N03999:180
Captives bound in chains, made free by Christ their surety
Captives bound in chains, made free by Christ their surety: or, The misery of graceless sinners, and their recovery by Christ their Saviour. By T. Doolittel [sic]. ; [Three lines from Isaiah]
Boston: printed by Rogers & Fowle for J. Edwards, 1742
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Liberty to the Captives. › Chapter 9: Containing the 8, 9, 10 Chain or Bond of these Captives.
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.
1. We have nothing to do to pass any sentence upon your Fore-fathers, they are out of the reach of our preaching and exhortations: them we leave to the righteous judgment of God, who hath disposed of them before this day to the places where they must for ever be; and God doth not send us to tell you, whither your Fore-fathers souls are gone; our Message is to you that are yet alive, and our business and employment is to tell you of your sin and misery, and to call you unto repentance, and to acquaint you with the conditions of peace to be made betwixt God and you: to tell you, what you must be, and what you must do to escape the Damnation of Hell, and to be partakers of the Redemption which Christ hath purchased for poor captive sinners.
1. We have nothing to do to pass any sentence upon your Fore-fathers, they are out of the reach of our preaching and exhortations: them we leave to the righteous judgment of God, who hath disposed of them before this day to the places where they must for ever be; and God doth not send us to tell you, whither your Fore-fathers souls are gone; our Message is to you that are yet alive, and our business and imployment is to tell you of your sin and misery, and to call you unto repentance, and to acquaint you with the conditions of peace to be made betwixt God and you: to tell you, what you must be, and what you must do to escape the Damnation of Hell, and to be partakers of the Redemption which Christ hath purchased for poor captive sinners.
2. You might be of the same profession of Religion as your Fore-fathers were, and they might be saved, and yet you might be damned; they might be redeemed and delivered, and yet you remain captives still. Your Fore-fathers professed faith in Christ, did pray to God, and performed religious duties unto God, as you profess to do; and yet if they did these things sincerely, and you hypocritically, they in reality and you in show, their souls are now in glory and at rest, where your souls notwithstanding ⟨p. 147⟩may never be. Many of the same age make the same profession, and yet some are good, and some are bad, some are made free, and some continue captives: as the five foolish Virgins made the same profession as the wise,