A39682:400
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.
O how much better is it to see men live exactly, then to hear them dispute subtly! these unfruitful questions, how have they rendered the Churches? wasted time and spirits, and called Christians off from their main business, from looking to their own vineyard? what think you Sirs? had it not been better if the questions ⟨p. 187⟩ventilated among the people of God of late days, had been such as these? how shall a man discern the special, from the common operations of the Spirit? how may a Soul discern its first declineings from God? how may a backsliding Christian recover his first love? how may the heart be preserved from unseasonable thoughts in duty? how may a bosom sin be discovered and mortified, &c. Would not this have tended more to the credit of religion, and comfort of your Souls? O tis time to repent, and be ashamed of this folly! when I read what Suarez a Papist said, who wrote many▪ Tomes of disputations, that he prised the time he set apart for the searching and examining of his heart, in reference to God, above all the time that ever he spent in other studies: I am ashamed to find the professors of this age yet insensible of their folly: shall the Conscience of a Suarez feel a relenting pang for strength and time so ill employed? and shall not yours? this is it your Ministers long since warned you of: your spiritual nurses were afraid of the rickets when they saw your heads only to grow, and your hearts to wither. O when will God beat o•r swords into ⟨p. 188⟩ploughshares! I mean our disputes and contentions, into practical godliness. (2) Another cause of neglecting our heart hath been earthly incumbrances: the heads and hearts of many have been filled with such a crowd and noise of worldly business, that they have sadly and sensibly declined and withered in their zeal, love and delight in God, in their heavenly, serious, and profitable way of conversing with man.
O how much better is it to see men live exactly, then to hear them dispute subtilly! these unfruitful questions, how have they rendred the Churches? wasted time and spirits, and called Christians off from their main business, from looking to their own vineyard? what think you Sirs? had it not been better if the questions ⟨p. 187⟩