A86531:195
The saints dignity and duty· Together with the danger of ignorance and hardness. /…The saints dignitie and dutie· Together with the danger of ignorance and hardnesse. /…
The saints dignity and duty· Together with the danger of ignorance and hardness. / Delivered in several sermons: by that reverend divine, Thomas Hooker, late preacher in New-England.The saints dignitie and dutie· Together with the danger of ignorance and hardnesse. / Delivered in severall sermons: by that reverend divine, Thomas Hooker, late preacher in New-England.
London: printed by G.D. for Francis Eglesfield, 1651
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
First, where ever there is a life of righteousness, there is a seeking after God, and after the things of God: Righteousness is of a divine nature, and therefore it always carrieth the soul wherein it is, up to God, from whence it came. As the fire being heavenly, doth always move upward; so righteousness because it is of God, doth always raise up the soul of that person in whom it is toward God. Hence it is that the righteous are described to be, a generation of them that seek the Lord, Psal. 24. and Psal. 27. 8. the Psalmist professeth that he will seek the face of god. People that have no life of righteousness are described Rom. 7 to be such as do not seek after God. But wherever there is a ⟨p. 63⟩life of righteousness, there is a seeking after God, God in himself, God for himself, God as he is accomplished with his holy excellencies, and admirable Attributes and perfections; God as he is, take him altogether, is always the aim and scope, end, and object of the desire of that soul that is endued with the life of righteousness; so that when he prays, or receives the Sacrament, or hears the word, or whatsoever he doth, he seeks after God in all. And as he seeks after God, so he seeks after the things of God, the favour and mercy of God, the presence and fellowship of God, those glorious inheritances which are Gods, and are called his, because they are with him; the things of the kingdom of God, they are the things he seeks after, that hath the life of righteousness in him.
First, where ever there is a life of righteousnesse, there is a seeking after God, and after the things of God: Righteousnesse is of a divine nature, and therefore it alwaies carrieth the soul wherein it is, up to God, from whence it came. As the fire being heavenly, doth alwaies move upward; so righteousness because it is of God, doth alwaies raise up the soul of that person in whom it is toward God. Hence it is that the righteous are described to be, a generation of them that seek the Lord, Psal. 24. and Psal. 27. 8. the Psalmist professeth that he will seek the face of god. People that have no life of righteousness are described