A treatise of delighting in God from Psal. xxxvij. 4. Delight thy self also…

3. Towards themselves; which also may be considered distinctly; For though all the good qualifications we can mention or think of, do redound to a mans self, and turn to his own advantage, repose and delight, (which it is the design of all this discourse to show), yet there are some that more directly terminate on a mans self, wherein the rectitude we now speak of doth in great part consist: When we are obliged to love others as our selves, it supposes not only an allowable, but a laudable self-love. Men shall praise thee when thou dost well to thy self. Before this right spirit be renewed in a man, he doth not only wound himself, by blows that are reflected on him, and hurt at the rebound, but by many a direct stroke; or he lets the wounds fester and corrupt, to the cure whereof he should with all diligence directly apply himself. How unpropitious and cruel to themselves are all unholy persons! What wastes and desolations do they commit and make in their own Souls, by breaking the order ⟨p. 75⟩God and Nature did at first set and establish there? Dethroning their own reason and judgment, which ought to bear sway and govern within them. This banishes delight, and drives it far away from them? They see what is fittest for them to do and seek, and run a quite counter-course. What storms do they hereby raise in their own bosoms! What a torture is it, when a mans own light and knowledge bears a standing testimony against him, and holds him under a continual doom!

3. Towards themselves; which also may be considered distinctly; For though all the good qualifications we can mention or think of, do redound to a mans self, and turn to his own advantage, repose and delight, (which it is the design of all this discourse to shew), yet there are some that more directly terminate on a mans self, wherein the rectitude we now speak of doth in great part consist: When we are obliged to love others as our selves, it supposes not only an allowable, but a laudable self-love. Men shall praise thee when thou dost well to thy self. Before this right spirit be renewed in a man, he doth not only wound himself, by blows that are reflected on him, and hurt at the rebound, but by many a direct stroke; or he lets the wounds fester and corrupt, to the cure whereof he should with all diligence directly apply himself. How unpropitious and cruel to themselves are all unholy persons! What wastes and desolations do they commit and make in their own Souls, by breaking the order ⟨p. 75⟩