Commentary on the Gospels and Acts, Commentary 1 · Chapter 5 · Verse 8
Verse 8. Blessed are the pure in heart.]
That wash their … from wickednesse, that they may be saved, Jer. 4. 14. Not theirforeign hands only, with Pilate, but their inwards, as there; How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee? These, however the world censure them (for every fool hath a bolt to shoot at that purity, which yet they …, and pray for) are the Lords darlings, that purifie themselves (in some truth of resemblance) as God is pure.
Pura Deus mens est, purâ vult mente vocari: Et puras jussit pondus habere preces.
He will take up in a poor, but it must be a pure heart: in a …, but it must be a cleanly house: in a low, but not in a … lodging. Gods Spirit loves to lie clean. Now the heart of man is the most unclean and loathsome thing in the world, a den of dragons, a dungeon of darknesse, a stie and stable of all foul lusts, cage of unclean and ravenous birds. The Embassadours of the Councel of Constance, being sent to Pope Benedict the …, whenIn …. Concil. Constant. he, laying his hand upon his heart, said, Hic est Arca …, Here is Noahs Ark; they tartly and truly replied; In Noahs Ark were few men, but many beasts, intimating, that there were seven abominations in that heart, wherein, he would have them to believe, were lodg'd all the laws of right and religion. This is true of every mothers childe of us. The naturall heart is … throne, he filleth it from corner to corner, Act 5. 3. he sits abrood…. 104. …, 26. upon it, and hatcheth all noisome and loathsome lusts, Ephes. 2. 2. There (as in the sea) is that Leviathan, and there are creeping things innumerable, crawling bugs and baggage vermine. Now as many as shall see God to their comfort, must cleanse … 2 Cor. 5. 1.from all filthinesse of flesh and spirit, and perfect …. sse in the fear of God. This is the mighty work of the holy Spirit, which therefore we … pray and strive for: beseeching God to break Isa. 64. 1.the heavens and come down: yea to break open the prison doors of our hearts by his Spirit, and to cleanse this … stable. He comes as a mighty rushing winde, and blows away those litters of lusts, as once the East-winde of God did all the locusts of AEgypt into the red Sea. And this done, he blows upon Gods garden, the heart, and causeth the spices thereof so to flow forth, that Christ saith, I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered …. …. …. & 5 1.my myrrhe with my spice, Cant. 5. 1.
For they shall see God]
Here in a measure, and as they are able: hereafter in all fullnesse and perfection; they shall see as they are 1 Cor. 13. 12.seen. Here, as in a glasse …, or as an old man thorow spectacles,foreign. but there, face to face: Happier herein then Solomons servants, for a greater then Solomon is here. A good man is like a good Angel, ever beholding the face of God. He looketh upon them with singular complacency, and they upon him to their infinite …. He seeth no iniquity in them; they no indignation in him. He looketh upon them in the face of Christ: And although no man hath seen God at any time, yet God, who commandedJoh. 1. 18. the light to shine out of darkenesse, hath shined in our hearts, saith the Apostle, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Pure glasse or crystall2 Cor. 4. 6. hath light comming thorow: not so stone, iron or other grosser bodies. In like sort, the pure in heart see God, he shines thorow them: And as the pearl by the beams of the Sun becomes bright and radiant as the Sun it self: so we all with open face, beholding, as in a glasse, the glory of the Lord, … transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3. 18.