A77813:68
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 21
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.
Verse 21. 1And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich mans table: the dogs came also, and licked his sores.
- 1Verse 21.
BY these words our Lord Jesus doth show us the frame of a Christians heart, and also the heart and carriage of worldly men toward the Saints of the Lord: the Christians heart is held forth by this, that any thing will content him while he is on this side glory. And he desired to be fed with the crumbs, the dogs meat, any thing. I say a Christian will be content with any thing, if he have but ⟨p. 15⟩to keep life and soul together. (as we use to say.) He is content, he is satisfied, he hath learned, if he hath learned to be a Christian, to be content with any thing, as Paul saith,1 I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. He learns in all conditions to study to love God, to walk with God, to give up himself to God; and if the crumbs that fall from a rich mans table will but satisfy nature, and give him bodily strength, that thereby he may be the more able to walk in the way of God: he is contented. And he desired to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich mans table. But mark, he had them not, you do not find that he had so much as a crumb or a scrap allowed unto him. No, then the dogs will be beguiled, that must be preserved for the dogs. From whence observe, that the ungodly world do love their dogs better then the children of God. You will say that's strange. It is so indeed, yet it is true, as will be clearly manifested, as for instance. How many pounds do some men spend in a year on their dogs, when in the mean while the poor Saints of God may starve for hunger. They will build houses for ⟨p. 16⟩their dogs, when the Saints must be glad to wander, and lodge in dens and caves of the earth: and if they be in any of their houses for the hire thereof, they will warn them out, or eject them, or pull down the house over their heads, rather then not rid themselves of such Tenants. Again, some men cannot go half a mile from home, but they must have their dogs at their heels; but they can very willingly go half a score miles without the society of a Christian Nay, if when they are busy with their dogs they should chance to meet a Christian, they would willingly shift him if they could. They will go on the other side of the hedge or the way, rather then they will have any society with him;