Captives bound in chains, made free by Christ their surety

5. What if some of your Fore-Fathers should come from the Dead, and tell you they were mistaken, and deceived, and are damned, and have been in Hell ever since they died, would you think your selves concerned then to be wiser and to be better than they were? if your Father or your Fathers Father should come to any of you, and say, Oh! do not flight Christ as we did, do not ⟨p. 149⟩you our posterity remain in a natural state as we did, and are now suffering the wrath of God, and the vengeance of eternal flames; Oh do not follow our example, nor lead your lives as we did, and neglect to worship God in your families, or do it by the halves, carelessly and negligently as we did, lest you come to the same place of torment, as we are condemned into, and must be in for ever: take the Scripture for your rule, and not our example; do not follow us, oh do not follow us in sin, in careless neglect of God and Christ, lest you follow us to hell and to damnation too. If you content your selves to live and die as we did, captives to the Devil; and your children after you, content themselves to follow and to imitate you, as you do to imitate and follow us, the race that did descend from us will be damned from one generation to another. Would you after such warning as this, plead your Fore-fathers examples no more? let not then the Devil lead you any longer captives by this bond of their example, as if this were more binding than the commands of God.

5. What if some of your Fore-Fathers should come from the Dead, and tell you they were mistaken, and deceived, and are damned, and have been in Hell ever since they died, would you think your selves concerned then to be wiser and to be better than they were? if your Father or your Fathers Father should come to any of you, and say, Oh! do not flight Christ as we did, do not ⟨p. 149⟩you our posterity remain in a natural state as we did, and are now suffering the wrath of God, and the vengeance of eternal flames; Oh do not follow our example, nor lead your lives as we did, and neglect to worship God in your families, or do it by the halfs, carelesly and negligently as we did, lest you come to the same place of torment, as we are condemned into, and must be in for ever: take the Scripture for your rule, and not our example; do not follow us, oh do not follow us in sin, in careless neglect of God and Christ, lest you follow us to hell and to damnation too. If you content your selves to live and die as we did, captives to the Devil; and your children after you, content themselves to follow and to imitate you, as you do to imitate and follow us, the race that did descend from us will be damned from one generation to another. Would you after such warning as this, plead your Fore-fathers examples no more? let not then the Devil lead you any longer captives by this bond of their example, as if this were more binding than the commands of God.