The meditations under this listing [Steele In Our Spines] are from Richard Steele's The Properties And Privileges Of An Upright Man, first published in 1670.
And now it is time to be gathering something for our instruction, and let this be the lesson hence to be learned.
DOCTRINE: Where God finds an upright man, he shows himself to be an upright God.
True, he finds none but whom he makes. He finds them of his own making; but wherever such a man is found, on the throne, in a prison, or on a dunghill, he shall find a God of his own who will deal uprightly with him. He is an upright God; let men be what they will; whatever contrary motions the lower spheres have, yet the primum mobile keeps its even and constant motion and is never diverted out of its course at all.
So it is with our God: let vain hypocrites walk never so crookedly, yet the holy God will be justified when he speaks and clear when he judges. He will be upright with you in executing his threatenings if you hinder the current of his uprightness in performing promises. The filthy dunghill cannot infect the glorious sun that shines all day upon it, nor can any man's evil cause him to cease from being good. But the meaning of the point is, to the upright man he shows himself to be a graciously upright God. A true-hearted man on earth shall find a true-hearted God in heaven.
The most proper and profitable way I can think of to handle this doctrine within the intended limits is, first, by showing wherein the uprightness of a man stands; second, by declaring how God shows himself to be an upright God; and, third, by drawing out some inferences and uses thereof.
REB
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