Two Treatises, Title page 1 – Catalogue
TWO TREATISES: THE FIRST Of FEAR, FROM Isa. 8. v. 12, 13, and part of the 14.
THE SECOND, The Righteous Man's Refuge IN THE Evil Day.
From Isaiah, 26. verse 20.
By Iohn Flavell Minister of the Gospel.
LONDON, Printed by H. H. for Robert Boulter, at the Turks head in Cornhill. 1682.
A PRACTICAL TREATISE OF FEAR.
Wherein the various Kinds, Vses, Causes, Effects, and Remedies thereof are distinctly opened and prescribed, for the Relief and Encouragement of all those that fear God in these Doubtful and Distracting Times.
By Iohn Flavell Minister of the Gospel.
Say unto them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, Fear not, behold your God will come with a vengeance, even God with a recompence, he will come and save you, Isa. 35. v. 4.
Intellige in te esse etiam fortitudinem spiritus, quomodo & infirmitatem carnis, ac jam hinc scias quid unde facias, & quid cui subjicias, infirmum scilicet forti. Tertul. Adv. Gentes.
LONDON, Printed by H. H. for Robert Boultera…t the Turks head in Cornhill. 1682.
To the Right Worshipful Sir IOHN HARTOP, Knight and Baronet.
Sir,
AMong all the Creatures God hath made (Devils only excepted) Man is the most apt and able to be his own tormentor; and of all the Scourges with which he lasheth and afflicteth both his Mind and Body, none is found so cruel and intolerable as his own fears. The worse the times are like to be, the more need the mind hath of succour and encouragement, to confirm and fortifie it for hard encounters, but from the worst prospect, Fear inflicts the deepest and most dangerous wounds upon the mind of man, cutting the very nerves of its passive fortitude and bearing ability.
The grief we su…er from Evil felt, would be light and easie, were it not incensed by Fear; Reason would do much, and Religion more, to demulce and lenifie our sorrows, did not Fear betray the succours of both. And it is from things to come that this prospecting Creature raiseth up to himself vast Hopes, and Fears; If he have a fair and encouraging Prospect of Serene and prosperous day, from the Scheme and Position of second causes, Hope immediately fills his heart with cheariness, and displaies the signals of it in his very face, answerable to that fair benign Aspect of things; but if the face of things to come be threatning and inauspicious, Fear gains the Ascendant over the mind, a… unmanly and unchristian faintness pervades it, and among the many other mischiefs it inflicts, this is not the least; that it brings the evil of to morrow upon to day, and so makes the duties of to day wholly unserviceable to the evils of to morrow; which is much as if a man having an intricate and difficult business cut out for the next day, which requires the utmost intention both of his Mind and Body, and (haply might be prosperously managed if both were duly prepared) should lie all the night restless and disquieted about the event, torturing and spending himself with his own presaging Fears, so that when the day is come, and the business calls for him; his strength is no way equal to the burden of it, but he faints and fails under it.
There is indeed an excellent use that God makes of our Fears to stimulate our slothful hearts to greater vigilance, and preparation for evils, and there is a mischievous use Satan makes of our Fears, to cast us under Despondency and vnbecoming Pusillanimity; and I reckon it one of the great difficulties of Religion to cut by a thred here, and so to manage our selves under threatning or doubtful Providences, as to be touched with so much sense of those approaching evils, as may prepare us to bear them; and yet to enjoy that constancy and firmness of mind in the worst times, that may answer the excellent principles we are professedly governed by.
These last times are certainly the most perillous times; great things are yet to be acted upon the Stage of this World before it be taken down, and the Scena antepenultima, latter end, I say not the last, will be a Tragedy. There is an Ultima clades adhuc metuenda, a dismal slaughter of the Witnesses of Christ, yet to be expected: the last bite of the cruel Beast will be deadly, and if we flatter not our selves, all things seem to be disposing themselves in the Course of Providence towords it.
But Sir, if our Vnion with Christ be sure in it self, and sure to us also; if Faith give us the daily visions and Praelibations of the World to come, what well composed Spectators shall we be of these Tragedies! Let things be tossed Susque, deque, and the Mountains cast into the midst of the Sea, yet then the assured Christian may sing his Song upon Alamoth▪ A Song composed for God's hidden ones.Psal. 46. This so poiseth and steddies the mind, that we may enjoy the comfort and tranquillity of a resigned will▪ when others are at their wits end.
With design to promote this blessed frame in my own and others hearts in these frightful times, I meditated, and now publish this small Tract, to which a dear friend (from whom I have often had the fair Idea and Character of your excellent Spirit) hath occasioned the prefixing of your worthy Name; I beg pardon for such an unusual presumption, as also your charity in censuring the faults that will appear in it, when it shall come under so exact and judicious an eye; it may be useful, though it be not elegant; its seasonableness is its best commendation, and its aim better than its performance. As for you Sir, I hope Faith hath really placed your Soul in that Serene and happy station where Seneca fancied Moral Virtue to have placed a good man, Fatendum est, cacumine Olympi constitutus, supra ventos & procellas, & omnes res humanas. Above the Storms and Tempests of this unquiet and distracting World; but there are many gracious persons, at this day, labouring under their own Fears, and whose hearts are ready to fail with looking for those things that are coming to try them that dwell upon the Earth; and possibly somewhat of relief may be administred to many such by this discourse: Some bivious and staggering Souls may be established; some discouraged and fainting Spirits may be revived; some doubts may be dissolved that have long perplexed gracious … Whatever use it may be of to any, I humbly call in the aid of your Prayers to my own, for a special blessing upon it, and remains, Sir,
Yours to Honour, Love and Serve you, John Flavell.
A Catalogue of some Books Printed for, and to be Sold by Ro. Boulter at the Turk's head in Cornhil, 1682.
Folio.
BIshop Reynolds Works.
Calderwoods History of the Reformamation of the Church of Scotland, from 1560 to 1625.
Rushworth's Collections, First Volume.
—His Second Volume.
Pharmacopoea Londinensis.
Baily's Chronology.
Twiss De Scientia Media.
Sturmy's Magazine.
Curia Politiae—
Quarto.
Durham on the Revelatio….
Baxter's Saints Rest.
Owen of Justification.
Origen Contra Marchionet.
Charles The Eighth, A Play.
Lesley Historia Scotorum.
Man of Sin.
Lightfoot on Lucan.
Dr. Charleton's Anatomical Lectures.
Flavel's Husbandry.
Boys's Sermons.
Prynn's Power of Parliaments.
Burnets Thesaurus.
Behin's Remains.
Manley of Usury.
Brown against, Quakers.
Seamans Calendar.
Mariners Calendar.
Seamans Practise.
Norwood's Trigonometria.
Large Octavo.
Pool's Nullity.
Wilson's Scriptures.
Durham of Scandal.
Dr. Trapham's Treatise of Iamaica.
Cloud of Witnesses.
Rutherford's Examen.
Sclater of Grace.
Bayfield De Capitis.
Danvers of Baptism.
Flavell's Two Treatises.
—His Preparation for Sufferings.
Small Octavo.
Wars of Hungary.
History of Jewels.
Moral Gallantry.
Flavell's Saint Indeed.
—Token for Mourners.
Roma Restituta.
Curious Destillatory.
History of Iapan and Siam.
Looking Glass for Children.
Hugh's Disputations.
Religio Stoici.
Petton on the Covenant.
Queens Wells.
Moreland of Interest.
Miltoni Logica.
Grey of Faith.
Sydenham's Works.
Rushworth's Solomons Remembrance.
Gales Idea.
Binning's Miscellanies.
Kirkwood's Grammatica.
A PRACTICAL TREATISE OF Fear, &c.
Isaiah 8. v. 12, 13, and part of the 14.
Say ye not a confederacy to all them to whom this people shall say a confederacy; neither fear ye [their fear] nor be afraid.
v. 13.
Sanctifie the Lord of hosts himself, and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread;
v. 14.
And he shall be for a sanctuary.