A39696:15
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
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.
Sir,
Among all the Creatures God hath made (Devils only excepted) Man is the most apt and able to be his own tormentor; and of all the Scourges with which he lasheth and afflicteth both his Mind and Body, none is found so cruel and intolerable as his own fears. The worse the times are like to be, the more need the mind hath of succour and encouragement, to confirm and fortify it for hard encounters, but from the worst prospect, Fear inflicts the deepest and most dangerous wounds upon the mind of man, cutting the very nerves of its passive fortitude and bearing ability.
AMong all the Creatures God hath made (Devils only excepted) Man is the most apt and able to be his own tormentor; and of all the Scourges with which he lasheth and afflicteth both his Mind and Body, none is found so cruel and intolerable as his own fears. The worse the times are like to be, the more need the mind hath of succour and encouragement, to confirm and fortifie it for hard encounters, but from the worst prospect, Fear inflicts the deepest and most dangerous wounds upon the mind of man, cutting the very nerves of its passive fortitude and bearing ability.
The grief we su••er from Evil felt, would be light and easy, were it not incensed by Fear; Reason would do much, and Religion more, to demulce and lenify our sorrows, did not Fear betray the succours of both. And it is from things to come that this prospecting Creature raiseth up to himself vast Hopes, and Fears; If he have a fair and encouraging Prospect of Serene and prosperous day, from the Scheme and Position of second causes, Hope immediately fills his heart with cheeriness, and displays the signals of it in his very face, answerable to that fair benign Aspect of things; but if the face of things to come be threatening and inauspicious, Fear gains the Ascendant over the mind, a unmanly and unchristian faintness pervades it, and among the many other mischiefs it inflicts, this is not the least; that it brings the evil of to morrow upon to day, and so makes the duties of to day wholly unserviceable to the evils of to morrow; which is much as if a man having an intricate and difficult business cut out for the next day, which requires the utmost intention both of his Mind and Body, and (haply might be prosperously managed if both were duly prepared) should lie all the night