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

Thus then upon all accounts this divine communication is delectable, as it tends to rectify mens dispositions towards themselves, and to set them right in their inclinations and posture in reference to their own Souls. We may add,

Thus then upon all accounts this divine communication is delectable, as it tends to rectifie mens dispositions towards themselves, and to set them right in their inclinations and posture in reference to their own Souls. We may add,

4. It contributes much to the matter of delight, as it sets mens spirits right in their dispositions towards this and the other world; the present and future state of things. How great a work is necessary to be done in this respect, wherein things are so monstrously out of course; and men become thereby not strangers only to true delight and pleasure, but even uncapable of any such relishes till the matter be redressed! How vitiated and unexercised are mens senses as to these things, and unable to discern between good and evil! Their grosser sense is utterly incompetent, and a spiritual more refined sense is wanting; Therefore do they judg, and choose, and love, and pursue only as that most incompetent and injudicious principle doth direct, That is appealed to in all cases: All their measures are taken from thence; and that only is called good, which to their sensual imagination, tinctured by the earthliness and carnality of their hearts, appears so; that evil, of which the same principle doth so pronounce; according hereto is the whole bent and inclination of their Souls. And they are only in•••••'d and governed by the powers of this ⟨p. 87⟩sensible world; this present evil world, the fashion whereof (yea it and the lusts thereof together) are passing away. And the things of the world to come have no power with them; no motives from thence signify any thing. They are only steered in their whole course by the apprehension they have of advantages or disadvantages in reference to their present secular concernments. They love this world, and the things of this world; mind earthly things, and are not startled when they are so plainly told, that men of this character have not the love of the Father in them, and are enemies to the cross of Christ, and that their end will be destruction. 'Tis a death to them to think of dying; not from the fear of what may ensue (they have Atheism enough to stifle such fear), but from the love of their earthly stations, and that vile earthly body in which they dwell.