A62053:565
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.
6. The less they are, the more they call for thy care and caution; for they are the harder to be cured. As a wound made with a Bodkin, if deep, is hardlier cured than a wound with a Sword, because the Orifice is so small, and presently almost closeth up, and so the wound bleedeth inwardly, often to the death of the Patient. It's much more difficult for the Mariner to avoid Quicksands, that are hurried hither and thither, ⟨p. 437⟩then known Rocks, though Sands are small things, and Rocks are great vast bodies. Besides our proneness to despise and slight them, causeth our more frequent falling into them, as also our lying longer in them without repentance.
7. Small Sins are not expiated without infinite satisfaction, and must they then be dallied with? there is more malignity in the least sin, than the whole Creation can expel; and more Venom than Men & Angels can antidote against. Friend, consider it, thou sayest they are little sins, therefore I may live in them. Did Christ die for them, and wilt thou live in them? Dost thou not know what prodigious drops of sweat, what clods of blood, what strong cries, and groans, and prayers, the least Sins cost thy Redeemer? Dost thou not know that their weight was so heavy (as little and light as thou fanciest them to be) that they pressed and bruised his blessed Body, that they oppressed and amazed his blessed Soul; yea, that they made him, who is valour and courage it self, obedience and dutifulness it self, ⟨p. 438⟩love and pity it self to shrink and draw back, and pray against his Duty to his Father, and his own Mercy to fallen man, and decline the very end and errand for which he came into the world. Reader, think of it. As Austin saith, what matters it whether a Ship be overwhelmed with one great Wave, or sunk by a small Cranny in the bottom, whereat the water enters drop by drop. And else-where, what easeth it a man to be pressed to death with an heap of small sand, more than with a sow of lead; or to be strangled with a pack-thread rather than with an halter.