A09387:13
Deaths knell
Deaths knell: or, The sick mans passing-bell summoning all sick consciences to pr[e]pare themselves for the coming of the great[t] day of doom, lest mercies gate be shut against them: fit for all those that desire to arrive at the heavenly Jerusalem. Whereunto are added prayers fit for householders. The ninth edition. Written by W. Perkins.Deaths knell: or, The sicke mans passing-bell summoning all sicke consciences to pr[e]pare themselues for the comming of the grea[t] day of doome, lest mercies gate be shut against them: fit for all those that desire to arriue at the heauenly Ierusalem. Whereunto are added prayers fit for housholders. The ninth edition. Written by W. Perkins.
London: printed by G. Purslowe for M. Trundle, 1628
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.
If •hou wert now laid on thy departing Pillow, wearied with waiting, pinched with ⟨image 5⟩pain, drowned in dolour, oppressed with the heavy load of thy fore-past committed sins, wounded with the sting of a guilty crying conscience: if thou feltst the force of death cracking thy heart-strings asunder, ready to make the sad divorce of thy soul and body: if thou layest panting for shortness of breath, sweating a fatal sweat, and tired with struggling against deadly pangs; O, how much then wouldst thou give for a days contrition, an hours repentance, or a minutes amendment of life? Then worlds would be worthless in comparison of a little time, which now by whole months and years thou lavishly mis-spendest. How deeply would it wound thy soul, when looking back into thy life, thou shouldst espy many faults committed, but none amended; many good works omitted, but none recovered; thy duty to God promised, but not performed! How disconsolable would thy case be, thy friends being fled, thy senses affrighted, thy mind amazed, thy memory decayed, thy thoughts aghast, and every part disabled in its proper faculty▪ saving only thy guilty conscience crying out against thee? What wouldst thou do, when stripped and turned out of thy house of Clay, into the World of Worms, the Den of dust, and Cabin of corruption; from thence to be convented ⟨image 6⟩before a most severe Judge, carrying in thy own bosom, thy Indictment ready written, and a perfect Register of all thy mis-deeds; when thou shouldest behold the glorious Majesty of Jesus Christ, (clothed in white linen, through which, his body shining like precious stones, his eyes like burning Lamps, his face like lightning, his Arms and Legs like flaming Brass, and his Voice as the shout of a multitude) prepared to pass the sentence upon thee; when thou shouldest see the great Judge offended above thee, hell open beneath thee; the Furnace flaming, the Devils waiting, the World burning, thy conscience accusing, and thy self standing as a forlorn wretch, to receive thy fearful and irrecoverable sentence of condemnation?
If •hou wert now laid on thy departing Pillow, wearied with waiting, pinched with ⟨image 5⟩