A39696:113
Two treatises the first of fear, from Isa. 8, v. 12, 13, and part…
Two treatises the first of fear, from Isa. 8, v. 12, 13, and part of the 14 : the second, The righteous man's refuge in the evil day, from Isaiah 26, verse 20 / by John Flavell.
London: printed by H.H. for Robert Boulter, 1682
A PRACTICAL TREATISE OF Fear, &c. › Chapter 4 › Section 1 › Subsection 1: 1. Cause.
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. Our ignorance of men generates our fears o• men, we fear them, because we do not know them if we understood them better, we would fear them less, we over-value them, and then fright at them▪ They say the Lion is painted more fierce than he is ⟨p. 29⟩I am sure our fancy paints out man more dreadful than indeed he is. If wicked men, especially if multitudes of wicked men be confederated against us, our hearts quail, and presently apprehend inevitable ruin. The floods of the ungodly made me afraid, saith David, (i. e.) the multitudes of them, which he thought like a flood or mighty torrent of waters, must needs sweep away such a straw, such a feather as he was before them; but mean time we know or consider not that they have no power against us, but what is given them from above, and that it's usual with God to cramp their hands, and clap on the bands of restraint upon them when their hearts are fully set in them to do mischief; did we see and consider them as they are in the hand of our God, we should not tremble at them as we do.
2. Our ignorance of men generates our fears o• men, we fear them, because we do not know them if we understood them better, we would fear them less, we over-value them, and then fright at them▪ They say the Lion is painted more fierce than he is ⟨p. 29⟩I am sure our fancy paints out man more dreadful than indeed he is. If wicked men, especially if multitudes of wicked men be confederated against us, our hearts quail, and presently apprehend inevitable ruine. The floods of the ungodly made me afraid, saith David, (i. e.) the multitudes of them, which he thought like a flood or mighty torrent of waters, must needs sweep away such a straw, such a feather as he was before them; but mean time we know or consider not that they have no power against us, but what is given them from above, and that it's usual with God to cramp their hands, and clap on the bands of restraint upon them when their hearts are fully set in them to do mischief; did we see and consider them as they are in the hand of our God, we should not tremble at them as we do.