B36604:248
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.
Thirdly, Get true Scripture-notions of the world, and rectify your Judgments and Affections by them. If you will have the true Picture and Representation of it drawn by the Hand of God himself, see 1 John 2.16. It's nothing else but Lust that puts that Lustre upon it: It hath but a Fantastic Glory, and that also passeth away: What is become of them that ruffled it out in the World but one hundred years ago? What could the World do for them? Are they not all gone down to the ⟨p. 93⟩sides of the Pit? But ke that doth the will of God abideth for ever.
Thirdly, Get true Scripture-notions of the world, and rectifie your Judgments and Affections by them. If you will have the true Picture and Representation of it drawn by the Hand of God himself, see 1 John 2.16. It's nothing else but Lust that puts that Lustre upon it: It hath but a Phantastick Glory, and that also passeth away: What is become of them that ruffled it out in the World but one hundred years ago? What could the World do for them? Are they not all gone down to the ⟨p. 93⟩sides of the Pit? But ke that doth the will of God abideth for ever.
Fourthly, Study and contemplate Christ, and the things above more: This would veil all its Glory, and kill it at the Root, Phil. 3.18, 19. Just as a man that hath been gazing upon the Sun, when he takes off his Eye from that bright and glorious Creature, and looks to the Earth, there is a Veil of Darkness overspreading the Face of it, that he can see nothing. I wonder how such as pretend to live above, and enjoy communion with God, can ever relish such sweetness in the World, or have their hearts enticed and captivated by it?