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The heart!
George Swinnock
The heart is the great workshop where all
sin
is produced before it is exposed to open view.
The heart is the mint where evil thoughts
are
coined, before they are current in our words and
actions: "Out of the heart proceed evil
thoughts"
The heart is the nest in which those hornets
breed.
The heart is the source of sinful words as
well as
sinful thoughts. They were in the heart before they
were ever on the tongue. Every sinner conceives at
the heart what he brings forth at the mouth. The
heart is the vessel of poisonous liquor, the tongue
is but the tap to let it out: "Out of the abundance
of the heart the mouth speaks."
The heart is the forge also where all our
evil works,
as well as words, are hammered out: "Out of the
heart proceed murders, thefts, and adulteries, and
fornications." You will say that murders and thefts
are hand sins, and that adulteries and fornication
belong to the eye and outward parts of the body;
but alas! the heart is the womb wherein they are
conceived and bred. The outward parts are but the
midwives to deliver the mother of those monsters,
and to bring them into the world; "An evil man, out of
the evil treasure in his heart, brings forth
evil things."
There is no sin but it is dressed in the drawing room
of the heart, before it appears on the stage of the life.
It is vain to go about a holy life until the heart be made holy.
The pulse of the hand beats well or ill, according to
the state of the heart and the inward vital
parts.
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