B36604:157
Preparation for sufferings. Or The best work in the worst times Wherein the necessity,…
Preparation for sufferings. Or The best work in the worst times Wherein the necessity, excellency, and means of our readiness for sufferings are evinced and prescribed; our call to suffering cleared, and the great unreadiness of many professors bewailed. By John Flavel minister of Christ in Devon.Preparation for sufferings. Or The best work in the worst times Wherein the necessity, excellency, and means of our readiness for sufferings are evinced and prescribed; our call to suffering cleared, and the great unreadiness of many profesours bewailed. By John Flavel minister of Christ in Devon.
London: printed for Robert Boulter, 1681
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.
4. Both in the continuation and removal of it the Spirit acts arbitrarily. No man can say how long he shall walk in this pleasant Light, Psal. 30.7. By thy favour thou hast made my Mountain stand strong: thou hiddest thy face, and I was troubled. And when in darkness, none can say how long it will be ere that sweet Light break forth again. God can scatter the Cloud unexpectedly in a moment, Cant. 3.4. It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my Soul loveth. There is such an observable difference in David's Spirit in some Psalms, as if one man had written the beginning, and another the end of them.
4. Both in the continuation and removal of it the Spirit acts arbitrarily. No man can say how long he shall walk in this pleasant Light, Psal. 30.7. By thy favour thou hast made my Mountain stand strong: thou hiddest thy face, and I was troubled. And when in darkness, none can say how long it will be e're that sweet Light break forth again. God can scatter the Cloud unexpectedly in a moment, Cant. 3.4. It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my Soul loveth. There is such an observable difference in David's Spirit in some Psalms, as if one man had written the beginning, and another the end of them.
5. Though God can quickly remove the darkness and doubts of a Soul, yet ordinarily the Saints find it a very hard and difficult thing to obtain and preserve the Evidences of their Graces. Such is the darkness, deadness, and deceitfulness of the heart; so much unevenness and inconstancy in their practice, so many counterfeits of Grace, and so many wiles and devices of Satan to rob them of their peace, that few (in comparison) live in a constant and quiet fruition of it.