A26701:250
The way to true happiness in a serious treatise /
The way to true happiness in a serious treatise / by Joseph Alleine.
London : Printed and are to be sold by Nevil Simmons, 1678
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
And now I imagine, many will begin to bless themselves, and think all is well, because they cannot be spotted with the grosser evils ⟨p. 93⟩above mentioned. But I must further tell you, that there are another sort of unsanctified persons, that carry not their marks in their foreheads, but more secretly and covertly in their hands. These do frequently deceive themselves and others, and pass for good Christians, when they are all the while unsound at bottom. Many pass undiscovered, till death and judgement bring all to light. Those self-deceivers seem to come even to Heaven gate with confidence of their admission• and yet are turned off at last, Mat. 7. 22. Brethren, Beloved, I beseech you deeply to lay to heart, and firmly to retain this awakening consideration: That Multitudes miscarry by the hand of some secret sin, that is not only hidden from others, but (for want of observing their own hearts) even from themselves. A man may be free from open pollutions, and yet die at last by the fatal hand of some unobserved iniquity: And there be these eleven hidden sins, by which souls go down by numbers into the chambers of death. These you must search carefully for, and take them as black marks (wherever they be found) discovering a graceless and unconverted estate. As you love your lives read them carefully, with a holy jealousy of your selves, lest you should be the persons concerned.
And now I imagine, many will begin to bless themselves, and think all is well, because they cannot be spotted with the grosser evils ⟨p. 93⟩above mentioned. But I must further tell you, that there are another sort of unsanctified persons, that carry not their marks in their foreheads, but more secretly and covertly in their hands. These do frequently deceive themselves and others, and pass for good Christians, when they are all the while unsound at bottom. Many pass undiscovered, till death and judgement bring all to light. Those self-deceivers seem to come even to Heaven gate with confidence of their admission• and yet are turned off at last, Mat. 7. 22