A44697:238
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.
No doubt but the same Truth may be assented to upon divers grounds; sometimes upon rational evidence; sometimes upon testimony: And some Truths may be seen by immediate mental intuition (as being self-evident) which also may be capable of demonstration. And though this Truth of Gods particular love to such a man, be none of those that have self-evidence: Yet Gods Spirit, as it may by assisting the discursive faculty help us to discern the connections of some things which otherwise we should not perceive; so it may by assisting the intuitive, make things evident to us that of themselves are ⟨p. 109⟩not. Nor yet, also, that it actually doth so, can any I believe certainly tell; For admit that at some times some have very transporting apprehensions of the love of God towards themselves, suggested to their hearts by the holy Spirit; they having this habitual knowledge before that love to him (for instance) or faith in him, or the like, are descriptive characters of the persons whom he accepts and (delightfully) loves; How suddenly may the divine light irradiate, or shine upon those preconceived notions (which were begotten in them by the interveniency of the external revelation before) and excite those before-implanted principles of Faith, Love, &c. so as to give them the lively sense of them now stirring and acting in their hearts? And thence also enable them unwaveringly to conclude (and with an unexpressible joy and pleasure) their own interest in his special love, in this way shedding it abroad in their hearts by the Holy Ghost given to them?1 This may be so suddenly done that they may apprehend the testimony to be immediate when indeed it is not.
No doubt but the same Truth may be assented to upon divers grounds; sometimes upon rational evidence; sometimes upon testimony: And some Truths may be seen by immediate mental intuition (as being self-evident) which also may be capable of demonstration. And though this Truth of Gods particular love to such a man, be none of those that have self-evidence: Yet Gods Spirit, as it may by assisting the discursive faculty help us to discern the connexions of some things which otherwise we should not perceive; so it may by assisting the intuitive, make things evident to us that of themselves are ⟨p. 109⟩