B36604:322
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.
Prayer is said to be amongst Duties, as Faith is amongst the Graces. Doubtless it is of special use and service at all times to a Christian; but yet in suffering days it is of more than ordinary use and necessity, Heb. 4.16. Jam. 5.13. and therefore it is reckoned among those choice pieces of Armour which suffering Saints are to put on, Ephes. 6.18. I will here briefly discover the necessity of it, and then show you that a Christian may improve himself to an excellent degree in it; and lastly prescribe some means for an improvement.
PRayer is said to be amongst Duties, as Faith is amongst the Graces. Doubtless it is of special use and service at all times to a Christian; but yet in suffering dayes it is of more than ordinary use and necessity, Heb. 4.16. Jam. 5.13. and therefore it is reckoned among those choice pieces of Armour which suffering Saints are to put on, Ephes. 6.18. I will here briefly discover the necessity of it, and then shew you that a Christian may improve himself to an excellent degree in it; and lastly prescribe some means for an improvement.
The necessity of it to a suffering Saint will demonstratively appear, if you consider;
1. That this duty is the out-let of troubles, and the best way the poor Christian hath to ease his heart when surcharged with sorrow. Griefs are cased by Groans. Such evaporations disburden and cool the heart, as the opening of a vein in some cases doth. Oh the sensible ease that comes in this way! When grief in the mind, like vapours in the Air, are condensed into black Clouds, that over-spread the Soul, and darken that beautiful Light that once shone there, then Prayer like the Sun dispels and scatters them.