A39678:71
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 1 › 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.
'Tis down-right folly and madness, by the vote of the whole rational and sober world, for any man to conclude, or hope he shall be happy in the world to come, whose life is drawn through and finished in all manner of obscenity, filthiness, and profaneness in the present world.
'Tis down-right folly and madness, by the vote of the whole rational and sober world, for any man to conclude, or hope he shall be happy in the world to come, whose life is drawn through and finished in all manner of obscenity, filthiness, and prophaneness in the present world.
For let the case be brought into the light of your own Reason, as dim as it is, and let it freely judge when you are belching out your black and horrid Blasphemies against God, imprecating damnation from him upon your own souls, wallowing in beastly lusts, vomiting and roaring in Taverns and Alehouses: Ask, I say, your own Reason, Conscience, or the Scripture, whether all or either of them will allow you to say or think, Now we are in the right way to eternal blessedness? This is the very course that will bring us to happiness in the world to come: This pleaseth God better, and is a surer path to glory, than Repentance or Faith, Mortification, Prayer, or Reformation. No, no; as blind as your Reason is, and as seared as your Consciences are, you will never bring them to comprobate or ⟨p. 12⟩subscribe such absurd and horrid conclusions a• these.
But on the contrary, they will tell you, That i• you will have the pleasure, you must have th• pain and torment of sin. That 'tis madness to sa• you are afraid to burn, but not afraid to sin: Tha you are loath to be damned, and yet challenge the Almighty God to his face to damn you; as much a folly as to drink a baneful Dose of known Poison, and think to feel no painful gripes afterwards.