A26695:281
A sure guide to heaven, or, An earnest invitation to sinners to turn to…
A sure guide to heaven, or, An earnest invitation to sinners to turn to God in order to their eternal salvation showing the thoughtful sinner what he must do to be saved / by Joseph Alleine.A sure guide to heaven, or, An earnest invitation to sinners to turn to God in order to their eternal salvation shewing the thoughtful sinner what he must do to be saved / by Joseph Alleine.
London: printed for Tho. Parkhurst, 1688
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.
Could I bring Paradise into view, or represent ⟨p. 87⟩the Kingdom of Heaven to as much advantage as the tempter did the Kingdoms of the world, and all the glory thereof, to our Saviour: or could I uncover the race of the deep and devouring Gulf of Tophet in all its terrors, and open the Gates of the infernal furnace, alas he hath no eyes to see it, Mat. 13. 14, 15. Could I paint out the Beauties of Holiness, or glory of the Gospel to the life; or could I bring above-board the more than Diabolical deformity and ugliness of sin, he can no more judge of the loveliness and beauty of the one, nor the filthiness and hatefulness of the other, than the blind man of colours. He is alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is in him, because of the blindness of his heart, Eph. 4. 18. He neither doth nor can know the things of God, because they are spiritually discerned, 1 Cor. 2. 14. His eyes cannot be savingly opened, but by converting grace, Acts 26. 18. he is a Child of darkness, and walks in darkness, 1 Joh. 1. 6. yea the light in him is darkness, Mat. 6. 2, 3.
Could I bring Paradise into view, or represent ⟨p. 87⟩the Kingdom of Heaven to as much advantage as the tempter did the Kingdoms of the world, and all the glory thereof, to our Saviour: or could I uncover the race of the deep and devouring Gulph of Tophet in all its terrors, and open the Gates of the infernal furnace, alas he hath no eyes to see it, Mat. 13. 14, 15. Could I paint out the Beauties of Holiness, or glory of the Gospel to the life; or could I bring above-board the more than Diabolical deformity and ugliness of sin, he can no more judge of the loveliness and beauty of the one, nor the filthiness and hatefulness of the other, than the blind man of colours. He is alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is in him, because of the blindness of his heart,