A61386:267
An antidote against distractions, or, An endeavour to serve the church, in the daily…An antidote against distractions, or, An indeavour to serve the church, in the daily…
An antidote against distractions, or, An endeavour to serve the church, in the daily case of wanderings in the worship of God by Richard Steele M.A. and minister of the Gospel.An antidote against distractions, or, An indeavour to serve the church, in the daily case of wandrings in the worship of God by Richard Steele M.A. and minister of the Gospel.
London: printed for Elizabeth Calvert, 1667
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.
SECT. IX.
1THE fourth Effect of these Distractions, is, That they deprive the soul of its purest comforts. The highest, truest, and purest joys and comforts, meet the soul in the service of God, Cant. 2.3, 4. I sate under his shadow with great delight. (There are then delights, and great ones too in the ways of God) And his fruit was sweet to my taste. (If thou hast any spiritual taste, his fruit will be sweet to it.) He brought me to the banqueting house: God's house is his banqueting-house, and every Ordinance is a rare Feast to the soul, that doth spiritually manage it: Now these idle wanderings of the heart; first, by their Disturbance, then by their Guile, do damp and deprive the soul of the comforts thereof. Just as a black cloud doth hide from you, the bright and warming beams of the Sun. How often have you mist of those joys of the Holy Ghost, sweeter than the music of the Spheres, by these vain thoughts? with what sweet content do you look back on a Duty, where communion hath been held between God and you? and ⟨p. 163⟩what a folly is it to lose an hour, and neither reap pleasure not profit by it*?
1THE fourth Effect of these Distractions, is, That they deprive the soul of its purest comforts. The highest, truest, and purest joys and comforts, meet the soul in the service of God, Cant. 2.3, 4. I sate under his shadow with great delight. (There are then delights, and great ones too in the waies of God) And his fruit was sweet to my tast. (If thou hast any spiritual tast, his fruit will be sweet to it.) He brought me to the banquetting house: God's house is his banquetting-house, and every Ordinance is a rare Feast to the soul, that doth spiritually manage it: Now these idle wandrings of the heart; first, by their Disturbance, then by their Guile, do damp and deprive the soul of the comforts thereof. Just as a black cloud doth hide from you, the bright and warming beams of the Sun. How often have you mist of those joyes of the Holy Ghost, sweeter than the musick of the Spheres, by these vain thoughts? with what sweet content do you look back on a Duty, where communion hath been held between God and you? and