B36604:260
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. Mortify your inordinate affectation of liberty, pleasure, and delicate living O let not a Prison seem so formidable to you. It's true, as Christ told ⟨p. 96⟩Peter, Joh. 21.18. When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldst; but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. You have now your liberty to go whither you will, and it's a precious mercy if well improved: The Birds of the Air (as one saith) had rather be in the Woods at liberty, though lean and hungry, than in a Golden Cage with the richest Fare. But yet, if God will call you to deny this also for Christ, see that you be ready to be bound as Paul was, and receive the Chain and Bonds of Christ with thanksgiving: To which end, consider,
3. Mortifie your inordinate offectation of liberty, pleasure, and delicate living O let not a Prison seem so formidable to you. It's true, as Christ told ⟨p. 96⟩Peter, Joh. 21.18. When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldst; but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt strotch forth thy hands, another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. You have now your liberty to go whither you will, and it's a precious mercy if well improved: The Birds of the Air (as one saith) had rather be in the Woods at liberty, though lean and hungry, than in a Golden Cage with the richest Fare. But yet, if God will call you to deny this also for Christ, see that you be ready to be bound as Paul was, and receive the Chain and Bonds of Christ with thanksgiving: To which end, consider,
1. That the affliction, in such cases of Restraint, is more from within, than from without you. There's no place but may be delectable to you, if your heart be heavenly, and the presence of God be engaged with you. What a sweet Night had Jacob at Bethel? Paul and Silas in the Stocks? See that precious Letter of Pomponius Algerius.