A36315:259
Captives bound in chains made free
Captives bound in chains made free by Christ their surety, or, The misery of graceless sinners and their recovery by Christ their saviour by T. Doolittle.
London: printed by A.H. for Tho. Parkhurst, 1674
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.
3. It is a filthy prison, full of noisome stenches, and unsavoury smells; prisons are filthy places, very offensive to the nostrils, but the stench of the brimstone shall be more troublesome to the prisoners there, than the most stinking dungeon to any upon earth.
3. It is a filthy prison, full of noisom stenches, and unsavoury smells; prisons are filthy places, very offensive to the nostrils, but the stench of the brimstone shall be more troublesome to the prisoners there, than the most stinking dungeon to any upon earth.
4. It is a strong prison; As it is so close that none can come to them to comfort them, so it is so strong that not a prisoner shall escape, or break through, or get out to all eternity; if once these prison-doors be shut, and if Christ that hath the keys of death and hell, do once put thee in, and turn the key upon thee, there is no opening them for ever. Now you are bound in chains of your own making, even of your sins; but hereafter you shall be bound in chains of Gods making. And there are four ⟨p. 151⟩Bars or Bolts upon the prison-gates of hell, that the prisoners shall be filled with despair of ever coming forth.
1. This prison-gates shall be made for ever fast and strong by the counsel and decree of God; God hath ordained, that the imprisonment of those Captives that dye before they are made free, shall be eternal; it is the unalterable will of God, that they shall lye in chains for ever; Gods purpose must be changed before their chains can be broken, or the prisoners delivered: But God is a God that doth not change, he will be always in the same mind, and his Will will be the same for ever; therefore the prisoners must abide by it for ever.