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

And why should you be of so mean and object a Spirit, as to content your self to be held at the door and in the outer Courts of Religion; when others enter in and taste the rich provisions of Gods house? Why will you distinguish your selves by so debasing a ⟨p. 232⟩character? 'Tis a just and commendable ambition, to be as forward here as the best. Why will you suffer this and that and the other man to enter into the Kingdom of God before you; even that Kingdom which consists in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost!

Think not so meanly of your self; impose not on your self that needless unwarrantable modesty, as to account you are of a lower rank than all that ever became intimately acquainted with the hidden delights of a godly life; At least you are as capable of being thought worthy as any, for his sake upon whose account all must be accepted: Therefore think with your selves, Why should I not labour to attain as far in the matter of Religion, as this or that Neighbour of mine? What should hinder? Who restrains or forbids me?

But you cannot, if you consider, but have somewhat more to assure you of the delightfulness of it, than the mere report of others; For your own Reason and Conscience cannot but so pronounce, if you go to the particulars that have been instanced in. If you acknowledge a God, and consider your self as a reasonable Creature made by him, and depending on him; you cannot but see, it is congruous and fit your spirit should be so framed and affected towards Him, towards your fellow-creatures of your own order, and all things else that do and shall circumstantiate your present and future state, as hath been in some measure (though very defectively)