthy dogs, they fawne vpon him, because he knoweth that the lepro∣sie of sinne is of an infectious and spreading nature, that he who toucheth pitch, shall be defiled with it, and that worldly men most defile, when they most fawne, and doe vs least hurt, when they are farthest from vs.

Notes

• Rom. 7. 15.