Загрузка...

AI-разбор доступен после входа

Суть книги, пересказ, главный конфликт, ключевые идеи, вывод, кому полезна, главные темы, персонажи и цитаты можно получить после входа в BookRa.

auto_awesomeПолучить AI-разбор

О книге

Дата написания1970-01-01
Язык книгиen
Возрастное ограничение0+
Жанры
зарубежная классиказарубежная старинная литература

Читать онлайн

Страница 4 из 61

4. I will propound again. Suppose that there was amongst us such a Law, (and such a Magistrate to inflict the penalty,) That for every open wickedness committed by thee, so much of thy flesh should with burning Pincers be plucked from thy Bones: Wouldest thou then go on in thy open way of Lying, Swearing, Drinking and Whoring, as thou with delight doest now? Surely, surely, No: The fear of the punishment would make thee forbear; yea, would make thee tremble, even then when thy lusts were powerfull, to think what a punishment thou wast sure to sustain, so soon as the pleasure was over. But Oh! the folly, the madness, the desperate madness that is in the hearts of Mr. Badmans friends, who in despite of the threatnings of an holy and sin revenging God, and of the outcries and warnings of all good men; yea, that will in despite of the groans and torments of those that are now in Hell for sin, (Luk. 16. 24. 28.) go on in a sinfull course of life; yea, though every sin is also a step of descent, down to that infernal Cave. O how true is that saying of Solomon, The heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead, Eccles. 9. 3. To the dead! that is, to the dead in Hell, to the damned dead; the place to which those that have dyed Bad men are gone, and that those that live Bad men are like to go to, when a little more sin, like stollen waters, hath been imbibed by their sinful souls.

That which has made me publish this Book is,

1. For that wickedness like a flood is like to drown our English world: it begins already to be above the tops of mountains; it has almost swallowed up all; our Youth, our Middle age, Old age, and all, are almost carried away of this flood. O Debauchery, Debauchery, what hast thou done in England! Thou hast corrupted our Young men, and hast made our Old men beasts; thou hast deflowered our Virgins, and hast made Matrons Bawds. Thou hast made our earth to reel to and fro like a drunkard; ’tis in danger to be removed like a Cottage, yea, it is, because transgression is so heavy upon it, like to fall and rise no more. Isa. 24. 20.

O! that I could mourn for England, and for the sins that are committed therein, even while I see that without repentance, the men of Gods wrath are about to deal with us, each having his slaughtering weapon in his hand: (Ezek. 9. 1, 2.) Well, I have written, and by Gods assistance shall pray, that this flood may abate in England: and could I but see the tops of the Mountains above it, I should think that these waters were abating.

2. It is the duty of those that can, to cry out against this deadly plague, yea, to lift up their voice as with a Trumpet against it; that men may he awakened about it, flye from it, as from that which is the greatest of evils. Sin pull’d Angels out of Heaven, pulls men down to Hell, and overthroweth Kingdoms. Who, that sees an house on fire, will not give the Allarum to them that dwell therein? who that sees the Land invaded, will not set the Beacons on a fame? Who, that sees the Devils, as roaring Lyons, continually devouring souls, will not make an Out-cry? But above all, when we see sin, sinful sin, a swallowing up a Nation, sinking of a Nation, and bringing its Inhabitants to temporal, spiritual, and eternal ruine, shall we not cry out, and cry, They are drunk, but not with Wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink; they are intoxicated with the deadly poyson of sin, which will, if its malignity be not by wholsom means allayed, bring Soul and Body, and Estate and Countrey, and all, to ruin and destruction?

3. In and by this my Out-cry, I shall deliver my self from the ruins of them that perish: for a man can do no more in this matter, I mean a man in my capacity, than to detect and condemn the wickedness, warn the evil doer of the Judgment, and fly therefrom my self. But Oh! that I might not only deliver my self! Oh that many would hear, and turn at this my cry, from sin! that they may be secured from the death and Judgment that attend it.

Why I have handled the matter in this method, is best known to my self: and why I have concealed most of the Names of the persons whose sins or punishments I here and there in this Book make relation of, is,

1. For that neither the sins nor Judgments were all alike open; the sins of some, were committed, and the Judgments executed for them only in a corner. Not to say that I could not learn some of their names; for could I, I should not have made them publick, for this reason.

2. Because I would not provoke those of their Relations that survive them; I would not justly provoke them, and yet, as I think, I should, should I have intailed their punishment to their sins, and both to their names, and so have turned them into the world.

3. Nor would I lay them under disgrace and contempt, which would, as I think, unavoidably have happened unto them had I withall inserted their Names.

As for those whose Names I mention, their crimes or Judgments were manifest; publick almost as any thing of that nature that happeneth to mortal men. Such therefore have published their own shame by their sin, and God, his anger, by taking of open vengeance.

As Job sayes, God has strook them as wicked men in the open sight of others, Job 34. 26. So that I cannot conceive, since their sin and Judgment was so conspicuous, that my admonishing the world thereof, should turn to their detriment: For the publishing of these things, are, so far as Relation is concerned, intended for remembrancers: That they may also bethink themselves, repent and turn to God, lest the Judgments for their sins should prove hereditary. For the God of Heaven hath threatned to visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, if they hate him, to the third and fourth generation, Exod. 20. 5.

Nebuchadnezzars punishment for his pride being open, (for he was for his sin, driven from his Kingly dignity, and from among men too, to eat grass like an Ox, and to company with the beasts,) Daniel did not stick to tell Belshazzar his son to his face thereof; nor to publish it that it might be read and remembred by the generations to come. The same may be said of Judas and Ananias, &c. for their sin and punishment were known to all the dwellers at Jerusalem, Acts 1. Chap. 5.

Страница 4 из 61

Назад1…345…61Далее

Вам также может понравиться

Человек-зверь — обложка книги

Человек-зверь

Эмиль Золя

Фараон — обложка книги

Фараон

Болеслав Прус

Хагакурэ, или Сокрытое в листве — обложка книги

Хагакурэ, или Сокрытое в листве

Цунэтомо Ямамото

Сон в летнюю ночь — обложка книги

Сон в летнюю ночь

Уильям Шекспир

Нана — обложка книги

Нана

Эмиль Золя

Золотой осел — обложка книги

Золотой осел

Луций Апулей

Ромео и Джульетта — обложка книги

Ромео и Джульетта

Уильям Шекспир

Гамлет, принц Датский — обложка книги

Гамлет, принц Датский

Уильям Шекспир

Монахиня — обложка книги

Монахиня

Дени Дидро

Доктор Паскаль — обложка книги

Доктор Паскаль

Эмиль Золя

Сон в красном тереме. Том 1 — обложка книги

Сон в красном тереме. Том 1

Лев Николаевич Меньшиков

Саламбо — обложка книги

Саламбо

Гюстав Флобер

Страница 1 из 195

Назад12…195Далее