B36604:285
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. Lastly, To name no more; he that is best acquainted with the Mystery of Temptation, and can maintain his ground against it, he shall be the persevering Christian under Persecutions, and the victorious Christian over them. Here lies the main Design of Satan, in raising Persecution against the Saints. It is not so much their Blood that he thirsteth after, as their Fall by Temptation: and all Persecutions are designed by him, to introduce his Temptations. These work upon our Fear, and Fear drives us into his Trains and Snares, Prov. 29.25. ⟨p. 102⟩The Devils Work in raising Persecution, is but as the Fowlers work, in beating the Bush in the Night, when the Net is spread to take the Birds, which he can affright out of their Coverts. He that understands this, is not easily moved by the strongest Opposition from his Place and Duty; and so is like to prove the most constant and invincible Christian in Times of Persecution.
3. Lastly, To name no more; he that is best acquainted with the Mystery of Temptation, and can maintain his ground against it, he shall be the persevering Christian under Persecutions, and the victorious Christian over them. Here lies the main Design of Satan, in raising Persecution against the Saints. It is not so much their Bloud that he thirsteth after, as their Fall by Temptation: and all Persecutions are designed by him, to introduce his Temptations. These work upon our Fear, and Fear drives us into his Trains and Snares, Prov. 29.25. ⟨p. 102⟩The Devils Work in raising Persecution, is but as the Fowlers work, in beating the Bush in the Night, when the Net is spread to take the Birds, which he can affright out of their Coverts. He that understands this, is not easily moved by the strongest Opposition from his Place and Duty; and so is like to prove the most constant and invincible Christian in Times of Persecution.