A39696:149
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 5: 5. 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.
They overcame, not only the fury of their enemies without them, but their sinful fears within them; and this victory was achieved by their mortification, to the inordinate and immoderate love of life, certainly ⟨p. 44⟩their own fears had overcome them, if they had not first overcome the love of life: It was not therefore without very great reason that our Lord enjoined it upon all his disciples and followers, to hate their own lives, Luke 14. 26. not absolutely, but in comparison and competition with him, (i. e.) to love it in so remiss a degree, as to slight and undervalue it as a poor low thing in such a comparison, he foresaw what sharp trials and sufferings were coming upon them, and he knew if the fond and immoderate love of life were not overcome and mortified in them, it would make them warp and bend under such temptations.
They overcame, not only the fury of their enemies without them, but their sinful fears within them; and this victory was atchieved by their mortification, to the inordinate and immoderate love of life, certainly ⟨p. 44⟩their own fears had overcome them, if they had not first overcome the love of life: It was not therefore without very great reason that our Lord injoyned it upon all his disciples and followers, to hate their own lives, Luke 14. 26. not absolutely, but in comparison and competition with him, (i. e.) to love it in so remiss a degree, as to slight and undervalue it as a poor low thing in such a comparison, he foresaw what sharp tryals and sufferings were coming upon them, and he knew if the fond and immoderate love of life were not overcome and mortified in them, it would make them warp and bend under such temptations.
This was it that freed Paul from slavish fears, and made him so magnanimous and undaunted; indeed he had less fear upon his spirit though he was to suffer those hard and sharp things in his own person, than his friends had who only Sympathized with him, and were not farther concerned than by their own love and pity: He spake like a man who was rather a spectator than a sufferer,