Riches of mercy to men in misery, or, Certain excellent treatises concerning the dignity…

For when you are come to this once, to see that it is only God in whom all your happiness is, you will no longer look to your selves. Therefore you must learn to consider well of those speeches, God is only wise, and only good, and only excellent; consider well of them. We think that he is wise, that he is good, but not only wise, and only good, the more you do this, the more godly you grow; the more you are out of conceit with your selves, the more you grow into a high opinion of God, to set up him, the more the Lord dwells in your hearts: for you must know, there are degrees of Gods dwelling in a mans heart. As a vessel, the more it is emptied of that which was in it, the more it admits of other liquor that ¹is poured into it. As it is in a house, another man may ⟨p. 245⟩dwell in it, but I may keep a room in it; but when there is no In-mate in the house, then a man is said to dwell in it plentifully, to be altogether in it, to be the Lord of every room. So it is when God comes to dwell in the heart of a man; so far as a man bears rule in his own heart, & keeps possession there himself, so much less is God there. And so much less as he is in himself, so much less as he rules in himself, so much more plentifully doth God dwell there, because God rules most when a man doth subject himself to him altogether, that is, when he doth nothing but his work, when he considers what it is that the Lord would have him to do in every thing. When a man resigns up himself to God, he resigns up his affections and all, to be ruled and regulated according to his will, to act according to his pleasure. When a man is to speak any thing, he will be still looking what warrant he hath from the Lord, and so when he is to do any thing.

For when you are come to this once, to see that it is onely God in whom all your happiness is, you will no longer look to your selves. Therefore you must learn to consider well of those speeches, God is onely wise, and onely good, and onely excellent; consider well of them. We think that he is wise, that he is good, but not onely wise, and onely good, the more you do this, the more godly you grow; the more you are out of conceit with your selves, the more you grow into a high opinion of God, to set up him, the more the Lord dwells in your hearts: for you must know, there are degrees of Gods dwelling in a mans heart. As a vessel, the more it is emptied of that which was in it, the more it admits of other liquor that