A62050:38
Ouranos kai tartaros= heaven and hell epitomized. The true Christian characterized. As also an…
Ouranos kai tartaros= heaven and hell epitomized. The true Christian characterized. As also an exhortation with motives, means and directions to be speedy and serious about the work of conversion. By George Swinnocke M.A. sometime fellow of Balliol College in Oxford, and now preacher of the Gospel at Rickmersworth in Hertfordshire.Ouranos kai tartaros= heaven and hell epitomized. The true Christian characterized. As also an exhortation with motives, means and directions to be speedy and serious about the work of conversion. By George Swinnocke M.A. sometime fellow of Baliol Colledge in Oxford, and now preacher of the Gospel at Rickmersworth in Hertfordshire.
London: printed by E.M. for Tho. Parkhurst, 1659
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.
That the lying vanities of this world should by most be so greedily pursued, and the real mercies relating to a better world, so wretchedly despised: that a brutish flesh, which must shortly be food for worms, should be so highly prized, and constantly gratified; and an angelical spirit, the soul which must live for ever, so basely slighted and unworthily neglected: that every soul-damning lust should be so heartily embraced; and the soul-saving Lord but coldly and complementally entertained: that the road to Hell should be so exceedingly filled, and the way to Heaven almost wholly unoccupied. Surely this ought to be for a bitter lamentation; and O what sea of blood is enough to bemoan this horrid wickedness!
That the lying vanities of this world should by most be so greedily pursued, and the reall mercies relating to a better world, so wretchedly despised: that a brutish flesh, which must shortly be food for wormes, should be so highly prized, and constantly gratified; and an angelical spirit, the soul which must live for ever, so basely slighted and unworthily neglected: that every soul-damning lust should be so heartily embraced; and the soul-saving Lord but coldly and complementally entertained: that the road to Hell should be so exceedingly filled, and the way to Heaven almost wholly unoccupied. Surely this ought to be for a bitter lamentation; and O what sea of blood is enough to bemoan this horrid wickednesse!
It hath seemed to me therefore a matter worthy of diligent enquiry, what special Malefactors should be indicted for these many soul-mischiefs, and soul-murders, which are committed amongst us. And truly by ⟨image 11⟩that acquaintance which I have with the Word of God, and experience of the soul-affairs of men, I find, though many Accessories might be named, that ignorance ought to be arraigned and condemned as one of the principals. The people perish for want of knowledge, Hos. 4.6, Inner darkness is the beaten path to utter darkness, to the blackness of darkness for ever. Men in this mist of ignorance (like ships) run upon those rocks which split them eternally. As the Indians prefer every toy and trifle before their Mines of Gold; so they, every sensual sinful pleasure, every foolish perishing creature, before the beautiful Image of God, the unsearchable riches in Christ, the endless happiness in Heaven; because they know not the vanity and emptiness of the former, the excellency and preciousness of the latter. Did men know the gift of God, and who it is that speaketh to them,