A39682:419
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 what precious communion might you have with God, every time you approach him; if your hearts were but in frame! you might then say with David, Psal. 104. 34. My meditation of him shall be sweet. That which loses all our comforts in ordinances and more secret duties, is the indisposedness of the heart: a Christian whose heart is in a good frame gets the start of all others that come with him in that duty: they are tugging hard to get up their hearts to God, now trying this argument upon them and then that, to quicken and affect them, and sometimes go away as bad as they came. Sometimes the duty is almost ended before their hearts begin to stir to feel any warmth, quickening, or power from it: but all this while the prepared heart is at its work; this is he that ordinarily gets the first sight of Christ in a Sermon: the first seal from Christ in a Sacrament: the first kiss from Christ in secret prayer. I tell you, and I tell ⟨p. 197⟩you but what I have felt, that Prayers and Sermons would appear to you other manner of things then they do, did you but bring better ordered hearts unto them, you would not go away dejected and drooping, O this hath been a lost day, a lost duty to me, if you had not lost your hearts it might not be so: if then the comfort of ordinances be sweet, look to your hearts, keep your hearts.
O what precious communion might you have with God, every time you approach him; if your hearts were but in frame! you might then say with David, Psal. 104. 34. My meditation of him shall be sweet. That which loses all our comforts in ordinances and more secret duties, is the indisposedness of the heart: a Christian whose heart is in a good frame gets the start of all others that come with him in that duty: they are tugging hard to get up their hearts to God, now trying this argument upon them and then that, to quicken and affect them, and sometimes goe away as bad as they came. Sometimes the duty is almost ended before their hearts begin to stirr to feel any warmth, quickning, or power from it: but all this while the prepared heart is at its work; this is he that ordinarily gets the first sight of Christ in a Sermon: the first seal from Christ in a Sacrament: the first kiss from Christ in secret prayer. I tell you, and I tell ⟨p. 197⟩