N03796:11
An alarm to unconverted sinners. In a serious treatise: showing I. What conversion is…An alarm to unconverted sinners. In a serious treatise: shewing I. What conversion is…
An alarm to unconverted sinners. In a serious treatise: showing I. What conversion is not, and correcting some mistakes about it. II. What conversion is, and wherein it consisteth. III. The necessity of conversion. IV. The marks of the unconverted. V. The miseries of the unconverted. VI. Directions for conversion. VII. Motions [i.e., Motives] to conversion. : Whereunto are annexed Divers practical cases of conscience judiciously resolved. / By Joseph Alleine, late Minister of the Gospel at Taunton, in Somersetshire.An alarm to unconverted sinners. In a serious treatise: shewing I. What conversion is not, and correcting some mistakes about it. II. What conversion is, and wherein it consisteth. III. The necessity of conversion. IV. The marks of the unconverted. V. The miseries of the unconverted. VI. Directions for conversion. VII. Motions [i.e., Motives] to conversion. : Whereunto are annexed Divers practical cases of conscience judiciously resolv'd. / By Joseph Alleine, late Minister of the Gospel at Taunton, in Somersetshire.
Philadelphia: printed by B. Franklin, 1741
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Dedication: To all the Ignorant, Carnal, and Ungodly, who are Lovers of Pleasure more than God, and…
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.
Did you but see yourselves, what we see by Faith (believing God) and at once beheld the Saints in Heaven, the lost despairing Souls in Hell, and the senseless sensual Sinners on Earth, that yet they will lay none of this to Heart, sure it would make you wonder at the stupidity of Mankind. Would you not say, O what a Deceiver is the Devil, that can thus lead on Souls to their own Damnation? O what a Cheater is this transitory World, that can make Man so forget the World where they must live forever? O what an Enemy is this Flesh, that thus draweth down Men's Souls from God? O what a besotting thing is Sin, that turneth a reasonable Soul into worse than a Beast? What a Bedlam is this wicked World, when Thousands are so busily labouring to undo themselves and others, and gratifying the Devil, against the GOD and Saviour who would give them an everlasting blessed Life!
And as we have such a Sight as this by Faith to make us pity you, so have we so much Taste of the ⟨p. iv⟩Goodness of God, the Sweetness of his Ways, and the Happiness of Believers, as must needs make us wish, that you had but once tried the same delights, which would turn the Pleasures of sin into detestation. God knoweth that we desire nothing more for ourselves, than the Perfection and Eternity of this Holiness and Happiness which we believe and taste. And should we not desire the same for you?
And being thus moved with necessary Pity, we ask of God what he would have us to do for your Salvation; and he hath told us in Scripture, that the Preaching of his Gospel, to acquaint you plainly with the Truth, and earnestly and frequently entreat you to turn from the Flesh and World to God by Jesus Christ, is the Means with which his Grace is ready to concur for your Salvation; when obstinate Resistance causeth the Holy Spirit to forsake the Sinner, and leave him to himself, to follow his own Counsels, Lusts and Wills.