A44697:632
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.
And that it may be more suitable and fit for him, you should habituate and accustom your self to converse in the general with spiritual things. You will be as the things are you converse most with; they will leave their stamp and impress on you; wandering after vanity, you will become vain; minding earthly things, you will become earthly; Accordingly, being much taken up with spiritual things, you will bear their image, and become spiritual.
And that it may be more sutable and fit for him, you should habituate and accustom your self to converse in the general with spiritual things. You will be as the things are you converse most with; they will leave their stamp and impress on you; wandring after vanity, you will become vain; minding earthly things, you will become earthly; Accordingly, being much taken up with spiritual things, you will bear their image, and become spiritual.
Think how unworthy it is, since you have faculties (and those now refined and improved by Divine light and grace) that are capable of being employed about so much higher objects than those of sense, That you should yield to a confinement, in so great part, to so low and mean things; whence it is, that when you should mind things of an higher nature, 'tis a strange work with you, and those things seem odd and uncouth to you, and are all with you as mere shadow and darkness, that you should be most familiar ⟨p. 313⟩with. Urge on your spirit; make it enter into the invisible world. May you not be assured, if you will use your understanding, That there are things you never saw, that are unspeakably more excellent and glorious than any thing you have seen, or than can be seen by eyes of flesh?
Think how unworthy it is, since you have faculties (and those now refined and improved by Divine light and grace) that are capable of being employed about so much higher objects than those of sense, That you should yeild to a confinement, in so great part, to so low and mean things; whence it is, that when you should mind things of an higher nature, 'tis a strange work with you, and those things seem odd and uncouth to you, and are all with you as meer shadow and darkness, that you should be most familiar