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The reasonableness of personal reformation, and the necessity of conversion
The reasonableness of personal reformation, and the necessity of conversion; the true methods of making all men happy in this world, and in the world to come Seasonably discoursed, and earnestly pressed upon this licentious age. By J.F. a sincere lover of his native country, and the souls of men.The reasonableness of personal reformation, and the necessity of conversion; the true methods of making all men happy in this world, and in the world to come Seasonably discoursed, and earnestly pressed upon this licentious age. By J.F. a sincere lover of his native countrey, and the souls of men.
London: printed for Thomas Cockerill, 1691
THE REASONABLENESS OF Personal Reformation, › Chapter 3 › Section 9
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.
To be plain and faithful with you, Gentlemen, if it be your custom to blaspheme, 'tis God's custom to damn Blasphemers. If you use to be drunk and unclean, God uses to punish Drunkards and Adulterers (if impenitent and unreformed) with his everlasting wrath.
To be plain and faithful with you, Gentlemen, if it be your custom to blaspheme, 'tis God's custom to damn Blasphemers. If you use to be drunk and unclean, God uses to punish Drunk•rds and Adulterers (if impenitent and unreformed) with his everlasting wrath.
And when you are cited (as shortly you must be) before the awful Tribunal of the great, the just, and the terrible God, ask but your selves, whether such a Plea as this, be like to excuse you in whole or in part, and take off the heinousness of these horrid Impieties? Will your profane Oaths, and direful Execrations and Imprecations, be excused in the least degree, by telling him, Lord, I was so accustomed to blaspheme thy Name, Cursing, Swearing and Damning were so familiar Language in my Lips from day to day, that I had quite lost the sense of the Action, as well as of ⟨p. 55⟩the evil thereof; and therefore, Lord, pity, spare and have mercy on me: O damn not my soul to thine everlasting wrath. For though I have imprecated it upon my self, yet frequent custom at length extinguished all my sense and conscience of the evil thereof, till at length I could play with a direful imprecation as an harmless thing; nay, thought it an ornament and grace to my Speech, a gallant Expression alamode the Times and Places I lived in.
And when you are cited (as shortly you must be) before the awful Tribunal of the great, the just, and the terrible God, ask but your selves, whether such a Plea as this, be like to excuse you in whole or in part, and take off the heinousness of these horrid Impieties? Will your prophane Oaths, and direful Execrations and Imprecations, be excused in the least degree, by telling him, Lord, I was so accustomed to blaspheme thy Name, Cursing, Swearing and Damning were so familiar Language in my Lips from day to day, that I had quite lost the sense of the Action, as well as of