B36604:49
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.
What bloody Shambles and Slaughter-houses have France, Ireland, and England been made by Popish cruelty? More might be related out of each Story, than a tender-hearted Reader is able ⟨p. 9⟩to bear the rehearsal of: But what God hath done, he may do again; we are not better than our Fathers, dismal Clouds of indignation are gathering over our heads, charged with double destruction, should the Lord please to make them break upon us; we cannot imagine the rage of Satan to be abated, now that his Kingdom hastens to its period, Rev. 12.12. nor are his Instruments grown less cruel and skilful to destroy. The Land indeed hath enjoyed a long rest, and this Generation is acquainted with little more of Martyrdom, than what the Histories of former times inform us of: but yet let no man befool himself with a groundless expectation of a continuing tranquillity. Augustin thinks that the Bloody Sweat which overran the Body of Christ in the Garden, signified the sharp and grievous Sufferings which in his Mystical Body he should afterwards endure; and indeed it is a truth, that these are also called the Remains of Christs Sufferings, Col. 1.24. His Personal Sufferings were indeed completed at his Resurrection, that Cup was full to the brim, to which no drop of Suffering can be added; but his Sufferings in his Mystical Body are not yet full; by his Personal Sufferings he fully satisfied the wrath of God, but the Sufferings of his People have not yet satisfied the wrath of men; though Millions of precious Saints have shed their blood for Christ, whose Souls are now crying under the Altar, How long Lord! how long! Yet there are many more coming on behind in the same Path of Persecution, and much Christian Blood must yet be shed before the Mystery of God be finished; and notwithstanding this Lucid Interval, the Clouds seem to be returning ⟨p. 10⟩again after the Rain. Thus you see to what grievous Sufferings the merciful God hath sometimes called his dearest People.
What bloody Shambles and Slaughter-houses have France, Ireland, and England been made by Popish cruelty? More might be related out of each Story, than a tender-hearted Reader is able ⟨p. 9⟩