A39665:563
Husbandry spiritualized, or, The heavenly use of earthly things consisting of many pleasant observations,…
Husbandry spiritualized, or, The heavenly use of earthly things consisting of many pleasant observations, pertinent applications, and serious reflections and each chapter concluded with a divine and suitable poem : directing husband-men to the most excellent improvements of their common employments : whereunto is added ... several choice occasional meditations / by John Flavell.Husbandry spiritualized, or, The heavenly use of earthly things consisting of many pleasant observations, pertinent applications, and serious reflections and each chapter concluded with a divine and suitable poem : directing husband-men to the most excellent improvements of their common imployments : whereunto is added ... several choice occasional meditations / by John Flavell.
London : Printed and are to be sold by Robert Boulter, l674
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
(4) 'Tis a stroke that cuts off from the soul all the comfort and sweetness of Religion. A man may pray, h•ar, and confer, but all those duties are dry stalks unto him, which yield no meat, no solid substantial nutriment; some common touches upon the affections he may sometimes find in duty, the melting voice or Rhetoric of the Preacher may perhaps strike his natural affections, as another Tragical story pathetically delivered may do; but to have any real communion with God in Ordinances, any discoveries or views of the beauty of the Lord in them, that he cannot have; for these are the special effects and operations of the Spirit, which are always restrained.
(4) 'Tis a stroke that cuts off from the soul all the comfort and sweetness of Religion. A man may pray, h•ar, and confer, but all those duties are dry stalks unto him, which yield no meat, no solid substantial nutriment; some common touches upon the affections he may sometimes find in duty, the melting voice or Rhetorick of the Preacher may perhaps strike his natural affections, as another Tragical story pathetically delivered may do; but to have any real communion with God in Ordinances, any discoveries or views of the beauty of the Lord in them, that he cannot have; for these are the special effects and operations of the Spirit, which are alwayes restrained.
God hath said to such, as he did to them. Gen. 6. 3. My spirit shall no longer strive with them; and then what sweetness is there in Ordinances? What is the word separated from ⟨p. 58⟩the Spirit, but a dead Letter? it's the Spirit that quickens, 2 Cor. 3. 2. Friend, thou must know that the Gospel works not like a natural cause upon those that hear it; if so, the ef••ct would always follow, unless miraculously stopped and hindered; but it works like a moral instituted cause, whose efficacy and success depends upon the arbitrary concurrence of the Spirit with it. The wind blows where it listeth, so is every one that is born of the Spirit,