B36604:250
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.
Fifthly, Remember always, that by your love and delight in worldly things, you furnish the Devil with the chiefest Bait he hath to catch, and destroy your Souls. Alas! 'were your Hearts but dead to these things, he would want an Handle to catch hold on. What hath he more to offer you, and tempt you off from Christ with, but a little Money? or some such poor Temporal Rewards: And how little would that Soul be moved by such a Temptation, that looks on it all but as Dirt.
Fifthly, Remember always, that by your love and delight in worldly things, you furnish the Devil with the cheifest Bait he hath to catch, and destroy your Souls. Alas! 'were your Hearts but dead to these things, he would want an Handle to catch hold on. What hath he more to offer you, and tempt you off from Christ with, but a little Money? or some such poor Temporal Rewards: And how little would that Soul be moved by such a Temptation, thot looks on it all but as Dirt.
Sixthly, Lastly take notice of the approaches of Eternity; Remember you are almost at the end of Time: and when you come to launch out into that endless Ocean, how will these things look then? It seems glorious, whilst you are in the chase and pursuit of it; but, upon a Death-bed, you will overtake and come up with it, and then you'll see what a deceitful and vain thing it is: Stand by the Beds of dying men, and hear how they speak of it. Oh the difference betwixt our apprehensions then, and now! Thus labour to wean off your Affections, and crucify them to the World.
Sixthly, Lastly take notice of the approaches of Eternitie; Remember you are almost at the end of Time: and when you come to lanch out into that endless Ocean, how will these things look then? It seems glorious, whilest you are in the chace and pursuit of it; but, upon a Death-bed, you will overtake and come up with it, and then you'l see what a deceitful and vain thing it is: Stand by the Beds of dying men, and hear how they speak of it. Oh the difference betwixt our apprehensions then, and now! Thus labour to wean off your Affections, and crucifie them to the World.