A77813:367
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.
A FEW Sighs from Hell: OR, The Groans of a damned Soul: OR, An Expo… › Verse 31
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.
But you will say, how doth the law kill and strike dead the poor creature? Answ. First the letter or law, do kill thus. It is set home upon the soul, and discovers to the soul its transgressions against the law; and shows the soul also that it cannot completely satisfy the justice of God for the breach of his law, therefore it is condemned, Joh. 3.19. Mark, He that believes not is condemned already; To wit, by the law, that is, the law doth condemn him, yea, it hath condemned him already for his sins against it, as it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them, Gal. 3.10. Now all men as they come into the world are in this condition, that is, condemned by the law. Yet not believing that their condemnation by the law really, they do not also believe really and effectually the law that doth condemn them. For as men have but a notion of the one, that is, their condemnation, because of sins against ⟨p. 197⟩the law;1 so they have but a notion of the condemning, killing, and destroying power of the law; for as the one is, so in these things, always is the other; there is no man that doth really believe the law or Gospel further, then they do feel the power and authority of them in their hearts. Ye err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. Now this letter, or law, is not to be taken in the largest sense, but is strictly to be tied to the ten Commandments, whose proper work is only by showing the soul its sins against this law to kill, and there leaves him stark dead, not giving him the least life, or support, or comfort, but leaves the soul in an helpless and hopeless condition as from it self, or any other mere creature. 'Tis true, the law hath laid all men for dead, as they come into the world; but all men do not see themselves dead, until they see that law that struck them dead, sticking in their souls, and having struck them that fatal blow. As a man that is fast asleep in an house, and that on fire about his ears, and he not knowing of it, because he is asleep; even so, because poor souls are asleep in sin, though the ⟨p. 196⟩[…] ⟨p. 197⟩