B36604:411
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.
And now, how should this refresh thy drooping Soul, make thee gird up the loins of thy mind! since thou dost not run as one uncertain, neither fightest as one that beats the Air, 1 Cor. 9.26. but art so secured from total Apostasy, as thou seest thou art by all these things. O bless ye the Lord.
And now, how should this refresh thy drooping Soul, make thee gird up the loyns of thy mind! since thou dost not run as one uncertain, neither fightest as one that beats the Air, 1 Cor. 9.26. but art so secured from total Apostacy, as thou seest thou art by all these things. O bless ye the Lord.
But the Lord seems to be departed from my Soul; Ob. 2 God is afar off from me, and troubles are near. I seem to be in such a case as Saul was, when the Philistines made war upon him, and God was departed from him; and therefore I shall fall.
Not so; Sol. for there are two sorts of Divine desertions: The one is absolute, when the Lord ⟨p. 141⟩utterly forsakes his Creatures, so that they shall never behold his face more: The other is limited and respective, and so he forsook his own Son, and often doth his own Elect: And of this kind, some are only Cautional, to prevent sin; some are merely Probational, to try Grace; and others Castigatory, to chastise our negligence and carelessness. Now though I have not a word of comfort to speak in the case of total and absolute Desertions; yet of the latter, (which doubtless is thy case) much may be said by way of support, be it of which of the three sorts it will, or in what degree it will. For 1. This hath been the case of many precious Souls,