A44697:369
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.
And if we put the comparison between our spiritual eternal Life and him; though he and that can never be in opposition (as there may be often an opposition between him and this present life, so that the one is often quitted for the other); yet neither is there a co-ordination, but the less worthy must be subordinate to the more worthy: We are to desire the enjoyment of him for his own glory.
And yet here is a strange and admirable complication of these with one another. For if we enjoy him, delight and rest in him as our best and most satisfying Good, we thereby glorify him as God. We give him practically highest acknowledgements, we confess him the most excellent one. 'Tis his glory to be the last term of all desires, and beyond which no reasonable desire can go further.
And yet here is a strange and admirable complication of these with one another. For if we enjoy him, delight and rest in him as our best and most satisfying Good, we thereby glorifie him as God. We give him practically highest acknowledgments, we confess him the most excellent one. 'Tis his glory to be the last term of all desires, and beyond which no reasonable desire can go further.
And if we seek and desire his glory supremely, sincerely and really beyond and above all things; when he is so glorified to the uttermost, or we are assured he will be; our highest desire is so far satisfied, and that turns to, or is, our own contentment: So that by how much more simply and sincerely we pass from, and go out of our selves, so much the more certainly we find our own satisfaction, rest, and full blessedness in him. As it is impossible the Soul that loves him above it self, can be fully happy, while he hath not his full glory; so it is for the same reason equally