A39682:378
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.
1. For your communion with God, the time of perfecting that is now come; thy Soul shall shortly stand before the face of God, and have the immediate emanations and beamings forth of his glory upon it, here thy Soul is remote from God, the beams of his glory strike it but obliquely and feebly, but shortly it will be under the line; and there the sun shall stand still as it did in Gibeon, there shall be no cloudings, nor declineings ⟨p. 179⟩of it. O how should this wrap thy Soul with desires of being unclothed.
1. For your communion with God, the time of perfecting that is now come; thy Soul shall shortly stand before the face of God, and have the immediate emanations and beamings forth of his glory upon it, here thy Soul is remote from God, the beams of his glory strike it but obliquely and feebly, but shortly it will be under the line; and there the sun shall stand still as it did in Gibeon, there shall be no cloudings, nor declineings ⟨p. 179⟩of it. O how should this wrap thy Soul with desires of being uncloathed.
2. As for the enjoyment of Saints, here indeed we have fellowship with them of the lower form; but that fellowship is so dis-sweetened by remaining corruptions, that there is no satisfaction in it: as it is the greatest plague that can befall an hypocrite to live in a pure Church, so tis the greatest vexation to the Spirit of a Saint to live in a corrupt and disordered Church: But when death hath admitted you into that glorious assembly of the Spirits of just men made perfect, you shall have the desire of your hearts: here you cannot fully close one with another, yea, you cannot fully close with your own Souls. O what discords, jarrings, censurings, are here? what perfect blessed harmony there? in Heaven each Saint loves another as himself, th•y are altogether lovely. O my Soul hast thee away from the Lyons dens, from the mountains of Bether; from divided Saints, to those mountains of Myrrh, and hill of Frankincense; thou art now going to thine own people as the Apostles phrase imports