A77813:20
A few sighs from hell, or, The groans of a damned soul. Or, An…
A few sighs from hell, or, The groans of a damned soul. Or, An exposition of those words in the sixteenth of Luke, concerning the rich man and the beggar : wherein is discovered the lamentable state of the damned : their cries, their desires in their distresses, with the determination of God upon them. A good warning word to sinners, both old and young, to take into consideration betimes, and to seek by faith in Jesus Christ to avoid, lest they come into the same place of torment. Also a brief discourse touching the profitableness of the Scriptures for our instruction in the way of righteousness, according to the tendency of the said parable. / By that poor and contemptible servant of Jesus Christ, John Bunyan.A few sighs from hell, or, The groans of a damned soul. Or, An exposition of those words in the sixteenth of Luke, concerning the rich man and the beggar : wherein is discovered the lamentable state of the damned : their cries, their desires in their distresses, with the determination of God upon them. A good warning word to sinners, both old and young, to take into consideration betimes, and to seek by faith in Jesus Christ to avoid, lest they come into the same place of torment. Also a brief discourse touching the profitableness of the Scriptures for our instruction in the way of righteousness, according to the tendancy of the said parable. / By that poor and contemptible servant of Jesus Christ, John Bunyan.
London: printed by Ralph Wood for M. Wright, 1658
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.
Fourthly, beware of persuading thy self into a conceit of the poor mans end, if thou livest the rich mans life, and dyest his death. It is strange to see how many run swiftly the very way to hell, yet are full of confidence of going to heaven, though Scripture every where shuts them out, and Christ at last will certainly shut them out for ever hereafter, living and dying in their present state; let none therefore deceive you, neither deceive your selves, for none such can enter into the kingdom of heaven. But for these things sake cometh the wrath of God on ⟨image 12⟩the children of disobedience, 1 Cor. 6.9. Ephes. 5.5, 6. And how sad will thy disappointment be, that goest on securely, fearing nothing, being fully (yet falsely) persuaded of eternal life at last, and then drop down into the bottomless pit? Like wicked Haman, that dreamed of greater honour, but behold a gallows: or our mother Eve, who conceited to be as God, but became a cursed creature. Though the devil may persuade thee thou mayest live as in hell here, yet in heaven hereafter; believe him not, for he endeavours to keep thee in his snares, that he may drag thee to hell with him; and the better to effect his devilish design upon thee, he will present (and through his cursed subtlety knows how to do it) thy sins and this world, in as lovely and taking a guise as may be, but will hide the evil consequences from thine eyes, that thou mightest be inveigled by gazing on the one, ⟨image 12⟩and not be affrighted by beholding the other; his bait shall be pleasant, but his hook hid, like the strumpet in Proverbs 7. That entices the simple with fair words, but conceals, that the way to her house leads to the chambers of death; nothing appears but a bed richly furnished, and a promise of solacing him with loves, but he that followeth after her, goeth as an ox to the slaughter, and as a fool to the correction of the stocks.
Fourthly, beware of perswading thy self into a conceit of the poor mans end, if thou livest the rich mans life, and dyest his death. It is strange to see how many run swiftly the very way to hell, yet are full of confidence of going to heaven, though Scripture every where shuts them out, and Christ at last will certainly shut them out for ever hereafter, living and dying in their present state; let none therefore deceive you, neither deceive your selves, for none such can enter into the kingdom of heaven. But for these things sake cometh the wrath of God on