A26701:326
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.
Introduction › Chapter 6: Containing DIRECTIONS for Conversion.
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.
Meditate upon the aggravations of thy sin, as they are the grand enemies against the God of thy life, against the life of thy soul; in a word they are the public enemies of all mankind. How do David, Ezra, Daniel and the good Levites aggravate their sins, from the consideration of their injuriousness to God, their opposition to his good and righteous Laws, the mercies, the warnings that they were committed against. Nehem. 9. Dan. 9. Ezra. 9. O the work that sin hath made in the world! This is the enemy that hath brought in death, that hath robbed and enslaved man, that hath blacked the devil, that hath digged hell; Rom. 5. 12. 2 Pet. 2. 4. ⟨p. 141⟩John 8. 34. This is the enemy that hath turned the creation upside down, and sown dissension between man and the creatures, between man and man, yea between man and himself, setting the sensitive part against the rational, will against judgment, lust against conscience? yea worst of all, between God and man, making the lapsed sinner, both hateful to God, and a hater of him. Zec. 11. 8. O man, how canst thou make so light of sin? This is the traitor that sucked the blood of the Son of God, that sold him, that mocked him, that scourged him, that spat in his face, that digged his hands, that pierced his side, that pressed his soul, that mangled his body, that never left, till it had bound him, condemned him, nailed him, crucified him, and put him to open shame. Isaiah. 53. 4, 5, 6. This is that deadly poison, so powerful of operation, as that one drop of it, shed upon the root of mankind, hath corrupted, spoiled, and poisoned, and undone his whole race at once. Rom. 5. 18, 19. This is the common butcher, the bloody executioner, that hath killed the Prophets, that hath burnt the Martyrs, that hath murdered all the Apostles, all the Patriarchs, all the Kings and Potentates, that hath destroyed Cities, swallowed Empires, butchered and devoured whole Nations. What ever was the weapon that 'twas done by, sin was it that did the execution.