8 And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us;



9 And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.



Ver. 9. Purifying their hearts by faith] Faith (as a neat housewife) sweeps clean, and suffers never a slut’s corner in the soul. It is ever purging upon corruption, and lets out the lifeblood of it; for it shows a man a better project than to lie sucking at the botches of carnal pleasures, or to be basely affixed to earthly profits. Every true believer beareth a brush at his back, as we say of a trim man. His faith consecrateth his heart, and maketh it, of the devil’s thoroughfare, God’s enclosure.