A30203:429
Sighs from hell, or, The groans of a damned soul discovering from the 16th…
Sighs from hell, or, The groans of a damned soul discovering from the 16th of Luke the lamentable state of the damned : and may fitly serve as a warning-word to sinners, both old and young, by faith in Jesus Christ, to avoid the same place of torment : with a discovery of the usefulness of the Scriptures as our safe conduct for avoiding the torments of hell / by John Bunyan.
London: printed for F. Smith, 1666
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.
Answ. And it seems as true to me; and I doubt not but to make it manifest, that there are but few, yea very few, that do effectually (for that I aim at) believe the Scriptures, and the Truths contained in, and spoken of by them. But to make this appear, and that to purpose (if God will) I shall lay you down the several Operations that the Scriptures have on them, who do effectually believe the Things contained in them.
1. He that doth effectually believe the Scriptures, hath in the first place been killed, I say killed by the Authority of the Holy Scriptures; struck stark dead▪ in a Spiritual sense, by the Holy Scripture, being set home by that Spirit, which gave them forth upon the Soul. The Letter killeth; the ⟨p. 178⟩Letter strikes men dead, 2 Cor. 3. 6. and this Paul witnessed, and found, before he could say, I believe all that the Prophets have spoken. Where he saith, I was alive without the Law once; That is, in my natural state, before the Law was set on my heart with power: But when the Commandment came, sin revived and I died, Rom. 7. 9. And that Law that was ordained to life, I found to be unto death: For sin taking occasion by the Commandment deceived me, and thereby slew me, ver. 10. Now that which is called the Letter in Cor. is called the Law in Rom. 7. which by its power and operation, as it is wielded by the Spirit of God, doth in the first place kill and slay all those that are enabled to believe the Scriptures. I kill, saith God; That is, with my Law. I pierce, I wound, I prick men into the very heart, by showing them their sins against my Law, Deut. 32. 39. Act. 2. 36, 37. And he that is ignorant of this, is also ignorant of, and doth not really and effectually believe the Scripture.