A62053:556
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.
Chapter 44: Another cause of Omissions, is vain excuses men have, that Omissions are little sins, w…
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.
Keepers first ply their Deer with little Beagles till it be heated and blown, and then they put on their great Buck-Hounds. So the Devil first plies us with little sins, afterwards when we are used to them with greater. One circle made with a stone in the water, makes way for a second greater than it, the second for a third greater than that, &c. Rivers (far from their Springs) grow as they go along greater and greater, and enlarge their Channels, till at last they empty themselves into the Ocean. Thus Sin encroacheth by degrees upon the Soul, if it can get but one of its claws into us, it will quickly follow with its head and whole body. A little Leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Unfaithfulness to God is first discovered in the smallest matters, then it proceeds to greater ⟨p. 429⟩things. As the decay of a Tree is first visible in its twigs, but by degrees it goeth on the bigger Arms, and from them to the main body.
Keepers first ply their Deer with little Beagles till it be heated and blown, and then they put on their great Buck-Hounds. So the Devil first plies us with little sins, afterwards when we are used to them with greater. One circle made with a stone in the water, makes way for a second greater than it, the second for a third greater than that, &c. Rivers (far from their Springs) grow as they go along greater and greater, and enlarge their Chanels, till at last they empty themselves into the Ocean. Thus Sin incroacheth by degrees upon the Soul, if it can get but one of its claws into us, it will quickly follow with its head and whole body. A little Leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Unfaithfulness to God is first discovered in the smallest matters, then it proceeds to greater ⟨p. 429⟩things. As the decay of a Tree is first visible in its twigs, but by degrees it goeth on the bigger Arms, and from them to the main body.
As it is the nature of a Cancer or Gangrene to run from one Joint or part of the Body to another, from the Toe to the Foot, from the Foot to the Leg, from the Leg to the Thigh, and thence to the vital parts. Do we not sometimes see a whole Arm imposthumated with the prick of a little Finger, and have we not sometimes heard of a great City betrayed, by the opening of a little Postern. These little sins will grow to great ones, if let alone. Time will turn small dust into stone. The poisonous Cockatrice at first was but an Egg.