A51842:749
One Hundred and Ninety Sermons on Psalm 119
One hundred and ninety sermons on the hundred and nineteenth Psalm preached by the late reverend and learned Thomas Manton, D.D. ; with a perfect alphabetical table directing to the principal matters contained therein.
London: printed for T.P. &c, 1681
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.
USE 2. Caution to us to fix our delight aright.
1. It is a considerable affection. All the affections depend upon Pleasure or Pain, Delight or Grief (the one is proper to the body, the other to the soul) which grow from the contentment or distaste which we receive from the divers objects which we meet with. If we love, it is for that we find a sweetness in the object beloved; if we hate, we apprehend a trouble in what we hate: if we hope, we promise our selves an happiness or satisfaction in the possession of the thing hoped for: if we despair, it is because the thing cannot be obtained from which our contentment would arise. Desire is of some good which we judg pleasing. By Fear and Flight we shun things which we apprehend would breed us vexation. So that in effect, Delight sets all the other affections a-work.
1. It is a considerable affection. All the affections depend upon Pleasure or Pain, Delight or Grief (the one is proper to the body, the other to the soul) which grow from the contentment or distast which we receive from the divers objects which we meet with. If we love, it is for that we find a sweetness in the object beloved; if we hate, we apprehend a trouble in what we hate: if we hope, we promise our selves an happiness or satisfaction in the possession of the thing hoped for: if we despair, it is because the thing cannot be obtained from which our contentment would arise. Desire is of some good which we judg pleasing. By Fear and Flight we shun things which we apprehend would breed us vexation. So that in effect, Delight sets all the other affections a-work.
2. It is a choice affection, more proper to Fruition than Use, and therefore not for the means so much as end, and so reserved for God who is the last End. There are fruenda and utenda, God and Heavenly things to be enjoyed, but earthly things to be used: for means, those that are in the nearest vicinity to the end, as the Law of God, and Grace: earthly things are to be used with a kind of indifferency, and therefore should have little of our joy, but our solid complacency must be in God, next in the things of God, his Law and Grace, which are means in the nearest vicinity with our End.