A26701:336
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.
Oh sinner, hear and consider. If thou wilt part with thy sins, God will give thee his Christ: Is not this a fair exchange? I testify unto thee this day, that if thou perish, it is not because there was never a Saviour provided, nor life tendered: but because thou preferredst (with the Jews) the Murderer before thy Saviour, sin before Christ, and lovedst darkness rather than light, John 3. 19. Search thy heart therefore with candles, as the Jews did their houses for Leaven, before the Pass-over: Labour to find out thy sins. Enter into thy Closet, and consider, what evil have I lived in? what duty have I neglected towards God! what sin have I lived in against my brother? and now strike the darts through the heart of thy sin, as Joab did through Absalom's, 2 Sam. 18. 14. Never stand looking upon thy sin, nor rolling the morsel under thy tongue, Job 20. 12. but spit it out as poison, with fear and detestation. Alas, what will thy sins do for thee, that thou shouldst stick at parting with them? They will flatter thee, but they will undo thee, and cut thy throat while they smile upon thee, and poison thee while they please thee, and arm the justice and wrath of the infinite God against thee. They will open hell for thee, and pile up fuel to burn thee. Behold the gibbet that they have prepared for thee. Oh serve them like Haman, and do upon them the execution, ⟨p. 150⟩they would else have done upon thee. Away with them, crucify them, and let Christ only be Lord over thee.
Oh sinner, hear and consider. If thou wilt part with thy sins, God will give thee his Christ: Is not this a fair exchange? I testifie unto thee this day, that if thou perish, it is not because there was never a Saviour provided, nor life tendered: but because thou preferredst (with the Jews) the Murderer before thy Saviour, sin before Christ, and lovedst darkness rather than light, Iohn 3. 19. Search thy heart therefore with candles, as the Jews did their houses for Leven, before the Pass-over: Labour to find out thy sins. Enter into thy Closet, and consider, what evil have I lived in? what duty have I neglected towards God! what sin have I lived in against my brother? and now strike the darts through the heart of thy sin, as Ioab did through Absalom's,