A44697:589
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
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.
For it is very apparent, the same things may both cause little delight in God, and be caused thereby; As a person may therefore not delight in God because he knows him not, and may therefore be the less apt to entertain the knowledge of him, because he hath no delight in him. And the case is the same as to the other things spoken of as causes of this omission, i. e. that it and they may be mutual causes of one another. But it however equally serves the design of aggravating the evil of not taking frequent actual delight in God, that hereby sin grows, whether in the same or in different kinds; There is still an increase of sin, though but of the same sort that was in being before.
For it is very apparent, the same things may both cause little delight in God, and be caused thereby; As a person may therefore not delight in God because he knows him not, and may therefore be the less apt to entertain the knowledg of him, because he hath no delight in him. And the case is the same as to the other things spoken of as causes of this omission, i. e. that it and they may be mutual causes of one another. But it however equally serves the design of aggravating the evil of not taking frequent actual delight in God, that hereby sin grows, whether in the same or in different kinds; There is still an increase of sin, though but of the same sort that was in being before.
You ought to consider then, As you take so little delight in God from that very bad ⟨p. 284⟩cause, that you have not entertained the right knowledge of him, when you had so great opportunity to get much of it, which makes your matter very ill; Do you not also find that by your withholding your selves from delighting in him, you have still less disposition to seek his more inward acquaintance? And doth not that make your matter much worse? If you already know somewhat of him, you yet know but in part; your object is infinite, and this knowledge so excellent, that you cannot fully attain to it, there is still more to be known.