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

How great things are comprehended in this, The Lord of Heaven and Earth hath a kindness towards me and bears me good will! How grateful is the relish of this apprehension, both in respect of what it, in it self, imports, and what it is the root and cause of?

True ingenuity values love for it self. If such a one will think of me, if I shall have a place in his remembrance, If he will count me among his friends; this we are apt to be pleased with. And tokens are sent and interchanged among friends, not only to express love, but to preserve and cherish it, and keep up a mutual remembrance among them. And as there is a great pleasure conceived, in receiving such expressions or pledges of love from a friend, not so much for the value of the thing sent, as of what it signifies, and is the token of his love, his kind remembrance; so is there no less pleasure in giving and sending, than in receiving: Because that hereby, as we gratify our own love, by giving it a kind of vent this way; so we foresee how we shall thereby excite theirs; which therefore, we put a value upon, even abstracting from any advantage we expect therefrom. And this hath a manifest reason in our very natures; because we reckon there is an honour put upon us, and somewhat is attributed to us, when we are well thought of, and a kindness is placed upon us; especially by such as have themselves any reputation for wisdom and judgment. H•w dignifying is the love of God! How honourable ⟨p. 121⟩a thing to be his favourite! To Apostle seems to put a mighty stress on this, when he utters those so emphatical words,¹ wherefore we labour (so defectively we read it, we covet, or are ambitious of it as our honour, as that word signifies), that whether present or absent we may be accepted of him; q. d. neither life or death, neither being in the body or out of it, signify any thing to me, or they are indifferent things in comparison of this honour, that he may accept me, that I may be pleasing to him, and gracious in his eyes, that I may stand well in his thoughts, and he bear a kind and favourable regard to me.