A36320:15
Love to Christ, necessary to escape the curse at his coming
Love to Christ, necessary to escape the curse at his coming by Tho. Doolittle ...
London: printed for Tho. Cockerill, 1692
Letter: THE EPISTLE TO Non-Lovers OF CHRIST, Lamenting Their SIN and MISERY.
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 what did I mean, to give that love to them, which I should have given unto Christ? Had I loved him, as I loved them, my love to him would have been as great a Comfort to me, on this Dying-Bed, as the love of them is now a Terror to me, but I did not; O cursed Caitiff that I did not. And now the Lord, by Death, ⟨image 8⟩is come to me, and I after Death must go to him, to be Judged by him, and in my Sentence I shall hear ANATHEMA; Depart thou Cursed into everlasting Fire, prepared for the Devil and his Angels. In that I never loved Christ, I Sinned like the Devil, and in my Sentence, for that Sin I must be Condemned, and in Hell suffer with, and as the Devil.
Oh what did I mean, to give that love to them, which I should have given unto Christ? Had I loved him, as I loved them, my love to him would have been as great a Comfort to me, on this Dying-Bed, as the love of them is now a Terror to me, but I did not; O cursed Catiff that I did not. And now the Lord, by Death, ⟨image 8⟩is come to me, and I after Death must go to him, to be Judged by him, and in my Sentence I shall hear ANATHEMA; Depart thou Cursed into everlasting Fire, prepared for the Devil and his Angels. In that I never loved Christ, I Sinned like the Devil, and in my Sentence, for that Sin I must be Condemned, and in Hell suffer with, and as the Devil.
But yet all this may be prevented; may it? And will ye not endeavour it? How? By calling off your love from other things, and placing it predominantly upon the Lord Jesus. By Faith in him, and Love unto him, the Curse might be escaped, and the Blessing obtained at his coming; and had ye rather be Damned, than love Christ? Indeed! Is your Enmity so much to him, that ye had rather be miserable for ever, than place your Affections upon him? Are ye not yet willing to forsake your Old Love, and get New Love to Christ? Can ye be willing to be miserable, and pained, and tormented, in extremity, to all Eternity? I know ye cannot: And yet I know, ⟨image 8⟩