A39696:369
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 7 › Section 2 › 2. Plea.
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. Plea.
But my nature is soft and tender, my constitution more weak and subject to the impressions of fear than others; some that have robust bodies and hardy stout minds, may better grapple with such difficulties than I can, who by constitution and education am altogether unfit to grapple with those torments, that I have not patience enough to hear related; my heart faints and dies within me, if I do but read or hear of the barbarous usages of the Martyrs, and therefore I may well be excused for my fears and faint-heartedness when the case is like to be my own.
Answer.
1. 'Tis a great mistake to think that the mee• strength of natural constitution can carry any one through such sufferings for Christ, or, that natural ⟨p. 119⟩tenderness and weakness Divinely assisted, cannot bear the heaviest burden that ever God laid upon the shoulders of any sufferer for Christ. Our suffering and bearing abilities are not from Nature but from Grace. We find men of strong bodies and resolute daring minds, have fainted in the time of trial. Dr. Pendleton in our own story was a man of a robust and massive body, and a resolute daring mind; yet when he came to the trial, he utterly fainted and fell off. On the other side, what poor feeble bodies have sustained the greatest torments! and out of weakness been made strong,