Is it for the honour of religion,
(think you) that Christians should be as timorous as hares, to start at
every sound? Will
not this tempt the world to think, that whatever you talk, yet
your principles are no better than other men's? O what mischief
may the discoveries of your fears before them do! It was a noble
saying of Nehemiah 6:11, Should such a man as I fly? And who, being as I am would fly?
Were it not better you should die, than that the world should be
prejudiced against Christ by your example? For, alas!
how apt is the world (who judge more by what they see in your
practices, than by what they understand of your principles)
to conclude from your timorousness, that how much soever you
commend faith, and talk of assurance, yet you dare trust to these
things no more than they, when it comes to the trial. O let not
your fears lay such a stumbling-block before the blind world.
- John Flavel (A Saint Indeed/Keeping the Heart, Part 3)
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