B02626:373
The plain mans path-way to heaven
The plain mans path-way to heaven wherein every man may clearly see whether he shall be saved or damned. / Set forth dialogue-wise for the better understanding of the simple, by Arthur Dent, preacher of the word of God at South-Shoobery in Essex.
London: printed by Ja. Young for G. Lathum, 1643
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.
Phil. This age indeed aboundeth with many hollow-hearted hypocrites, dissemblers, and time-servers; which howsoever they make a face and bear a countenance as though they loved the Gospel, ⟨p. 141⟩yet their heart is not with it. Their heart is with Atheism, their heart is with Popery; they have a Pope in their belly: they be Church-papists. Howsoever now and then they come to the Church, and hear a Sermon, and show a good countenance to the Preacher; yet their heart goeth after covetousness. The Lord complaineth of this by the Prophet, saying; 1This people will sit before thee, and hear thy words: but they will not do them. For with their mouths they make jests: and their heart goes after covetousness. God complaineth of this also by the Prophet Jeremiah, saying; Will you steal, murder, 2and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and stand before me in this house whereupon my name is called, and say, We are delivered, though we have done all these abominations? Is this house become a den of thieves, whereupon my name is called? Where we see how the Lord doth chide his people, and sharply reprove them for abusing of his temple, worship and sacrifices, making them a cloak for their sins: and making his house a den of thieves, which should be an assembly of Saints. Now all this is a lively description of our time, wherein many use the exercises of the word, prayer, and sacraments, not to kill and mortify sin, but to nourish and shelter their sins. For they blindly imagine, that ⟨p. 142⟩if they come to the Church and pray, and hear the Sermon, they are discharged of their sins, though they leave them not. They imagine they have given God his full due; and that therefore they may be the more bold to sin afterward. These kind of hypocrites are like rogues, which use medicines not to cure sores, but to make sores. These are like the Papists, which think if they hear Mass in the morning, they may do what the list all the day after.
Phil. This age indeed aboundeth with many hollow-hearted hypocrites, dissemblers, and time-servers; which howsoever they make a face and beare a countenance as though they loved the Gospel,