A30203:54
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.
Verse 21. And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich mans Table: the Dogs came also, and licked his Sores.
BY these words our Lord Jesus doth show us the frame of a Christians heart, and also the heart and carriage of worldly men towards the Saints of the Lord: The Christians heart is held forth by this, that any thing will content him while he is on this side glory. And he desired to be fed with the Crumbs, the Dogs meat, any thing. I say, a Christian will be content with any thing, if he have but to keep Life and Soul together, (as we use to say.) He is content, he is satisfied, he hath learned, if he hath learned to be a Christian, to be content with any thing, as Paul saith, I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. He learns in all conditions to study to love God, to walk with God, to give up himself to God; and if the Crumbs that fall from a Rich-man's Table will but satisfy Nature, and give him bodily ⟨p. 13⟩strength, that thereby he may be the more able to walk in the way of God; he is contented. And he desired to be fed with the Crumbs that fell from the rich man's Table. But mark, he had them not, you do not find that he had so much as a Crumb or a Scrap allowed unto him. No, then the Dogs will be beguiled, that must be preserved for the Dogs. From whence observe, that the ungodly World do love their Dogs better then the Children of God. You will say that's strange. It is so indeed, yet it is true, as will be clearly manifested; as for instance. How many pounds do some men spend in a year on their Dogs, when, in the mean while, the poor Saints of God may starve for hunger. They will build Houses for their Dogs, when the Saints must be glad to wander, and lodge in Dens, and Caves of the Earth,