A39682:117
A Saint Indeed
A saint indeed: or The great work of a Christian, opened and pressed; from Prov. 4. 23 Being a seasonable and proper expedient for the recovery of the much decayed power of godliness, among the professors of these times. By John Flavell M. of the Gospel.
London: printed by W.R., 1668
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.
2. Help. Though God hath reserved to himself a liberty of afflicting his people, yet he hath tied up his own hands by promise, never to take away his loving kindness from them. Can I look that Scripture in the ⟨p. 49⟩face with a repining discontented spirit, 2 Sam. 7. 14. I will be his father, and he shall be my Son; if he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men: nevertheless my mercy shall not depart away from him. O my heart, my naughty heart; dost thou well to be discontented, when God hath given thee, the whole tree with all the clusters of comfort growing on it; because he suffers the wind to blow down a few leaves? Christians have two sorts of goods, the goods of the throne, and the goods of the foot stool; moveables and immovables; if God have secured these, never let my heart be troubled at the loss of those: indeed, i• he had cut off his love, or discovenanted my Soul, I had reason to be cast down; but this he hath not, he cannot do.
2. Help. Though God hath reserved to himself a liberty of afflicting his people, yet he hath tyed up his own hands by promise, never to take away his loving kindness from them. Can I look that Scripture in the ⟨p. 49⟩face with a repining di•contented spirit, 2 Sam. 7. 14. I will be his father, and he shall be my Son; if he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men: nevertheless my mercy shall not depart away from him. O my heart, my naughty he•rt; dost thou well to be discontented, when God hath given thee, the whole tree with all the clusters of comfort growing on it; because he suffers the wind to blow down a few leaves? Christians have two sorts of goods, the goods of the throne, and the goods of the foot stoole; moveables and immoveables; if God have secured these, never let my heart be troubled at the loss of those: indeed, i• he had cut off his love, or discovenanted my Soul, I had reason to be cast down; but this he hath not, he cannot do.