A26682:212
An Alarm to Unconverted Sinners
An alarm to unconverted sinners, in a serious treatise ... whereunto are annexed Divers practical cases of conscience judiciously resolved / by Joseph Alleine, late preacher of the Gospel at Taunton in Somerset-shire.An alarme to unconverted sinners, in a serious treatise ... whereunto are annexed Divers practical cases of conscience judiciously resolved / by Joseph Alleine, late preacher of the Gospel at Taunton in Somerset-shire.
London: printed by E.T. and R.H., 1672
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.
O soul, do not think when thy sins pursue thee, a little praying and reforming thy course will pacify God: thou must begin with thine heart: if that be not renewed, thou canst no more please God, than one that having unspeakably offended thee, should bring thee his vomit in a dish to pacify thee, or having fallen into the mire, should think with his loathed embraces to reconcile thee.
It is a great misery to labour in the fire. The Poets could not invent a worser hell for Sisyphus, than to be getting the barrel still up the hill, and then that it should presently fall down again and renew his labour. God threatens it, as the greatest of temporal judgments, that they should build and not inhabit, plant and not gather, and their labours shall be eat up by strangers. Deut. 28. 30, 38, 39, 41. Is it so great a misery to lose our common labours, to sow in vain, and build in vain? how much more to lose our pains in religion, to pray, and hear, ⟨p. 67⟩and fast in vain? This is an undoing and eternal loss. Be not deceived, if thou goest on in thy sinful estate, though thou shouldst spread forth thine hands, God will hide his eyes; though thou make many prayers, he will not hear Isaiah 1. 15. If a man without skill, set about our work, and mar it in the doing, though he take much pains, we give him but small thanks. God will be worshipped after the due order. 1 Chron. 15. 13. If a servant do our work, but quite contrary to our order, he shall have rather stripes, than praise. Gods work must be done according to Gods mind, or he will not be pleased; and this cannot be, except it be done with a holy heart, 2 Chron. 25. 2.
It is a great misery to labour in the fire. The Poets could not invent a worser hell for Sysiphus, than to be getting the barrel still up the hill, and then that it should presently fall down again and renew his labour. God threatens it, as the greatest of temporal judgments, that they should build and not inhabit, plant and not gather, and their labours shall be eat up by strangers.