A62053:396
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.
To urge this Use a little, Reader, consider these two particulars:
1. Consider of what weight it is, and how much depends upon this question. Am I of the number of them that shall be condemned for sins of Omission or not? Or am I guilty of Omissions, so as to be banished the presence of Christ for them or not? I tell thee, thy eternal Joy or Sorrow, Happiness or Misery, Pleasure or Pain depends on it. Do but read and consider, and then say whether it be not of infinite weight; Come ⟨p. 259⟩ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you before the foundation of the World. For I was hungry, and ye gave me meat; thirsty, and ye gave me drink, &c. On the other side, Go ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and his Angels: For I was hungry, and ye gave me no meat; thirsty, and ye gave me no drink, &c. Friend, are not these weighty things that depend on the performance or neglect of these positive Precepts? Come ye blessed of my Father. Is not a coming (close, near, intimate, familiar, into his very bosom and dearest embraces,) to Christ a weighty thing? To come to Christ here is so weighty, that he came to men into this World to call them to him, Matth. 11.28. Matth. 9.13. But to come to Christ there in all his Robes, and Riches, and Royalty, in all his Beauty, and Glory, and Magnificence, will questionless be of more concern to the Soul. On the contrary, Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and his Angels. Is there not weight, Reader, in these words? Dost thou know what it is to bid Christ farewell, farewell for ⟨p. 260⟩ever, to take an eternal leave of all good? Canst thou bear the extremity of our Culinary fires for a day? Canst thou dwell in everlasting burnings, or abide unquenchable flames? Thou seest all this depends upon thy performing or neglect of the Divine positive Precepts. Doth it not concern thee in a matter of such weight to be faithful in the trial of thy self? Friend, are Life and Death? are eternal Life and eternal Death indifferent things, or things of small moment? Are an eternal enjoyment of God, or an endless separation from God mean or trivial things? Oh how infinitely do they exceed and over-balance thy understanding! How short must thou of necessity come of conceiving of these things according to their weight?