B36604:168
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.
It must needs be of singular use to a suffering Saint, Dem. 2 because it takes out the sinking weight of affliction. That which sinks and breaks the Spirit, is the conjunction and meeting of inward and outward troubles together; then if the Lord do not strangely and extraordinarily support the Soul, it's wrecked and overwhelmed as the Ship in which Paul sailed was, when it fell into a place where two Seas met, Act. 27.41. Oh how tempestuous a Sea doth that Soul sail in, that hath fightings without, and fears within! How must that poor Christians heart tremble and meditate terror, that when he retires from troubles without, for some comfort and support within, shall find a sad addition to his troubles from whence he expected relief against them! Hence it was that Jeremiah so earnestly ⟨p. 64⟩deprecates such a misery, Be not thou a terror to me, thou art my hope in the day of evil, Jer. 17.17. This is prevented by this means: If a man have a clear breast, and all be quiet within, he is like one that hath a good Roof over his head when the Storm falls. We glory in tribulation, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, Rom. 5.3, 5.
It must needs be of singular use to a suffering Saint, Dem. 2 because it takes out the sinking weight of affliction. That which sinks and breaks the Spirit, is the conjunction and meeting of inward and outward troubles together; then if the Lord do not strangely and extraordinarily support the Soul, it's wrackt and overwhelmed as the Ship in which Paul sailed was, when it fell into a place where two Seas met, Act. 27.41. Oh how tempestuous a Sea doth that Soul sail in, that hath fightings without, and fears within! How must that poor Christians heart tremble and meditate terrour, that when he retires from troubles without, for some comfort and support within, shall find a sad addition to his troubles from whence he expected relief against them! Hence it was that Jeremy so earnestly ⟨p. 64⟩deprecates such a misery, Be not thou a terrour to me, thou art my hope in the day of evil,