A44697:74
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.
Wherefore it will be fit to steer a larger course, than merely to consider him as a good commensurate to our partial appetites. Which are apt to prescribe to, and limit our apprehensions to this or that particular sort of good, and tincture them with such a notion ⟨p. 12⟩of delight, as which, if it be not false and grossly carnal, may yet be much too narrow and unproportionable to the universal, all-comprehending good: And though we shall not here go beyond the compass of delectable good; yet as there is no good (truly so called) which is not in, or from the first goodness; So indeed, nor is there any capable of being gathered up into that sum which is not delectable.
Wherefore it will be fit to steer a larger course, than meerly to consider him as a good commensurate to our partial appetites. Which are apt to prescribe to, and limit our apprehensions to this or that particular sort of good, and tincture them with such a notion ⟨p. 12⟩of delight, as which, if it be not false and grosly carnal, may yet be much too narrow and unproportionable to the universal, all-comprehending good: And though we shall not here go beyond the compass of delectable good; yet as there is no good (truly so called) which is not in, or from the first goodness; So indeed, nor is there any capable of being gathered up into that sum which is not delectable.
Nor therefore can the usual distribution of goodness into profitable, honest, and pleasant, bear a strict test. Only the false relishes of vitiated appetite in this corrupted state of man, have given ground for it. Otherwise to a mind and will that is not distempered, the account would be much otherwise. To a prudent mind, profitable good would be pleasant, even as it's profitable. To a just and generous mind, honest comely good would be pleasant, even as it is honest. Nor would there need another distinction, but into the goodness of the end, which is pleasant for it self, and the goodness of the means, which is pleasant as it is honestly and decently profitable, (and otherwise it cannot be) thereunto.