A44697:108
A treatise of delighting in God from Psal. xxxvij. 4. Delight thy self also…
A treatise of delighting in God from Psal. xxxvij. 4. Delight thy self also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. In two parts. By John Howe, M.A. sometime fellow of Magdalen College, Oxon.
London: printed by A. Maxwell for Sa. Gellibrand, 1674
A TREATISE OF Delighting in GOD: From PSAL. 37. 4. Delight thy self… › Part 1
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.
What it hath more than common light, external or internal, answerable to the deeply resented wants, and the hearts desires of the regenerate, by which it becomes so highly pleasant and delectable to them, though it is rather to be felt than told (as it is hard to describe the very things we have only immediate sensible perception of) may yet in some degree be understood by such characters as these.
1. It is much more distinct and clear. They are confused and dark glimmerings which other men have of the blessed God, so that the light which is in them is darkness. 1'Tis true that an unregenerate person may possibly have clearer acquired notions of God, and of the things of God, than those may be which are of the same kind only in some who are regenerate. So that he may, by the advantages he may have above some of the other, in respect of better natural abilities, more liberal education, such circumstances of his condition as may more engage him to study and contemplation and befriend him therein, be capable of finding out more, of making fuller discoveries, and more evident deductions, and be able to discourse thence, more rationally and satisfyingly to others, even concerning God, his nature, attributes and works, than some very pious persons destitute of those advantages may be able to ⟨p. 25⟩do. But these though their candle give a dimmer light, than the others, have the beams of a Sun raying in upon them, that much outshines the others candle. And though they know not so many things, nor discern the connections of things so throughly; yet as they do know what is most necessary to be known, so what they do know, they know better, and with a more excellent sort of knowledge; proportionably as whatsoever is originally, and immediately divine, cannot but much excel that which is merely human.
1. It is much more distinct and clear. They are confused and dark glimmerings which other men have of the blessed God, so that the light which is in them is darkness.