Two treatises the first of fear, from Isa. 8, v. 12, 13, and part…

Answer.

1. One fault is but a bad excuse for another, why are sufferings such strangers to you? Why did you not cast upon them in the days of peace, and reckon that such days must come? Did you not covenant with Christ to follow him whithersoever he should go, ⟨p. 116⟩to take up your cross and follow him? And did not the Word plainly tell you, that All that will live godly in Christ Jesus, must suffer persecution, 2 Tim. 3. 12. And that we must through much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God, Acts 14. 22. Did we fall asleep in quiet and prosperous days, and dream of Halcyon days all our time on earth? that the mountain of our prosperity stood strong, and we should never be moved? That we should die in our nest, and multiply our days as the sand; Babylon's Children indeed dream so, Rev. 18. 7. but the Children of Zion should be better instructed. Alas! how soon may the brightest day be overcast? The weather is not so variable, as the state of the Church in this world is; now a calm, Acts 9. 31. and then a storm, Acts 12. 1, 2. You could not but know what contingent and variable things all things on earth are; Why then did you delude your selves with such fond dreams? But as a learned man rightly observes,¹ Mundus senescens patitur Phantasias, The older the world grows the more drowsy and doting it still grows, and these are the days in which the wise as well as the foolish Virgin• slumber. Sure 'tis but a bad Plea, after so many warnings from the word, and from the rod to say, I did not think of such times, I dreamed not of them.