A62053:157
The sinners last sentence to eternal punishment, for sins of omission
The sinners last sentence to eternal punishment, for sins of omission wherein is discovered, the nature, causes, and cure of those sins / by Geo. Swinnock.
London: printed for Geo. Swinnock, 1675
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.
1. They differ in the cause of their kindling. Our fires are kindled with cold Air, a puff of Wind; thus the spark is blown up into a flame. But Tophet is prepared of old: for the King it is prepared: the pile thereof is fire and much wood, and the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it, Isa. 30.33. O what a flame is that which is blown up by the breath of an Almighty God. What a vast difference is there between the breath of man, or of a pair of Bellows, and the breath of a God? This breath is like a stream of brimstone; and if the breath that kindleth the fire be like a stream, or rather a Sea of brimstone, what is the fire it self? What a vast difference is there between ⟨p. 75⟩the breath of a pair of Bellows, and the fire kindled by them.
2. They differ in their nature. Our fires are by Philosophers described to be a stream of sulphurous particles, or swarm of motes of brimstone, violently agitated, and forcibly breaking forth from those respective Bodies to which they did formerly belong. And this is apparent, because when any body is throughly burnt, the sulphurous parts are almost gone; and when those parts are gone, what remains will burn no longer. But the fire of Hell, whether it be material or metaphorical, is quite another thing. It is a deep impression of infinite wrath and fury on every member of the Body, and faculty of the Soul. And O what a fearful thing is it to fall into the hands of the living God, for our God is a consuming fire, Heb. 12.2. ult. The wrath of God is sometimes compared to that of a Lion roaring after her prey, which tears, and rents, and kills, and slays, without the least pity. And to a Bear robbed of her Whelps, which claws, and wounds, and destroys whatsoever comes near her. But alas, the ⟨p. 76⟩wrath of a God is infinitely more cutting, more killing. The Mountains are moved, the Rocks are rent in pieces, the stoutest Oaks are rooted up, the Foundations of the Earth tremble, the great Luminaries are darkened, the course of Nature is over-turned, when he is wroth. Thou, even thou art to be feared, for who may stand when thou art angry.