B36604:213
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.
3. Your own peace is wrapped up in it, as well as Gods glory. Is it nothing think you, to be freed from those Vultures and Harpies, that feed upon the hearts of men at such times? Surely God reckons, that he promiseth a very great mercy to his people, when he promiseth it, Prov. 1. ult. Psal. 112.7. When Borromaeus was told of some that lay in wait to take away his life, it troubled him not; but he said, An Deus est in mundo pro nihilo? What, is God in the world for nought? and like to this was the answer of Silentiarus in the like case; Si Deus mei curam non habet, quid vivo? If God take not care for me, how do I live? O this is it that brings you to an holy quietude of Spirit in times of confusion and distraction, which is a choice mercy.
3. Your own peace is wrapt up in it, as well as Gods glory. Is it nothing think you, to be freed from those Vultures and Harpyes, that feed upon the hearts of men at such times? Surely God reckons, that he promiseth a very great mercy to his people, when he promiseth it, Prov. 1. ult. Psal. 112.7. When Borromaeus was told of some that lay in wait to take away his life, it troubled him not; but he said, An Deus est in mundo pro nihilo? What, is God in the world for nought? and like to this was the answer of Silentiarus in the like case; Si Deus mei curam non habet, quid vivo? If God take not care for me, how do I live? O this is it that brings you to an holy quietude of Spirit in times of confusion and distraction, which is a choice mercy.
4. Your magnanimity is of special use to other Saints, who are following you in the same path of sufferings. If you faint, it's like the fainting of a Standard-bearer in an Army: You bring thereby an evil report upon the Cross of ⟨p. 82⟩